Episode 175 – Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Snowbirds Don’t Fly (With Marvel by the Month)

The Comics Canon

Content warning: racism, drug abuse, death by overdose.

Bryan Stratton and Robb Milne from the Marvel by the Month podcast return to discuss a pair of pioneering DC comics stories: No Evil Shall Escape My Sight! from Green Lantern #76, and the Snowbirds Don’t Fly two-parter from issues #85-86, by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams!

1970’s GL/GA #76 kicked off a run of socially conscious comics that found straight-laced space cop Hal Jordan and liberal archer Oliver Queen confronting such hot-button issues as racism, the environment, and government treatment of Native Americans in ways the superhero genre hadn’t seen before.

This unprecedented run arguably reached its peak with Snowbirds Don’t Fly, which unflinchingly addressed the issue of teen drug abuse (just one month after Marvel’s take on the topic in Amazing Spider-Man)!

These comics were inarguably groundbreaking, but are they hard-hitting enough to warrant inclusion in that After-School Special known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

• “Only there’s skins you never bothered with—the black skins!”
• Similarities to Amazing Spider-Man #96-98
• The Question, by O’Neil and Denys Cowan
• The introduction of Green Lantern John Stewart
• Hard Looks: The Adapted Stories of Andrew Vachss
• The Vigilante, as seen in Peacemaker
• Runaways from New Teen Titans #26-27

Join us in two weeks as we get into the holiday spirit with a collection of Christmas comics featuring the Caped Crusader!

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

And as always, thanks for listening!