TF Views

Detective Comics #218
April 1955

Batman, Junior and Robin, Senior!
Script: Bill Finger Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Stan Kaye

Be careful, Batman! Remember, no reckless kid stuff!

"Scientific advancement coopted by criminals" is a common plotline, and in this story it leads to an interesting fantasy scenario: a reversal of the ages in the Batman and Robin duo. I kept being reminded of the New Teen Titans when Dick Grayson was an adult and was still wearing the Robin costume before he switched to his Nightwing persona. We start out with another "famed scientist", Dr. Richard Marsten, who has discovered that "chemicals in the body" cause aging, but he's invented a gas that can reverse or stimulate aging. He's visited by a man calling himself Ephraim Vair, who slugs him and steals the gasses for criminal purposes. Vair is really Wilton Winders "notorious and ruthless ex-scientist". So it's scientist gone bad abusing the work of a famous scientist! Science vs science!!

Batman and Robin are called in, and we learn that Marsten is in a coma from the attack. Batman investigates "Vair" from a business card in Marsten's pocket and find that the name is fake. The printer describes the man who had the cards made and Batman recognizes the description as Winders. Batman investigates, and I like his trick of talking to an associate of Winders, who obviously is not going to give his friend up, while Robin watches from a distance to learn the phone number when the guy calls Winders to warn him. But when Batman and Robin go after Winders, the gasses are turned on Batman and Robin, who know nothing about them, aging Robin and de-aging Batman. One side effect of the gas is that people who are de-aged forget all that they've learned in the interim, so the now teenaged Batman has forgotten most of his crime-fighting knowledge. Robin is now the senior member of the team, thinking his way through the case while Batman is "impulsive and reckless".

Now we get to Winder's plot: to de-age rich men without telling them of the catch, that they'll forget everything they learned in the decades they have lost. Conklin, auto-manufacturer, is the first victim. He is de-aged twenty years, but forgets all that he learned and is nearly killed when he forgets about the heat drying lamps in his plant. It's Robin who comes up with a plan to save his life. Robin calls Gordon to warn him about Winders, and Gordon is baffled by how much older Robin sounds, but agrees to spread the word. The action picks up here as Robin and Batman arrive at a movie set where Winders is trying the same trick with an aging action movie star. Winders starts aging people in a desperate effort to slow them down. Robin uses makeup to make Winder's pal look old and thus tricks him into telling what Winders will do next. Gordon arrives and is shocked at what's happened to Batman and Robin. Winders, meanwhile, is on the run and hits several police with the aging gas to stop pursuit. Winders decides the only way to avoid being caught so he can get out of town is to age himself and make himself unrecognizable. But Robin recognizes Winders by the shape of his ears of all things (he's picked up Batman's encyclopedic knowledge!) and the now-old Winders doesn't have the puff to outrun him and is caught. Everyone is returned to normal, and Marsten, though out of his coma, can't remember the formula, so this can never happen again.

I can see this type of story as one of those "imaginary tales" if it was written later on. Here Bill Finger invents the aging gas, both to create the scenario of reversing the Batman and Robin team's roles, and to drive the plot. It's pure fantasy, even though it's "science", but it's a fun scenario to watch. And the ending, where Winders just starts aging people left and right, including himself, was pretty wild and one that I didn't see coming.

The Infinity Gauntlet (1991)

