The eightieth issue of the Green Lantern and Green Arrow saga finds our trio of adventurers at a crossroads.
One new thing is the arrival of Dick Giordano as the inker. After one issue where Adams inked himself, two assisted by Frank Giacoia and one by Dan Adkins, the classic creative team is now complete.
After five months of cross-country travel (across the continent twice according Green Arrow) they find themselves suddenly in a car accident which causes their pickup to sail off a bridge. Green Lantern acts quickly to save his friends.
Taken aboard a ship which is hauling toxic chemicals a fire causes an explosion which injures Green Lantern. Faced with the choice to save GL or the others on the boat the Guardian (known in this story as "Old Timer") chooses to save Hal Jordan, his friend. But that proves to be a decision contrary to the norms of the Guardians so they send him along with a recovered GL and GA to a distant planet where justice is meted out.
The trio find instead a madman in control and he is interested in vengeance and not justice. The trio are imprisoned alongside the real judges, but soon enough they free themselves. But as it turns out the judgment is far from decided.
This is a surprising story in that it takes the trio off world. Green Lantern's adventures had traditionally space-based, but since the arrival of the O'Neil and Adams team the realism has been paramount. Taking a jaunt into space was a real shift in tone, but as it turns out a positive one.
Clearly O'Neil doesn't want the stories to get too stagnant and finding yet one more human injustice in the hidden American landscape can certainly wait until later.
More to come.
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It's interesting to see the later reprint cover here. Adams makes the heroes look super angry, which doesn't seem to reflect the original stories. I prefer the original logo with Green Lantern running forward--probably done by Gil Kane?
ReplyDeleteI think that cover art was done many years ago for earlier collections, and it hearkens to a time perhaps in comics when all heroes were angry. I agree, the Gil Kane emblem is a classic.
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Just checked. They want $15.00-plus for this Green Lantern/Green Arrow collection on Amazon…4.8 stars out of 5. I think after the holidaze I might have to spring for this beauty…I had issue #80 here, back in the day. I didn’t like the cover back then – I guess because it was black & white and seemed sort of complicated to me with all the surrounding newsprint and the semi-obscured character faces. Definitely Mr. Adams (like Steranko) was way ahead of the curve…
ReplyDeleteLike Steranko he did experiment and not all of the gimmicks were successful. Some things though were, and spectacularly so.
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