I just learned this morning of the passing of Neal Adams. He was my favorite Batman artist & his artwork gave the Caped Crusader a more dramatic look. He will be missed by all of his fans.R.I.P.

Everyone gives credit to Frank Miller, but Denny O'Neil and Neil Adams were the ones who brought the character back to his roots

This is the Batman I grew up with. Like you said “there’s no way to draw Batman to look totally realistic” but Neal Adam’s did. He drew him with grace, not overly muscular but a human at his absolute peak when performing. The splash page you showed said it all.

Rest In Peace, Neal! and Denny, but Neal passed today. :(

19:05. THE most iconic single image of Batman EVER. This pose is reproduced just EVERY-FREAKING-WHERE. T-shirts, drink glasses, kids' bedroom sets; many people who have never even picked up a comic in their lives have seen some rendition of this dramatic pose. Because it's just that awesome. Thank you, Neil.

Would you be willing to do a series like this where you cover the history of Superman? I know you love him just as much as Batman and I'd love to hear your take on his history too

Rest in peace Neal Adams! 😞

O'neil and Adams were an extraordinary team, very inspirational for aspiring comic creators. RIP Dennis O'neil and Neal Adams.

My Favorite BATMAN artist may he rest in peace 😔

Neal Adams was a great artist. He will be missed.

When I was a kid, I was given a digest with the Ras al Ghul saga compiled - having only known the Adam West Batman before that, it totally changed my view. That was my Batman, from then on.

RIP Neal Adams. The Batman of my childhood started with issue 255 and I was hooked ever since. Almost 50 years later his run has lost none of its impact

O’Neal’s Batman was dark but he still had a moral compass, unlike Frank Miller’s Batman and later other writers who over did it and departed from the source material. O’Neal’s Batman had the right balance and I like the ghost and paranormal stories here and there, it gave the stories variety. Five Way Revenge and the Laughing Fish are my favorite Joker stories.

Batman being the gritty prowler of the night has never been anywhere near as interesting as Batman the gothic pulp detective. Incidentally, your mention of their work on Superman makes me curious to see your opinion on some of the iconic Superman renditions of the same era. A video on Maggin and Swan would be amazing.

Matches Malone is such a gritty aspect of the character, I’m surprised they’ve never covered it in a live-action Batman adaptation…

Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil are among comic books best! And their work on the Batman comic books is superb! And a superb job done on the narration of this video by Steve Shives as always.

R.i.P. Neal Adams, we'll miss you.

I just found out about the passing of our dear #NealAdams . I am really very sad. His art accompanied me since I was a child, despite the thousands of kilometers that separated us, his talent came to me in the comicbooks that fed our creative impulses. Thank you for so much, master, Rest in peace. My condonlences for the family

Neal Adams will be always inmortal with his own lazarus pit, his art.

RIP Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil

I miss Detective Comics having an Elongated Man backup. Love the character.

Neil Adams was far and away my favorite comic book artist. I tried to get all his books; Batman, Deadman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, X-Men and as many other that I could find. R.I.P. Neil.

Gerry Conway on Detective Comics in the early 80s was really good too. Tales Of The Batman: Gerry Conway is a must have for any fan. He created Firestorm, Power Girl, Jason Todd, Killer Croc and Marvel's Punisher.

Another great achievement of O'Neil's career was revamping The Question in 1986. I'm really glad you did this video, because I always thought the pair had a much longer run on Batman. Even still, as you point out, Adams remade the character to such an iconic image, one that would last till the 90s. Great video, Steve.

Denny O Neil's time as Batman Group Editor is, to me at least, the real Golden Age of Comic Books. Great Bat video as always 🦇🦇🦇

Rip Neil adams

RIP Neal. A true Legend.