Mistress Death believed there to be a cosmic imbalance between the living and the dead, and so revived Thanos to balance it. But Thanos used the power boost she gave him for this task to collect the Infinity Gems instead, hoping to court Death as her equal. Only the power the Gems makes him superior to Death, and she's not pleased with his actions. Thanos attempts to gain her favor, ultimately snapping his fingers to remove half the sentient life in the universe as Death had tasked him with, but she still gives him the cold shoulder. Loosing his temper, the energy he inadvertently sends out causes severe damage throughout the universe. The Earth is devastated by earthquakes and tsunami, and is even knocked from its orbit. Adam Warlock recruits Earth's remaining heroes (and Dr. Doom), as well as various cosmic entities, to battle Thanos. They ultimately loose, but in defeating Eternity, Thanos takes his place as a cosmic entity, allowing Nebula to remove the Gauntlet from his physical body. Nebula undoes everything Thanos had done with the Infinity Gems. A few heroes from Earth, as well as the Cosmic Entities battle with Nebula, but ultimately, it's Adam Warlock's connection to the Soul Gem that causes a surge between the Gems that forces her to take it off. In a mad dash for the Gauntlet, Adam Warlock takes possession of it, and Thanos seemingly kills himself rather than be held accountable for his actions. Traveling 60 days into the future, Adam, Pip and Gamora find Thanos on an unknown planet where he claims he wants to live a quiet life as a farmer.

--

This is the first time I've read this story. I can see why it's one of the more popular Marvel crossover events. I gather there were a few tie-ins for this story. Unlike my complaints for Secret Wars II and Secret Wars (2015), I didn't really get the sense I was missing out on anything though. There's a few things I felt like they probably explored more in depth, but either got a decent enough recap or weren't really necessary for the main title. Like, there's this one part where they're gathered what remains of Earth's heroes, and the Hulk initially refuses to join them, apparently because he's not happy with the Avengers at the moment. It's immediately resolved when Iron Man says they'd be open to him rejoining the Avengers. I dunno, I just get the sense the Hulk tie-in probably did more with that since the pacing of that scene in this book doesn't feel natural.

It's interesting to see most of the story is Thanos doing a thing with his power and Earth dealing with the fallout from it. It's not until the last couple issues they're able to confront him. And even then, they stand no chance against him. Both Vision and Adam point out how Thanos always leaves something to be used against him. I'm not so sure that's true. He does limit his abilities somewhat when fighting the heroes of Earth but that's manipulation from Mephisto. It's ultimately an oversight on his part that causes him to loose the Infinity Gems. I do like how by defeating Eternity he doesn't think he needs his physical body any longer, forgetting that he needs the Infinity Gems to maintain that level of power. But I wouldn't say that's the same as Thanos setting himself up for defeat, but rather it's his hubris. I also kinda wished there were more aliens involved in the battle against Thanos. There were two... Drax and Silver Surfer. But It would have been nice to see some involvement from the Kree or the Skrulls... both of which are featured in this series, albeit only to blame each other for the disappearances caused by Thanos.

The thing that disappointed me the most about this book is that when Nebula undoes everything Thanos did. In other words, the writer hit the reset button so that most of this book didn't even happen. It's even established no one remembers it, save for the few summoned back to battle Nebula.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow #83
April-May 1971

...And a Child Shall Destroy Them!
Script - Denny O'Neil Pencils - Neal Adams Inks - Dick Giordano

Hal and Ollie fight Richard Nixon! Well, sort of, because apparently Sybil, the little girl with telekenetic powers, was modelled after Nixon's likeness. And Grandy who bullies and uses her is Spiro Agnew, Nixon's VP. It's just bizarre, and it adds one more odd layer to this very odd story, which opens up with someone we'll later learn is Carol Ferris being crippled after she accidentally bumps into a man, who orders his telepathic little girl to make her sorry. Flash forward a month and Hal, Dinah and Ollie are visiting Meadowhill School where Dinah hopes to start teaching. The three of them are attacked by a flock of birds, which leads to Dinah mentioning the Hitchcock film (and a cameo by Hitchcock as a mailman). They're greeted at the door by Grandy, the school cook (the same man Carol ran into in the preview) and Jason Belmore, owner of the school, who strongly objects to the presence of "costumed individuals". We've never seen him on panel before, but Belmore was named as Carol's fiancé in GL #49, and we learn she broke off the engagement in GL #73. He has a special gripe with Green Lantern, so he may well be aware of Carol's feelings for him. Or it could just be Grandy manipulating Belmore, as Dinah notices.

