Synopsis: Visiting Star City, Green Lantern sees a group of street toughs roughing up a well-off older man. He intervenes, but instead of cheering him, the whole neighborhood has a fit, pelting him with garbage. Green Arrow shows up, and sides with the crowd. He shows Green Lantern that the fat, older man who appeared to be the victim is really a slum lord who's evicting everyone from the rat-infested hovel he refuses to repair to build a parking lot. An elderly black man then walks up and askes Green Lantern, out of all the variously colored alien races he's helped out over the years, what's he ever done for black-skinned people. The question shakes Hal severely. Hal confronts the slum lord in his posh office, but the guy's contemptuous of the heroes. Hal loses his temper, and the Guardians intervene, summoning him to Oa for a severe dressing-down, as the slum lord hadn't violated any laws. Meanwhile, Green Arrow harrasses the slum lord, provoking him by hinting about knowing of illegal activities the slum lord was mixed up in. The result is a contract put out on Green Arrow. The assasins walk into Green Arrow's ambush that night, but a stray bullet destroys the tape recorder that held the evidence Green Arrow planned to use against the slum lord in court. Ollie vents his frustration to Hal, who's returned to Earth, and Green Lantern comes up with a plan. Back at the slum lord's office, one of the assasins walks in. When asked if the job was done, he plays dumb until the slum lord angrily demands if Green Arrow was dead like he'd ordered. Hal then shows that he'd been disguising himself using the power ring to provoke a confession. Green Arrow and the district attourney walk in from behind the door, where they'd heard everything. The slum lord pulls out a live grenade, but Green Lantern uses his power ring to fling it outside, where it explodes harmlessly. In the following epilogue, the Guardians berate Hal for acting on impulse in the matter, but Ollie blows a gasket, and jumps all over the little blue immortals. He complains that they don't understand reality, and that evil uses the rule of law to its own advantage, making innocents suffer. After some debate, the Guardians agree that this merits investigation, and send one of their own, disguised as a human, to accompany Ollie and Hal in a truck as they drive across America to see "reality."

Yeah, But Is It Good? Fantastic. There are still very few comics that are as relevant as this one still is, and it's, what? 30 years old? Good lord. Social relevance came to comic books with this issue, and elevated the medium to something far more important than it had been. Yeah, there's some hip 70s lingo and fashions that date it, but overall it's held up very well. And Neal Adams' art is superb.

Synopsis: Driving along in their pickup, the trio of Hal Jordan, Oliver Queen and the Guardian enter the mountain town of Desolation, population 819. They're ambushed and fired upon by snipers, so Hal and Ollie turn into Green Lantern and Green Arrow, and quickly take them down. The gunmen believe they're hired killers brought in by Slapper Soames, a tyrant who owns the town the mountain and the mine they all work in. One of the miners, Johnny, learned to play the guitar and started playing protest songs, so Soames' law enforcement goon squad dragged him off, held a mock trial, and sentenced him to hang. Ollie and Hal debate the morality of getting involved in the situation, and Hal's worried because his ring temporarily failed during the opening battle. The Guardian promises to look into it. The miners are riled, and are ready to attack Soames' HQ, which is a veritable fortress. Green Arrow tries to restrain them for their own good. Soams, meanwhile, gloats to Johnny, explaining that Johnny's going to hang not because he riled the miners, but because he's got talent, and if he'd ever sign a record deal, it'd focus media attention on Desolation, something Soames doesn't want. The miners attack, and the machine guns and barbed wire Soames has set up wreaks havoc on them. Green Lantern and Green Arrow are horrified, and join the miners to even the odds. Green Lantern, especially, is upset at Soames' tactics. He plans to terrify Soames' troops with the fact his ring automatically protects him from bullets, but at that moment the Guardian speaks to him telepathically, saying that while the Oans don't know why his ring failed earlier, they've decided to reduce it's potency while he's on the "see America leave of absence." The ring won't automatically protect him from harm anymore. Gee, thanks for telling me before I entered a warzone! Hal fights the bad guys bare-handed and wins -- until they use gas grenades. Meawhile in Soames' HQ, things clairify somewhat when one of the enforcers calls Soames "Führer." And the Guardian actually rescues a little girl from the teargas, and has emotions about it. Green Arrow leads a final assault on the compound, blowing the gates open with an explosive arrow. But they're pinned down by a machine gun, and while Green Arrow takes it out with a tough shot, he's konked on the head from behind. He's taken into the HQ, where the Nazi-types argue who gets to kills him, giving Ollie enough time to recover and then beat the crap outta them. Unfortunately, it's all for naught, as one of the miners attacks him. Turns out that one was on the take from Soames, and riled the miners just so Soames could crush them and break their spirit. The turncoat's about to execute Ollie when Hal shows up, power-rings the pistol. Johnny, the folk-singing miner, takes down Soames. All the bad guys are convicted of their crimes, and Hal cheers that the miners won, and justice came to desolation. Ollie dampens his spirits by pointing out that even though Soames is gone, all the miners have to look forward to is a continued hardscrabble life of poverty.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Yes, but considerably more uneven than the previous entry in the series. Methinks it'd have been more effective if instead of neo-Nazis running the miners into the ground, it had been an actual, legitimate corporation. Something Steinbeckian, ala Grapes of Wrath (a book I utterly loathe, by the way. I'm only suggesting use of the general setup, not the self-indulgent, mind-numbing overkill of symbolism). A miner's life is probably one of the most unforgiving ways to make a living, so for blue-collar subject matter, the choice is excellent. Already we can see Hal's perception starting to shift to the little guy's point-of-view, and the Guardian, too, is becoming more human. It's a shame they had to waste the character of "Old Timer," the most human of the Guardians, at the start of the third series. And the whole Nazi connection, built up in a couple of scenes during the battle, are never explained. Who were these goons? It's never explained, which is very frustrating.

