The story arc Denny is most famous for with my generation.
Another legendary person who helped mold modern comic books passed away peacefully in his sleep. Denny was a vanguard when it came to writing. Unlike many of his contemporaries at DC Comics, he was a journalist before contributing to Green Lantern & Green Arrow and Batman, the latter retains many of his contributions, namely in fleshing out the villain Ra’s al Ghul, an immortal ecoterrorist in charge of the League of Assassins. After the Joker, Ra’s al Ghul is the Dark Knight’s long-term nemesis. These days, Bruce Wayne has to deal with this mortal enemy being his son’s (Damian) grandfather!
When I got into comics more seriously (or got more dedicated to buying them), Denny had moved on to be the editor of the Batman line after a stint at Marvel; I think he worked on Daredevil. I know this because when I would skim through the letters/notes section, his name was always present.
Now I just got done seeing his bibliography via Wikipedia. Holy cow! What a career! My obit doesn’t even begin to do it justice yet this entry is really about what Denny meant to me personally. A lot! Being someone lacking the art gene from my mother (Brian got it), Denny gave me hope that if I ever wanted to pursue a career in comic books, I could be a writer like him but given how awesome New Teen Titans were, I wanted the partnership George Perez and Marv Wolfman had.
Mr. O’Neil, thank you for everything you did. You steered comics in a positive direction. Strengthening the perception of how they are filled with legitimate stories, plots and most of all, a message even adults would enjoy. Messages against racism, sexism and poverty. In some significant way, you helped create their colossal success as films. You with other greats (Jack Kirby, Dick Giordano and Carmine Infantino) belong to the ages!