Green Lantern/Green Arrow Retrospective- ‘A Kind Of Loving, A Way Of Death.'

by Dave Scrimgeour and Kevin McCluskey

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Story- Denny O'Neil
Art- Neal Adams & Frank Giacoia
​Editing- Julius Schwartz

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Synopsis

Dinah Drake experiences a rather unpleasant encounter with an insecure little motorcycle club known as The Demons, which leads to her being ran over and left for dead.  Fortunately for her, she is rescued by a mysterious good Samaritan.   Unfortunately for her, her saviour is revealed to be a brainwashing, race war baiting cult leader known as Joshua.  Coincidentally, Hal Jordan, Oliver Queen and The Guardian ride into town which leads them, through The Demons, to Black Canary, whom they attempt to free from Joshua's clutches.

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Dave
Issue 78, from July 1970, I didn't realise the Black Canary was in this issue, but then again my knowledge of DC characters is far more limited than it is of the Marvel ones.


Kev
Yep.  Dinah Drake Lance AKA Black Canary, star of the latest DCEU effort ‘Birds Of Prey.’  Not a character I'm overly familiar with either, to be honest.  "For she knows violence as only one who hates-it-enough-to-understand-it can....."  Another good cover here, with an image that is literally striking, and it gives you more than a hint as to what the issue-of-the-month is.


Dave
From the cover, I got the impression there is more hot-headed behaviour from the Green Lantern in this issue, but it appears that, as the story unfolds, his character is developing even more and he is becoming increasingly self-conscious.


Kev
Yeh, there's a bit of a bait and switch going on here with the cover, as it's actually Ollie, not Hal, who's being the violent hot-head within the pages of the issue.


Dave
The full page panel of Black Canary on the bike is a cracking bit of artwork, with some interesting choices of words used by Denny O'Neil.  For example, "four greasy beasts" to describe the Demon gang members.

Daughter Of Anarchy.

​Kev
Yeh, O'Neil, once again, not pulling any punches with the "....greasy beasts."  Ha, ha!  It's a great splash page, isn't it?  We certainly open with "the beautiful America," alright.  And I can't believe she actually gets ran over by the bike.  I was expecting her to leap to safety, or at the very least be pulled to safety by Hal and the power ring.


Dave
Yeah, the getting hit by a bike was a bit of a let-down.  Canary doesn't waste any time taking out the Demons though.  The language they use is quite funny, "she's only a frail."  Also, the leader has the token bandanna across his forehead to signify he's leader of the pack.  That full page of her deftly taking these guys down is excellent, with all the different moves used, and yet, she did not hear a bike roaring towards her?

Black Canary saw red, I mean blue.

​Kev
I guess not.  Yeh, and the guy with the cycling helmet on, almost looks like military.  The fact that they leave "the Black Canary lying in the dirt like a broken doll..." is quite shocking though.


Dave
And the thought bubbles by the Demon's leader show how driven by reputation these guys are.  It's all they care about, there's nothing actually personal about it at all, despite how it comes across.  They're just establishing their dominance and power.  It could explain why they didn't finish her off.  And enter the mysterious stranger to help her.  I love the palette in the panel where he is carrying her off, some great colours used.


Kev
Yeh.  That panel is superb.  You're spot-on about their obsession with their reputation.  It seems to be their most valued currency. 


Dave
"The long finger of coincidence nudges a battered pick-up truck into the single street of a tiny hamlet," that is some great narrative there.  Unusual also, but it lingers with the reader.


Kev
O'Neil is definitely using the sprawling, road trip nature of this run to stretch his prose a little, I reckon.  It's almost like his comic book, superhero take on the great American novel.  Nice line by Hal when he says, "I've often thought you immortals made a bad trade when you exchanged pleasures like eating and sleeping for eternal life!"  I like that.


Dave
Good point, it is kind-of like the great American novel.  And again, O'Neil's keeping these stories to a very '70's, cinematic, movie theme.


Kev
That's a great point, man.  It really does have a certain 'Easy Rider' or 'Badlands' vibe to it. 


Dave
"Whaddaya say, Palefaces?"  He's having a bit of fun with the characters in this story, but to be fair the three of them do look slightly odd together and out of place.


Kev
Ha, ha! I like this guy. He's got some cracking lines.  And they end-up eating "a tasty plate of beans" like a trio of hipster vegans.


Dave
"Beat it Punks!"  More classic dialogue straight out of Clint Eastwood's repertoire.  "You dudes got anything you want to say"?  O'Neil is making good use of any of the lingo that was going at the time.


Kev
Yeh.  The dialogue is certainly of its time.  Like you'd said before, "Punk" was a staple insult of the '70s.


Dave
And of course, Lantern and Arrow are dressed like Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson in the 1960's Batman series.  They're very reserved looking.

