Writing After leaving the Navy, O'Neil moved on to a job with a newspaper in
Cape Girardeau, Missouri. O'Neil wrote bi-weekly columns for the youth page, and during the slow summer months he filled the space with a series on the revival of the comics industry. This attracted the attention of
Roy Thomas, who would eventually himself become one of the great names in the history of the medium. O'Neil took the reins for a short-term run of Marvel's
Doctor Strange stories in
Strange Tales, writing dialogue and captions for six issues that were plotted by artist Steve Ditko. He also wrote for such titles as
Rawhide Kid and
Millie the Model, and scripted the final 13 pages of
Daredevil #18 over a plot by Lee when Lee went on vacation. Briefly returning to Marvel a few years later, O'Neil and artist
Neal Adams revived the
Professor X character in
X-Men #65 in one of the creative team's earliest collaborations.
Charlton Comics The available jobs writing for Marvel petered out fairly quickly, and O'Neil took a job with
Charlton Comics under the pseudonym of '''Sergius O'Shaugnessy'''. O'Neil has quoted Mailer's writing in at least one of his comic book scripts. He would continue using the pseudonym occasionally throughout his career.
DC Comics In 1968, Dick Giordano was offered an editorial position at
DC Comics and took a number of Charlton freelancers with him, including O'Neil. .|thumb|170px|left O'Neil's first assignments involved two strategies for bolstering DC's sales. One approach centered on the creation of new characters, and O'Neil scripted several issues of
Beware the Creeper, a series starring a new hero, the
Creeper, created by artist
Steve Ditko. From there, DC moved O'Neil to
Wonder Woman and
Justice League of America. With artist
Mike Sekowsky, he took away Wonder Woman's powers, exiled her from the Amazon island of Themiscyra, and set her off, wearing boutique street clothes rather than her superhero uniform, into international intrigues with her blind mentor, I Ching. These changes did not sit well with Wonder Woman's older fans, including feminists such as Gloria Steinem, who successfully lobbied DC to return the character to her roots, and O'Neil later acknowledged that de-powering DC's most well-known superheroine had unintentionally alienated readers. In
Justice League, he had more success, scripting socially and politically themed stories that presaged his later work on
Green Lantern/Green Arrow. Following the lead set by
Bob Haney and
Neal Adams in a
Brave and the Bold story that visually redefined Green Arrow into the version that appeared in comics between 1969 and 1986, O'Neil stripped him of his wealth and playboy status, making him an urban hero. This redefinition would culminate in the character that appeared in
Green Lantern/Green Arrow (with many stories also drawn by Adams), a socially conscious, left-wing creation that contrasted and debated with the establishment liberal, law and order advocating, Green Lantern. It was during this period that the most famous Green Arrow story appeared, in
Green Lantern #85–86 ("Snowbirds Don't Fly"), when it was revealed that Green Arrow's ward
Speedy was addicted to
heroin. As a result of his work on
Green Lantern and Green Arrow, O'Neil recounted, "I went from total obscurity to seeing my name featured in
The New York Times and being invited to do talk shows. It's by no means an unmixed blessing. That messed up my head pretty thoroughly for a couple of years. ... Deteriorating marriage, bad habits, deteriorating relationships with human beings – with anything that wasn't a typewriter, in fact. It was a bad few years there." O'Neil's 1970s run on the Batman titles, under the direction of editor Julius Schwartz, is perhaps his best-known endeavor. Along with fellow writer Frank Robbins, he returned the stories to the character's darker roots after a period dominated by the campiness of the
1960s TV series. Comics historian
Les Daniels observed that "O'Neil's interpretation of Batman as a vengeful obsessive-compulsive, which he modestly describes as a return to the roots, was actually an act of creative imagination that has influenced every subsequent version of the Dark Knight." In 1973, O'Neil wrote revivals of two characters for which DC had recently acquired the publishing rights. A new series featuring the original
Captain Marvel was launched with a February
cover date and featured art by the character's original artist
C. C. Beck. Later that same year, O'Neil and artist
Michael Kaluta produced an "atmospheric interpretation" of the 1930s
pulp hero in
The Shadow series. In 1975, O'Neil wrote a comic book adaptation of the 1930s hero
the Avenger. A revival of the
Green Lantern title was launched in 1976 by O'Neil and artist
Mike Grell. Reuniting with Adams, O'Neil co-wrote the oversize
Superman vs. Muhammad Ali (1978) which Adams has called a personal favorite of their collaborations. In World's Finest #263 (1980), he wrote "Final Secret of the Super-Sons", which wrapped up the
Super-Sons stories by exposing them to be just characters inside a computer in Superman's Fortress of Solitude, with Superman then ordering them to commit suicide by jumping into the Fortress' disintegration pit after they escape their computer simulated world.
