Green Lantern/Green Arrow by Denny O' Neil & Mike Grell 1 Hardcover – July 21, 2020

I really enjoyed this book, it's a nice slice of mid-70s DC, an era I haven't read a lot of. The art is generally good, not as good as Neal Adams was on the more well-known Green Lantern/Green Arrow issues, but Mike Grell does a good job. The writing is where this series falls down, and at least some of that is due to the mismatch in power levels between Green Arrow, who is only human with incredible archery skills and trick arrows, and the cosmically powered Green Lantern. Any threat that challenges GL is obviously going to be too much for GA, and so the stories often have to find a way to split the plot so each main character can tackle a challenge, or else Green Lantern has to be incapacitated in some way so Green Arrow isn't overshadowed. The "social issues" that the O'Neil/Adams series is known for are mostly absent here, though not entirely.I'm glad to see this material collected, and I'd like to read more. I hope further collections are forthcoming.

The Green Lantern/Green Arrow run by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams is legendary enough that it got its own Deluxe Edition as well as an Absolute Edition. When Denny O’Neil came over to DC, he decided to add a little left-wing politics into his writing, and I don’t necessarily have an issue with that. He gave Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen some personalities including making Jordan a fascist and Queen became a jackass. According to O’Neil, Oliver Queen is intended to be a reflection of himself, so I guess that says something about O’Neil. The intention was to inject some serious social commentary into the stories and I guess in the long run it was a success, due to the stories still getting recognized today, but I can assume that they were a failure at the time since O’Neil abandoned the idea and switched to more run of the mill stories.It would have been nice if Space Traveling Heroes were the same physical dimensions as the Deluxe Edition Hard Traveling Heroes, so the two could look nice together on a shelf, but I guess DC saw this as an inferior effort. The big change is that Neal Adams has been replaced by Mike Grell, who was a perfectly fine replacement. Later, the penciling switches to Alex Saviuk, who is really unimpressive. Someone not paying attention might not even notice the change to Grell, but Adams was definitely the superior artist. O’Neil had mostly abandoned the social commentary but that was what gave the early stories their distinctiveness even if it was horribly executed. Apparently, O’Neil got some national exposure after his story about Speedy having a drug problem and the attention went to his head so badly that O’Neil saw his marriage and friendships badly erode and an implication that he might have developed his own substance abuse problem to which I say, what the hell was his problem? The Speedy story was a bold idea and the covers were iconic, but if you actually read the story it’s pretty bad.With all due respect to the recently departed, I’ve never thought much of Dennis O’Neil’s writing. He tried to bring some social awareness to racism even as he continued to use the offensive nickname of ‘Pieface’ for Thomas Kalmaku. Green Arrow is written as a terrible sexist. At one point, Black Canary offers assistance in a mission and GA says, “From you… NO! I… I need a reason to survive.” So, the extremely talented and experienced Black Canary should remain at home so that she can be Green Arrow’s inspiration to come back alive. O’Neil wrote him as a sexist here, but also when he wrote the Justice League comics and I really don’t think it was intentional. Arrow is extremely aggressive and quick to violence. He comes off as less of a leftist and more of a parody of a leftist by someone who hates the left.O’Neil also makes some weird writing decisions that sabotage himself. There is a three part story where GA is blackmailed into assassinating the president of the United States. The story isn’t bad, but O’Neil chose to give the villain the absurd name of Colonel Krisp. Was this an inside joke? A play on Captain Crunch? Either way, the character is played completely straight but I never could take him seriously. There is also one of the most hilariously absurd bits of exposition I have ever seen. When Green Lantern and Green Arrow show up just in the nick of time to save Katma Tui, Green Arrow calls their miraculous save a coincidence. Lantern reminds him that they had just gotten information about the vehicle from a Girl Scout they had questioned. Something which was never shown. That may be the most ham-handed exposition I have ever seen.I figure this collection exists solely because it fell on the heals of the inexplicably popular O’Neil/Adams run because these stories are absolutely forgettable. There are zero extras and minimal effort in presentation. O’Neil continued writing Green Lantern beyond what is presented here but if another volume comes out, I will definitely skip it. I’ve seen more than enough of Dennis O’Neil and Green Lantern/Green Arrow.

This is a great compilation of some of the best comic book art ever drawn. The volume is reprinted roughly the same size as the original comic books and on paper that is better than newsprint but will trigger memories of the originals. Printing on a newsprint-like paper is more in keeping with the original experience. The coloring seems to be original, or at least is in the spirit of the originals, which preserves the graphic quality of Neal Adams' work. I am glad the publishers didn't opt for a full-blown color revision in the style of contemporary comics. Part of the charm of that era were the techniques relevant to that era. It is probably just an aspect of nostalgia but I prefer the old graphic comics style better than the new, more painterly style (although there are notable exceptions).There are 174 pages which include seven stories with the original covers which function as chapter divisions. There is a five page introduction by Dennis O'Neil. It was fun to see the stories presented in a way that evoked the artistic spirit of the original comics. My only complaint is the art is occasionally too close to the gutter (for a perfect bound book).

This is a review of the 2020 HC release. It is the same price as the Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard Travelin' Heroes Deluxe Edition Hardcover – June 12, 2018 but that item is 7.4 x 1.1 x 11.2. a slight oversized format for hardcovers. This Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Space Traveling Heroes Hardcover – July 21, 2020 is the standard 6.9 x 0.9 x 10.6 inches. Vol 1 is larger than Vol. 2.

They're green color co-ordinated and you love them. Even though one can be taken out with a number two pencil because it's yellow and the other puts padded boxing gloves on his arrows so he won't hurt anyone. If you grew up reading this- here it is.

I will definitely be getting vol. 2. What else can I say?

AAA++

Love it

In 1970 the Green Lantern was going to be canceled, because he had become a little predictable and staid, especially compared to other superheroes at the time, such as spiderman who had already had stories involving drugs. So what DC did was team up conservative, law-abider Green Lantern with the vigilante Green Arrow and send them out on a series of adventures tackling a lot of social and moral problems. This volume contains the first story arc of 'hard-travelling heroes' in which the two drive across America in a camper van to see American life as it really is.The result is a fantastic comic. Dennis O'Neill's writing was strong and fast-paced, sometimes so much so that it's easy to zip through these comics without appreciating the finer details. Neil Adams art is typically vibrant and kinetic. This whole run has a really great energy to it, and is up there with the best of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in my opinion.I've read that people have sometimes found the social and moral issues here a little dated and simplistic, but to be fair, this is a comic, not a novel, lecture, or political manifesto. A great comic with great action and plots, made grittier and more realistic by the fact it's chosen backdrop was (and still is in many places) a true one.