Green Lantern (1960) 77

Green Lantern (1960) 77

Jun 1970

Journey to Desolation!

by Denny O’Neill, Neal Adams, Frank Giacoia, John Costanza, Julius Schwartz

Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and their traveling companion (the Guardian disguised as a human) arrive in a small, poor mining town. They are forced to stop after they are attacked by some miners who think that they work for Slapper Soames, the owner of the mine.

The miners are fed up with Soames who is getting ready to hang one of their friends. Jacob, the leader of the disgruntled miners, explains all this to the superheroes. Green Lantern and Green Arrow don’t intend to help the miners take on their boss. They change their minds after they see the way the miners are getting cut down by the superior fire power of Soames' men.

Green Lantern’s ring malfunctions in the middle of the fight. The Guardians are to blame. They are displeased with Hal for shirking his primary responsibilities as a Green Lantern and taking off on a side quest. He eventually gets the ring to work but he isn’t sure exactly what the problem with it is. Is it really the Guardians doing or it is it just his lack of decisiveness since his argument with Green Arrow in the previous issue?

The miners are outmatched by Soames troops. Jacob turns out to be a traitor who was working for Soames all along. Green Lantern and Green Arrow wind up being the decisive factors in the fight. 

Thoughts

The quote that introduces this story in the Hard Traveling Heroes trade paperback is “The Executioner’s face is always well hidden” from A Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan. 

This story isn’t anything special by today’s standards but in 1970 this was like no other comic book published by DC or Marvel. It is about real people with real problems, people living in a small town who feel like the world has forgotten them. It has little to nothing to do with superpowers or aliens who are threatening to take over the world. Or does it? Soames may as well be a supervillain because that what he is essentially even though he doesn’t wear a garish costume or shoot the miners with beams of colored light. 

This is a decent read now but it might not live up to everyone’s expectations.