It’s interesting that you mention how Adams colours for Batman get darker as his take on the character evolves, considering finding the original colouring for those stories in reprints is becoming increasingly harder since Adams re-inked his work for the Batman by Neil Adams omnibus (something I’m still not over)

Everything got better when Neal Adams got involved. I remember the amazing work he did on Green Lantern and Green Arrow back in the 70s.

watched this yesterday n learned abt neal and today i learned that he passed away 🤕 rest in peace to a legend i really can't comprehend creating something or revolutionizing the way we read comics and the way that certain characters are portrayed as time goes on n he laid the foundation for batman n arrow

I agree O'Neal and Adams are one of the best writing/art teams ever to pen Batman

Dennis O’Neal came up with the idea and wrote the back story of the autobot/deception civil war for the G1 Transformers comic books series and cartoon series. Hasbro hired O’Neal when they did not have story behind their new toy line yet. Dennis O’Neal is my favorite comic book writer.

I had a lot of those comics when they first came out. I love the way they made Batman a serious character then.

I got to meet Neal Adams and get three autographed Batman prints including one of the first appearance of Ra’s Al Ghul. So sad to hear he’s passed away

Unfortunately, since then everyone has been so obsessed with Frank Miller's Dark Knight stories. Was it O'Neil or Adam's who said, apparently from personal experience with Frank, that Miller actually hates Batman, specifically the fact that the least selling Batman comic outsells Sin City by a wide margin, so he deliberately sets out to get revenge by writing crappy Batman stories that DC pays him top dollar for? I don't know if this is actually true, but it WOULD explain the Dark Knight Strikes Again!

I didcovered some months ago that O'Neil and Adams collaborated in Brave and the Bold #93, making 12 the Batman stories where they worked together.

When I imagine The Batman, his voice is the voice of Kevin Conroy; his image is the artwork of Neal Adams.

Those are some really great Batman stories.

R.I.P. Mr. Adams. One of the best in the industry. We'll miss you man.

I'm old enough to have read this when it first came out (shut up), and it has stuck in my head ever since. Adams' art was incredible. So was the whole James Bond, putting a team together plot. I especially loved how this Batman was mature enough to know he needed a team of experts for the job because he knew he couldn't win on his own and it took a whole team to replace Robin. The story was Lawrence of Arabia epic. It also has to be said that his art was incredibly sexy, as evidenced by the tween boner that I got looking at a hairy-chested mostly naked Batman take out R'as with one punch in an orgasm of masculinity usually reserved for leather-panted Turkish wrestling.

Great exposition video. Legendary run. Just found out that Neal Adams has sadly deceased three days ago. Such an iconic artist. He will surely be missed.Thoughts and prayers for his loved ones.

Adams is the first artist I think of when it comes to Batman.

I'd love to see bronze age Batman make a full comeback. I'm so sick and tired of this post-iron age Batman. The Batman we have today is like an extreme exaggeration of bronze-age Batman, to the point of self-deprecating parody. He's so humorless; so wooden and dry, with the personality of a stump; perpetually sullen, gloomy and broody with just one facial expression: permanent grimacing scowl. B:TAS is the last iteration of Batman (that I know of) to be a fully fleshed out human being by design. Every iteration afterwards has been nothing more than an edgy caricature (basically, Frank Miller's Batman ..ugh).

I am baffled there's no comprehensive collection of Dennis O'Neal Batman comics. I have the collection of Neal Adams Batmans, but they recolored the issues so they look off, but still readable. I read these issues for the first time about two years ago and while they show their age and the new coloring can be distracting, they're also still cool as hell and an absolute blast. I recently got physical copies so I can enjoy these stories over again on my shelf

RIP, Neal.

Thank you for this chronological look back at the O'Neil & Adams stories i grew up reading, which I came into the middle of in '72. Its sad that both of them are now gone.

I worked for Neal Adams for ten years making 3d models. Thanks for posting.

I remember buying these back issues from our local used book / magazine store in Addison, Illinois when I was a kid in the late 70's. Great stories and great art.

The best comic artist… 🙏🏼

Let me state an aggressive opinion...Neal Adams is the greatest comic book artist in history. Love his work so much and he doesn't seem to get the love that he deserves.

RIP Neal Adams. This is a great video. I laughed when you broke the Ra's/Batman duel down into wrestling terms.

