I always wondered which run most people liked more.
Batman
Green Lantern/Green Arrow
I always wondered which run most people liked more.
The Batman run was my favorite and, IMO, has also aged the best of the two.
A bat! That's it! It's an omen.. I'll shall become a bat!
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Batman easy.
I am a huge Green Arrow fan and appreciate the GL/GA run but, it was never really all that good.
Batman - Daredevil
I agree that the O'Neil / Adams Batman wins easy.
But I have to defend GL/GA at least a little bit - it's a classic run, and one of the most influential/revered superhero series DC published between 1970 and...whenever.
(I don't think it holds up well, though - despite Adams' amazing art.)
Batman no matter what , if Pre-Crisis, Post Crisis, New 52, or Rebirth their run is always canon to me its so good and defining. They deserve the credit for returning the Dark Knight not Frank Miller.
I can't help but be overly fastidious about this, as I only see their time on GREEN LANTERN as a run. On BATMAN, there was no real run, because Adams was too busy to do that many issues of BATMAN in one go and he worked with other writers besides O'Neil (like Wein, Robbins, Haney and Friedrich) and he did other Batman titles like DETECTIVE COMICS and THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD. Whereas, you can collect every issue of GREEN LANTERN from number 76 to 89, from 1970 to 1972, and know that all fourteen issues but one will have an O'Neil/Adams story in it (88 being all reprints). And if you collect every issue of BATMAN from number 232 to 255, from 1971 to 1974, you'll only get seven O'Neil/Adams stories out of those twenty-four issues for all your troubles. Believe me, it was not easy if you loved O'Neil/Adams on BATMAN and wanted them to do more issues together.
I voted Batman, despite those two introducing John Stewart.
I came to both after the the runs had ended. However, the jumbo Limited Edition Ra’s Al Ghul story by Adams & O’Neil absolutely defines the character for me. I mean THAT is Batman to me. I’ve gone back and read other issues they did and love them. I didn’t know about the Gl Ga run until I picked up a digest book containing reprints. It’s definitely a period piece but I enjoy the stories. It was a unique time.
The artwork is phenomenal, and as a kid I liked the idea of two heroes with similar names being partners. Had no idea that Green Arrow was a recent addition to the title. Actually, by the time I started reading comics, GL/GA had already been cancelled and was continued in the back of FLash. But it's so over the top political -- that it's not a great read. Still looks pretty. I'd definitely give Batman the nod.
The thing is the Hard Traveling Heroes is definitely a co-creation of Adams and O'Neil. You can say that Neal Adams wrote that story as much as the scripter, Denny O'Neil. While Adams may have had some contributions to the Batman stories (like putting in Deadman), he's mainly a hired gun and it's O'Neil creating his vision of Batman, which any one of a few artists could have been assigned to pencil--most likely Irv Novick, but also Bob Brown or Neal Adams. The Batman story that Adams was most involved with was the story of Talia and her father the Demonhead--but Bob Brown and Irv Novick actually did a lot of that (with Dick Giordano inking), so it's not really an Adams design.
And you can't change the past. People can look back on works of art from the past and say that in hindsight they aren't much--but that doesn't change the place in history those works occupy. The Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories were given awards and accolades--the mainstream press took note of this revolutionary change in comics. It was a big deal and that is something you can't retcon out of existence. The run put O'Neil and Adams on the map. That's their masterwork. If it doesn't work for people now, that's because it was of its time--it spoke to the generation that was reading it while the ink was still fresh and the paper still white. That's the importance.
Whereas, I feel like singling out the O'Neil and Adams performance on the Batman stories is a backhand to all the other creatives who were doing Batman back then. It was a group effort. Frank Robbins, Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Joe Giella, Frank Giacoia, Dick Giordano, Len Wein, Mike Friedrich and others all contributed to Batman in those years and they did work just as good and great. It's unfair to ignore those people and act like only Denny and Neal were doing anything worthwhile. There's so much overlap between the works of all these people that it's impossible to isolate them.
Batman gets my vote for one reason.
The Batman issues still hold up.
The GL/GA issues are VERY much a product of their time and some REALLY don't read well now.
"My name is Wally West. I'm the fastest man alive!"
I'll try being nicer if you try being smarter.
The Batman run is dark, fun, and holds up pretty darn well.
The GL/GA run is like the after school specials and very special episodes that got popular in the 80's. Even if the message or agenda being pushed is one with which you agree, how can anyone stand the preachy, condescending way in which it is conveyed? It is like they are trying to be very, very obvious while talking to a first grade, and leaving no room for you to say "I agree, but you are oversimplifying" or "I disagree and here's why". Of course, I prefer politics in most popular entertainment either be handled evenly or avoided. I'm watching for entertainment. If I want to hear a bunch of stuff I already think, I can always talk to myself. When no one is around to witness it. And deny it ever took place. I'm not crazy, I'm not!
Do people reading the GL/GA stories now get which ripped-from-the-headlines event or issue of the day that the stories came from? Most of the stories I remember were actually based on a specific event at that time.
Also, for me the art is just as important. Adams was doing things in those comics which no one else had tried before.
Batman.
Because the other changed two characters beyond recognition.