Synopsis: On an isolated backroad, Black Canary, toolin' along on her motorcycle, encounters four members of the biker gang "The Demons." They get fresh, and she smacks them down severely until getting run down by a motorcycle and knocked out. The bikers flee, but a mysterious figure from the woods comes out and gets her. Two weeks later, Green Arrow, Green Lantern and the Guardian stop in a small indian reservation town to eat a meal of beans. The bikers show up and cause trouble. And get spanked. One tries to get away on Canary's stolen motorcycle, and Oliver freaks, and has to be restrained by Hal to keep from beating the biker to death. Green Lantern and Green Arrow fly to the scene of the fight, where they find a zombified Canary that is under the sway of a scrawny, buckskin-clad Charles Manson wannabe called Joshua. A kiss from Ollie, however, cracks Joshua's hold over her, so Joshua gives her a gun to "aid you in our great mission!" After punching out Hal, Ollie stumbles upon the cult's firing range. They start to shoot at Ollie, but Hal arrives in time to save him and disarm the cultists. Joshua takes Canary to where Ollie is recovering from a blow to the head and orders her to shoot him. She tries, can't bring herself to do it, and throws away the gun. Jushua grabs the gun to kill them both, but Hal captures him with his power ring.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Pretty heavy-handed with the racial overtones in the indian village, and the whole cult angle is grossly simplified. But it's still a good read. Unfortunately, Canary is once again reduced to being a simple plot device, a problem that's plagued her entire career. Neal Adams does a particularly good job with subtle facial expressions this issue, especially with the fight between Ollie and Hal. Although it's a serious story that holds up well overall, I can't help but snicker with the dated phrases that keep turning up in the dialog, such as the bikers calling Canary a "frail" and straight-laced Hal Jordan saying "She just doesn't dig you."

Synopsis: Green Arrow and Green Lantern rescue an indian from a pair of men intent on killing him. Turns out that the men claim the forest around the reservation, but the indians claim it was ceded to them by the U.S. government years before. Unfortunately, the treaty has been lost. Ollie and Hal have a big fight over the situation, then split up. Hal travels to Evergreen City to try and track down the last known descendent of the tribal chief that signed the treaty. He tracks Abe Star down, only to find the tenament building he lives in on fire. Hal rescues Abe, only to discover that a copy of the treaty burned in the fire. Back at the reservation, Black Canary is doing the whole social work bit to try and "get her head together." She suffers understandable guilt at having almost blown Ollie's head off in the previous issue. She also observes that what the tribe is lacking more than anything is pride and faith in itself, which Ollie thinks he can provide. That night, two white men sneak into the reservation melon patch to poach some melons. They're run off by a glowing yellow indian ghost calling itself the spirit of the great chief Ulysses Star. The bad logger-types are enraged by the ghost and are determined to cut down the forest the next day, while word of the ghost spreads through the tribe. The ghost appears to them and says what he is isn't important, what they make of themselves is. The next day, the tribe and Black Canary confront the loggers. A fight ensues. The yellow ghost shows up, as does Green Lantern and a Congressman, who's to investigate the conflicting claims to the forest. Yellow ghost and Green Lantern fight -- the power ring being useless against yellow -- and the ghost is revealed to be Surprise! Green Arrow. Before beating each other senseless, they manage to collapse a huge pile of logs on each other, which does knock them senseless. The onlookers rescue them before they drown. Later, as the heroes debate the merits of the justice system and congress, the ringleaders of the forest-stealing operation are arrested because an arsonist in Evergreen City implicates them in the tenament fire. So a skirmish is won, but the tribes problems remain.

Yeah, But Is It Good? I certainly like it. There's a good deal of ambiguity at the end -- their victory didn't improve the lives of the tribe, it only kept them from getting still worse. The yellow ghost schtick was cheesy, but then, it fits with the Oliver Queen character. And it's worth pointing out that not one of the characters in the story believed it was actually a ghost, a step up in intelligence from most supporting cast members in comics. It's also significant that pretty much the same issues are the driving force behind the Grell/Barr Brave and the Bold miniseries nearly two decades later, right down to the tribal conflict with loggers.

Synopsis: After a runaway semi runs them off a bridge into a coastal harbor, Green Arrow, Green Lantern and the Guardian are picked up by a passing ship carrying toxic waste to be disposed of properly. Unfortunately, a boiler explodes, injuring Hal. The Guardian, powers weakend from his long absence from Oa, can either save the ship or save Hal -- and opts to save Hal. Ollie and the crew throw most of the barrels of toxic waste overboard since it's explosive, then bring the fire under control. Ollie's furious at all the environmental damage done, and even madder at the industries that produced the toxic waste in the first place. When Hal leaves the hospital, the Guardians of the Universe call the earthbound Guardian on the carpet for choosing Hal over the ship. They're sent to the judicial satellite of Gallo, with Ollie and Hal accompanying the Guardian as witnesses. Oliver immediate fights a robot guard (and loses) and before long they realize there's something terribly wrong. Instead of a tribunal, there's one power-mad judge, and the jury is a bunch of malfunctioning robots. They're silenced, stripped of their weapons, and sentenced to death. Thrown into cells, the trio discover the natives of Gallo -- the tribunal -- held prisoners as well, and learn that the "judge" was the master mechanic, not quite insane. Ollie improvises a bow, and tipped with an explosive arrowhead he smuggled past security, destroys the guard robot. They retrieve their weapons and fight their way to the execution chamber in time to save the Guardian.

