Its time again for another Weekly Comics Hype. Im doing these alphabetically, but skipping around a bit, and Green November comes to a close this week as I look at the very, very dated but very, very fun 1970s Green Lantern/Green Arrow series.
The premise of Green Lantern/Green Arrow is that the deeply liberal Green Arrow, champion of the poor, challenges his space policeman buddy Green Lantern to look beyond his biases and see that sometimes the law shields criminals from their comeuppance. The hard-travelling heroes take to the road and find a variety of evils somewhat outside the typical superhero world of the 1970s: prejudice, bigotry, drugs, corrupt loggers, crooked businessmen and cults.
Denny ONeils scripts are pretty overblown and talky more about that later but the plots themselves are punchy, paced well and with several surprises as the narrative unfolds. The art is by Neal Adams, whos perfectly suited for this work, with an incredible sense of life and action in every panel. Much of Adams iconic imagery in GL/GA shows up in influence or parody in more recent books. An issue of Bongos Radioactive Man features a parody so perfect that the words ITS A NEAL ADAMS RIP-OFF appear in psychedelic lettering around the page!
Im taking care to mention that these books are from the early 1970s, however, because they are really, really dated and preachy. ONeil doesnt so much wear his heart on his sleeve as he does puncture his heart and dip the sleeves of every shirt hes ever owned in blood. Fatcat bureaucrats and misguided idealists alike are depicted as nothing more than caricatures without a trace of good anywhere in them, targets for Green Arrow to scream at in lengthy tirades about pollution, the government, whatever the bugbear of the issue is. You can tell that realism was ONeils goal, but he only went halfway, and concocted threats as unbelievable as whatever new member of Batmans rogues gallery was showing up in Detective Comics that month.
DC used to make a big to-do about how important this run of comics was, and, while they sold poorly in their day, they did pick up some media attention, and helped in some small way move the kiddie superhero market in a direction which older readers might enjoy. Its unfortunate that it was done so awkwardly, but at least Neal Adamss artwork remains incredibly exciting, and if you can handle the preachiness and the caricature, theres still some good plots to be found here. Possibly not a series for newer readers, Green Lantern/Green Arrow is still certain to be interesting to people with an interest in the history and background to the medium.
There are two collections of Green Lantern / Green Arrow, and theyve gone in and out of print through the years, but should be available now. Your local comic shop would enjoy your custom; new books ship each Wednesday, so why not stop in after work tonight?
The premise of Green Lantern/Green Arrow is that the deeply liberal Green Arrow, champion of the poor, challenges his space policeman buddy Green Lantern to look beyond his biases and see that sometimes the law shields criminals from their comeuppance. The hard-travelling heroes take to the road and find a variety of evils somewhat outside the typical superhero world of the 1970s: prejudice, bigotry, drugs, corrupt loggers, crooked businessmen and cults.
Denny ONeils scripts are pretty overblown and talky more about that later but the plots themselves are punchy, paced well and with several surprises as the narrative unfolds. The art is by Neal Adams, whos perfectly suited for this work, with an incredible sense of life and action in every panel. Much of Adams iconic imagery in GL/GA shows up in influence or parody in more recent books. An issue of Bongos Radioactive Man features a parody so perfect that the words ITS A NEAL ADAMS RIP-OFF appear in psychedelic lettering around the page!
Im taking care to mention that these books are from the early 1970s, however, because they are really, really dated and preachy. ONeil doesnt so much wear his heart on his sleeve as he does puncture his heart and dip the sleeves of every shirt hes ever owned in blood. Fatcat bureaucrats and misguided idealists alike are depicted as nothing more than caricatures without a trace of good anywhere in them, targets for Green Arrow to scream at in lengthy tirades about pollution, the government, whatever the bugbear of the issue is. You can tell that realism was ONeils goal, but he only went halfway, and concocted threats as unbelievable as whatever new member of Batmans rogues gallery was showing up in Detective Comics that month.
DC used to make a big to-do about how important this run of comics was, and, while they sold poorly in their day, they did pick up some media attention, and helped in some small way move the kiddie superhero market in a direction which older readers might enjoy. Its unfortunate that it was done so awkwardly, but at least Neal Adamss artwork remains incredibly exciting, and if you can handle the preachiness and the caricature, theres still some good plots to be found here. Possibly not a series for newer readers, Green Lantern/Green Arrow is still certain to be interesting to people with an interest in the history and background to the medium.
There are two collections of Green Lantern / Green Arrow, and theyve gone in and out of print through the years, but should be available now. Your local comic shop would enjoy your custom; new books ship each Wednesday, so why not stop in after work tonight?
jackie:
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hipsterdad:
Hello! Thanks for friending me back. I enjoy reading you!