Hal, Ollie and The Guardian enjoy a protein packed vegan meal at the local hipster joint.

​Kev
Yeh, that's how all the squares dressed back then.  Ha, ha!  Speaking of language of its time, "Boy," "He ain't learned his place" and "Injun."  Quite racially inflammatory language.  And deliberately so.


Dave
The guy in the helmet, as you said before, is very military looking.  He looks like he could be going for a place in G.I. Joe next.


Kev
Ha, ha!  He does look like one of the Joes actually, yeh.  "Yo Joe!"


Dave
Lantern is having a bit more fun playing up the whole John Wayne, battle-in-the-saloon with this scene, especially when he claims to have the "fastest power ring in the west."


Kev
Definitely.  I liked that too.  That was amusing, and it was good fun.  Neal Adam's choice of "shots" for these panels is superb.  He uses POV to such dramatic effect.  For example, that's an excellent last panel on page 8, with Ollie punching the biker guy.  And that's a great three panel, top tier on page 9 too.  In fact, the storytelling on page 9, as a whole, is great. It's a simple panel layout, but it's really effective.

Pucker up, Demon Boy!

​Dave
".....a greasy thug on a motorcycle" is another classic line used in this issue.  Denny O'Neil is pulling out all the stops.  This is where Arrow starts to lose his cool and we see a darker side to him emerge.  Also, Lantern is giving a the lecture about being neither judge nor jury.  The roles are reversing a bit in this issue.


Kev
Definitely.  There really is an element of role reversal happening here, isn't there?  Hal Jordan is almost having to reign in Ollie's lefty rage at the injustice here, by reminding him that there are process and procedures that have to be followed for a reason.  Otherwise you run the risk of violating people's rights, no matter how self-righteous you feel you may be.  And as we see here, Ollie clearly thinks nothing of using violence as an interrogation technique.  O'Neil is showing us more of the anger in Ollie Queen here.  There's a rage in him that we really see come to the surface, especially once he finds out Dinah's life has been put in danger.


Dave
It's also interesting that when Arrow and Lantern go back to the guys place again after the fight, he basically states his gripes against the "palefaces," which leads to us seeing the Guardian being intrigued by human interactions, once again.  A bit of a historical backtrack to some of the atrocities that have happened being recounted here as well.


Kev
Yeh.  This is what I was referring to when I said I liked some of this guys lines.  He's funny.  Scathingly so, but amusing nonetheless.  "You people been walking all over us for 400 years--why get remorse at this late date."  O'Neil is using this character as the vehicle to highlight the plight of Native Americans' as the 'issue of the month.'  And yeh, I really like how this is what piques the Guardian's interest as well.  I also like when Ollie asks Joshua, "Whose truth?'  This idea of truth being a point of view, a perspective, is very relevant today in our post-truth, "alternative facts," "fake news" era.


Dave
Yep, I like how Green Arrow questions him as if to say who died and made you King.  Nice little panel of Lantern and Arrow as they spot Canary running off into the hills.  Joshua is also not tolerant of any non-believers, but his little psychic show won't work with Arrow. Much like a magician who often has to choose those he will perform a trick too, the sceptical ones are harder to pull the act off to.


Kev
Yeh, man.  Those western landscapes are absolutely gorgeous.  Props to Adams and Giacoia.


Dave
Joshua is quite a weird looking guy.  He kind-of looks like one of those characters from the early Chinese Kung-Fu, sword and sorcery films, which ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ spoofed so well.

That lighting is not doing ol' Charlie "Joshua" Manson any favours whatsoever.

​Kev
Ha, ha!  Yeh. He's also got some major Charles Manson vibes going on.  Definitely.  Ollie and Hal are too worldly wise not to know that Joshua is preying on vulnerable people.


Dave
Black Canary starts going a little Karen Page here, in that she's experiencing a major internal struggle.


Kev
She's definitely struggling with the effects of Joshua's hypnosis, and more than likely some concussion related memory loss too.  Little bit of a sexual assault vibe here with Ollie just planting one on her.  That's a bit uncomfortable.


Dave
That's a really good full page panel when she suddenly recalls what has happened, featuring some nice cameo appearances by Batman and Superman also.  Keeping it in the DC family.  Ollie's starting to lose his cool, calm and collected head again.


Kev
It's a great page.  I really like the layout and the colour choices in it.  That image in the bottom left of it is definitely Errol Flynn, isn’t it?

"Picture this and paint it blue. A photograph of me and you. All I see are blue memories. Blue memories."

​Dave
Totally, it's a good piece of wall art.


Kev
I have to admit to being completely confused by all the crossing over of the Earths in the DC Multiverse.


Dave
I've just noticed The Flash in that picture as well.  Another one of my DC favs.  Yeah, the DC crossovers and multiverses are so confusing.


