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Green Lantern/Green Arrow #1-2+
Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard-Traveling Heroes Omnibus
The Emerald Archer and the greatest space lawman who ever lived team-up to take on problems in society right under their own feet on planet earth.
Should a hero be concerned with the galaxy when they can’t help their own planet? It’s a pointed question that Green Arrow asks to Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) point blank in the Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard Travelin' Heroes Omnibus. Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams tackle subjects in this superhero story that had never been seen in mainstream comics prior. Travel across the United States with Oliver Queen and Hal Jordan as their superhero alter egos to understand the subtleties of issues that our country was facing in the 1970s.
Collects Green Lantern #76-87, 89-123, Worlds Finest Comics #201, and stories from Brave and the Bold #100, DC Special-Series #1, DC Super-Stars #17, The Flash #218-224, #226-228, #230-231, #233-234, #237-238, #240-246, Green Lantern 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1, and Worlds Finest Comics #210, #255, with a brand-new introduction by Mike Grell.
Should a hero be concerned with the galaxy when they can’t help their own planet? It’s a pointed question that Green Arrow asks to Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) point blank in the Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard Travelin' Heroes Omnibus. Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams tackle subjects in this superhero story that had never been seen in mainstream comics prior. Travel across the United States with Oliver Queen and Hal Jordan as their superhero alter egos to understand the subtleties of issues that our country was facing in the 1970s.
Collects Green Lantern #76-87, 89-123, Worlds Finest Comics #201, and stories from Brave and the Bold #100, DC Special-Series #1, DC Super-Stars #17, The Flash #218-224, #226-228, #230-231, #233-234, #237-238, #240-246, Green Lantern 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1, and Worlds Finest Comics #210, #255, with a brand-new introduction by Mike Grell.
1152 pages, Hardcover
First published November 5, 2024
15 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Dennis O'Neil
1,751 books276 followers
Dennis "Denny" O'Neil
was a comic book writer and editor best known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics from the 1960s through the 1990s, and Group Editor for the Batman family of titles until his retirement.
His best-known works include Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman with Neal Adams, The Shadow with Michael Kaluta and The Question with Denys Cowan. As an editor, he is principally known for editing the various Batman titles. From 2013 unti his death, he sat on the board of directors of the charity The Hero Initiative and served on its Disbursement Committee.
His best-known works include Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman with Neal Adams, The Shadow with Michael Kaluta and The Question with Denys Cowan. As an editor, he is principally known for editing the various Batman titles. From 2013 unti his death, he sat on the board of directors of the charity The Hero Initiative and served on its Disbursement Committee.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 17, 2025
(Zero spoiler review)
Wow, that was certainly... underwhelming. When you have names like Denny O'Neil, Neil Adams and Mike Grell on the book, it sets a certain level of expectation. Expectation that this book absolutely failed to deliver upon.
The early Adams drawn issues where the series received it's notoriety are by far the best. Sure, both set's of characters come across rather heavy handed, but that was always kind of the point. As soon as Adams leaves, despite the excellent Grell joining the fold, the stories changed from the 'Hard Traveling Heroes', social explorations, into a fairly bog standard silver/bronze age Green Lantern story, with Olly tagging along for the ride in an increasingly absurd and disappointing series of ways. And for me, the writing was on the wall from that point. I wanted and expected more from O' Neil, whose fantastic writing on the likes of The Question and Batman failed to materialise here. Cut out the bland and boring Hal Jordan and let O'Neil go full street level and this could have been great. But not only was it not great, it wasn't even very good. 2.5/5
OmniBen.
Wow, that was certainly... underwhelming. When you have names like Denny O'Neil, Neil Adams and Mike Grell on the book, it sets a certain level of expectation. Expectation that this book absolutely failed to deliver upon.
The early Adams drawn issues where the series received it's notoriety are by far the best. Sure, both set's of characters come across rather heavy handed, but that was always kind of the point. As soon as Adams leaves, despite the excellent Grell joining the fold, the stories changed from the 'Hard Traveling Heroes', social explorations, into a fairly bog standard silver/bronze age Green Lantern story, with Olly tagging along for the ride in an increasingly absurd and disappointing series of ways. And for me, the writing was on the wall from that point. I wanted and expected more from O' Neil, whose fantastic writing on the likes of The Question and Batman failed to materialise here. Cut out the bland and boring Hal Jordan and let O'Neil go full street level and this could have been great. But not only was it not great, it wasn't even very good. 2.5/5
OmniBen.
