Customer Reviews

Green Lantern: Agent Orange

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The concept of the Green Lantern Corps is one of the genuinely genius ideas in comics. Superficially similar in nature to the Jedi Knights of Star Wars, the Green Lantern Corps are essentially space police, and their tales chronicle the exploits of sentient representatives from various solar systems around various galaxies, given immensely powerful green rings that are powered by will. Lanterns know no fear, or are at least able to overcome it.

The ongoing Green Lantern series chronicles the adventures of Earth's greatest Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, a smart, tough, not-big-into-planning test pilot with a healthy scepticism of authority, a certain talent with women and an indomitable will. Green Lantern: Agent Orange, collects issues 39-42 of the ongoing series, and parts of Blackest Night 0, as well as sections of the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps mini-series, and is one of the best single Green Lantern or comic stories you'll read all year, and there are a lot by Geoff Johns. To be enjoyed to its fullest though, I would recommend also buying the previous volume in this series, "Rage of the Red Lanterns" which is fantastic. This is not essential, but will greatly enhance the reading experience.

(If you're new to Green Lantern and can't afford to start from the first volume "Rebirth," then I would suggest at least going as far back as Green Lantern Secret Origin. That triumvirate of collections should be enough to give you the sweep and scope of the characters and the worlds involved.)

The story pits Hal against one of the most intriguing "villains" to come out of comics in a while, and is a sly allegory on Geoff Johns' part for the obsessive comic fan (at one point, the character declares, in response to Hal grabbing his Lantern, "Don't you dare dent it. It's in mint condition.") Larfleeze, (a combination of "lard" and "sleeze"), is an upright boar crossed with a muppet; with long spindly arms and legs, constantly drooling mouth and a head perpetually ablaze with the orange light of avarice. (Green was taken!) He wields the orange lantern of greed, and is the sole living embodiment of that power, although, he manifests an entire corps of "orange lanterns" from the spirits of creatures he has killed or consumed.

Hidden secretly away in the star system Vega for millenia, Larfleeze is finally disturbed by foolhardly "Controllers," immensely powerful beings related to the Guardians of the Universe, founders of the peacekeeping Green Lantern Corps. Larfleeze had entered into a secret pact with the Guardians, a pact which has now been disturbed by the entrance of the Controllers, and aims to keep his promises no more. He threatens the Guardians with retaliation at their "betrayal" and the Guardians go to the Vega system to investigate. Hal, who is currently suffering from having both a green ring (powered by will) and a blue one (powered by hope) cancelling the other out, gets taken along with the Guardians on this errand. (The background to this development can be found in Rage of the Red Lanterns, the previous volume in the series.) Mayhem, adventure, some horror and much humour ensues, and the reader is delighted every step of the way.

The writing by Geoff Johns here is excellent and represents the best in graphic storytelling in the space opera genre currently being published. While the inherently silly concept of various colored lanterns powered by different emotions, and represented by a different color of the spectrum, would seem childish in lesser hands, Johns manages to bring a level of sophistication and gravitas to the concept that sells it well. Phillip Tan does an admirable job in the early chapters bringing the exploits of Larfleeze to life, but obvious difficulty with keeping a monthly schedule results in sometimes muddy results in the final two issues, and he has to be helped out by the equally capable Eddy Barrows, whose art style is similar enough that the transition between the two is nearly imperceptible. Tan does an excellent job of designing most of the characters in this volume though, and his lush and detailed pencils provides an air of claustrophia to the story that helps ground it and counterbalance its more fantastic elements. The characters and worlds he draws have texture, and his Larfleeze is at once fascinating and disgusting to watch on the page. Some pages though suffer from insufficiently clear panel layout, and like most young artists working today, clarity of storytelling is not always the main priority. Thankfully, there's more to admire here than to dislike, and the art overall on Agent Orange is actually pretty good.

With Green Lantern: Agent Orange, Geoff Johns builds yet another intriguing pillar in this massive and epic tale about the prophesied "war of light," between the various factions of the emotional spectrum. With Larfleeze, he has managed to create one of the single most intriguing, original and exciting characters to come out of the Green Lantern mythos in a while. The four chapters plus a few extra pages of story here seem a little slight if you're looking for a chunky, meaty cosmic saga to sink your teeth into. But on its own, the volume is completely entertaining and satisfying as a significant chapter in the overall Blackest Night saga Johns is working towards.

I highly recommend this!

'The Sinestro Corps War' pushed the 'Green Lantern' series to new heights and opened it up to a myriad of possibilities. After that, Geoff Johns began preluding the 'Blackest Night' event with story arcs that laid down the foundation for a climactic and epic War of Light. The story's complexity steadily increases as Johns builds on the concepts and premise of the comic, and the art is always top notch.