Yeah, But Is It Good? More lightweight than some of the previous issues in this series, it nevertheless brings a critical eye to bear on the judicial system. Much more action-packed as well, it is a forerunner of the revival of the series some four years later, when almost ever issue had the Emerald Gladiators fighting some sort of evil robots.

Synopsis: Returning to Oa from the disastrous trial at Gallo, our intrepid heroes are not greeted warmly by the Guardians. They grill Old Timer mercilessly, and then strip him of his immortality despite the protests of Green Arrow, Black Canary and Green Lantern. Hal is so put out that he almost resigns. They're all sent with Old Timer to Malthus, the 10-billion-year-old homeworld of the Guardians. They arrive at Malthus amid a huge crowd of people, who immediately attack, trying to kill Black Canary. The heroes flee, but find enormous mobs of people everywhere. They consult with the Malthusian archives, and discover the horrible truth. Year before, Malthus passed through a cloud of cosmic dust that rendered everyone sterile. A cloning operation was set up to replace the population, recombining the DNA of Malthusians to create new citizens, which were then artificially aged and given synthetic memories. This was the brainstorm of Mother Juna. The clones were produced faster than the older generation was dying off, however, and abruptly the older generation regained fertility, so now newborns were being added to the population as well. Faster than you can say Soylent Green, Malthus was overrun. They tour the planet, and see the squalor the population lives in because of scant resources. They head to Mother Juna's clone factory, intent on putting it out of business. Since the building is yellow, Green Arrow enlists Black Canary in a Vegas-style thrill act featuring trick arrow shots and pyrotechnics in the square outside the factory, creating a distraction that allows Green Lantern to sneak in. Old Timer, Ollie and Dinah then join Hal, only to find the entire insides of the factory are yellow as well. A giant yellow monster attacks and beats the crap outta Ollie and Hal, but Dinah cleans his clock. Mother Juna, enraged, arrives with two more giants in tow, and attacks the heroes. They flee to another section of the factory where everything isn't yellow, and while Hal and Ollie take out the goons, Dinah pummels Mother Juna. The clone factory defense breached, hordes of people pour in from outside, destroying the facility. The heroes spirit Mother Juna away, and confront her. She breaks down, crying that she'd never recovered from the cosmic dust infertility. Since she believed motherhood was the only measure of a woman's worth, she was driven to continue producing "offspring." The admission distrubs Black Canary. Old Timer then announces he will stay on Malthus with Juna and attempt to rebuild the shattered society -- mortality no longer bothers him.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Despite the relevancy of the over-population crisis, this story is surprisingly irrelevant. Yes, some serious issues are broached -- over-consumption of resources and a planet's inability to sustain an infinitely growing population. But these brush strokes are so broad that it's like saying "Skunks smell bad" or "Beating old ladies is bad." Duh. By having the overpopulation crisis on Malthus be the result of a cloning factory gone mad, Denny avoids all the real issues of overpopulation: religious opposition to birth control, poverty, ignorance, second-class citizenship of women and cultural bias. He did touch on one very poignant aspect of the debate with Mother Juna, however -- society's relentless message that women are somehow failures if they don't act as breeders. Black Canary's reaction of sympathy and distress is particularly interesting in light of her own difficulties in bearing children due to the injuries she suffered in The Longbow Hunters. Another quibble, if I may (and since it's my site, I may) is the stated age of Malthus being 10 billion years. Nevermind the fact thatit would take tremendous engineering efforts to render a 10-billion-year-old Earthlike planet habitable (the core would've long since cooled, ending plate tectonics and allowing oceans to convert all carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in to carbonates robbing the atmosphere of a needed greenhouse gas and prompting an unending ice age) but in 10 billion years the planet's star would have burned itself out, necessitating a move of the planet to a new solar system (so why not just abandon the planet for another orbiting a younger star?). True, red dwarf stars can last hundreds of billions of years, but their energy output is so weak that it's doubtful life could evolve around one, even given a suitable planet. And why the heck is it that the immortal Guardians of the Universe evolved here, yet the entire population looks like they were lifted out of Times Square? Heck, they're not even blue, and look nothing like the Guardians, but rather people. Is Denny saying that in 10 billion years the descendants of the Guardians will evolve (devolve?) into humans? It makes no logical sense, and really, I don't think Denny or Neal gave it so much as half a thought.