Return to Marvel Comics Upon O'Neil's return to Marvel Comics in 1980, he took on the scripting chores for
The Amazing Spider-Man, which he did for a year. O'Neil wrote two issues of
The Amazing Spider-Man Annual, both drawn by
Frank Miller. The 1980
Annual featured a team-up with
Doctor Strange while the 1981
Annual showcased a meeting with the
Punisher. He and artist
John Romita Jr. introduced
Madame Web in
The Amazing Spider-Man #210 and
Hydro-Man in #212. O'Neil was the regular scripter for
Iron Man from 1982 to 1986 and
Daredevil from 1983 to 1985. During his run on
Iron Man, O'Neil introduced
Obadiah Stane, later the Iron Monger, plunged Tony Stark back into alcoholism, turned Jim Rhodes into Iron Man, and created the Silver Centurion armor. O'Neil's run on
Daredevil bridged the gap between
Frank Miller's two runs on the title, usually with
David Mazzucchelli as artist. He introduced Yuriko Oyama during his stint, who would later become the villain
Lady Deathstrike.
Return to DC Comics After returning to DC Comics in 1986, he became the editor of the various Batman titles and served in that capacity until 2000. In February 1987, O'Neil began writing
The Question ongoing series which was primarily drawn by
Denys Cowan. Between the years of 1988 and 1990, O'Neil would return to
Green Arrow by writing the
Annuals, while Mike Grell wrote the monthly title. Because he was also in charge of
The Question, he would appear in all three
Annuals that he wrote. The
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight series began in 1989 with the five-part "Shaman" storyline by O'Neil and artist
Ed Hannigan. The series was the first new Batman title in almost fifty years, and the first issue sold almost a million copies.
Armageddon 2001 was a 1991
crossover event storyline. It ran through a self-titled two-issue limited series and most of the
Annuals DC published that year from May through October. Each participating annual explored potential possible futures for its main characters. The series was written by O'Neil and
Archie Goodwin and drawn by
Dan Jurgens. He and artist
Joe Quesada created the character
Azrael, who was introduced in the four-issue miniseries
Batman: Sword of Azrael in 1992. That same year, O'Neil wrote the
Batman: Birth of the Demon hardcover graphic novel. Another DC one-shot issue that O'Neil wrote in 1992 was
Batman/Green Arrow: The Poison Tomorrow. .|thumb|200px O'Neil led the Batman creative teams for the
Batman: Knightfall (1993–1994) story arc, during which Azrael temporarily became the new Batman. In 1994, O'Neil wrote a novelization of
Knightfall. In the opening of the novelization, O'Neil stated that part of the reason "Knightfall" was written was due to the recent popularity of more "ruthless" heroes such as the
Terminator and
James Bond in films, as editors were starting to wonder if readers would prefer a Batman who was willing to kill his opponents. After the conclusion of
Knightfall, O'Neil wrote the 100-issue
Azrael comic series, chronicling Valley's battles against the Order of St. Dumas, between 1995 and 2003. O'Neil modeled the series on
Arthurian legends, comparing Azrael's quest to discover the truth about himself to the
Holy Grail. The series was originally intended to conclude with Azrael's death. However, after O'Neil suffered a heart attack in September 2002, editor Mike Carlin decided it wouldn't be appropriate to have a character O'Neil created be killed off. O'Neil instead left Azrael's fate vague, preferring to let readers decide what happened to him.
Other writing O'Neil wrote several novels, comics, short stories, reviews and teleplays, including the novelizations of the films
Batman Begins and
The Dark Knight. Under the pseudonym
Jim Dennis with writer Jim Berry, O'Neil scripted a series of novels about a
kung fu character named
Richard Dragon, and later adapted those novels to comic book form for DC. O'Neil wrote a four-part column series for Marvel's 1978
The Hulk! magazine, under the pseudonym
Jeff Mundo. "Jeff Mundo's Dark Corners" ran from issue #21 through issue #24 and covered various pop culture topics. O'Neil also wrote a column for ComicMix.
Editing Joining Marvel's editorial staff in 1980, O'Neil edited
Daredevil during Frank Miller's run as writer/artist. O'Neil encouraged Miller to develop a believable fighting style for Daredevil, and according to Miller, this directly led to his incorporating martial arts into
Daredevil and later
Ronin. In the early to mid-1980s, O'Neil edited such Marvel titles as
Alpha Flight,
Power Man and Iron Fist,
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, and
Moon Knight. In 1986, O'Neil moved over to DC as an editor, becoming group editor for the company's Batman titles. O'Neil said that he saw editing as a support role which should be invisible to the reader, and that if it were his choice his name would not appear in the credits when working as an editor, only when working as a writer. ==Personal life==