Green Lantern #76 April 1970
Until recently I had absolutely no knowledge of the character of the Green Lantern. Well, I knew he had some sort of power ring and that he dressed in green, but beyond that nothing. I wasn't even sure if he was a Marvel or a DC character.
To be honest, superheroes have never really been my thing. For me Batman was originally the 60's TV series which I loved as a kid and still enjoy now, probably for all the reasons die-hard Batman fans dislike it. I did read quite a lot of 'dark' Batman comics in the 80's and 90's -- DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, YEAR ONE, THE KILLING JOKE, ARKHAM ASYLUM, which of course were all great. I persevered with those that came in their wake and tried out a few other superhero titles, but I've really always struggled with the genre. I'm far happier reading series that subvert or dismantle the whole superhero thing -- I'm thinking of WATCHMEN, HITMAN and THE BOYS. This frame from Pat Mills' and Kevin O'Neill's MARSHAL LAW sums it up really--
In fact, now I think about it, the first superhero comic I read was probably MARVELMAN aka MIRACLEMAN in the 1980s British anthology comic WARRIOR in which Alan Moore first deconstructed the genre. If you know the story, then you'll understand the significance of this single frame, drawn by Alan Davis--
But having decided to catch up with the comics being published in the Summer of 1970 (or thereabouts), I chanced upon recommendations for the Denny O'Neil scripted Green Lantern story arc which teams the character with another superhero, Green Arrow (who I also had never previously known anything about, in fact I kind of assumed they were the same character)--
Doing a little bit of background research I learned that this arc has quite a reputation for taking on quite challenging topics, which really piqued my interest. So, I approached GREEN LANTERN #76 with an open mind.
I'm very glad that I did.
Because just a few pages in I was arrested by the passion with which writer Denny O'Neil sets out his feelings. OK, so there's nothing subtle about having a central character mouth the political sensibilities of its author. So what? The theme of this story is social injustice, and considering how much the mainstream media upholds an unjust status quo, I applaud the writer's decision to use the comic to present an alternative point of view to its young readership.
In fact I was arrested by the very first page. I was visually presented with exactly what I'd expect to see in this comic -- the masked superhero, clad in green, his special ring aglow, soaring through a city over the busy traffic. But the captions imply this story is going to defy expectations -- I read that Green Lantern is a proud man who has 'never doubted the righteousness of his cause' but that his 'grandeur' is about to end, being replaced by 'a long torment'. OK, I'm happy to go along with that. I know enough about story-telling to understand that heroes go through testing ordeals, but they usually come out all right in the end. Superheroes especially, like princesses in fairy stories, are almost guaranteed a happy ending. But then the next caption causes me to pause -- 'There will be no happy ending,' I read, 'for this is not a happy tale... nor a simple one.' And at this point I'm hooked. But there's more. I read that Green Lantern has often vowed to defeat evil, but that 'he has been fooling himself'.
Over the next couple of pages Green Lantern intervenes in what appears to him to be a disrespectful assault on an old man by a young hoodlum cheered on by a number of onlookers who then start pelting him with garbage.
When another superhero, Green Arrow appears, he appears to disagree with Lantern's view that these people are "anarchists" behaving "like animals". He humorously suggests Lantern back off and "Go chase a mad scientist or something" and claims he was tempted to throw a can at him himself. In response to Lantern's claim that these people are breaking the law, Arrow responds by taking him on a "guided tour" of the run-down tenement building from which the hurled garbage came.
"A look at how the other half lives," Green Arrow says, suggesting that Green Lantern is not used to the sight of poverty and suffering he is now witnessing. Neal Adams effectively portrays the uncared for building and equally uncared for residents of it. There are lots of black faces, across whose faces the pain and hardship of social inequality is blatant. Green Lantern lays the systemic injustice on thick -- he points out an elderly woman whose only means of support is the young man Green Arrow has arrested and sent to the Police HQ. He gets angry when Arrow asserts that the man was a law-breaker, highlighting the fact that the guy acted out of frustration against the 'fat cat landlord who owns this dump' and who puts profit before the safety and well-being of the tenants.