Kev
Right enough.  We should maybe do a Flash run at some point.  Yeh, Ollie is a bit of a hot-head, alright, and judging by his description, a “warrior with a laugh like the roar of a mountain river and arms like steel cables...” he's a catch.


Dave
Haha.  The old fashioned swashbuckler for sure.


Kev
A heart breakin' ladies man.  “...the sheer womanliness the archer inspired in her…”  Eh?  I have no idea what O'Neil was getting at with this one though.  I wonder if he had to use "womanliness," because he couldn't use anything dirtier.


Dave
Yep, the narrative and lingo is certainly taking centre stage in this story.  O'Neil sounds like he's planning to do ‘50 Shades Of Arrow’ here.


Kev
Ha, ha!  ‘Fifty Shades Of Green.’  Here we have the reveal that Dinah was riding out to join Ollie and Hal on their road trip.  “...the face of that most beautiful and troubled land, America.”  O'Neil is essentially simultaneously constructing a love letter to, and a critique of, his home country.


Dave
It's the old classic exposition of starting a story in the middle, and catching right up to it through the process of good storytelling. 


Kev
Yep.  Start your story at the latest possible point that you can.  


Dave
​The original ‘Terminator’ film was a great example of using that as well, it started really midway through the story and as it progressed we got up to speed on past events.  It is a bit like the more modern westerns of that era.


Kev
Definitely.  It has a neo-western feel to it, alright.


Dave
Joshua's true motives reveal themselves when he hands a gun to Canary in the Devil-red box, and does the whole scary eyes, hypnotising thing.


Kev
Yeh, those three panels of the tier at the bottom of page 15, with the way they pull in on Dinah’s reflection in Joshua’s eye are excellent.  They're very effective.

"Trust in me. Just in me. Shut your eyes. Trust in me. You can sleep, safe and sound, knowing I am around"

​Dave
"That guy Joshua... something downright weird about him...something sick!"   Arrow doesn't mess about with his words.


Kev
He certainly does not.  Does Ollie see things in black and white, do you reckon?


Dave
He is quite old fashioned in that respect, it's either black or white, yeah.  There is no grey areas with him, only green.


Kev
Ha, ha!  That's the only colour he sees.  And I don't mean money.  He’s clearly not thinking straight if he’s slugging Hal just for suggesting Dinah might not be into him.  Which, as it turns out, he’s all too aware of.


Dave
Certainly earlier on with Canary, he couldn't stand to see her not want him.


Kev
No.  He's nothing if not emotional and impetuous.


Dave
Yeah that panel where he "slugs" (another class bit of terminology used) Lantern shows his weak spots, and how arrogant he can be also.


Kev
And possibly how easily manipulated he can be too.  “Those of white ancestry and the OTHERS…..” Hmmm.  There’s a whiff of white supremacist rhetoric creeping in with Joshua here.  As soon as you start referring to people who are different to you as “other,” the alarm bells start ringing for me.  And there we have it.  Ol’ Josh is a racist, genocidal maniac.


Dave
Interesting that he now considers Lantern as his best friend and it's only been three issues.


Kev
Yeh.  We've seen this relationship between them evolve and deepen very quickly over these three issues.  It's like ‘48 Hrs.’


Dave
It also shows a lot about Green Arrow.  Perhaps he's just a fast mover in all relationships with people.


Kev
Ah, that's an interesting point, yeh.


Dave
Joshua is certainly insane.  I wonder what Denny O'Neil's angle was here.  As you say, he is purposely making racial slurs and remarks throughout this tirade against all people from different cultures really.


Kev
I reckon O'Neil just took Manson's predictions of a race war and upped the ante for Joshua here.  That middle panel on page 19 is great. It's a fantastic illustration of how manic Joshua is.  More excellent stuff by Adams and Giacoia.  As is the panel at the top of page 20.

"Huh! Take me to your cult leader. Huh! Huh! Take me to your local drug dealer."

"Yeowww! Take me to the man in the mirror when you stand and deliver with your hand on the trigger."

​Dave
Lantern is certainly taking a more mature role throughout this issue, even not wanting to use the full power of his ring.  But was it not deliberately dampened by the Guardians, or was that just for the last issue only.  Or perhaps part of the ongoing narrative that has been forgotten about.


Kev
No, I think you're right.  He has been depowered by the Guardians, the OA.  I think having him depowered helps him fit in this more grounded and realistic set of stories as well. 


Dave
This series is not short on action pieces throughout it.

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Kev
The bursts of action have been short, but they've been explosive, alright.  They're also placed very well within each issue.  They would have kept me reading this, even with the short attention span and thirst for action in comics I had as a kid.  “If he is dead, I--and the world--will have lost a great champion.”  Hal sees Ollie as a champion of beliefs now, beliefs that he is increasing coming to agree with, or at the very least, respect.  “I should’ve learned by now to trust Green Arrow’s hunches...”


