Legion of Superheroes Homage to Green Lantern & Green Arrow Issue 85

Neal Adams & Denny O'Neill turned the comic world upside down when they sent Justice League members Hal ( Green Lantern ) Jordan & Ollie ( Green Arrow ) Queen along with Dinah (Black Canary ) Lance on a trip across the United States of America. Along the way, their adventures dealt with hot button topic issues such as racisim, pollution, inner city poverty , corruption in politics and of course in Issue 85 ...DRUGS.

That landmark cover showed the Green Arrow's crime fighting sidekick, Speedy trapped in a cycle of addiction, drug induced highs and gut wrenching withdrawals. This issue opened up the eyes of many people to the epidemic in their midst and caused a firestorm of heated debate.

Its a fantastic cover artistically but also points to a truth and problem that still exsists today. I wanted to do a Re-Legion but to be true to the integrity of both the original artists & writers vision and be somewhat consistent with Legion history.

And that leads us to a back up story in Action Comics Issue 378, where a recently joined Legionnaire Timber Wolf became addicted to the Forbidden Fruit ( a very thinly veiled reference and image for drugs in those strict Comic Book Code Days ) that caused hallucinations .The crux of the tale is he is willing to lose his soul, betray his teamates by leading them into addiction all for another piece of fruit ??.

His teamates pull him back from the brink. Win Mortimer did an amazing job in a 10 page story. Of course everything gets wrapped up just a little too neatly when Brin's love for Ayla's is stronger than his addictions but it still had an edge that resonated with readers. And so it becomes the template for our Re-Legioned cover that features Lightning Lass and her brother Lightning Lad confronting Timber Wolf

John Watson did a MAGNIFICENT job with this commission. I am thrilled beyond words to have this in my collection.