Outside GA asks about GL's recognition of Belmore, but Hal doesn't want to talk about it. They see someone at their car and fear more trouble, but it's Carol Ferris, in a wheelchair. GL clearly still has strong feelings for her as she drives away with GL and GA. Carol tells them about the attack from the first page, not that she knew it was an attack. She describes it as a painful seizure that no specialists have been able to diagnose. Her engagement with Belmore is back on (or else O'Neil didn't know it was broken off in a Mike Friedrich-written issue), but ever since he took over the school he's been constantly terrified of something. The discussion ends there as the car shakes itself apart and runs off into the ravine. GL rescues everyone, recharges his ring, and they head back to the school. Hal wants to conserve his ring's energy, which surprises Carol, but this is a sadder, more doubting GL than the one she used to know.

Meanwhile Dinah is threatened by Grandy, so she switches to her Black Canary outfit, She handles the fight easily, but Sybil takes her out. In the cellar, Grandy explains that Sybil can control people with her mind. He leaves Dinah to be attacked by wasps, while GA and GL enter the school (and who is this Hal Jordan who worries about doing so without permission??) where Belmore tells them what's going on. Grandy commands Sybil to attack them all, but hearing Dinah scream enables Green Arrow to resist and fire an arrow that disables the two of them. They rescue Dinah, and Hal realizes that what happened sounds exactly like what happened to Carol. He confronts Grandy who tells Sybil to punish Hal, but Sybil has had enough abuse and enough of harming people. She collapses the roof, apparently killing Grandy and herself while Hal gets all the students outside, though the last panel hints that Sybil survived.

The final few pages give us a major status quo change as Hal takes off his mask and admits who he is to Carol, and she is not at all surprised. They both suffered from pride, wanting love on their own terms. My opinion is that Hal should have told Carol ages ago, but finally these two get some resolution after years of the old "loves my alter ego rather than me" storylines followed by years of Hal separated from his former supporting cast and preferring his fists to his ring, which really hurt the series in my opinion. Of course, having read this series for years, I know full well the two of them have been on again, off again ever since, but it's still nice here to finally see Hal come clean about his super hero life with a positive response from Carol.

Your humble reviewer was born in May 1971, the cover date on this issue, so we've finally reached issues published in my lifetime. It would be a few more years before I could have read them, even if my dad approved of comics, which he did not. Back in the present, the first time I read this story I recognized that Neal Adams based his character models for Grandy and Sybil on someone, even if I didn't know who, and it kind of pulled me out of the story, because I figured it had to be some sort of political statement even if I didn't know what. And I still don't, unless he's calling Agnew the power behind the throne or something. The story itself is worthwhile not so much for the Grandy/Sybil plotline (which makes no sense, why is Grandy using her powers in such a limited fashion and setting?) but rather for finally addressing Hal and Carol, though poor old Jason is only in two panels after page 17, last seen taking Dinah to the hospital, so his feelings about losing Carol are never addressed. He's never been anything but a plot device anyway. Interesting issue, and I guess I have more positive feelings about it than negative. Addressing long-term continuity makes it feel more like a continuation of Green Lantern than most of what we've seen since issue #76.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow #84
June-July 1971

Peril in Plastic
Script - Denny O'Neil Pencils - Neal Adams Inks - Bernie Wrightson

This was the first issue of GL/GA I ever read, as far as I can remember. It opens the trade collection I bought way back in the day, back when trade paperbacks were not as ubiquitious as they are now. It's a 1993 edition with a purple cover, GL and GA drawn by Neal Adams charging at the reader, and the title "More Hard Traveling Heroes". This trade includes the covers in a reduced size cover gallery in the back of the book rather than before each issue.There's a three page introduction written by Dick Giordano and quotes from various songs of the era in between the chapters. "He's only a Pawn in their Game" by Bob Dylan precedes "Peril in Plastic".

