We are taking a few days off from publishing new content for the holidays, so enjoy some of our favorite Christmas-themed writing over the past 11 years! Merry Christmas to all!
Written by Geoff Johns
Illustrated by Brett BoothIt’s BRIGHTEST (CHRISTMAS) DAY! What do you want for Christmas? Orange Lantern Larfleeze wants everything — including Santa Claus himself! And nothing, not even the heroes of the DC Universe can to stop the Orange Lantern from getting what he wants! Plus, you won’t want to miss the strange holiday season shenanigans starring the rest of the Orange Lantern Corps! Superstar writer Geoff Johns and artist Brett Booth team up for an unbelievable sleigh ride adventure!
How glad I was to find out that the chance to review the long-awaited Larfleeze Christmas Special was MINE. We’ve all wanted it for so long, and now that it’s finally here you can go to your shop and buy every copy. I’m going to stop with the bad avaricious jokes and instead urge you to follow the cut for MY review.
This nice little one shot presents both a humorous and interesting idea: what happens when the greediest creature in the known universe finds out that Santa won’t be bringing him presents this year. Hilarity ensues, of course. If you don’t think Larfleeze learning about the spirit of Christmas isn’t a great concept, then you’re no fun. No fun at all. The panels of Larfleeze terrorizing mall Santas while riding his own ring-constructed sleigh pulled by two horrific orange lantern reindeer were the funniest things I had seen all week. Geoff Johns clearly has a ton of fun writing Larfleeze, and who can blame him? If the different colored corps are the best things to come out of Johns’ run on Green Lantern, Larfleeze is the best thing to come out of the different corps. There are a lot of great jokes in this issue, but hands down, the best line of the comic was:
Hal: You have a ring that can make anything you can imagine. What do you need a hovercraft for?
Larfleeze: They drive on land and sea!
It wouldn’t be Geoff Johns, though, if an issue about a “villain” didn’t have a sympathetic note to it. While most of the comic is lighthearted and fun, it ends with a bit of a downer, making the reader a bit more sympathetic for the greedy little guy. On the one hand, such an abrupt change in tone is a bit odd, but on the other the job of the writer is to elicit emotion from the reader. Take it as you will.
Some of my favorite things about this one-shot, though, are all the various little extras that are thrown in. There’s a maze to help Larfleeze find his way to the North Pole with some cute little illustrations on the side, as well as a little cut out ornamental pyramid… thing. But the best of the extras is, hands down, the recipe for Larfleeze’s Orange Lantern Cookies. They’re more or less sugar cookies, but with a hint of — you guessed it — oranges. As much as I’m interested in trying Green Arrow’s chili, I think this will have to go to the top of the rather short list of “comic-related recipes” I have to make, if only because of how ridiculous Larfleeze’s smiling face is on the page with the recipe.
As fun as this is, there are still obviously some problems with it. The art isn’t quite bad, but it’s very reminiscent of Rob Liefeld. While it’s loads better than the work we know and love Rob for (he’s gotten slightly better!) it’s still a bit jarring to look at a panel and think “is that… oh wait, no it’s not.” Additionally, there’s the price. Just yesterday I was talking about how unwilling I usually am to spend $3.99 on a 32 page comic. As hypocritical as it is, though, I’m going to have to say that sometimes something as fun as this is worth spending an extra dollar on. Despite the price and the not-bad-but-slightly-odd art, this is still worth the purchase.
Final Verdict: GIVE IT TO ME IT’S MINE!