The notion behind the War of light, with its rainbow assortment of Lantern Corps, each powered by the emotional spectrum, chanting oaths and shining their rings across the galaxy, is admittedly a pretty silly one at its core. It takes a talented writer of Geoff Johns' caliber to transcend the series beyond the superhero genre and transform it into the compelling character-driven space opera, that it is.

Warning.. Amazon's description for 'Agent Orange' is very inaccurate. Daxam, Sodam Yat, Akrillo and Mongul do not appear in this book.

There are currently a lot of moving parts to 'Green Lantern', and 'Agent Orange' is no exception. There's as much character-development as there is for the plot. I don't like to give away spoilers, so here's a vague summary of what to expect:

Fatality is back, and ready for love. Hal is still struggling with his new ring, and the subtly pietistic themes behind Ganthet's and Sayd's Blue Lanterns are elaborated on. The Avarice Corps is introduced, when Larfleeze, 'Agent Orange' breaks his silence after a millennia of pining away in the Vega system; he proves to be truly dastardly but a joy to read. The story ends with a whopper of a twist, that exposes a great deal of the Green Lantern Guardians' deception and facism.

Guest artist, Philip Tan superbly illustrates this story arc. The panels are stark and muddy, but fluid and detailed. His creature designs for the Orange Lanterns are fantastic and authentically alien; however, his characters at times can be a tad bulky and malformed. Tan's style is best suited to the realm of horror, and this arc has plenty of horror on tap. The coloring is a bit inconsistent throughout, but it's nothing that takes away from the overall quality. Ivan Reis is the preferred artist for 'Green Lantern'; however, I enjoyed the fresh take on the series.

'Agent Orange' layers the 'Green Lantern' title with more interpersonal drama, plot twists and foreshadowing of things to come. The highlight of course is the introduction to the Avarice corps, which is a corps entirely unlike the rest, involving rather unique and entertaining dynamics. Larfleeze is one of DC's most intriguing and bizarre personalities, and the powerful Light of Avarice he wields not only effectively compliments his character, it presents a possibly unbeatable challenge to the Green Lanterns. Geoff Johns balances the grimness prevalent in this arc with well-placed humor, and with the help of magnificently raw and eerily gorgeous artwork, he takes our favorite green protagonist into dangerous and unknown territory.

Highly Recommend.

There... I said it!!!!.

Let's start with the good stuff. The art... I'm quite surprise about Philip Tan's work on this book. Feels like the new Jim Lee but with less bulkier characters. Cool character design, great execution with the existing ones and magnificent backgrounds. Art have a perfect ten!!!.

The story by Geoff Jones is exactly like his late work... AWESOME!!. This is an incredibly great book to lead to Blackest Night. These last few books of the series has been quite an eye opener for the past of the guardians, and this is not the exeption. I love when I see something good is cooking.

This book contain:
* Green Lantern 38 to 42
* A chapter from Origins & Omens that shows a bit of the future of Hal Jordan and John Steward. Spoiler free!.
* A short chapter from Tales of the Orange Lanterns
* Some alternative cover gallery
* Blackest Night 0, which contains sketches, short comments on the drawings and a short presentation of each lantern corps, including the ones we know so far and the Indigo and Black Lanterns.

Now let's go with the bad part:

THIS IS 128 PAGES ONLY!!!!!!!!. Although the content is good, I really hate the fact that DC is ofting throwing thinner books. For what I include above it would seem is a big book, but is not. It is one of the smaller books they've publish so far. What's gonna be next time... a 59 page hardcover?. Sheeesh!!.

Anyway, those were my two cents. I HATE TO LOVE IT!!!!!!!.

Get the paperback edition. Is only $10 although, if you can find a discount on it, TAKE IT!.

Yes Green Lantern is one the best books right now, and the quality of this book is great (the art by Tan and the story by Johns are really top-nocht) BUT I can't shake the feeling that I have been cheated by DC. The cause of this is that the whole book it's supposed to be 128 pages, but actually it's merely 96, all the other pages are concept art etc. Don't get me wrong I really liked it but it should be .... bigger

The ending of "Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War" was a turning point in the Green Lantern franchise. It brought new readers on board and outlined an endpoint two years down the road: "Blackest Night". The road to Hal Jordan and the GLC's darkest hour reaches its final stage with "Green Lantern: Agent Orange".

