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by Dave Scrimgeour and Kevin McCluskey   Writer- Denny O'Neil Artists- Neal Adams & Berni Wrightson Editor- Julius Schwartz SynopsisAs Hal Jordan struggles to plug holes in the burst dam of Piper Dell, his mind drifts back to his recent romance with Carol Ferris who, due to the lure of a "radical new treatment," left him to travel there. As a show of gratitude, mayor Wilbur Palm presents The Green Lantern with the key to the city, and a little bouquet of plastic, before setting the locals, the "executive board," on him. However, Hal manages to send the ring to fetch help in the form of Ollie Queen, and despite some initial travel woes, The Green Arrow arrives in the nick of time to save Hal and Carol from the clutches of Black Hand. Dave I'm liking the cover to this issue, it's very dynamic, and the image on the screen of our title villain looks excellent. It looks like it's been drawn in pencil, and it has a bit of a resemblance to Elon musk. Haha! It really is a cracking cover this issue. Kev Ha, ha! I was wondering who it reminded me of. You might have hit the nail on the head with old Melon Usk, although, it's photos of Carmine Infantino, apparently. I'm really digging this cover too; the Orwellian big screens, the baying, bloodthirsty mob, and of course an excellent image of our heroes, in a bit of a pickle, front and centre. It's good stuff. It's just dawned on me though that all the dressing on these covers doesn't half take up a lot of the real estate. Dave As I was reading through this issue, I was kind-of getting 'Halloween 3' vibes a bit, in terms of similarities to the story. Kev Ah, 'Season of the Witch.' Brilliant soundtrack to that film. Dave That's a good splash page for the opening of the issue. It's straight into the action. This issue is far more Lantern orientated. Kev That splash page is really eye-catching and dynamic, and yeh, this issue is more Hal Jordan focused than the last few, that's for sure. "A story plucked from the fears of a nation..." indeed. Dave Yeah, this is a not so subtle hint by O'Neil about economic affairs at the time. Kev Ha, ha! O'Neil hasn't exactly been "subtle" about any of the issues that he's raised in these stories. The composition of that first panel on page 2, with Hal's mask in the foreground, is superb. A callback to the last panel of the previous issue. Dave And on page 2, we get this nice little montage of Hal and Carol's developing relationship. Kev Yeh, using the tiles on the floor as the panels for the montage is very clever stuff from Neal Adams. I like that O'Neil is writing this introduction like a romance comic.  "Hello, Police? I'd like to report a crime of passion! A drowning, yes." Dave He has no qualms about voicing his views, for sure. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and his passion certainly comes through in his writing. Kev Absolutely. There's not much point in being overly subtle about social issues that make your blood boil. Dave On page 3, the colour palate is superb. It really enhances the romantic mood being created here. Kev Yeh, the colour palette, once again, is fantastic. Also, Neal Adams doesn't half draw some beautiful people. This is classic Hollywood golden age stuff right here. Dave If you look at the difference between page 3 and page 4 colour-wise, it's worlds apart. I like how we see Hal just doing the ordinary things again, like going to visit Arrow at his new house. Hal's obviously a man of standards, as he calls Ollie's new place a, "pretty crummy area." Kev Yeh, the colours are, not only beautiful, but they're also contributing massively to the storytelling here. Cracking stuff from Cory Adams who, for some reason, is not credited here. I love it when artists draw the cracks in the walls to show how run-down the buildings are, the way Adams has done here. Ron Frenz used to do the same thing with Peter Parker's apartment in Spider-Man in the '80's as well. It's just such a nice touch. I also like how O'Neil is even using their music tastes to illustrate the differences in Hal and Ollie's personalities. Ollie is a bit more modern and open minded, he's allowed rock 'n' roll to grow on him, but Hal is a bit more old fashioned and stuck in his ways, he still likes his Dixieland. Dave And it's clear that Ollie is perfectly happy where he is. He lives in the moment, whereas Hal has a million woes on his mind. I suppose that's why he lies down on the couch, constantly feeling overwhelmed when, in this scene, Ollie is on his feet and carefree. Kev That's a really good point, man; Ollie has more in common with what, at the time, would have been the recent, hippie/youth movement, as opposed to Hal, who is more in line with the post-world war two, but pre-rock 'n' roll, "responsible" attitude often attributed to "boomers." Dave He certainly feels more burdened. I like the first panel on page 5 of Lantern flying out the window.  