The splash shows Hal trying to stop a dam from breaking and flooding a valley full of houses. "A story plucked from the fears of a nation" proclaims the text. But we don't immediately see an explanation as the story returns to Hal and Carol, back together and very much in love. Twenty-one days of enjoying each other's company for the first time in a long time, both in terms of publication time and the narrative. They both regret the time wasted, and it's an interesting way to deal with how the characters were written back in the early Silver Age. It was just a storytelling convention of the era: the hero can't tell his girlfriend who he really is. It didn't bother me then, and indeed I laughed at some of it. But it's genuinely nice to see it resolved here. Carol is still paralyzed after last issue, and is going to see a doctor in Piper's Dell about a specialized treatment.

Hal goes to visit Ollie at his new apartment, not in the best part of town. They banter about musical tastes, and it's a fun scene. When they're not butting heads over issues, these guys have actually become friends. Suddenly there's a news bulletin about the seawall at Piper's Dell in danger of destruction, and Hal heads there where bombs are destroying the sea wall. He collects them all using a magnetic field created by the ring and they explode harmlessly in the sea. He plugs a hole in the wall and is tired out. This is the first big "stunt" he's tried with the power ring since the Guardians weakened it, and he's exhausted by the effort. The mayor, Wilbur Palm, approaches him and thanks him, giving him a tour of the very polluted town. Once again, the likeness appears to be an actual person, and according to what I could find he's modeled after Carmine Infantino. Everything's plastic here, including the key to the city and the little gizmo that's constantly pumping out perfume. It turns out to be a trap, GL can't focus enough to fly or to defend himself as members of the town attack him. He sends his ring to Green Arrow's apartment as he's captured and sedated. Ollie doesn't see it right away as Dinah comes calling and they go on a date.

Turns out the mayor is really Black Hand! The "cliche criminal" element of the character is absent here (though he still has his notebook). He's been hired to help run an experiment in mass brainwashing. He used Carol to lure GL to Piper's Dell, and having brainwashed the town into believing that GL tried to destroy their seawall, he turns GL and Carol loose and lets the town's residents attack them. Meanwhile Ollie returns having ruined the date with Dinah and finds Hal's ring. Realizing this means Hal is in trouble, Ollie has to suit up, find Hal's hotel room and the invisible power battery, charge it up, and then rent a rowboat to cross the harbor. How much time does all of this take? Are Hal and Carol on the run from the mob this whole time? Hal in a few pages will think about "the past hour" so I'm assuming that's how long all of this took Ollie. Thankfully Ollie gets there just about the time Hal and Carol are trapped on the seawall, and he uses an arrow with the ring on it, shooting the arrow between Hal's fingers so he can put on the ring and deal with the crowd. Now that's the type of shooting GA should be doing more often, incredibly skilled shots that no one else could manage. With his ring and willpower back, Hal wraps up the situation easily, capturing Black Hand in a glob of melted plastic. As they reflect back on events the next day, Ollie wonders if the brainwashed crowd in Piper's Dell were really any different than everyone else?

Plastic, pollution, and people too caught up in modern life to really think for themselves: Denny O'Neil got the mix of social issues and super-hero action pretty well balanced this time, and both GL and GA get roles in the story that suit their abilities. This one has some nostalgic appeal for me, being as I said the first issue of this series I ever read, and I think O'Neil is getting better at balancing the cast and at actually allowing Ollie and Hal to be friends. There's some decent continuity here and once again this feels like a continuation of the Green Lantern series we've been reading in a way those early GL/GA issues really didn't.

Started reading The Flash by William Messner-Loebs and Greg Larocque omnibus vol 1.

The title is not entirely accurate since the first 14 issues were written by Mike Baron and the first 11 were drawn by Butch Guice (used to be credited as Jackson Guice when he was drawing Superman). And they both get cover credit at least, so that's good to see.

