COACH'S ENFORCER OF THE WEEK(S) - GREEN LANTERN #39

I'm back and breaking all the rules. Yeah, this book came out two weeks before this post but it's so good that it breaks the boundaries of space and time and makes itself known this week - Green Lantern #39. If you've been following my ravings lately you'll know that I've really gotten into the whole build up to Blackest Night thing that's been going on in the DC universe over the last four months or so.

This issue keeps up the pace with the introduction of the kinda creepy Orange Lanterns. It seems that these guys are so badass that the Guardians of the Universe (douchey blue fascist midgets with incalculable power who created the Green Lantern Corps, Manhunters, and other problems) cut some kind of deal with these freaks to stay in their own little sector of space and not come out billions of years ago. Unfortunately some other semi-immortal pink alien d-bags known as the Controllers seems to have broken the deal and have caused the Orange Lanterns to raise their greedy heads from the depths of the Vega System.

If that doesn't sound so bad, unfortunately it means having to deal with guys like this:

The Orange Lanterns seem to personify the emotion of greed. Greed for what hasn't been revealed yet, but if it's making the architect of the whole Blackest Night thing happy (a seemingly corrupted Guardian named Scar), then it can't be good for the universe as a whole. Artwork is very, very cool by the detailed-oriented Philip Tan. Tan seems to have taken over for the time being from the insanely good (but apparently slow) Ethan Van Sciver while he goes off to play with the new Flash: Rebirth mag.

However, there is no loss of quality for his departure to be sure and their styles are similar enough that the change is not disruptive. As I've said before, if you're reading one DC book, read two and get Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. Besides, when this blue biznatch starts raising dead DC superhero zombies, you won't want to miss it.