11 Essential Comics To Read If You Love Batman

9. The Demon Lives Again

Although most will charge Frank Miller with having reinvented the Dark Knight during the eighties, it was actually Dennis O'Neil who did so - a decade earlier no less.

Along with Neal Adams, O'Neil took Batman and condensed him into being a darker vision or the character than what had emerged in the fifties and sixties. He redefined the Joker as the murderous madman we all know and love, and introduced Ra's al Ghul, in what was - probably - the best storyline of his tenure on the character.

'The Demon Lives Again' is the first book in the series of O'Neil's Demon Saga, and it features the famous sword duel between Batman and al Ghul that would later be replicated in Batman: The Animated Series. Seeing as how Ra's has gone onto lay claim for being one of the detective's greatest adversaries, the story should, ideally, have made its way onto plenty of other reading lists.

O'Neil's role in redefining Batman still tends to get overlooked, so if you get the chance to read it, definitely go ahead treat yo' self.