Synopsis: Green Arrow stops by Dinah Lance's home to give her some flowers despite their agreement to "Stay away from each other until you got your head together." As Dinah opens the box of roses, however, a flock of mythical harpies -- winged and taloned women -- fly out and attack. Ollie fires a tear-gas arrow in the house, and the harpies beat the fumes back at the heroes. Ollie and Dinah flee outside, where Dinah rips him a new one for being so dumb to fire a gas arrow inside an enclosed space. They look inside only to discover the harpies have disappeared. Ollie telegrams Hal, and as Green Lantern flies to Star City, he encounters the harpies. He follows them to an apartment building, where the red-skinned Witch Queen imprisons him inside a scarlet crystal which emits yellow energy. Ollie and Dinah get antsy waiting for the overdue Green Lantern, and Ollie discovers a red crystal in the rose box. They hop onto Canary's motorcycle and head to the florist where Ollie picked up the roses. There a trio of Amazon warriors (not of the Wonder Woman variety) attack, and beat up Ollie only to be thrashed by Canary. The Amazons beg Canary to join them in an ancient crusade against men. Eons before, a hideous wizard dispelled the Amazons and harpies to another plane when their queen rejected his marriage proposal. The Witch Queen has given them crystals which allows them to cross back into this world in order to seek revenge against men. Green Arrow is dubious, and the Amazons vow to take him to the Witch Queen to prove their story. The Witch Queen, meanwhile, is talking to her "brother" who orchestrated the plot in order to capture Green Lantern -- the nefarious Sinestro. His ring had been hidden in the sceptre beneath the red crystal. Sinestro is retrieving his ring when Green Arrow busts in, snaring the ring from Sinestro's grip with a well-placed arrow. Canary takes down the Witch Queen. Canary has to go into the crystal to rescue Hal, since that plane of existance can only hold one male at a time. The harpies had captured Hal, and taken him to Medusa where he was about to be executed, when Canary arrives and rescues him, and Hal and Canary use Sinestro's captured ring to return to the real world.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Great art, especially Neal's Medusa head. man, that thing is creepy. Unfortunately, this issue has more in common with the later ones in the series which were less topical and more action-adventure. Denny tries to work in women's rights and sexual discrimination themes here (it's bad for men to mistreat women, it's not nice for women to kill men) but it's really disjointed and doesn't hold together. Pretty much a mis-mash with no great direction. Canary is used well, however, and for once doesn't fill the damsel-in-distress role. The issue is fun, don't get me wrong, but somewhat weaker on substance than previous ones had been.

Synopsis: One month ago, a woman bumps into a pudgy Vincent Price look-alike. "Grandy" gets mad at the woman, and has the little pre-adolescent girl he's with -- Sybil, naturally enough -- who's obviouly a refugee from that Bill Mumy Twilight Zone episode to cripple her (the little girl's eyes glow, that's how you can tell). Fast forward, and we have Dinah, Hal and Ollie driving up to the Meadowhill School. Dinah's been feeling useless the past few months, and has volunteered to teach the children at the school (physical education, naturally. Somehow I didn't think Dinah's qualified to educate the lil' nippers on 16th Century French poets). Of course, they don't even reach the school building when a sense of dread befalls Dinah. Taking the cue, Hal and Ollie switch to their hero identies (not even ducking into a phone booth. Really working hard to protect that secret identity, right guys?). A flock of birds right out of Hitchcock attack, but Ollie runs them off with a sub-sonic arrow. Then a big tree branch falls on Ollie, but Green Lantern snares it with his ring before injury occurs. They discuss the Hitchcockian weirdness heading on up to the school, and they're greeted by Grandy at the door -- the cook. Jason Belmore, the owner of the school, arrives and expresses his disapproval of costumed heroes, especially Green Lantern. Hal and Ollie leave, and Grandy tells Sybil that Green Arrow and Green Lantern are bad and must be made sorry, while Belmore cowers in fear. Hal and Ollie encounter the woman from the month before who is now crippled and in a wheelchair. Not only that, but her name is Carol Ferris! Oh, yes, and her fiance is Jason Belmore. How's that for plot twists? They drive off, but the steering wheel comes off in Ollie's hands and they plunge off a cliff to certain death, only Hal saves them with his ring. It starts to rain, and they take shelter in an abandoned barn. Hal confesses he is no longer confident in his ring's power, or in serving the Guardians. Dinah is unnerved by her first class, since the kids all act like zombies. She runs afoul of Grandy, who promises to punish her. Dinah goes to her room and changes into Black Canary. Unfortunately, she gets zapped by Sybil before learning anything. Her secret identity is discovered and thrown into a basement cell. Grandy explains he demands order, can't stand chaos. He discovered Sybil wandering through the woods, and as she has the power to control things, he uses her to impose strict order on the school. Grandy shatters a huge wasp nets in teh basement, then locks Dinah in with the furious insects. She covers her head with her wig to protect her face. Hal and Ollie arrive, and Belmore finds then and tries to lead them to Canary. But they're discovered, and Grandy makes the children attack. While they're protecting themselves from the children''s attack, Sybil zaps them good. It looks like they're goners, but Dinah's stings overcome her self-restraint and she screams her "canary cry." That incites Ollie, who finds the strength to grab his bow and fire a vortex arrow (dazzling light and sound) which stuns Grandy and disorients Sybil. They rescue Canary just in time, but Grandy confronts them with Sybil, and orders her to hurt the heroes. Sybil won't -- doesn't want to hurt people anymore. Grandy smacks her severely for disobedience, and orders her to make them sorry. Instead, Sybil brings the house down, killing herself and wicked Grandy. Later, sorting through the emotional wreckage, Green Lantern goes over to still-crippled Carol Ferris and reveals that he's Hal Jordan, her former test pilot. he also says he loves her, and picks her up and walks off with his longtime love. A pair of little girl feet stand in the background, watching them go.. so little Sybil might not be dead, after all.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Now this one was really cool. And very creepy. As befitting the horror-movie motif, this had more of the tone of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. Again, the relevance of this issue was painted in pretty broad strokes -- don't be mean to kids, and people who are bad to them will eventually have it boomerang. Also, school is supposed to be an enlightening, glorious experience that challenges and expands the mind, but all too often rules and rigid structure interferes to deaden young minds and sour them on knowledge and life. Simple, yes, but well-handled. This is an excellent issue.

