10 Major Milestones In Comic Book History

8. ...Before Dennis O'Neil Redefines Him

Dennis O'Neil has to be the most influential figure in comic book-dom that you've (probably) never heard of.

Over the years, the writer has turned his attention to Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Daredevil, The Question and, most famously of all, Batman, in what many would deem to be the most influential run the character has ever seen. Indeed, prior to his involvement with DC's venerable vigilante, the character was still thought of as being in the Adam West-vein. That's not bad, mind you, but there was a consensus amongst the DC hierarchy that the character had somewhat departed from the vision that Bob Kane and Bill Finger (mostly Finger) initially had in mind when they created him.

Enter O'Neil, who, along with Neal Adams, took The Dark Knight by the ears and dragged him kicking and screaming into a darker, more gothic environment than had previously been the norm prior to the seventies. Together, they introduced characters like Ra's al Ghul, and distilled the world's greatest detective to produce what many would seemingly deem to be the most definitive version of the character in print. Not only that, but O'Neil set his sites on the character's rogues too, reinventing the Joker as a murderous maniac and reviving the character of Harvey Dent. His influence, it must be said, is massive.

He pretty much created the modern mythos of the character, and, since he's the most popular one out there, it's a fairly major milestone to note. Frank Miller, eat your heart out.