Snowbirds Don't Fly - Awards and Recognition

Awards and Recognition

The "Snowbirds Don't Fly" arc won the 1971 Shazam Award for "Best Individual Story". In addition, New York Mayor John V. Lindsay wrote a letter to DC in response to the issue commending them, which was printed in issue #86. In 2004, comicbookresources.com author Jonah Weiland called the "Snowbirds Don't Fly" arc the start of an era of socially relevant Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics, a slant which eventually opened up the DC world to other minorities (e.g. homosexual characters) and climaxed in the character of Mia Dearden (Roy Harper's successor as Green Arrow's/Oliver Queen's sidekick "Speedy"), who is not only a victim of child prostitution but also later portrayed as HIV positive: but in spite of her sad fate, she is explicitly portrayed as a positive, pro-active hero by writer Judd Winick.