Green Lantern #85

Green Lantern #85 (On Sale: June 24, 1971), has a classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow cover by Neal Adams. If you saw this on the stands and did not buy multiple copies, you needed to check your pulse as you may have been dead.

We begin this issue with the classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow tale "Snowbirds Don't Fly" by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams. Oliver Queen is attacked by thugs on the street, and despite beating them soundly, he is surprised when he is shot in the shoulder with one of his own arrows. Finding no help from strangers, he crawls to a hospital and collapses before anyone offers him help.

After being treated, Ollie calls up his friend Hal Jordan to discuss the significance of the arrow. Ollie suggests that he had been neglecting his ward Speedy, and worries that he may have been captured. They follow Ollie's lead to a basement, where they find a withdrawing junkie begging for a fix from a Mr. Browden. Green Arrow and Green Lantern force their way into Browden's apartment, capturing him and the junkie.

Elsewhere, the same thugs who attacked Oliver earlier are waiting for their friend, the same junkie that was caught by the heroes, to return with their fix. Roy Harper (Speedy) appears to be with them. Suddenly, Green Lantern and Green Arrow burst through the ceiling and subdue the junkies. Oliver assumes that Roy is undercover, and tells him to sit the remainder of the mission out, while he takes out the dealers.

The junkies lead Green Lantern and Green Arrow to the dealers' hideout, but they turn on the duo in order to get their fixes as a reward. With the heroes subdued, the dealers forcibly intoxicate them with their drugs and plan to discredit them by calling the police. Fortunately, before the police can arrive, Roy shows up gets them to safety, with some effort.

Back at Arrow's tenement, Roy explains that without a father figure, someone might look for comfort in drugs. Despite this, Oliver is horrified to discover that Roy has become a junkie himself, while he and Green Lantern were traveling cross-country. This classic tale has been reprinted in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #5 (1984), Green Lantern/Green Arrow Collection Vol. 2 TPB (1993), Green Lantern/Green Arrow Collection HC (2001), Green Lantern/Green Arrow Vol. 2 TPB (2004), Showcase Presents: Green Lantern Vol. 5 TPB (2011), Green Lantern/Green Arrow TPB (2012), Absolute Green Lantern/Green Arrow HC (2016), Green Arrow: A Celebration of 75 Years HC (2016), Green Lantern (Facsimile Edition) #85 (2020), and Green Lantern:80 Years of the Emerald Knight the Deluxe Edition HC (2020).

The backup is "The Strange Trial of Green Lantern" by John Broome, Gil Kane, and Joe Giella and reprinted from Green Lantern #11 (1962). After a series of uncharacteristic episodes in which Green Lantern had almost committed various crimes, he is brought before his fellow Green Lanterns for sentencing. The court of his peers is told of each incident: How Hal entered a bank, used his power ring to stun the tellers but left without taking any money; Hal almost bullied himself into not paying a $100 entry fee for a gallery; and finally how he procrastinated in saving a young man who had fallen out of a window. Deciding not to punish Hal because he had not actually done anything illegal, Hal demands that the other Green Lanterns punish him because he feels he has lost control. Putting it to a vote, they agree to do so, devest Hal of his Green Lantern emblem and power ring, seal him in a capsule, and launch it into space.

While traveling through the void, the capsule is suddenly transported to the Antimatter Universe and to the planet Qward, where Hal is brought before Sinestro. Sinestro explains that he escaped his imprisonment in his last encounter because he had a spare power ring hidden in the heel of his boot and manage to escape to Qward to plan an act of new revenge against the Green Lantern. He then explains he used a device to alter Green Lantern's personality so that he became selfish but couldn't push him into doing anything illegal.

Suddenly the other Green Lanterns arrive to save Hal, having suspected Sinestro's involvement they played into his hands. However, Sinestro traps them all in a room made of yellow material. Giving Hal back his power ring, he comes up with the idea of using it to pull chemicals out of the air and make an acid strong enough to melt through the walls. Freeing themselves, they easily capture Sinestro and subject him to his own machine. Imprisoning him with the device which would tell him over and over that he cannot escape.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.