Cover: Neal Adams

Green Lantern #83

Apr 1971 · DC · 0.15 USD

☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join free

“...And a Child Shall Destroy Them!”

About this Issue

Green Lantern #83 is a sharp, politically charged entry in the O'Neil/Adams run — widely regarded as the launching pad of the Bronze Age — that fuses superhero adventure with pointed satirical commentary on the Nixon-Agnew White House. The issue carries significant weight in Hal Jordan's personal history as well: by its final pages he unmasks and confesses his love to Carol Ferris, a long-deferred character beat that closes out years of romantic tension built since Showcase #22. As part of the thirteen-issue O'Neil/Adams collaboration (Green Lantern #76–89), it belongs to a body of work that redefined what mainstream superhero comics could say about the real world, earning the run Academy of Comic Book Arts Shazam Awards and front-page coverage in outlets like the New York Times and Newsweek. The issue is also a showcase for the creative alchemy between writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams — whose cover was pencilled and inked entirely by Adams — demonstrating the pair at the height of their powers just two issues before the landmark drug-addiction arc of #85–86.

In "…And a Child Shall Destroy Them!", Green Lantern and Green Arrow join Dinah at a mysterious private school run by Jason Belmore, where they meet the enigmatic cook Grandy and a young girl named Sybil, whose psychic abilities hint at a deeper secret. As tensions rise and the school's true nature begins to unravel, the heroes must confront a shocking revelation about control, power, and the cost of order—penciled with raw intensity by Neal Adams and inked with precision by Dick Giordano, all under Denny O'Neil’s sharp storytelling. The cover, also by Neal Adams, captures the moment’s eerie stillness with haunting clarity.

writer Denny O'Neil · artist Neal Adams · inker Dick Giordano · letterer John Costanza · cover Neal Adams

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $26

CGC 9.8 · 6 in census $1,494

CGC 9.6 · 29 in census $469

CGC 9.4 · 47 in census $270

CGC 9.2 · 38 in census $169

CGC 9.0 · 38 in census $119

CGC 8.5 · 26 in census $119*

Show all 16 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 19 in census $75

CGC 7.5 · 20 in census $75

CGC 7.0 · 15 in census $75

CGC 6.5 · 9 in census $72

CGC 6.0 · 7 in census $72*

CGC 5.5 · 3 in census $56*

CGC 5.0 · 3 in census $53*

CGC 4.5 · 3 in census $48*

CGC 4.0 · 4 in census $46*

CGC 3.5 · 4 in census $38*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

Find on ebay

Search eBay for Green Lantern #83 ▸

No confirmed live listings for this exact issue right now — this opens an eBay search.

Sell my copy

Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.

We Buy Collections ▸

Fast, fair offers · we handle grading & shipping

History

The issue was produced by writer Dennis O'Neil, penciller Neal Adams, inker Dick Giordano, letterer John Costanza, and editor Julius Schwartz — the same tight unit responsible for most of the celebrated run. According to Dick Giordano's introduction to the Green Lantern/Green Arrow Volume Two collection, Adams modeled the telekinetic child Sybil on President Richard Nixon and the menacing cook Grandy on Vice President Spiro Agnew, neither of whom Adams held in high regard; the caricatures were thinly veiled enough to prompt a protest letter from the then-governor of Florida threatening to pull DC Comics from state distribution. There is circumstantial evidence, reported by collectors and historians, that editor Schwartz may have had Giordano add a pencil mustache to the Agnew-based Grandy in the interior art in an attempt to obscure the resemblance — the mustache is absent from Adams's cover, which Adams inked himself. A panel of children menacing the heroes was also apparently censored at the Comics Code or editorial stage, with weapons removed from their hands.

Trivia · 8 facts

Cover date: May 1971 (publication date February 1971); part of Green Lantern Vol. 2, the Silver/Bronze Age series that began in 1960.
Creative team: Writer Dennis O'Neil, pencils Neal Adams (who also pencilled and inked the cover), inks Dick Giordano, letters John Costanza, editor Julius Schwartz — credits confirmed by Julius Schwartz's editorial records at DC.
Story title: '…And a Child Shall Destroy Them!' — a 22-page adventure featuring Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), and Black Canary (Dinah Lance), with Carol Ferris in a key supporting role.
Significant character moment: At the story's close, Hal Jordan voluntarily reveals his secret identity to Carol Ferris and declares his love for her; she accepts — a pivotal emotional development for both characters.
The villain Grandy and the telekinetic child Sybil were deliberately drawn by Neal Adams as caricatures of Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon, respectively, according to Dick Giordano's published introduction to the Green Lantern/Green Arrow Vol. 2 collection.
The issue generated real-world political blowback: Adams recounted that DC received a letter from the governor of Florida objecting to what he saw as an insult to the Vice President of the United States.
Issue #83 sits within the O'Neil/Adams run (Green Lantern #76–89, 1970–72), broadly credited by historians as a foundational text of the Bronze Age and the model for socially 'relevant' superhero storytelling.
Collected in multiple editions: Showcase Presents: Green Lantern Vol. 5 (black-and-white), Green Lantern/Green Arrow Vol. 2 (original DC Archive edition), and the Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard-Traveling Heroes Omnibus, among others.