Green Arrow suggests that for Green Arrow being a superhero is an enjoyable game which he does as much to benefit his own ego as anything else. When Lantern stresses he's just doing his job, Arrow angrily makes the comparison with the excuse given by the Nazis on trial for war crimes at Nuremberg. Modern comics that deconstruct the superhero myth commonly make the association with Nazism (see panel below for Pat Mills' take in MARSHALL LAW for instance), but it was a revelation to me to see the comparison here in this comic.
OK, so much of what we've been subjected to in GREEN LANTERN #76 so far seems little more than a doctrinal tract, but considering the context of a kids' 15c superhero comic, it packs quite a wallop. It's unlikely that a parent or grandparent picking up a copy from a spinner in 1970 would been aware of the overt left-wing anti-establishment content they were about to place into their offspring's hands. It's quite likely some of them would have objected quite strongly to the sentiments voiced by the character dressed like Robin Hood. Yes, comics and other stories aimed at children often tell the story of the underdog, present justice and fair play as noble and correct, and often present wealthy powerful characters as greedy, cruel or corrupt. But the twist here is to present Green Lantern as naive because he has swooped in to protect the greedy, cruel, corrupt landlord. And he does so because he is himself upholding the unjust status quo.
The three panels that make up the half-sized page 6 provide the real moment of truth. Green Lantern is confronted by an elderly black man who renders him speechless with his directness--
It's a turning point for Green Lantern, and any young readers confused by the way their hero has been so severely reprimanded by his supposed friend, will now find the moment when he realises his own error of judgement, his own vulnerability.
Green Lantern, it seems, is guilty of what writer Charles Dickens termed 'telescopic philanthropy' -- extending much need help and support for those in need who live far away, but completely ignoring the suffering and needs of those closest to him. Towards the end of the story Green Arrow challenges him, yelling, "You call yourself a hero! Chum... you don't even qualify as a man!" He calls him a "puppet" whose strings are pulled by the alien Guardians who have given him his powers and whose orders he seems to follow without question. Arrow is drawn with the images of the murdered Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy behind him, protesting that good men have died because "some hideous moral cancer" is present in America.
The Guardians in this story are presented as unempathetic and controlling. They are furious that Green Lantern is no longer obeying them and send him on a wild goose chase to reassert their authority. It is easy to draw the comparison between them and wealthy politicians who act to protect themselves and others like them, intolerant of and punishing any insubordination. They even contend that the uncaring landlord, Jubal Slade, "has committed no crime", unsympathetic themselves towards the tenants who are facing eviction. Like the bribed politician they turn a blind eye to the lawyer-invoking landlord who can use his wealth to exploit legal loopholes and always secure his own greedy ends.
To reinforce the comparison, Green Arrow accuses them of seeing people merely as statistics, urging them to feel some empathy, prompting them to make a surprising decision.
And so the pair of jaded superheroes set out, accompanied by one of the Guardians as an observer, to search for the goodness in the country.
Of course there's the story of how Green Lantern brings justice to the fat-cat landlord in between all of this, finding out on the way the veracity of Green Arrow's claims about him. But the core to this story is the way it is setting up what is to come. Unfortunately I have read a few spoilers in researching this story arc, but if anything it has only whet my appetite further to join Green Lantern and Green Arrow's journey of discovery as they head out in their truck across the USA.
My thoughts on other GREEN LANTERN issues can be found by clicking on the images below--
GL/GA does have a high reputation among many fans; it also has its share of detractors (and has since it was first published, to be honest), who find it to be too "preachy" and heavy-handed. I'm definitely in the former group, so I'm very gratified to find that a new reader such as yourself can still come to this work with an open mind, and find it worthwhile. Thanks for letting me know about your blog, Andrew!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you came here, Alan! And thank you for your comments. I agree that it's preachy and heavy-handed but that doesn't stop me liking it, as I hope I've set out above. I tend to like a lot of things that lack subtlety-- horror movies, heavy rock music, comics... so it's never been a problem for me. I'll be sharing my experience of reading the subsequent issues very soon. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on them.
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