Synopsis: Oliver Queen catches his ward, Roy Harper, shooting up on heroin and explodes in fury, smacking Roy around before throwing him out. Roy's defiant, and Ollie's conscience nags at him, wondering if it's partly his fault since he's devoted more time to heroing than parenting. Of course, Ollie's natural born ego kicks in and denies any blame. Itching to kick butt, Ollie storms off to the hidden drugrunner airfield from issue no. 85. While he's gone, two of Roy's druggie pals sneak into Ollie's apartment looking for Roy, then decide to get high while they wait. One ODs. Hal Jordan is also troubled by Roy's odd behavior from the previous issue, and flies to Ollie's apartment, where he finds the dead druggie. Worried now, he flies off in search of Roy and Ollie. At the airfield, Oliver's discovered by a guard, but even with a broken arm is able to subdue him and learn that the drug lord lives on a boat at a nearby marina. Of course, it's a setup. Hal finds Roy delerious in an alley, and takes him to Dinah's. Roy explains that he didn't intend to get hooked, that he brushed off warnings because "Your generation has been known to lie, dig it? You've told us war is fun.. skin-color is important.." At the marina, Ollie succeeds in getting the crap beat out of him and thrown into the ocean, chained to an anchor. He escapes drowning by using an acetylene arrow, surfacing just as Green Lantern arrives and takes out the thugs that threw Ollie into the drink. It turns out the drug lord is the rich head of Hooper Pharmaceuticals, who's using his legitamate business to produce illegal drugs. The Emerald Gladiators confront Hooper at his labs, and Hal gets so mad he throws Ollie his ring and beats up the drug lord bare-fisted. A few days later at the funeral of the druggie that died in Ollie's apartment, Roy confronts Oliver. He's kicked his habit himself, went through the horror of withdrawls with Dinah and was rescued from the alley by Hal -- friends who helped when Oliver threw him out. Roy punches out Ollie and pretty much rips him a new one, but leaves his father-figure crying tears of pride "as his boy becomes a man."

Yeah, But Is It Good? Well, some of the terminally hip lingo is tough to swallow, but this could very well be one of the top five comics stories of all time. Sure, Roy's going cold turkey is a little easy, considering that heroin is one of the most addictive drugs on the planet. But it works. Neal Adams' artwork is superb, and the trippy, psychedelic overdose scene is totally groovy, dig? Even the superhero butt-kicking scenes tie in well with the rest of the story, the socially relevant parts, which isn't always the case. I mean, really, it's hard to put into words how very, very good this story is. Marvel beat DC to the punch with the "drug issue" over in Spiderman, when they had a pill-popper step off a high rise building to his death. Milestone tho it was, that was a very.. clean drug story. No long-term consequences, and popping pills is a relatively nice way of being an addict. The Green Lantern/Green Arrow story is much, much darker. It's ugly. Heroin is a nasty, graphic drug that needs needles to be injected. It wasn't some no-name guest character that died at the end who got hooked -- it was Roy Harper, the hero Speedy, co-founder of the Teen Titans -- who got hooked and has to live with the problem the rest of his life. Yeah, this one is one of the best.

Synopsis: Star City Mayor Jack Major is thinking of retiring. He doesn't want to serve another four years -- he'd rather be a full time grandfather. The crooked opposition can beat any candidate Major's party could run, but Major thinks Oliver Queen could win -- pointing out that Queen ran a charitable foundation before he went broke, and even raised an orphan himself. In a railyard, Oliver uses a net-arrow to save a boy's dog from being hit by a train, and then goes home depressed, since he realizes that the boy was there in the first place because he has no other place to play. That's not something Green Arrow can fix. Once home, his phone rings with the Mayor's offer. Intrigued, Ollie calls Dinah Lance, Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan and Clark Kent for their opinions, and gets a unanimous "Don't even think about it!" Frustrated, he suits up as Green Arrow, resigned to the fact that the idea was foolish on his part. He stumbles into some kind of race riot in the streets, and as he's trying to calm things down, he's konked on the head. A young black boy rescues him. As he's talking with a boy, the child's hit by a stray gunshot. He rushes the boy to an ambulance, but the doctors aren't able to save him. Disturbed and rattled, crying and quoting A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway in his head, Oliver stumbles into Dinah's apartment and announces that he's going to run for mayor, to try and make a difference.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Another very, very good Green Arrow story, better than the main Green Lantern tale contained in the issue. There's a strong resonance here that shows social justice and heroes can interact in fascinating, intriguing ways without having costumed super-villains show up by page three for a massive brawl. The writing is very smooth and natural, probably one of Maggin's best efforts. What can I say? This is one of the "Must Haves" on the ultimate Green Arrow checklist.

