The man some consider the unsung hero in the Batman phenomenon of the 1980s will speak today at the University about the caped crusader's recurrence in the mainstream and other superheroes.

Dennis O'Neil, writer and editor of the Batman comics since the late 1960s, will speak at 3 p.m. today in 121 Sparks.

O'Neil, who has worked on and off for DC Comics for more than 20 years, said when DC first asked him to write the Batman comics, it was only a natural instinct to take the character back to its original form.

"In the late 1950s the character had sort of been light and sunny and in the 1960s, in the heyday of the TV show, it was basically a comedy character, a self-satirizing superhero," O'Neil said.

"Our deep and profound thought was to simply take him back to what he had been," he said. Batman was originally a mysterious and vengeful vigilante.

The recent Batman craze and what he has done with the character really are not connected, O'Neil said, though it is an "interesting thing to watch."

"It really has very little to do with me," he said. "I mean, all last year I feel I had a front row seat for a major media phenomenon, but I often get struck with the disparity between what we do and all that accumulates around it."

O'Neil said he still has trouble figuring out how to connect all the media hype with "somebody sitting alone in a room thinking up a story.

"Basically we do some things very simple and ancient; we sit around and tell stories. When Hollywood and things like that get involved, it becomes a big major event."

But the recent Batman media blitz did help the comic book industry as a whole, O'Neil said.

"It helps everybody because, if nothing else, it will make people aware of places like Dianna's Comics and get them into those shops where they might see some other things that they would find interesting,"he said.

A book-signing session will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. tomorrow at Dianna's Comics, 223 S. Allen St. O'Neil, who rarely makes store appearances, said book signings are the "standard for comic book people in this era."

George Warner, a comic book collector and employee at Dianna's Comics, said to anyone who is a real Batman fan, O'Neil "is a guy you would really want to meet."

Two University professors researching the Batman phenomenon invited O'Neil.

The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media, by William Uricchio, associate professor of communication and Roberta Pearson, assistant professor of communication combines different analyses of the caped crusader, written by a variety of Batman scholars.

O'Neil said he has read a book by one of these Batman scholars that looks at Batman in a way he has never thought about before.

"It's such a strange, bizarre, different approach to this material. . .that I'm kind of fascinated by it even though, I confess, I don't understand everything I read," he said.

He said Uricchio and Pearson's book really made him think about himself and his career.

"It's well timed for me," the 50-year-old editor said. At this point in his life he said it is time to look back and "figure out" what he had done with himself all these years.

"I'm sure (Uricchio and Pearson's) book will give me several nudges toward whatever answer," he comes up with.

It is flattering to be given a lot of credit in the Batman revival, but O'Neil said he approaches the idea with much caution.

"The worst thing you can do is believe your own publicity," he said.

"It's very easy to kind of lose your way," he said. "It's happened to me once or twice."

O'Neil said he listened to a tape of his last talk to a college 10 years ago and decided he cannot say the same things anymore.

"The field has changed so tremendously in 10 years that a lot of what I said is simply not applicable anymore," he said.