Dave
Again Arrow get's suckered by a stray shot this time.  "the mob treading helplessly upon the still form of Green Arrow"....  It's the old buddy buddy tale of two guys learning to work together.  A trust is formed and so is their bond.


Kev
Yeh, I'm thoroughly enjoying the dynamic between Hal and Ollie.  Particularly as it's changing and evolving with each issue.


Dave
It seems that, while it is going well just now, there could easily be an explosive rift between the two of them.  It has that kind of slightly underlying volatility to their friendship.


Kev
Definitely.  They're chalk and cheese, alright.


Dave
Quite a risky move taken by Lantern as he is actually risking Arrow's life.


​Kev
He’s good at betting when other people are on the line is ol’ Hal, isn’t he?  Ha, ha!  Yeh, I love those last three panels on page 21.  They’re gorgeous, with more of that pulling focus technique.  It works so well in focusing us, as readers, on Dinah’s internal struggle.  And Hal gives her the time to struggle and the chance to break free from Joshua’s hypnotic control.  “I’ve got to gamble Green Arrow’s life against Black Canary’s soul!”

Story.

Telling.

Dave
But her will power overcomes Joshua's in the end.


Kev
Yeh.  I like how Joshua refers to Dinah as “my favourite.”  I bet he says that to all the new girls.


Dave
Even at the end, Arrow still wants to delve into the psychology of people, to try and understand what motivates them.


Kev
Yeh, it's interesting that both Ollie and Hal seem to be in agreement that there is a hatred and a prejudice that is inherent within us all.  It definitely ends on a bit more of a downbeat and bleak note, does this issue.  Certainly when compared to the more hopeful, upbeat ending of the previous one.


Dave
Then Arrow even questions Canary's responsiveness to Joshua.  He is quite an insightful man, ole Green Arrow.


Kev
Yeh, he certainly is.  Hypnotised you.  Sure he did Dinah.  Hypnotised.  But there must have been a part of you that wanted to be hypnotised.  Unfortunately, deep down, you are actually just a racist, bigot.  Ha, ha!


Dave
Haha, it's a bit of a put-down by Green Arrow, isn't it?  You're a racist bigot, and probably a bit of a tramp for wanting him too.  This is his insecure and jealous side emerging again.  Green Lantern is quite certain at the end that he is only the first of many to be like this.  Very true as well.

Kev
I suppose we're all faced with that choice.  Do we continue down the path of our prejudices and allow them to the point that they become solidified, or do we put the work in to unlearn them?  Hal is essentially responsible for taking Joshua’s life here.  O’Neil has been great at adding these little twists to these stories to keep them interesting.  Just when you think you know how they’re going to end, he’s been throwing you a little curve ball, just to catch you off guard.


Dave
It's kind-of good to end on a downbeat note, as really, this issue wasn't intended to have a happy ending, just a series of unanswered questions and self doubt.  Interesting point earlier about dealing with our own personal prejudices, it seems Lantern is more concerned about getting his hands on more of them.  I think he is glad Joshua is dead and probably wants to meet more of them who are like Joshua.


Kev
That hadn't occurred to me, but again, I think you're spot on about Hal.  There seems to be an element of him almost wanting a do-over, to see if he can get it right next time, not kill the crazed cult leader, and also get another chance at his own self-improvement.


​Dave
The final panel is a good picture.  Nice composition of Arrow and Canary walking away, and Lantern standing over a dead Joshua looking down on his handy work in a very relaxed pose.

Words to consider in 1970. Words to consider in 2020.

Kev
Relaxed or maybe deflated, do you think?


Dave
I'd say more at ease really.  He seems quite reflective this issue, does Green Lantern.


Kev
Yeh, his beautiful country is proving to have troubles in all its little nooks and crannies.


Dave
True indeed.


Kev
Y'know what?  On my initial read, I didn't enjoy this issue as much as the previous two, but having discussed it with you here, it's gone up in my estimation.  It's all wrapped-up a bit quick.  I suppose that's something we've discussed before with these older comics, them having a more of a compressed narrative, but I can't help but feel that, perhaps if the ending had been given just a bit more room to breathe, a bit more real estate on the page, it may have had more resonance.  But other than that minor quibble, I thought this was another very good issue.


​Dave
​Yeah, it wasn't quite as good as the other two, but still had some decent parts to it, and as I said, the strange narrative certainly stands out, as does the over use of the lingo of the time.  But all in all, it's still quite a good issue.  The rapport between Green Lantern and Green Arrow is really keeping me interested to see how it turns out.  There is a really strong dynamic going on there, and all credit to Denny O'Neil for that.

(D) & (K)

​Next: 'Ulysses Star Is Still Alive.'