|
|
Superman Store
Super
Hero Collectibles |
|
|
Rating:  -
Quite the entertaining story, Agent Orange is filled with terrific art work creating amazing images. Larlfleeze as Agent Orange is definitely one of the most interesting and entertaining characters in comics that I've seen in a while. It was a great read that I wish could have been longer, especially into Agent Orange's origin and that of his constructs. Otherwise, I anxiously await the Blackest Night to premiere in tpb.
Rating:  -
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"
Rating: -
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
Rating: -
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!
Rating: -
`Agent Orange' picks up right where `Rage of the Red Lanterns' left off with Hal Jordan having a green ring on one hand and a blue one on the other. Geoff Johns has been expanding the Lantern universe at a blistering pace and in this compilation he introduces Larfleeze, the Orange Lantern. Don't let the silly name fool you; Larfleeze is instantly one of the most powerful characters in the DC Universe having the power of an entire corps. The orange ring, powered by avarice, seems like an homage to the Ring of Doom from Lord of the Rings with Larfleeze playing the part of Gollum. Instead of `My Precious' we get `Mine Mine Mine'. The orange ring is an extraordinarily potent weapon that controls the wearer by instilling within him an insatiable greed. When he sees Jordan with a shiny blue ring Larfleeze is completely unable to control his desire to own it. As was shown in the previous volume the blue rings are phenomenally powerful but can only work in conjunction with a green ring (hope needs will) but Hal is having problems getting the two rings to work together.
I found it a little odd that Geoff Johns spent so much time introducing the Red Lanterns only to have them completely absent from this volume. It's like he has so many ideas in his head that he can't complete one before moving on to another. In this case I forgive him because Larfleeze is a great new addition to the Lantern pantheon. The explanation for how such a powerful being could remained unmentioned until now is a restriction on Green Lanterns entering the Vega system. In fact the entire ban on entering the Vega system was initiated just to avoid a conflict with Larfleeze, a being the Guardians claim is as big a threat as Parallax. Unlike the other colored rings the orange ring has but one wearer (thanks to the avarice). Whenever Larfleeze kills he then creates a ring bearing `avatar' of the deceased in order fill out his own lantern corps subject to his will. After the Controllers have an ill advised encounter with Larfleeze he gets a bit riled up and the Guardians decide it's time to deal with this threat once and for all. A task easier said than done.
Geoff Jones often writes like someone with attention deficit disorder jumping from one idea to another. In my opinion his tenure writing the JSA was not good, with so many things happening it became a total mess and I abandoned the series. Legion of Three Worlds was also a mess but in the end succeeded more than failed (although that's open to debate). His time writing Green Lantern has been likewise spastic but here it works very well. How can I put this without sounding like a horrible put down? He reminds me of Rob Liefeld if Liefeld actually had any talent. I imagine Liefeld desperately trying to come up with super cool, awesome characters. Johns is probably the same way except the characters he develops are actually legitimately interesting.
Philip Tan continues to deliver on the visuals and they look fantastic with all the purples, greens, blues and oranges. I enjoyed some of the experimentation he does including one frame where the background is blurred creating a sense of depth to the image. It's a pretty neat effect that I'd love to see more of. Besides his spectacular technical proficiency Tan is also a very creative artist and he really lets it all hang out in drawing the avatars of the orange lantern corps. The book includes some extra sketches done by Philip Tan of various alien life forms and they look absolutely spectacular. In addition there are some nice full page layouts (not drawn by Tan) of the various lantern corps including their most important members. I feel that these kinds of extras should be mandatory for compilations. Without them it's like buying a movie on DVD with no special features, disappointing.
I almost didn't buy this compilation because it wasn't getting as good of a buzz as `Rage of the Red Lanterns' from the professional reviews but in the end I really enjoyed it and it is the bridge to Darkest Night. In fact I believe this is the first appearance of the black lantern. The book even includes a layout for the black lantern corps including its leader Black Hand. If you enjoyed Johns previous work on Green Lantern I see no reason not to pick up this one.
|
|
|
|
1 2
|
|
Superman Actors and
Actresses Posters and Photos
check out these sections for lots
of great images that you can have for your own wall. Find out how
each actor or actress relates to Superman.
Actors
Actresses
Movies
Television
Shows
Classic
Superman Posters Superman
the Movie
Superman
II Posters Superman
III Posters Comic
Book Posters
Your Favorite
Super Hero Posters
Batman Captain
America Fantastic
Four
Green
Hornet Incredible
Hulk
Spiderman
Steel
Supergirl
Swamp
Thing Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles
Wolverine
Wonder
Woman X-men
|
|
|
