I continued to purchase GREEN LANTERN (co-starring GREEN ARROW) every month, even though the quality of the series varied wildly. Writer Denny O’Neil had been in place since the early 1970s, when the title’s dip into confronting real-world issues got it a lot of public attention and notoriety. But I get the sense that Denny wasn’t especially comfortable in the world of GL, and so as the push for relevancy diminished and the series became more a standard adventure comic book, he tried to find a level that would work for him. Often, this meant leaning more heavily on the more human and grounded Green Arrow to carry the bulk of the story. But I was buying GREEN LANTERN for Green Lantern, and so this often frustrated me.
Accordingly, there’s a bit of a lull in the series across the next year or two, until finally the decision is made to drop Green Arrow from the book and return to it being a solo GREEN LANTERN series. And even after that, it took a while for the stories to pick up. Meanwhile, a bunch of weird and ill-considered story choices were made. I don’t know why Denny didn’t move on if he wasn’t in his element–most likely, he needed the assignment. And his work was always polished and professional. But on this title at least, not really to my tastes. I’m sure some of the disconnect also had to do with former editor Julie Schwartz having handed the editorship to other people, by this issue Jack C. Harris.
This issue opens with a full-bore argument between Green Lantern and Green Arrow. In his civilian guise as trucker Hal Jordan, GL has agreed to drive a load of Liquid Gas through a treacherous mountain road in order to deliver it on time. GA tells Hal that the stuff is so volatile that one spark and half the country could go up. But Hal figures that if anything goes wrong, he can take care of it as Green Lantern, so he’s a better choice than anybody else. Plus, he still needs to make a living. So Hal sets off, not realizing that there’s another member of our cast that he’ll have to reckon with. This is the Crumbler, a costumed villain who disintegrates a bridge with his high-tech gauntlet, sending a bulldozer crashing down the mountainside to collide with Hal’s rig.
Hal is able to spring into action as Green Lantern and avert a catastrophe, but it’s close. He winds up surrounding the tanker with a green energy bubble in order to protect it, especially since it’s been cracked open. Then, he reckons that he’d better recharge his power ring in case further action is necessary. But while he’s doing this, the Crumbler sneaks up on him and collapses a tree on top of GL. Green Arrow and Black Canary come in response to the news of what happened, finding Hal’s truck still surrounded by the energy bubble and Green Lantern himself unconscious in a nearby hospital. Hal’s thoughts tell us that there’s still danger, but he’s unable to convey this to the doctors or to Oliver. And the Crumbler is also there, keeping an eye on the fallen hero.
With Hal now out of the way, Denny moves into material he’s more at home with. Green Arrow notices the Crumbler lurking around the hospital and gives chase. But the villain eludes him by disintegrating the rooftop upon which Green Arrow is standing, sending him plummeting inside the building. Having lost his quarry, GA heads back to Hal’s truck where Black Canary is stationed. She tells him that the guy that hired Hal to transport the Liquid Gas, Alexander Percy Tuttle, is in financial straits and his company will go bankrupt if the shipment isn’t completed in time. Tuttle orders his men to eject the two heroes from the area of the truck, starting a scuffle in which the bad guys get the worst of it.
But Tuttle screws up, unthinkingly mentioning Green Arrow wrecking the hospital, something he could only know about if he had been there (or had eyes, or a phone, I guess. It’s not like a hospital roof being disintegrated would have been a clandestine thing.) This leads GA to correctly guess that Tuttle is the Crumbler. The villain confirms this, saying that he planned to sabotage his own delivery in order to collect the insurance and keep his operation solvent. But just as things are getting tense, Green Lantern stumbles into the scene. He’s barely on his feet, but he’s pushed himself fearlessly to escape his hospital bed and come here, because of the danger that still exists.
That danger is ultimately on him, because when he created the energy barrier that’s encasing the truck, he didn’t use existing elements–meaning that once his power ring charge is depleted, the barrier will drop and the Liquid Gas will combust. But GL is too messed up by his concussion to use his power ring, and so the bubble does vanish. Flames approach the flammable area, but Green Arrow races in and puts them out with a few scoops of snow. Whew! Everything’s supposedly fine now, somehow. But in all the confusion, the Crumbler has escaped. And the Next Issue blurb indicates that he’s return to cause more chaos and destruction next issue. To Be Continued!
