10 Incredible Comic Book Panels That Changed Everything

5. "My Ward is A Junkie!"

There's so much more to Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams' Green Lantern/Green Arrow series than just this scene, but hey, it's a panel that fits the bill, so it's here.

Taken from the Snowbirds Don't Fly arc from the same series, Neal Adams' depiction of Oliver Queen's loyal sidekick, Roy Harper, shooting up, proved to be a watershed moment in an industry still heavily censored by the now-defunct Comics Code Authority. Marvel had just produced a similar storyline in Spider-Man, but the O'Neil/Adams arc came from a place of experience, with both creators having dealt with loved ones struggling with substance abuse - particularly heroin - at the height of the seventies' drugs scare.

The language might be dated, but O'Neil and Adams' arc came from a place of good intent. That, and well, the panel of Speedy shooting up was a first in the medium, so it was visually and thematically significant for the industry at the time.

The entire series is certainly worth a read, and continues to be DC's finest - and indeed most revolutionary - work from that decade.