Synopsis: Green Lantern is given a new and improved power ring on Oa, and in a conversation with a Mr. Spock-like Vulcan GL, comments that the Corps was probably once very different -- but that's nothing he worries about, and flies back to Earth. In the Nevada desert, Green Lantern and Green Arrow sit around in the shade of a big umbrella, sipping sodas while guarding an alien space ship recently unearthed by an underground nuclear test. The ship abruptly pops open, and a red alien chased by three blue aliens emerges, calling for help. The heroes take down the blue guys, and the red alien shrinks down and enters the stone in Hal's ring, asking to be taken off-planet. The alien leads Hal to a giant cave of solid gold inside Callisto, Jupiter's moon. While Hal's recharging his ring, the alien attacks and subdues Hal, stealing his power battery. Back on Earth, the captured blue aliens explain that they chased the red alien to Earth 4,000 years before. The red alien tried to use as stolen, prototype power battery against them, but it reacted with their ray guns and locked them in stasis until the nuclear test awakened them. They are predecessors of the modern Green Lantern Corps. The red alien returns and defeats Ollie. Back on Callisto, Hal had managed to set up a homing beacon before entering the cave, and uses his remaining power to fly out and back to Earth. He reaches the desert right as the power in his ring expires, but while the red alien is blasting Green Arrow with repeated shots from the stun ray gun, Hal recharges his ring with the unguarded power battery. He then captures the red alien, dusts off the old spaceship, and the blue guys take the criminal back to Oa.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Even for action-adventure it's not very well thought out, nevermind comparing it to the groundbreaking issues that preceeded this story. What's up with the alien shrinking into the ring? How did the blue aliens know they were the Green Lantern Corps' forerunners if they were trapped in time stasis for the last 4,000 years? How did the red alien know where to find a solid gold cave on Callisto? Ugh. The yellow weakness was a neat handicap for the power rings, but writers did so many stupid things with it. Mike Grell does the cover art and interiors (the cover trumpets the "Return of the Greatest Comic of them all!") but his style is somewhat stiff and rigid, not nearly as cool as it was by the time Longbow Hunters came around.

Synopsis: Green Lantern Hal Jordan is disoriented after being teleported to Earth from Oa unexpectedly while battling a chaos-causing monster. Green Arrow and Black Canary tell him that Green Lantern Katma Tui, who they'd been taking to the hospital earlier, is missing after the group tangled with some kidnappers. Abruptly, Dinah's dead husband Larry Lance appears and she rushes to him. It's obviously not real. Hal is zombie-like, and Ollie's arrows vaporize when they touch Larry. Dinah's still fighting to reach the deadly figure, her mind held in thrall, and finally Ollie has to knock Dinah out to keep her from touching the ghostly form. Larry then morphs into Ffa'rzz, the chaos monster. Ollie's bow is destroyed before Hal enters the fray and saves Ollie and Dinah, but Ffa'rzz escapes. Dinah, distressed about Larry, stays behind as Hal and Ollie search for Katma. Meanwhile, terrorists, the Musto family, discover Katma and capture her to hold for ransom (as her ring's charge has expired). Katma forces the car off a bridge by grabbing the steering wheel, and Hal and Ollie arrive in time to save the car from crashing and capture the terrorists. Ffa'rzz then attacks, and Hal fights him off, but the terrorists escape. Ollie has Hal destroy the terrorists' car, because he's figured out that the chaos monster attacks though electrical circuitry, manifesting only where Green Lanterns are present. The Lanterns recharge their rings (Katma's oath is silent, and she smiles like she's got a secret) and then the trio fly to Oa to investigate a spaceship that entered orbit right before Ffa'rzz attacked the Guardians. This time Ffa'rzz attacks in the guise of Black Canary, confusing Green Arrow, but quickly changes into a golden eagle to press the attack. Their rings usless directly against the yellow monster, Oliver shoots an arrow at the beast and the Lanterns juice the arrow with ring energy, swelling it to enormous size, harpooning the monster. With Ffa'rzz temporarily out of commission, they investigate the giant ship orbiting Oa. Katma reads an inscription that says they are "On the edge of the ultimate ending."

Yeah, But Is It Good? It's a fun, breakneck jaunt, as long as you don't worry too much about logic. Ffa'rzz forming the image of Larry Lance could have been a prime opportunity for major character building on Black Canary's part, but as it is, it only serves to have her sit out the rest of the adventure. And why does the chaos monster even take the forms of people? That's never even explained, and as it stands, is a cheap plot device that serves no function. Katma walks around like a mute zombie much of the time, then inexplicably begins talking, then becomes a mute idiot again. Seriously, Denny doesn't do women in his comics very well at all. And that stupid, worthless "Itty" -- Hal Jordan's space starfish pet -- gives me a rash. The idea for a completely non-interactive character has got to be the worst inspiration in the history of comics, right after killing off Oliver Queen.

