How was Denny O'Neil writing more complex and nuanced female characters in the 70s and 80s than modern writers seem to be able to?
panel above is just one example
Like obviously his writing still had issues (particularly some stereotyping). But re-reading some of his work is like breathing fresh air. Modern writers seem incapable or writing anything other than nice/spunky/'badass' women. There's no juice in them at all.
The thing about O'Neil, what I appreciate the most about him, is that he tried. He always tried. He always tried to inject stuff he learned into his comics, to talk about stuff that worried him, to break past established archetypes and story beats and give something fresh. Even going far back into his earliest career, you can see him genuinely trying to do stuff other than just tell superhero stories.
He didn't always succeed, because he was human and made mistakes, but you pick up an O'Neil comic from the 70s or his very last work in that Green Arrow anniversary issue and you can always, always see him trying to do better, be better, to make better comics.