Neal Adams has always been my favorite artist.

agree 100%. this was my Batman. i grew up with the books on record, and loved the art style

To this day, Adams and Infantino are my favorite comic book artists

Only knew Neal from his all too short time at Marvel. What an artist!!

Neal Adams art was absolutely beautiful. I love the sketchiness of it all.

Batman # 232 was the first Batman comic book I read after a 3-year hiatus. I went back to buying comic books and saving them shortly afterwards,and now I am proud of all the comic books I still have today. Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams did many classic stories of not only Ras Al Ghul, but Two-Face and the Joker.

It warms my heart to know that you are much more than a Star Trek nerd but a comic book nerd too (neither are bad). Back when these were new issues, I didn't actually buy them, I read them at the local barber shop. I distinctly remember O'Neil/Adams work on GL/GA. This is great stuff.

R.I.P. Neal. Besides his talent,he was one of the nicest pros I ever met. He would take the time to talk to any collector who approached him, always with a smile.

When I was a kid, I had a job counting and putting out the comics twice a week at a stationery store in NYC. The comics came bundled with wire and the bundles were tossed around. Many books were damaged. I always collected Neal Adams Comics regardless of what they were, and I was able to cherry-pick the best copy in the bundle. Still have them today.

O'Neil, Adams, and Giordano all breathed new life into the World's Greatest Detective at the dawn of the Bronze Age Of Comics (1970-86) and revamped the floundering character practically overnight not long after the cancellation of the live-action "Batman" television series starring Adam West! Adams is, in my honest opinion, the greatest Batman artist of all time! May Adams, Giordano, and O'Neil all continue to rest in peace...they are still missed!

Love your content!! I read #232 as an 8-year old recovering from surgery and quoted “Nice atmosphere, but the chow’s lousy” when discharged from the hospital. A lifetime of memories has ensued. I have all of the O’Neil/Adams issues individually and in collections. One of my Crown Jewels is a CGC graded 9.0 signed by Neal at my LCS in 2015. Thanks so much!

Neil Adams Batman run was just phenomenal in Comics lore…….love the Reaper issue as well👍

Neal Adams and Denny O'Niel were the creators of the modern Batman. Frank Miller was the guy who successfully brought their creation into the mainstream. A lot of people shit on Miller for his later takes on the character whenever Adams and O'Niel are brought up, yet completely miss just how much Miller idolised both of these people. So much so that Adams was Miller's mentor and personally taught the latter everything he knew. Hell, even Batman's design in the first chapter of TDKR was, in Miller's own words, "A Neal Adams Batman."

Awesome video! Your close was moving. Great job!

In the mid-1970's, my first Batman comic was a GIANT SIZE edition which collected the O'Neil and Adams Ra's Al Ghul stories. I was only like maybe 5 or 6 years old and my only knowledge of Batman was reruns of the Adam West show. The story and artwork blew my young mind and the imagery has stuck with me ever since. It was so much heavier than the TV show and even at that tender age, I loved it. When I got back into comics in my late teens, I was looking around in a comic shop and noticed a trade paperback called Batman: Tales of the Demon. The cover art had a rendering of the Michael Keaton Batman (this was 1989, the year of Tim Burton's BatMania) so I was surprised to open it and find the O'Neil and Adams stories. I bought it for nostalgia but when I re-read it, I enjoyed it even more than when I was a kid. To this day, I consider it the most iconic comic ever.

Wow that’s an awesome presentation Steve much enjoyed ty

Love Denny O'Neil. He wrote the two episodes of the 1988-1992 live action Superboy tv series. Both episodes starring Michael J Pollard as Mxyzptlk. Just one of many comic writers that wrote for that show. Gotta love him.

This is where I came in. The stories. The art. I knew whenever I saw this duo, I would never be disappointed. Probably where I actually came to like Green Lantern. And especially Green Arrow. But it will always be these two that won me after the campy TV series. Which I adored when I was younger. Thanks for this episode!

Rest easy, thank you for my Batman, Neil.

