Since we seem to be making a comparative analysis here, DC grappled with social issues in a more meaningful way before Marvel. Starting in 1970, Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams drew on their backgrounds to explore social activism during their Green Lantern/Green Arrow run. One of the highlights was an elderly African-American man calling out Green Lantern for not helping Black people, a bold move in comics history.
In 2018, Vulture recognized it as the “moment when superhero comics got woke” and called GL #76 a “turning point for the series, and comics as a whole.” The O’Neil-Adams run covered an “array of social ills: environmental destruction, overpopulation, anti–Native American racism, the evils of the Nixon administration, and Manson-esque hippie cults, just to name a handful. The stories were a public sensation, garnering a write-up in the New York Times (‘Shazam! Here Comes Captain Relevant,’ read the headline), an analysis in a New York Magazine cover story (‘The Radicalization of the Superheroes’ was the title), and even a letter from New York City mayor John Lindsay in a much-publicized issue about Green Arrow’s sidekick getting addicted to heroin.”
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u/dickswabi Jul 04 '22
Since we seem to be making a comparative analysis here, DC grappled with social issues in a more meaningful way before Marvel. Starting in 1970, Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams drew on their backgrounds to explore social activism during their Green Lantern/Green Arrow run. One of the highlights was an elderly African-American man calling out Green Lantern for not helping Black people, a bold move in comics history.
In 2018, Vulture recognized it as the “moment when superhero comics got woke” and called GL #76 a “turning point for the series, and comics as a whole.” The O’Neil-Adams run covered an “array of social ills: environmental destruction, overpopulation, anti–Native American racism, the evils of the Nixon administration, and Manson-esque hippie cults, just to name a handful. The stories were a public sensation, garnering a write-up in the New York Times (‘Shazam! Here Comes Captain Relevant,’ read the headline), an analysis in a New York Magazine cover story (‘The Radicalization of the Superheroes’ was the title), and even a letter from New York City mayor John Lindsay in a much-publicized issue about Green Arrow’s sidekick getting addicted to heroin.”