Hal Jordan has survived his transformation into a Red Lantern during the previous volume, "Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns". But to save his life, Hal was forced to accept a Blue Lantern ring, which is now interfering with the operation of his Green Power Ring. It has also garnered the attention of the Guardians, who are furious that ex-Guardians Ganthet and Sayd did not go quietly into exile after the Sinestro Corps War. But their problems are superseded by an even larger one.

The Controllers, cousins to the Guardians, have attempted to harness their own light in preparation of the coming conflict. They have pursued the orange light of avarice to the Vega System, which has traditionally been off-limits to the GLC. Instead, their own greed has unleashed an old threat to the GLC that will bring the universe to the beginning of the Blackest Night...

As with the previous volume, the story is focused on fleshing out another new faction in the War of Light: Agent Orange AKA Larfleeze. Larfleeze is easily one of the best additions to the GL mythos in years and is equal parts Gollum, Daffy Duck, and Muppet. While there is an almost cartoonish comedy to his greed, it is balanced out with a threat and power level that even the Guardians can't handle. The story itself, however, is a weaker lead-in to "Blackest Night" than its counterpart, "Green Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse" and is compressed. The artwork also leaves much to be desired. Phillip Tan, while detailed and suited to the Orange Lanterns, could not keep up with the demands of a monthly book. His artwork is supported by fill-in artist Eddy Barrows, whose style is similar.

Coming off the pages of the Red Hot: Rage of the Red Lanterns, this book has a much more relaxed feel. Additionally, the titular character, Larfleeze (Agent Orange) is kind of dropped on us w/o an all encompassing backstory until the volume is almost at an end. While to some his powers might seem intriguing, you'll have to wait for an upcoming "Blackest Night" tie-in to get the true nature of his corps.

Across the board "Orange" is hated on, and while it's not "green lantern at its best", it and Larfleeze, are both necessary evils in getting us to arrive at the pages of Blackest Night.

Since many people are picking up these books based on "how does it relate to BN?" this is the one. From start to finish, you will arrive at the beginning of "Blackest Night"

This is one of the preludes of Blackest Night. A new Lantern has appeared: Agent Orange of Avarice. The Green Lantern must fight Agent Orange. There were some parts of the text that I had no idea on where I was supposed to start reading. There were so many cool textures and colors and details that it blew my mind. I liked the art and the writing is great as well. It's a worthwhile read for any Green Lantern fans.

Reviewed by Kole for Book Sake.

Agent Orange is a must for collecting the whole perspective of Geoff Johns run on the title. For starters, it picks up right after Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns, so it is essential reading if your following the title, as well as taking place just before the Green Lantern: Blackest Night and the Blackest Night event.

Agent Orange is an excellent read not only for the continuing storyline of Hal Jordan, but also about the rise of the orange light that will lead into the Blackest Night event. If anything, it's worth picking up due to us finally seeing the only member and mastermind of the Orange Lanterns, Larfleeze. Where Larfleeze does become a comedic relief and a character on GL's social satire in most of the following issues after Agent Orange, here he's depicted as powerful, aggressive, and evil-looking being in his first appearance that's almost absent afterword. Seeing these powerful qualities in his first appearance are special, since we don't see these about the character after this issue. But this still an excellent read for the story as well.

Now the negative: the length. I would give the book 4 stars only because of the length. It only has 4 issues worth of material, so the book is short. And considering how good it is, it feels like it's only 3 issues worth. It moves that quick. The book is quite skimpy for $15, and I feel it should be $10 or maybe $12...but since Amazon offers it for $12, then I feel that's pretty good, so I kept it at 5 stars.

Well worth checking out.

With Geoff Johns involved it's always going to be good. The combination of writing style and artwork in the series is really taking things to a great level. <3 Green Lantern

So this book is another prequel to Blackest Night and this one introduces us to the Orange Lantern Corps. Well, the one guy who is an orange lantern and his constructs that are his "corps." The character of Larfleeze is introduced and we find out how he got the orange lantern and just why he is so greedy.

Also we find out about the deal that the Guardians of the Universe made with Larfleeze to make the Vega system outside the control of the Green Lantern Corps. Hal also still has the blue ring on his other hand, plus we find out about what effect the blue ring has on the Orange Lantern, how it can bring Agent Orange under control and satisfy the endless hunger that is brought on by the Orange Lantern and it's rings.

In addition to all that, we find out just what Hal Jordan "hopes for," it's truthful and funny at the same time! There's also a funny story at the end about another "member" of the Orange Lantern Corps.

This is another prequel to Blackest Night, and if you're a fan of Green Lantern or you wanna know more about what led up to Blackest Night, then you HAVE to read this!