July 9, 2025
This book was influential and a pillar of the comic book industry for dealing with pressing social issues that the medium hadn't tackled: race relations, class disparity, political themes, and social commentary. additionally, this book also introduced John Stewart, a staple of the Green Lantern Corps, and this book should be applauded for all of its many "firsts". however, this book is also so dated. paradoxically, it is a product of its time and therefore so immaculately and bombastically cheesy, comical, and a living time capsule of the 1970s. it became too hard to read, but it's legacy lives on.
January 15, 2025
Influential and novel comics in the 70s, watered down by goofy and poorly aged comics in the 70s.
This hefty volume collects the Green Lantern/Green Arrow adventures between 1971-1978. As far as I know this is a comprehensive collection, meaning this is a lot of stuff.
The volume starts out with the famous Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams stories that span 13 issues. It was very novel at the time to openly address earthly matters such as racism, over population or drug addiction in superhero comics. And I can tell, because these topics are conveyed very directly to the reader. This does work for some of the stories, but not for all of them; some of the conflicts feel quite forced. Still, I thought they were worth reading.
Then the Green Lantern magazine was cancelled and the subsequent stories ran as backup stories in the Flash magazine for a few years. Then the series picked up again and ran for quite a number of years. This volume drops off at the point when Green Arrow stops co-starring.
The backup stories and the relaunch of Green Lantern spans three quarters of this omnibus and the tone shifts back to goofy bronze age superhero stories. These stories are numerous and much less enjoyable.
After reading the initial stories in this volume, everything that is not written by Dennis O'Neil (fortunately not many issues in here) read like toothpaste and everything not drawn by Neal Adams or Mike Grell looks atrocious. This makes me appreciate the O'Neil/Adams stories even more, but makes me also question this omnibus as a whole.
Another big problem of these stories is how the women are handled, or rather mishandled. Green Arrow treats Black Canary like dirt and Green Lantern jumps from one woman to the next, eagerly ready to marry. The only qualification the women bring to the table in these stories is their beauty. I know It's a product of its time, but still yikes.
Green Lantern has to proclaim his oath in each and every issue, which gets old very quickly.
I suppose it comes down to how enjoyable you like comics from the 70's. Personally, I'd recommend Green Arrow by Mike Grell (for a much better Green Arrow story) or The Question by Dennis O'Neil (for a much better story written by Dennis O'Neil) over this volume. There's nothing to be missed here.
This hefty volume collects the Green Lantern/Green Arrow adventures between 1971-1978. As far as I know this is a comprehensive collection, meaning this is a lot of stuff.
The volume starts out with the famous Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams stories that span 13 issues. It was very novel at the time to openly address earthly matters such as racism, over population or drug addiction in superhero comics. And I can tell, because these topics are conveyed very directly to the reader. This does work for some of the stories, but not for all of them; some of the conflicts feel quite forced. Still, I thought they were worth reading.
Then the Green Lantern magazine was cancelled and the subsequent stories ran as backup stories in the Flash magazine for a few years. Then the series picked up again and ran for quite a number of years. This volume drops off at the point when Green Arrow stops co-starring.
The backup stories and the relaunch of Green Lantern spans three quarters of this omnibus and the tone shifts back to goofy bronze age superhero stories. These stories are numerous and much less enjoyable.
After reading the initial stories in this volume, everything that is not written by Dennis O'Neil (fortunately not many issues in here) read like toothpaste and everything not drawn by Neal Adams or Mike Grell looks atrocious. This makes me appreciate the O'Neil/Adams stories even more, but makes me also question this omnibus as a whole.
Another big problem of these stories is how the women are handled, or rather mishandled. Green Arrow treats Black Canary like dirt and Green Lantern jumps from one woman to the next, eagerly ready to marry. The only qualification the women bring to the table in these stories is their beauty. I know It's a product of its time, but still yikes.
Green Lantern has to proclaim his oath in each and every issue, which gets old very quickly.
I suppose it comes down to how enjoyable you like comics from the 70's. Personally, I'd recommend Green Arrow by Mike Grell (for a much better Green Arrow story) or The Question by Dennis O'Neil (for a much better story written by Dennis O'Neil) over this volume. There's nothing to be missed here.
April 24, 2025
I've never actually read those famous Green Lantern and Green Arrow team-up stories before. I've seen covers and sample pages on the Internet, but I've never read them all. I have, however, read Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams on Batman and I've read a lot of Mike Grell's Warlord as well as Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters. So, I finally wanted to see what all the hubbub was about with these chromatic cohorts in the Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard-Travelin' Heroes Omnibus.
