Larfleeze Christmas Special #1

“Orange you glad it’s Christmas?” by Geoff Johns and Brett Booth.  It had already been hinted during the current Green Lantern arc “The New Guardians” that Agent Orange a.k.a. Larfleeze was becoming fascinated by that strange Earth custom known as “Christmas”, and being the embodiment of avarice, he was not going to miss the opportunity of writing the longest wish list ever known.

Sadly for Larfleeze, the Guardian known as Santa Claus did not visit him, despite the fact that he built a cabin with a chimney, put up a tree with lights and ornaments, and even baked some yummy cookies –recipe included.-

In this Christmas special, Larfleeze goes after Santa Claus in an attempt to make him give him all the things he wanted; after all, he has been a good boy -mostly- but instead, the Orange Lantern has a revelation that might change forever the way we see this character.

I had already mentioned once how much I dislike comical relief in comic books (oh, the irony); but this story uses humor to actually teach Larfleeze -and us- a lesson.  Geoff Johns did a splendid job putting together this Christmas tale; I like the fact that it didn’t come out of nowhere; as pointed out before, issues of Green Lantern had already touched on the subject.  It is hilarious how Larfleeze refuses to believe that Santa isn’t real, and that it is all a conspiracy against him.  The end was a little of a bummer, but I guess that was the point of it all, still, the writing was amazing.

Variant by Brett Booth

I have loved Brett Booth’s pencils ever since a brief stint he had in the “Heroes Reborn: Fantastic Four” maxi-series, and I am really happy to see him working for DC; I hope this becomes a long association.  His art is very detailed, and his interpretation of Larfleeze is perfect.  Andrew Dalhouse’s colors are great as well; orange can become very overbearing after a while, but that was not the case here. 

Overall “Orange you glad it’s Christmas?” is one of the most refreshing comics of 2010; the storytelling is so fun, and all those little extras (the cookies recipe, the labyrinth, the Christmas ornament) make of it almost an activity book. There is also a bonus backup story featuring Glomulus -one of Larfleeze’s constructs- by Art Baltazar and Franco.  The Larfleeze Christmas Special is a must have in your comic book collection, more than anything else, because of its originality.  Happy Holidays everybody!!!