Just a minor observation on this letters page; that title graphic at the top of it is huge! I wonder if this was done this way because the book wasn’t receiving many letters and so space needed to be filled. On the other hand, the font size on the letters looks really small to my eye, so you’d think the easiest thing to do would have been to increase the point size there by one if there was a space issue.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Over the last year or more I’ve been re-reading (or it’s my 1st time) Denny’s 80’s “Iron-Man” & “Daredevil”; his early 70’s Superman stories; a few of these GL/GA issues, & the Last year ’78/’79, of both his “Batman” & “Detective” runs
Some as a direct result of this website. I was never a steady reader of GL or GA. I liked Denny’s Iron-Man fine as an early teenager. Also in part due to Luke McDonnell’s work, especially w/ Skin & Garvey inking it. The writing mostly holds up, now. Some of it doesn’t connect like it didm
I wasn’t crazy about 70’s Superman comics mostly because if Curt Swan. I realize now Bates &’Bridwell wrote interesting stuff. Denny’s didn’t click with me as much.
Same for his 80s “Daredevil”. I don’t know if it’s the old school approach. Or the comparison to Miller’ stories. But tfeycdrsad4
But thrlast year of his Batman & Detective are really good. I’m thinking because of Don Newton’s art. I’m still a fan, decades later. I see an influence on Ivan Res, Eddy Barrows Alan Davis, & Bryan Hitch
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That’s In an Akin & Brian Garvey inking Iron MN an. I dislike typing on my phone. Denny’s IM stories feel genuine. If not slow. But the characters’ ‘interactions are believable to me.
His last year on Batman & Detective feels really smooth. Not pretentious like Conway’s run. More confident & streamlined to me than Moench’s. And more naturalistic than Wein’s.
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“I don’t know why Denny didn’t move on if he wasn’t in his element–most likely, he needed the assignment. And his work was always polished and professional. But on this title at least, not really to my tastes. I’m sure some of the disconnect also had to do with former editor Julie Schwartz having handed the editorship to other people, by this issue Jack C. Harris.”
This was also the period where Denny said he was bringing a Thermos full of Scotch to work every day, so his choices may not have been all that well considered.
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Sorry, I misremembered — this was shortly after Denny was doing that. So he was either trying to kick alcohol or about to try, neither of which would be conducive to doing great work.
And it was brandy, not Scotch.
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I read these stories when they came out,
It seemed fairly obvious then that O’Neil was less comfortable with more powerful superheroes and more “fantastic” science fiction themes. Fans in letter cols talked about it, It wasn’t something hidden.
Denny O’Neil edited the first three issues (issues 90-92) of the revived GL/GA book and he tried either to have the two heroes in “A” and “B” plots or stories where plots “A” and “B” intersect into a “C” plot where both heroes are out of their depth.
When Julie Schwartz came back with #93, GL seemed to become more and more dominant.
What I think O’Neil wanted to do in the “Crumbler” arc was something like the “Action Hero” Charlton stories from 1966-67. There would be powerful heroes (at the 1966 Gary Friedrich/Steve Ditko CPT Atom level) but the focus would be street level heroes and vivid, interesting (but somewhat quotidian) villeins (kike The Crumbler),
When this was published, I had no idea about Mr., O’Neil’s issues.
However. it stuck me then that he was trying to revisit a kind of story he was more comfortable telling that he had seen could have (at least critical and fan) success with a publisher that had fewer resources.
About 10 years after these Green Lantern stories were published in 1978-79, Watchmen proved the Charlton Action Hero model could be made into something very special indeed.
Art, like most of life, is trying to find what works for stakeholders and ourselves. I’m glad Denny O’Neil seemed to find his answer.
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I’m glad Denny was able to get sober. Alcoholism has destroyed too many of my favorite people, close to me.
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@ John Minehan, bravo!
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That context gives the “GL pushes through his obvious impairment in order to get the job done” element of the story a little extra resonance. But I’m probably reading too much into it.
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I like O’Neil’s work on Batman and Spider-man just fine. I thought his run on Ironman had it’s merits but thought his dialoguing was odd…. like he was trying to pull off a more hip style like Frank Miller.
The Crumbler wouldn’t have been out of place in his Ironman run… in fact Termite had the same powers.
He writes a decent GA but it gets tiresome that GL is played as either the cocky foul up…. or the guy who misses the forest from the trees both literally and metaphorically in this issue.
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This was an era I bought because I was buying all the DC superhero books except the ones my brother bought (we shared). I didn’t care for it. O’Neil’s scripts were meh and I’ve never cottoned to Sauviuk’s art. And up ahead we have the god-awful introduction of Kari Limbo …
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I picked up GL#115 in the back issue section in my quest to find DC villains that could have been in their Who’s Who but weren’t. The Crumbler must not have has the resources to build more of his high-tech gauntlets to get himself out of his financial hole selling them on the black market or he never created his gauntlet.
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The n-th example of “Hal Jordan hit on his head” trope: Brian Cronin used to mention this a lot in his columns, but I wonder if anybody has ever bothered to count the instances!
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The Guardians could start requiring helmets in the GL handbook… 😅🙏
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