Thursday, June 16, 2011

Groove's Faves: "Battleground: Oa!" by O'Neil and Staton

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! As some'a ya might've heard, there's a new flick out (who knows, you might be at the midnight showing even as this post hits the interweb!) involving a certain long-running, much-loved DC superhero. Yeah, that's right, Green Lantern! You can bet Ol' Groove will be at the local cineplex Friday afternoon to catch all the glorious green, as I'm sure many of you will be doing, as well. To celebrate Hal Jordan's attempt at conquering Hollywood, I thought I'd run a fave GL tale from back in the late-Groovy Age, "Battleground: Oa!" from Green Lantern #127 (January 1980). This mini-epic has it all: GL in action with the whole Green Lantern Corps battling Sinestro and the Weaponers of Qward, with the fate of the Guardians of the Universe in the balance. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see a scene or two pinched from this Denny O'Neil/Joe Staton classic in the GL flick.

You'll no doubt notice that "Battleground: Oa!" is the finale to a sprawling, multi-ish GL epic in which the Weaponers kept the Emerald Gladiator busy fighting bad-guys on earth while they attempted to capture the Guardians and conquer Oa. One look at the GL Corps as illustrated by Brian Bolland on the cover should calm any fears about how this whole she-bang will turn out. Charge your power rings, Groove-ophiles! We headed straight to Oa!

(Muchas gracias to NastyNat for the stupendous scans!)
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 16, 2011 at 9:58 PM

    This issue is the reason for the Tales of the Green Lantern miniseries. Brian's cover jumped the sales of the title to such a degree that it was decided that the Corps could handle their own limited series. Also, I was very proud of the title of this issue. I added it to the cover before the story was even finished. --Jack C. Harris

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  2. The Groovy AgentJune 16, 2011 at 10:15 PM

    Thanks for that added info, Jack! This issue was even more important than I thought.

    I need to add that, while the O'Neil/Adams era of GL gets all the glory (all deserved, mind you), we all need to remember that you, and Denny, and guys like Joe Staton kept GL going for many years--and made it a top-notch mag in its own right.

    You have lots to be proud of!

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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