I had forgotten just how far astray morally Wally West went early in this series. The first scenes from issue 1 are his 20th birthday party, thrown by his fellow Titans. He can't go the speed of light any more, his upper limit is around 700 miles an hour, and he's constantly having to pack away the calories and sleep after sustained efforts. People keep calling him Kid Flash and he has to correct them. He feels like he has to live up to the heroic standard set by Barry Allen, but he has to make a living. And then he happens to win the lottery and is suddenly rich and indulges in everything that having wealth allows him to do: a fast car, a massive home, throwing money around to get what he wants. When his girlfriend moves out because things are going too fast, he gets involved with a married woman 12 years older than him. It's probably all pretty realistic to think of a young man with fame and money going this route, but it doesn't make Wally the most sympathetic of characters to read about. But it does give him a starting point for the character arc we'll see and which I remember fondly as he grows into a much better man than he is in these early issues.

He has no secret identity, which I had had also forgotten. He wears the costume along with the cowl out of respect for Barry and for tradition, but he makes no effort to hide that Wally West is the Flash. That hasn't caused him any real problems in the first few issues that I've read so far, but I'm sure it will down the road. His connection with the Titans is front and center as Cyborg plays a pretty big role in resolving the threat in issues 3 and 4, and of course all the Titans are in the first issue at his birthday party. He's not a Justice Leaguer yet. I think it was a pretty interesting move on DC's part to kill off a major character in the Crisis and then allow his sidekick to step up and take on the role. As I flip through this book I see covers that I remember seeing on the shelves in the comic book shop, but I didn't actually start reading the book until The Return of Barry Allen storyline much later, so I've only read the occasional issue from this era, the first issue included. It's interesting to go back to the beginning and see where it started.

Batman #91
April 1955

The Living Bat-Plane!
Script: Edward Hamilton Pencils: Dick Sprang Inks: Charles Paris

So what we have here is remote controlled vehicles. Batman and Robin pilot the Batmobile and Batplane via Dr. Winters remote control unit. But of course crooks always take advantage of these new inventions, and a gang under the leadership of Slant Stafford invade the lab of Dr. Winters, tie him up, and use the bigger, more powerful remote control there to seize control of both vehicles. They try to kill Batman and Robin with the Batmobile, but they draw it into the corner where the car can be elevated and render it harmless. They can't stop the Batplane, but Batman sprays oil on the cameras as it passes to hide the location of the Batcave. Stafford steers it through a thunderstorm to wash the oil off the camera "eyes" (and I love Sprang's depiction of the storm here with the Batplane among the clouds) and brings it to their hideout. Crooks have commandeered the Batplane and plan to use it for crime. I think it's notable here that Batman and Robin attempt to build a remote control unit to regain control of the Batplane. These guys are born engineers. This device has only just been invented, and by working with it they already understand how it works and how to build another.

The story throws us a curve ball here... there's something in the Batplane that will give Stafford's gang control over Batman and Robin. We're left to wonder just what they could be as the crooks take swift advantage of their new weapon to rob the Gotham Gold Refinery. The attempt is completely successful. The retractable rotors allow it to act like a helicopter when landing (we rarely see these, so it's nice to see writers remember they exist!), the jet engines blast open the refinery gates, and the plane is used to run pursuing police off the road. The Gotham air police promise cooperation. Batman has a plan to recapture the plane, but if it fails, then he says to just shoot it down. Batman successfully predicts that the crooks, who can only use the plane in open air locations, will strike at the Gotham Baseball Stadium so they can grab the gate receipts. There's a scene here that would be just as great an action scene in animated or live action form as it is on the page as Batman and Robin parachute on to the Batplane and attempt to open the canopy, while the crooks, realizing they're on the plane, try to kill them with the rotor blades.