Ollie flings Hal out the window. Kev Hal certainly knows how to make a dramatic exit, that's for sure. The "burdened" nature of Hal is something that he touched upon last issue, when he confessed to Carol that he felt ".....older now... maybe wiser, too--... and a lot less happy--" We get the first mention of Speedy in this run for us, and perhaps it could be considered a little bit of foreshadowing, because we all know what's coming up with him. Dave Ollie better hope he hasn't got any nosey neighbours as well, as that might rouse just a bit of suspicion; this bloke turns up to his door, and then five minutes later the Green Lantern flies out his living room window in full view. Kev Ha, ha! That's true. It's not exactly what you'd call working overtime to keep the old secret identity a secret, is it? Dave And we get the full exposition from Green Lantern, as he tackles this blazing inferno on pages 5 and 6. Kev I miss this kind of internal monologing from characters in comics. It's fallen out of fashion as a storytelling device these days. Dave In fact, this whole issue has really been quite dialogue orientated all the way through, so far. Kev Yeh, there's a lot more story and dialogue packed into an issue of these older comics than there is today, that's for sure. The second panel on page 7, with Hal digging up the mud to patch-up the dam is great too. The sense of scale in it is palpable. Just superheroes doing superhero things. You can't beat it.  "Bulldozer. Back-ho. Hard-hat. Harvester. Rough gets smoothed. Everything can move." Dave That's a great panel at the bottom of page 7, with Lantern standing, looking exhausted. The pose is terrific, as we, the reader, are looking upwards at him.  Another Tory party power stance. Kev Yeh, the body language that Neal Adams manages to portray in Hal tells us everything we need to know about his physical and mental state. Dave And of course, on page 8, we are introduced to our antagonist, Wilbur Palm. Kev Wilbur Palm, indeed. He also looks a little bit like Ken Livingstone. Dave "How do you like our little Metropolis?' "I could swim in the smog." O'Neil having a dig at here at the emissions caused by these industrial environments. Kev Definitely. Everything's a small price to pay for progress, right? And we all know how well things worked out for a lot of these "company town(s)." Dave This was where I started to get the 'Halloween 3' vibes when reading this. And in his weakened state, Lantern is getting suckered into this guys line of crap. It's interesting, as the amount of dialogue in this is completely, relentlessly coming at you. Kev Yeh. There's no let up in this issue at all. A "..... progressive township, which is growing every day----and isn't that the American way....." Three cheers for capitalism. The cheap, shoddy, plastic is releasing fumes into the atmosphere when it breaks. O'Neil isn't exactly being subtle again, but you can feel his anger coming off the page. The plastic fumes having a detrimental effect on brain functions, is an interesting plot point, considering the fears we have around micro-plastics and "forever chemicals" being literally everywhere now. Dave He's really hammering the points in this issue. I get the feeling that this is something he couldn't wait to do. Plus, his attack on the megalomaniac, corporate psychos who run these businesses as well. Kev Ha, ha! Yeh. Hal, beaten up by the briefcase of corporate America. Class! "The Executive Board" would be a cracking name for a heel wrestling faction. Dave It's actually the first page of no dialogue too. Kev Ah, that's true. Good point. Dave Hal's taken some beating so far. Kev He really has, hasn't he? I like that Ollie has "another" mouse creeping around his apartment. Nice place. And I love how Ollie was so easily distracted by an attractive woman, and now Hal is screwed. Ha, ha! Great mate, Ollie is. Dave I was wondering if Canary would turn up, and of course Ollie is more than willing to keep her company. Kev Ha, ha! Yeh. I do like it when Dinah turns up. I feel like she adds another dimension to the dynamic between our heroes. Dave "I'll take you to a Mexican joint...Chilli so hot they have asbestos napkins!" Ollie is always trying to turn on the charm and humour. Kev He's a smooth talker, alright. Dave "Black Hand." I guess the writers like giving their heroes and villains colours to go with their names. Kev Ha, ha! True. And here he comes with yet more exposition. Dave And the subject of "mass brainwashing" comes up again. O'Neil is going for the jugular attacking those executive types. Kev He certainly is. That bottom tier of panels on page 15 pretty much sums up everything in politics for the past five/ten years.  "Plastic people with plastic minds are on their way to plastic homes." Dave Yeah, I like those bottom 3 panels, they're very intelligently written. Just shows how human nature remains the same, regardless of what decade it is. Kev Yep, the more things change, the more they stay the same, right? Both Hal and Ollie's chivalrous gentleman schtick is so old fashioned now. To the point of being misogynistic. Dave Ollie's blown his night out with Dinah. That scene was actually quite funny. A slight overreaction on her part, maybe? Kev Ha, ha! Yeh, maybe. But we needed to get Dinah out of the picture so Ollie could get on with rescuing Hal. Dave Hal's trying his best to escape, and Ollie's none the wiser to what's going on. Kev Yeh, I like how Ollie is a bit rubbish at the old rescuing. In large part because he doesn't have enough money to do it properly. Ha, ha! Dave I like how, after all the getting in costume stuff on page 18, the bottom 3 panels show him haggling for a dinghy, and then he's quite blunt to the guy. Kev It's good, isn't it? It totally undercuts his superheroics. Dave Yeah, keeps the character grounded. Kev It does that. Literally. I do like how even the plastic bricks of Piper Dell have the company's name on them. That's a nice touch. "These people...have sold their urky humanity for cheap, phony security...phony security and a bunch of...plastic..."  "Your plasticity is tested by a formless assault." Dave That's a fantastic panel on page 20, of Arrow standing on the dinghy about to fire his arrow... sorry the "shaft."  The less said about this, the better. Kev Yeh, man. I love that panel. Ollie looks badass, standing on that dingy, bow and arrow poised, silhouetted against the moonlit water. Dave And after all that, melted plastic is the way to beat this maniac. Kev Yeh. Isn't this the second time that O'Neil has warned us of the dangers of plastic? Wasn't someone entombed in plastic in one of the earlier stories in this run? Dave Yeah, true. It was The Guardian, back in issue 80, in 'Even An Immortal Can Die.' I mean, the artwork and colours are consistently brilliant throughout this series, it’s such a visual feast. I like how the last two panels open up a discussion on the perils of selling your soul to the company store (almost quoting 'Sixteen Tons' by Tennessse Ernie Ford), and each character's viewpoint on it. Again, Hal and Ollie are seeing things differently, and we get the joke panel at the end of the issue.  "You may be plastic, because you never meditate about the bottom of glasses, the third side of your universe." Kev Yeh, that exchange between Dinah, Hal and Ollie at the end of this issue speaks to us all really, doesn't it? Dave And Ollie is even looking at the camera, so to speak, on the last panel. Kev Ah, that's a really good point. He is almost breaking the fourth wall there, and addressing us, as readers, directly, isn't he? Dave Yeah, he kind-of has that knowing look that, as ludicrous as the ending was, he's letting us know that it was intended to show how these companies will sell any shit to people under the guise of a bargain, create a need for something that they didn't need in the first place, and you will get sales. I really liked this issue, it certainly was not subtle, in any way, shape, or form on its views, but in general it was another really good adventure. Any final thoughts yourself? Kev Same as yourself really. It's not exactly what you'd call a subtle social commentary, but it was ahead of it's time, certainly in terms of superhero comics. Like a lot of this run has been. And depressingly, as we've said about a lot of O'Neil's writing, it's just as relevant five decades later as it was on the day he wrote it. (D) & (K) Next: The Grange Hill Gang.  Well, you know what they say, Christmas comes earlier every year.
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