5. Green Lantern/Green Arrow
DC ComicsA headlong collision of right on 70s politics and finely tuned superhero storytelling, Green Lantern/Green Arrow marks a major turning point in comics history, as well as an terrific tale in its own right. In the early 1970s, Dennis ONeill was a young man with a major axe to grind. He chose to do this, like so many other angry young writers of his generation, via the medium of superhero comics. In this refreshing take on the cosmic superhero Green Lantern, Hal Jordan discovers that, as an agent of good, his true enemies are corrupt landlords, racist politicians, unscrupulous drug dealers and nefarious polluters that are robbing the earth and her people of so much, yet giving us nothing in return. By the time Sinestro and Black Hand show up in these stories, their super-powered threat level seems almost minimal compared to the greed and graft inherent to the American political system. His stars, Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Black Canary, respectively, travel across the United States in a series of stories that discuss Native American land rights, religion and the environment, amongst an awful lot else. This is what a regular superhero story might be like, if superheroes had been created by Jack Kerouac whilst he was On The Road, or perhaps scribbled on the back of a beer mat whilst Che Guevara was compiling his Motorcycle Diaries... The artwork, deftly handled by the great Neal Adams, is the perfect marriage of theme and form within a graphic story. Adams realistic, measured and anatomically accurate style highlights the seriousness and rugged reality facing the characters. This collection also introduces readers to a new Lantern, the cocky, stubborn and politically aware John Stewart, a character that went on not only to break new ground for black superheroes, but who also became an integral part of the DCU in his own right. DC also allowed the creators to deal with the issue of drugs in this series and they do so in a brutal way that seems fairly risqué even by todays standards, but must have been absolutely shocking for the time. In the hands of Adams, super-collisions feel as if they really hurt and dramatic moments are intense and often cathartic. In the hands of ONeill, our characters are taxed to their very limits, not by mad scientists, cosmic threats and galactic warlords, but purely by the dense entanglement of self-serving, entrenched evil that surrounds us all, every single day. Put simply, this series (nicknamed Hard Travellin Heroes by some fans) represents 70s comics (or any eras comics) at their very best.