They get in and deal with what's in the secret compartment first, only to apparently fall to their deaths to the horror of Commissioner Gordon and the crowd (check out all the silhouettes in the background behind Gordon) while Stafford is exultant that he's killed Batman with his own Batplane. Stafford returns the plane to his hideout, a cabin in a nearby mountain valley (mountains near Gotham City??!), only for the plane to turn on him, because of course, Batman and Robin are still alive. The dangerous secret is how they tricked the crooks, and it's honestly a little underwhelming: dummies to trick crooks, that Batman feared Stafford could use to trick potential crime victims.

The eight page format prevents us from getting a typical three-crime plotline that we've often seen in the Batman series, but I think that's a benefit here. This is a concise, well-drawn and well-paced story that uses technology as the basis for crooks going on a rampage. Remote control vehicles are something we haven't seen before in Batman, and it's nice to see the series come up with something new after hundreds of stories. The only loose end: what happened to Dr. Winters? I don't think he's ever accounted for.

Continuing Batman #91


Batman's Publicity Agent!
Script: ? Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Charles Paris

The first thing I wondered here is if we were going to get a plot similar to the one way back at the beginning of Superman's run in Action Comics where some unscrupulous person was using Superman's name and image to sell products, but this story turns out to be something different. Bruce and Dick are walking around Gotham City when they see posters, skywriting, a blimp and a parade all promoting Batman. They check in with the mayor, who knows all about it. The publicity campaign is the work of Mike Whalen, publicity agent, and it's all about an anonymously funded campaign to raise Batman's profile and scare crooks out of town. Batman is not happy about this, but the mayor insists it's his civic duty.

People all over Gotham turn out to see the parade with a giant Batman balloon and floats depicting his wins over the Joker and the Penguin. Some crooks take advantage of the distraction to rob a bank and head into the parade crowd to escape. The balloon suddenly springs a leak and collapses on Batman and Robin, meaning the crooks have plenty of time to get away. This seemed pretty convenient to me, particularly when the crooks pretend to be part of the scene on one of the floats. Then that evening there are suddenly a bunch of take Bat-signals, hand-held flashlights with a bat that Mike Whalen is giving out. These signals do just what Batman feared, cause them to miss the genuine article, though I have to ask just how powerful these little flashlights can be compared to the huge spotlight at police headquarters?

Other incidents continue to interrupt Batman's attempts at crime fighting, and he finally reaches the point I reached several pages ago. He publicly taunts the "Napoleon of Crime" that's starting a new wave of crime in Gotham, successfully drawing the man out to challenge him. It turns out to be Blinky Grosset, gangster, who was the anonymous donor to the publicity campaign. I'll admit that this surprised me. I had expected Whalen to be the crime boss, but no, he was an innocent dupe of Grosset, who had a man planted in Whalen's agency so he'd always know about publicity events. Batman smugly informs Grosset that since publicity had been used against him, that he and Whalen had used publicity to smoke out the crooks behind the scheme. Whalen ends the campaign after all the trouble it's caused, figuring Batman is his own best publicity agent.

Good job on the writer's part for diverting my attention with Whalen, though it becomes clear very early on that the whole publicity scheme is just that: a scheme to help crooks commit crimes and get away with it. We're given no real suspects until the end of the story, which is certainly one way to preserve the mystery of who is behind all of this. I tend to expect Batman to be ahead of the reader in catching on, but he's a little slow on the uptake this time around, which I suppose we can chalk up to the publicity scheme being not only fairly effective, but presented to him by Whalen and the mayor, so there's no reason to suspect anything early on. Again, this type of story would never work with the modern Batman, it only works in this era where Batman is a respected and well-known public citizen of Gotham.

I am really enjoying the GL/GA omnibus, and finally being able to read beyond where my trade paperback left off. The solo GL Flash backup stories aren't stellar, but it's nice to see Hal back in a more familiar type of storytelling after a year or two of social issues with Oliver Queen. We'll get to those soon. And then there's #90-#106 that I've read in the Space Traveling Heroes hardcover, and then the issues I haven't read beyond those. The omnibus includes other issues from the Brave and the Bold which I probably won't review. There's one that wraps up the "Oliver Queen for mayor" plotline, so I'll at least mention anything like that in passing.