Synopsis: Just before the trio plan to enter the giant spacecraft, Green Arrow loses his temper and gives Hal's little space starfish Itty a good smack, sending it flying. His rage growing, Ollie attacks Hal and Katma as well before they subdue him with their rings. Hal creates a boxing ring, and for the next few pages we're treated to the spectacle of Ollie and Hal beating the crap outta each other. Anyway, back at Carol Ferris' mansion, Black Canary is working out when a sweaty trucker comes up and cops a feel. She proceeds to beat the crap outta him. The trucker leaves the big rig, which is apparently for Hal, who's about to embark on a new career (like, his 27th since being introduced as a test pilot years before). Hal and Ollie finish fighting and then go into the spaceship with Katma. A killer light bulb captures the heroes, and when the power rings prove useless, Ollie destroys it by shooting it with an arrow. They find Ffa'rzz's lair (now referring to the chaos monster as "The Mocker") which is a surreal distortion of American icons and creatures. Ollie announces the Mocker is hiding in Itty. Unfortunately, he doesn't smack the starfish again. The Mocker takes form, and looks a lot like a Durlan, but isn't. The heroes fight him, but are easily defeated. Gloating over his captured prisoners, the Mocker explains that he's from an advanced, peaceful world that was destroyed by a plague, so, embittered, he's cruising the galaxy sowing discord. Abruptly, Hal Jordan shows up -- he'd created a ring duplicate of himself when he and Ollie "fought" and was only waiting for teh Mocker to tip his hand. Mocker is easily captured and Katma takes him to Oa while Ollie and Hal go home.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Absolutely. This issue is worth it just for the panel in which Ollie knocks the snot out of that cutesy Itty, but good! Too bad there were weren't any Ewoks around for Ollie to pummel while he was at it! Apart from that, the whole "Highly advanced weapons from godlike spacefaring societies are always vulnerable to simple arrows" schtick is as old in 1977 as it was in 1998 when Connor did the exact same thing in that stupid "Like A God" story from Green Arrow 135. And man, after all the power the Mocker showed early on, he was really captured without much fuss at the end. I mean, geeze, he didn't even struggle, or call the Lanterns bad names. What a wuss.

Synopsis: Roy Harper's band, Great Frog, is giving a concert outside of South End High School in Star City when a bomb explodes near the stage. Meanwhile, Oliver Queen gets a phone call from the Mayor, who's offering him a big job. Before he goes into more detail, word reaches everyone about the explosion, and the Mayor, the police and Green Arrow and Black Canary all rush to the scene separately. Roy's suffered a broken leg, but discovers explosives casings with serial numbers still intact. Roy bets that the explosives will lead back to a street gang he's been investigating, the Blazing Infernos, who've been buying explosives with a credit card belonging to three businessmen -- Marcus, Barcus and Fish. Just then the ailing Mayor arrives, and drops hints that he knows Ollie's secret identity. Ollie ducks out, but the Mayor confides in the Police Commissioner that he thinks Oliver Queen -- the man he tried to recruit as his mayoral successor in the last election (Green Lantern/Green Arrow no. 87) -- is actually Green Arrow. The Mayor is now more determined than ever to have Oliver Queen, with his unshakable values and defense of the downtrodden, to run for mayor. Elsewhere, Green Arrow and Black Canary bust up some gang members looking for answers, and Roy, now on crutches, joins the fray. Marcus, Barcus and Fish, it turns out, hold large investments in local insurance companies, and are staging the bombings in order to have an excuse to raise rates, fattening their wallets. The trio of heroes troup over to the businessmens' offices, where they mow down the suited muscle and have the businessmen hauled away -- thanks to the testimony of the street punks. The next day, Oliver meets with the Mayor, and surprises everyone by announcing that this time, he does indeed wish to run. Dinah questions the wisdom of this decision -- pointing out that dirty politics has destroyed more than one idealistic crusader in the past, but Oliver is unswayed.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Very cool story -- one of the best of the series following the four-year hiatus. The insurance scam plotline is a little flimsy, but that doesn't really matter since the characters are dealt with so effectively. This here story is very fitting for the 100th issue, and is much better than the main Green Lantern tale that headlines. This story also has ramifications that unfold over several issue, and spill over into World's Finest no. 210. Mike Grell's artistic style is still fairly generic, but it's high-quality, and you can start to see his distinctive rendering of people's noses seep through.

Synopsis: Green Arrow and Black Canary bust up a gang running a protection racket in a Star City alley, then Ollie catches a plane and flies to Coast City for his Public Relations business. .Meanwhile, Hal Jordan discovers that mental-powered super-villian Hector Hammond has started a religious cult. Hal flies to the prison Hammond was held at and discovers he was released by the parole board to the custody of "Braintrust, Inc." Guess where Ollie's PR meeting is? Ollie finds out the PR contract has already been awarded, throws a fit, and is tossed out by security guards. Green Lantern returns to Brain Trust that night to go through their files, is jumped by guards and mysteriously has his own ring attack him! Ollie, meanwhile, attends one of Hammond's "revivals" and sees the usual spiel -- divest yourself of material goods (re: Money, given to Hammond) and you'll find Nirvana. Ollie and Hal team back up and head to dinner at Hal's brother's place. Ironically, Jim Jordan is the PR man Brain Trust hired instead of Ollie. Green Arrow and Green Lantern sneak back into Brain Trust, and overhear Hammond bragging that he is the cause of Lantern's ring problems, and that also he manipulated the stock market with his mental powers to benefit Brain Trust. Oh, and he ego-boogied the parole board into letting him go as well, and now has all the world's leaders accepting Brain Trust's "consulting" services. Wilhelm Baggins, aka Bill Baggett, Hammond's partner turns out to be a criminal who has been able to manipulate Hal's power ring before (Green Lantern no. 67). The heroes are captured by the mental criminals, but Ollie defies their power and fires a smoke arrow. Hal and Baggett lock wills over control of the power ring, and Hal wins. After rounding up the villians, Hal explains that he focused most of his ring energy into Green Arrow, and thus was able to catch the criminals off-guard, as most of their power was focused on Green Lantern.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Yes, but it's a little flat. The artwork is pedestrian, with stiff posing by the characters. Enjoyable for a fill-in, but really strikes me more as a throwback to a 1960's style than the nore sophisitcated storytelling of the late 70s and early 80s. Still, it was fun and a nice change of pace to see the Emerald Gladiators go up against a more down-to-earth opponent in Hector Hammond.