This 1100-page hardcover collects those Green Lantern/Green Arrow team-ups from the early 1970s and beyond. The stories start with the most-talked-about O'Neil/Adams run that tackled social issues like pollution, racism, and drug addiction -- topics rarely seen in mainstream comics at the time. While these early stories can feel heavy-handed today, they were revolutionary for their era. Things then move into more standard superhero fare as O'Neil continues writing but Adams departs. These later stories alternate between Earth-based adventures and cosmic space opera, with Green Arrow and Black Canary along for the ride.
O'Neil's writing evolves over the course of the collection. The early issues tend to hammer home social messages at the expense of subtlety. But, as the series progresses, O'Neil eases up and focuses more on action-adventure plots. Mind you, those social commentaries still pop up occasionally. Like a lot of dated comics, the dialogue can be clunky at times, especially when O'Neil tries to sound hip and current. But he keeps the stories moving at a brisk pace with plenty of twists and cliffhangers. Funny though, O'Neil sometimes introduces themes or plots that don't really come to any conclusion. It's unclear if this is due to editorial decisions, O'Neil "playtesting" ideas with fans, or perhaps exploring concepts with his creative team.
But I’ll be honest, the art is a major draw here. Neal Adams' work on the early issues is dynamic and groundbreaking, with innovative layouts and a more realistic style than most superhero comics of the time. When Mike Grell takes over, he clearly tries to emulate Adams while developing his own style. Compared to Adams, Grell's art does feel a smidge stiff, but I still like the 50s ad art vibe that begins to hint at a scratchy, kinetic slapdashness. The comic art slightly dips in appeal when Alex Saviuk steps in, but it's hard to come out of the bullpen and follow heavy-hitters like Adams and Grell.
Overall, this omnibus looks at how superhero comics evolved in the 1970s. The early "relevant" stories may not hold up perfectly, but I don’t think you can argue against their importance in comics history. And there's plenty of cosmic superhero action to balance out the social commentary. It's a hefty tome, but I’m glad I had the patience and dove into this era of Green Lantern – and Green Arrow! -- history.
This 1100-page hardcover collects those Green Lantern/Green Arrow team-ups from the early 1970s and beyond. The stories start with the most-talked-about O'Neil/Adams run that tackled social issues like pollution, racism, and drug addiction -- topics rarely seen in mainstream comics at the time. While these early stories can feel heavy-handed today, they were revolutionary for their era. Things then move into more standard superhero fare as O'Neil continues writing but Adams departs. These later stories alternate between Earth-based adventures and cosmic space opera, with Green Arrow and Black Canary along for the ride.
O'Neil's writing evolves over the course of the collection. The early issues tend to hammer home social messages at the expense of subtlety. But, as the series progresses, O'Neil eases up and focuses more on action-adventure plots. Mind you, those social commentaries still pop up occasionally. Like a lot of dated comics, the dialogue can be clunky at times, especially when O'Neil tries to sound hip and current. But he keeps the stories moving at a brisk pace with plenty of twists and cliffhangers. Funny though, O'Neil sometimes introduces themes or plots that don't really come to any conclusion. It's unclear if this is due to editorial decisions, O'Neil "playtesting" ideas with fans, or perhaps exploring concepts with his creative team.
But I’ll be honest, the art is a major draw here. Neal Adams' work on the early issues is dynamic and groundbreaking, with innovative layouts and a more realistic style than most superhero comics of the time. When Mike Grell takes over, he clearly tries to emulate Adams while developing his own style. Compared to Adams, Grell's art does feel a smidge stiff, but I still like the 50s ad art vibe that begins to hint at a scratchy, kinetic slapdashness. The comic art slightly dips in appeal when Alex Saviuk steps in, but it's hard to come out of the bullpen and follow heavy-hitters like Adams and Grell.
Overall, this omnibus looks at how superhero comics evolved in the 1970s. The early "relevant" stories may not hold up perfectly, but I don’t think you can argue against their importance in comics history. And there's plenty of cosmic superhero action to balance out the social commentary. It's a hefty tome, but I’m glad I had the patience and dove into this era of Green Lantern – and Green Arrow! -- history.
April 11, 2025
I wanted to rate this higher, and it it was just the classic O'Neil/Adams Sixties stuff, I would. But this volume is shamelessly padded with basically every GL/GA story O'Neil ever wrote, and few of them are that good. (Although there is one weird one where GL encounters a still-alive Aaron Burr in space that is memorably weird.) Still, there's some early Mike Grell and Joe Staton art in here that's pretty damned good, as well as the introductions of such stalwarts as John Stewart and Guy Gardner. But mostly, this is a historical curiosity that's only for the truly devoted fan.
January 3, 2026
I wanted to like the Omni just a tad bit more but the hardcover of Hard Traveling Heroes would’ve been the best call in all honesty. But I am glad to have the Omni to display all over my shelf
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews