Alright, now we have some answers…
A while back, we posted that DC would be publishing a Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard-Traveling Heroes Omnibus.
Thing is, the placeholder image released at the time was pencilled by Ernie Chan and inked by Frank Giacoia. And the page count suggested that the volume would include a whole lot more than the landmark Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams run.
Well, now things are official. The Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard-Traveling Heroes Omnibus will, as we surmised, include O’Neil’s later issues with Mike Grell and others.
Here’s the official solicitation info, released Friday by DC:
GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW: HARD-TRAVELING HEROES OMNIBUS
Written by DENNIS O’NEIL
Art by NEAL ADAMS, MIKE GRELL, and others
Cover by NEAL ADAMS
The renowned Hard-Traveling Heroes saga is collected in its entirety for the first time ever, with over two dozen never-before-collected stories, and nearly as many never-before-collected in color!
Collects Green Lantern #76-87, 89-123, Worlds Finest Comics #201, and stories from Brave and the Bold #100, DC Special-Series #1, DC Super-Stars #17, The Flash #218-224, #226-228, #230-231, #233-234, #237-238, #240-246, Green Lantern 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1, and Worlds Finest Comics #210, #255, with a brand-new introduction by Mike Grell.
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A few thoughts:
— I’m not sure how I feel about this. Sure, it’ll be nice to have all that Bronze Age GL/GA in one place but the O’Neil/Adams run was profoundly groundbreaking while the other material, published years later, was… good comics. No knock on them but I’m of the mind that the classic O’Neil/Adams collaboration should always stand on its own. It’s a masterpiece and it changed the industry. It is very much a historical document.
— Tsk, tsk, DC. “Hard-Traveling Heroes” was a term coined specifically for the O’Neil/Adams run.
— The cover’s lettering suggests this is another placeholder image. But I do imagine the Adams piece will be the art.
— The 1,336-page hardcover is due March 19, 2024. It lists for $125.
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MORE
— GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW to Get Omnibus Edition in 2024. Click here.
— Dig This Glimpse at the Upcoming NEAL ADAMS DC CLASSICS ARTIST’S EDITION. Click here.
October 20, 2023
That’s frequently a complaint I have with the Omnibus format. Often they are mashing together distinct runs that don’t really belong together (the Wrightson Swamp Thing run comes to mind, as does the Bronze Age Teen Titans volume). That said, it is also odd they chose to reprint the GL solo stories in the back of the Flash, but not the GA solo stories in the back of Action Comics (a few choice stories there with art by Dick Giordano and later Mike Grell).
November 18, 2023
Hopefully they include DC Retroactive: Green Lantern the 70’s and the first Green Lantern Green Arrow back up story from the Flash #217
October 20, 2023
It looks like this also includes the entirety of the Green Lantern solo backups that ran in Flash between the end of the first run of GL / GA and the beginning of the second run, five years later. That is good news to me, since I was seriously annoyed years ago when the 4th volume of the Showcase Presents series skipped these entirely and jumped directly to the Grell GL / GA issues.
While we are at it, I’d also really like a Bronze Age Green Arrow & Black Canary omnibus, collecting the GL & BC backups that ran in Action Comics, World’s Finest, and Detective Comics up to the start of Longbow Hunters
October 20, 2023
I’m glad the Adams material is there along with the Flash backups, because I doubt the Grell, Saviuk, and Staton material would have been collected otherwise.
October 20, 2023
This is probably acting as an unofficial Volume 0 to a Green Lantern Bronze Age line. The Green Arrow backups are probably being saved for a separate one volume omni.
I think the Adams material has been collected on its own so many times that this presentation is perfectly acceptable. In fact it’s already been done this way courtesy of the Showcase Presents collection.
October 21, 2023
I’m ecstatic to have ALL this in one volume. I haven’t see the flash backups on like 45 years. Amazon and penguin seems to point to may 21 tho not march….
October 22, 2023
If DC are going for a complete GL/GA collection, it seems a shame not to include the GL Retroactive 70s issue by Denny O’Neil and Mike Grell and the Legends of the DC Universe by Denny and Greg Land. Hopefully there’s still time…