Synopsis: A Green Lantern intervenes in a conflict between two starship. The Lantern, Gala De of Loga 14, is apparently killed in the exchange, as is most of the crew of the fleeing starship -- except for a slave, who triggers a warp-drive thingy in order to escape the pursuing ship. The fleeing slave's ship reappears on Earth, where it crashes into a dam, sending a flood of water caroming through the damaged section. Hal Jordan repairs the dam then goes after the space ship. The slave fires the turn-to-yellow beam that killed the other Lantern, and scores an indirect hit against Jordan. In Star City, at the Pretty Bird Flower Shoppe, Ollie and Dinah are having some kind of vague, undefined arguement, and decide to stop seeing each other. Ollie breaks one of his arrows in anger. A null-space forms around the Earth, and the Guardians of the Universe try to warn Hal not to approach it. They can't get through, however, and as soon as Hal recovers from the alien weapon, the first thing he does is fly into the null-space and gets himself trapped. The space slave goes on TV with an offer of a grand cruise of the Universe, and Dinah decides to go on the ride. The alien tries a head harness on Dinah and then accepts her, rejecting Ollie and a number of other applicants. Ollie changes to Green Arrow and sneaks into the ship right as it takes off. There he discovers all the passengers are captives -- the ship runs on brain power, and once the person's brain power is depleted, they die. Ollie confronts the alien, but the slaves attack -- slave-Dinah finally subdues Ollie. The alien then opens the airlock to throw Ollie outside, where he will die in the vaccuum of space.

Yeah, But Is It Good? I think Denny got hooked up to one of those brain-sucking doohickeys before he wrote this one. Shallow characters -- what is it with that non-arguement between Ollie and Dinah anyway? Shouting and pouting does not characterization make. At least the storytelling is more linear than most of his recent issues, where all sorts of plot devices crop up with no rhyme or reason. And there's no Itty here. Unfortunately, Dinah is once again playing the victim in the oldest of Green Arrow plot complications. Sheesh, you'd think that'd get old after a while. In any event, the art, at least, is a step up from last month. It's interesting that a former slave would be as vicious as its former masters upon gaining its freedom, but that aspect of character and violence begetting violence is not explored. Instead, the characters lurch from plot point "A" to plot point "B" in workman like fasion, with little flair or heart. Oh, and that "airlock" they're going to throw Ollie out of? It's a simple door. Just swing it open to the vaccuum of space, without a worry that all the air will be sucked out of the ship. Sheesh...

Synopsis: John Stewart is gettin' it on with his lady in bed when a Guardian of the Universe interrupts to demand John respond to a problem as Green Lantern. John tells him to knock before entering in the future, then donns his GL threads. In Star City, Green Arrow is taking down some muggers when he's blinded by a bright green light and then blind-sided by one of the muggers with a left cross. Ouch! John apologizes for interrupting and getting Ollie clobbered, then captures the fleeing crooks. Ollie then rips the Guardian a new one for assigning Hal to space patrol for the last year as a disciplinary measure. When the Guardian says he needs Ollie's help, good old Ollie tells him where to go and how to get there. Of course, Ollie relents when he finds out thousands of lives are in danger. Since John is inexperienced, the Guardian wants Ollie to be a sort of on-site trainer as they take on a crystal creature that was created as a weapon millions of years before. The Green Lantern Corps destroyed it, but a shard landed on Earth where a boy found it -- and his hatred for school served as a catalyst to activate the weapon again. It grows and gains strength by absorbing carbon-based life forms. Ollie attacks the creature to distract it while John evacuates civilians. The people's combined weight is too much for John, though, and he can't lift them all to safety before Krystayl absorbs them. Krystayl turns Ollie's arm to crystal, but Ollie fires his bow using his teeth, sending a gas arrow into Krystayl's face. John arrives in time to rescue Ollie, and using his ring, shatters the crystal covering Ollie's arm -- it was only encased, it turns out. That gives them an idea of how to defeat the creature without harming the people it's already absorbed. While Ollie acts as bait, John scans it to discover the pressure point, the weak spot, in it's crystalline body. Before Ollie can fire a crystal-shattering arrow at the weak spot, the monster absorbs more people, growing, and the weak spot changes position. John races to re-locate it before Ollie is absorbed. He finds it -- on Krystayl's chin, and Ollie fires his arrow at the last instant, shattering the creature and freeing all the people previously absorbed. John scoops up all the shards and Ollie takes him to get some chili.

Yeah, But Is It Good? I really like this one. The art is good, and I've always liked John Stewart. I think Mosaic is probably the best Green Lantern book ever. He and Ollie work well together, and it's a shame John is relegated to a crippled supporting character in the current title. It's also interesting to note that John is portrayed as ineffectual here, something that resonates with the events that transpire in Cosmic Odyssey. Of course, the biggest thing about this story is that it's almost blow-by-blow a retelling of Justice League of America no. 4, in which the JLA is trapped inside a giant diamond and Ollie fires an arrow to shatter it, freeing them and securing a place on the JLA roster for himself. So what. Rip off or homage, this was a fun story and I liked it.