One does not understand the artistic force Neal was in the late 1960’s -1970’s. How different his photo realism was such a game changer that Rich Buckler, Bill Siekiewicz and Mike Nasser all made a decent living drawing like, and at times tracing directly like Neal Adams. People used to think he was too slow to do a 20-30 issue run on anything, when actually he was in high demand producing print and commercial advertising that paid much better than DC or MARVEL.

Fantastic work. Subscribed!

Thanks for the great video

Such a great video.

I love how the Mexican tombs are for persons named "John Dead" and "Dolores Dead"

Wonderful video and script. Bravo.

The Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams version of Batman of the early 70s was the one I grew up with and for me was always the definitive one and “Daughter of the Demon” which I had was the most memorable issue for me. If I remember correctly Denny O’Neil said that his and Adam’s take on Batman was influenced by Bond.

Superb Video, Thank you

Thanks for talking about my first and favorite Batman story

Brilliant stuff Great video Thank you

What a nice tribute. Great job too.

EXCELLENT! THANK YOU!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. This transition was such a high step from the campy Batman.

neal adams made the most pleasing drawings of everything he put his hands on. the guy was a genius.

Great summary. The Denny O'Neil/Neil Adams Batman stories blew my little kid's mind away after being raised on the 60's Batman TV show and the Super Friends and Batman cartoons that were staples of traditional Saturday mornings. Here was a serious, athletic, intelligent and emotional version of the superhero who actually came across as both a real human being and also an otherworldly superhero. He came across as genuinely supernatural in ability despite having absolutely no super powers which is taken very much for granted now but honestly was a spectacular achievement at the time. The portrayal was so good that they could have him seamlessly mix it up against supernatural forces, common criminals and supervillains without skipping a beat and made it all read so naturally. It truly was an impressive run.

I was so, so lucky to start reading Batman just before these comics. Thank you for such a perceptive analysis, and your selection of panels. You made 50 years melt away. Thanks

Great video!

Just wanted to say R.I.P. to the great Neal Adams.

I don't much care for Adams' later work, but man that art in those two issues is beautiful!

When I was four years old my cousin, who was fourteen, gave me a whole bunch of his comics - including his Neal Adams and Denny O'Neill Batman's and GL/GA issues. That is and has always been *my* Batman.

This is really great! Solid context and a genuinely critical voice. A little sarcasm to spice it up.

Thanks a lot for the video. Denny O'Neil will always be my favorite Batman writer of all time. He resurrected the character after falling into campiness. His Batman was truly a knight, and yet, a human being, with his classic TEC 457 adding a crucial trait in his character in a poetic way. All about Batman, like TDKR, TAS, or the movies, would have never been possible without O'Neil.

This has been pretty interesting. I would like to see a retrospective like this done for Superman, or even Wonder Woman who doesn't have nearly as much coverage.

Fantastic stuff

I'm a little biased, but I think that O'Neill and Adams's best work together is on their run of Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics from 1970 to 1972 - in fact, it remains my favorite run of superhero comics to this day. However, I also think that their teamwork on Batman is a not-too-distant second.

Have you noticed that on that great splash page from Batman #251, that he isn't wearing a utility belt? When asked why he didn't give him one, Neal Adams simply said "I guess I forgot". HAHA, I loved it.

What an excellent video essay

O'Neal and Adams are my favorite Bat creative team. Their Batman stuff is great. Their Green Lantern/Green Arrow is pretty damn amazing. But my favorite O'Neil and Adams stuff... out of pure visual- is Deadman. But I love the Deadman concept. I love the personality of the character. Basically, I love Deadman. I have O'Neil and Adams to thank for that because the Arnold Drake era Deadman is kinda generic. But you forgot the longest lasting comic creative team on a mainstream comic... Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones. They have been working together on comics in some capacity (Groo, Mighty Magnor and plenty of other titles) for 39 years.

rip neal adams, no one's art will ever compare to yours.

Very well done video. It's unfortunate that both of these comic book titans have not passed on. But at least the stamp they've left on the industry will always be there. Neal Adams especially I think is in my opinion the best artist that ever worked in the medium. It's easy to see why that even though he didn't have a super long run when he did comics, his legacy is as strong as anyone that has had a huge body of work. Remarkable that anyone can draw that well.