You all know who Larfleeze is, right? He goes by many names. Some call him Agent Orange, some call him the Orange Lantern, and some still refer to him as “Gonzo with a power ring.” We can all thank Hal Jordan for that one. Anyway, last week DC decided to give Larfleeze the spotlight and actually gave him his own Christmas special.

As far as Larfleeze goes the story is pretty true to form. Larfleeze finds out about Jolly Old Saint Nick and decides to try and be a good boy long enough to cash in on some Christmas loot, but when Santa doesn’t come, Larfleeze decides it’s time to hunt Mr. Claus down and demand what he believes is rightfully his, even if he has to melt down the entire North Pole to do it. Further chaos and wackiness ensues from there.

Even though comic book Christmas specials are a dime a dozen, I just have to give DC some credit on this one for a number of reasons. The first is they actually managed to foreshadow this one a little in Green Lantern #56 when Larfleeze, having scoured the earth for something worth having, happens to stumble upon the mythos of Santa Claus. This leads him to decide that any planet with a magical guardian who gives out free stuff can’t possibly be bad. In addition to being hilarious this of course means for once we don’t have a Christmas special that seems to come out of nowhere.

The second thing is that it’s more than the typical Christmas story, although it has all the tags of one. In the end it still came off slightly moralistic with Hal Jordan trying to teach Larfleeze the meaning of Christmas, to give and not just to get. However, seeing Hal trying to teach someone whose life motto is “Mine!” the spirit of giving was good for a chuckle. Larfleeze has many names alright, but Ebenezer Scrooge isn’t one of them. I think it would take more that a wild night with three ghosts to get him to change his tune.

The third and final thing that really made me love this slightly cheesy story was that by the end of it I actually felt sorry for DC’s resident Orange Lantern. For the entirety of Blackest Night and most of Brightest Day, Larfleeze has operated as a bizarre source of comic relief in an otherwise completely serious story. Now we’re learning that even the “man” with nearly unlimited power can’t have everything, especially when that thing is his family. Geoff Johns could have made this story a complete joke, but instead he used it an opportunity to round out what is quickly becoming my favorite DC creation. If Johns and DC don’t deserve some props for that, then there is something very wrong with this world.

As far as comics go, this was the greatest Pre-Christmas gift this fan could ask for. However, it should go without saying that I’ll have higher expectation for next year.

-Brent

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