Onwards...


Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85
August-September 1971

Snowbirds Don't Fly
Script - Denny O'Neil Art - Neal Adams

You always have all the answers, Green Arrow! Well, what's your answer to that?
My ward is a junkie!

This is the big one, one of the more well-known stories from this run, and one which at least in one sense has proven to be badly misjudged, because it's hung over the character of Roy Harper ever since. Writers cannot get away from Roy having a past related to substance abuse. At least Hal finally gets a dig in at the know-it-all, self-righteous Oliver Queen on the cover. That's honestly pretty satisfying. I'm always glad to see Green Arrow humbled. It's hard to like him the way he's written in this series with such a chip on his shoulder all the time.

Ollie is walking along the street in the run-down part of town he lives in when he's accosted by three young men who try to rob him. Ollie is in no mood for this because Dinah has kicked him to the curb. He's honestly happy to get into a brawl and take out his frustrations on these three. It's going well and he's whipping them until one of them finds a loaded crossbow and fires, hitting Ollie in the shoulder. In another way these comics have changed since the Silver Age, Ollie cries "my God!". You'd never have seen DC's characters swearing or taking God's name in vain in the more innocent 1960s comics. The three kids run off and Ollie spends the next two pages trying to get someone to help him with people either not wanting to get involved, or a policeman assuming he's drunk and telling him to sleep it off, and even the nurse in the ER asking if he can come back later. But when he faints and he's lying there with an arrow jutting from his shoulder, he can't be ignored. Good luck paying the hospital bill!

Ollie recognizes the arrow and calls in Hal to help. He's worried about his ward Speedy, who he hasn't seen in some time. Ollie starts by investigating the building he lives in, thinking he saw his would-be muggers in the basement last week. They find a young man and his pusher, with the young man going through withdrawal. I have to say, I really hate how naive Hal is written here, as if he has never watched or read the news and knows nothing about drug abuse in society. I can buy that he's never seen withdrawal in person before, but not even knowing what it is? I can't buy it. GA and Hal take out the drug dealer and continue their search. Speedy is in the "pad" of the other two muggers, though he's hidden in the shadows at first. The kids talk about why they're into drugs, only for GL and GA to enter their apartment. GA's pretty clueless, he has no idea why Roy is there, though the observant reader will have picked up that he's on drugs too. The kids lead GL and GA to the airfield where the big pusher is and jump them from behind as GL captures the drug pushers. The kids get a free sample for their pains, and the pushers decide to let the unconcious superheroes snort some of the "good stuff" and call the cops, thus "discrediting the do-gooders". It's Roy who shows up and diverts the police, goading the drugged-up Hal into getting them out of there, after he fights off a ring-created manifestation of the slavering monster that he is while under the influence. At least this is a good willpower moment for Hal, who fights his condition and keeps him and his friends aloft despite being impaired.

In Green Arrow's apartment, GA, GL and Roy discuss what happened and Roy gives his opinion about why kids turn to drugs. GA has no sympathy, and after seeing Hal off with plans to continue hunting down the dealers the next day, returns to his apartment only to find Roy shooting up then and there. I'm guessing Roy wanted to be caught, because he's just not that stupid. End of part one.

