Green Lantern #84
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeGreen Lantern #84 — 'Peril in Plastic' — is a key chapter in the celebrated O'Neil/Adams run that redefined what mainstream superhero comics could say about the real world, weaving environmental pollution and corporate manipulation into a genre that had previously avoided such topics. It sits squarely within the Hard-Traveling Heroes arc (issues #76–89), widely credited with helping establish the Bronze Age's socially conscious voice and proving that a superhero title could tackle subjects like industrial exploitation without abandoning adventure. The issue is also a notable production artifact: its inking was entrusted to Bernie Wrightson, who was simultaneously creating Swamp Thing, making the collaborative team uniquely representative of the early-1970s DC artistic renaissance. Together, these qualities have kept #84 continuously in print across nine separate collected editions spanning more than four decades.
In "Peril in Plastic," Hal Jordan races to save Piper's Dell as a sea wall crumbles, only to face a new threat hidden in the town's plastic factory. Drawn into a trap by gas from the factory’s pins, Hal is left vulnerable—just as Black Hand begins manipulating the townspeople through the very same material. With Green Arrow’s help and his ring’s return, Hal must reclaim his power before the plastic prison closes around him. Written by Denny O'Neil and illustrated with striking intensity by Neal Adams, with inks by Bernie Wrightson and Alan Weiss, the cover by Neal Adams captures the eerie tension of the story.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Writer Denny O'Neil and penciler Neal Adams had been reshaping the Green Lantern title since 1970, with editor Julius Schwartz steering the book toward grounded storytelling after years of flagging sales. By issue #84, the team had already revisited classic villains such as Sinestro two issues earlier, signaling a deliberate blend of social-issue plotting with traditional superhero elements. Wrightson's presence on inks came directly from his proximity to Adams's DC office circle; as Wrightson later recalled to the 'Silver Age Sage,' he and other young artists would crowd into Adams's tiny workspace, and the professional connections forged there led naturally to collaborative assignments. Credits for the pencils and inks on this issue were confirmed from Julius Schwartz's own editorial records, later provided to the Grand Comics Database by DC Comics.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date July 1971; on-sale date April 27, 1971; published by National Periodical Publications (DC Comics).
- Story title: 'Peril in Plastic.' Written by Denny O'Neil, penciled by Neal Adams, inked by Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing co-creator), colored by Cory Adams, lettered by John Costanza, edited by Julius Schwartz.
- The cover features a photo-reference likeness: the face of the villain 'Wilbur Palm' was modeled on a photograph of Marc Iglesias, then a Kinney/Warner executive and vice president at DC Comics — confirmed by Neal Adams in a 2010 interview.
- The plot centers on an environmentally devastated company town, Piper's Dell, where GL is incapacitated by fumes from a plastic-pin factory, ultimately unmasking the mayor as his long-standing foe Black Hand (Wilbur Palm), a GL villain who first appeared in Green Lantern #29 (1964).
- The story contains the in-joke 'Ka-loooota' sequence: Adams had been playfully shouting artist Michael Kaluta's name around the DC offices as if it were a nonsense sound, and O'Neil worked the exclamation into the script as an homage — an incident Wrightson confirmed in later interviews.
- Issue #84 falls within the run titled 'Green Lantern Co-Starring Green Arrow' on its covers, a branding used from issues #76 through #87 and then #89–122.
- The issue has been reprinted at least nine times, including in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #5 (1984), The Green Lantern/Green Arrow Collection (2000), Showcase Presents: Green Lantern #5 (2011), and the Absolute Green Lantern/Green Arrow edition (2016), as well as a Spanish-language edition by ECC Ediciones (2017).
- This issue is part of the broader Hard-Traveling Heroes arc collected in Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard-Traveling Heroes Deluxe Edition (DC, 2018), which gathers Green Lantern #76–87 and #89 along with Flash backup stories.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Groene Lantaarn Classics #2728 (1973), Green Lantern #28 (1979), Gigant #2/1980 (1980), Gigant #2/1980 (1980), DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #16 (1981), Mundo de Aventuras Especial #30 (1982), Green Lantern / Green Arrow #5 (1984), The Green Lantern / Green Arrow Collection, Volume Two: More Hard-Traveling Heroes #[nn] (1993), The Green Lantern / Green Arrow Collection #[nn] (2001), Green Lantern / Green Arrow #2 (2004), Showcase Presents: Green Lantern #5 (2011), Green Lantern / Green Arrow #[nn] (2012), Absolute Green Lantern / Green Arrow #[nn] (2016), Green Lantern/Green Arrow #[nn] (2017), Green Lantern / Green Arrow: Hard-Traveling Heroes Deluxe Edition #[nn] (2018)
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