GREEN LANTERN #81 — even a power ring needs breathing room.
PGX 8.0 (Very Fine) · Off-White to White Pages · Denny O’Neil & Neal Adams · Black Canary Appearance
Neal Adams fills the cover with people. Green Lantern and Green Arrow struggle in a crush of bodies beneath the words “The Population Explosion!” There is barely room for the heroes, let alone an easy answer.
Cover-dated December 1970, this issue belongs to Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ Green Lantern/Green Arrow run, which brought social problems and clashing convictions into superhero adventure. Hal Jordan’s faith in authority and Oliver Queen’s instinct to challenge it gave the partnership its friction—and made their travels about more than finding the next villain.
Inside, “Death Be My Destiny!” takes that journey beyond Earth. Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Black Canary speak in defense of the Old-Timer, the Guardian who has been traveling with them, as he faces judgment from his own people. Their journey then leads to Maltus, a desperately overcrowded world where the struggle for space and survival turns the issue’s cover warning into a lived nightmare.
It is a science-fiction setting with an earthly concern at its center. O’Neil puts the heroes among the people affected, while Adams gives the crowds weight, urgency and individual faces. For collectors drawn to this run’s mixture of superhero spectacle and social argument, #81 brings both together.
The back cover offers a lighter piece of 1970: an Aurora Skittle Pool advertisement promising tabletop recreation for the living room.
This copy isgraded PGX 8.0, Very Fine, with off-white to white pages. PGX certification number501154798, graded January 2015.
Ships in a Gemini graded-comic mailer with honeycomb kraft void fill, fully insured, within one business day of cleared payment.
The Memory Shop of Concord — curated Golden, Silver and Bronze Age keys at memoryshopconcord.com
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