Great art, and plenty of social commentary. Let's just say some of it is reasonable, and some of it is nonsense. I'm not diving into social commentary beyond what's on the page, but I think for once Denny O'Neil is writing Oliver Queen as being on the wrong side of an issue. It's clear where his sympathies lie as the author. The bad thing about this story is that it's dragged Roy Harper down as a character ever since. Like John Stewart and the destruction of Xanshi, future writers just can't leave it alone. O'Neil could not have known that at the time, so I don't blame him, but it does make me wish they'd found another way to tell this story. But I guess to make it personal they felt this was the way to go.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow #86
October-November 1971

They Say It'll Kill Me... But They Won't Say When!
Script - Denny O'Neil Pencils - Neal Adams Inks - Dick Giordano

Ollie is furious and hits Roy before kicking him out. He wonders if this is his fault, but decides that it isn't, and he's going to make the drug pushers pay. He leaves, only for Roy's friends who sold out Hal and Ollie last issue to take the opportunity to enter Ollie's apartment and try out the "good stuff" they got as a reward. Unfortunately, the first one to try it overdoses and dies on the spot, much to his friend's horror. The overdose panel might be a little over-dramatic in all honesty, it's a rough scene as it is. Meanwhile Hal is trying to put two and two together, because something about Roy's demeanor didn't sit right with him. He heads to Ollie's apartment as well and finds the overdose victim, and is at a loss as to where he should look for Roy or Ollie in the city.

Ollie searches the hanger where he and Hal were ambushed and gets some information out of one of the pushers about the big boss, but it turns out to be a trap. Hal looks for Speedy in Chinatown where they found him last time and gets lucky. Roy is in an alley, going through withdrawal. He refuses a doctor, but Hal insists on taking him to Dinah's house. Hal listens to Roy, who gives the usual "you can't believe anything the older generation tells you" crap about why he tried drugs despite being told how dangerous they were. Hal gets a dig in, which I appreciate. Roy is griping about how self-righteous Ollie is, rightly so, but Roy has the same problem. It won't be the last time we see some hypocrisy from these characters. Roy did in fact locate the big boss and tells Hal where to find him: on a boat off shore, the Lady Billie.

That's where Ollie was sent, but there are more drug dealers waiting for him. He fights hard, even with his still-injured shoulder, but they win the brawl. The big boss is there and tells them to throw him in the bay, before returning to his high-class party on board the yacht, with all his rich guests. It's all a cover for heroin smuggling. Ollie is tossed in the bay, weighed down by an anchor. One of his trick arrows saves his life, an acetylene torch cuts the chain and he barely gets to the surface as Hal arrives, thanks to Roy's tip. He easily deals with the two thugs and lets Ollie know that Roy needs help badly. After a scene of Roy fighting his way through withdrawal, we see the big boss, Saloman Hooper of Hooper Pharmaceuticals, bringing the latest heroin shipment to the lab for refinement. Green Lantern busts in, having forced the pushers to tell all, where he decides it's time to deal with the scum without his ring. He busts Hooper up pretty bad to the point that even the normally gung-ho, hot tempered Ollie is advising him to watch it.

The issue closes with a funeral for Roy's friend who overdosed, with Hal and Ollie watching from a distance. Roy shows up where he shows he's just as much of a jerk as Ollie, after which he gives the old "society made me do it" sob story. Contrary to Ollie's proud moment at the end, if Roy was really a man he'd take responsibility, admit he was wrong, and apologize.

So I guess a lot has been written about this story over the years. As I mentioned in my review of part 1, in retrospect it did a lot of damage to the character of Roy Harper, and for that alone a part of me wishes it didn't exist. I have to admit that it's interesting to see Hal and Ollie walking around in some fairly gritty surroundings, in streets that feel dangerous and apartment buildings that feel run down and seedy. There's some real atmosphere created here that we'd never have seen in GL a year earlier. I applaud the attempt to reach the book's audience with a message about the dangers of narcotic use, but to then turn around and blame everyone but the user seems counterproductive to me. It is amusing to see how Oliver Queen and Roy Harper are so much alike, and Ollie thinks Roy's a man now that Roy is acting like him. That probably wasn't the intention, but that's how I read it. Hal was written as annoyingly naive in part one, but here he's shown to be more thoughtful and more willing to listen than Ollie, and certainly comes across far better than he did last issue.