Green Lantern #42

Happy days are here again, Green Lantern #42 showed up in my mailbox today! After doing my Green Lantern happy dance, I eagerly tore the protective wrapper off and commerced reading. This issue is once again written by the magnanimous Geoff Johns(I'm starting to run out of adjectives to describe Geoff!).

-This issue begins with Larfleeze obtaining the object of his desires, Hal's blue ring. However, it seems that Larfleeze never actually possessed the ring, instead the ring gave Larfleeze a taste of what he wanted before ripping it away... Wow, that ring is just plain mean... After Larfleeze "loses" the ring, he attacks Hal anew, but Hal counters with an army of Green Lantern constructs, similar to the Orange Lantern constructs Larfleeze has been using.

-On the surface of the planet Okaara, John Stewart is trying to deal with Star Sapphire Fatality, his old sworn enemy. Fatality tries to get John to forgive himself for the destruction of her homeworld and plants a kiss on him. John pushes her away, and she reiterates that he needs to forgive himself before taking off.

-With Larfleeze paying more attention to Hal and his faux Green Lantern Corps, the Green Lanterns and the Guardians on the surface of the planet have begun to take the initiative and manage to break into Larfleeze's inner sanctum. Larfleeze becomes momentarily distracted by the arrival of the Guardians and their forces and Hal takes that opportunity to wrestle the Orange Power Battery away from Larfleeze. Possessing the Orange Battery transforms Hal into an Orange Lantern and his head is filled by thoughts of greed by the Battery. While Hal is distracted by the voice in his head, Larfleeze snatches the Battery back in a rage.

-Larfleeze, now totally pissed off by Hal's act of "thievery", powers his ring up to almost 8,000%(!!!)and tears into the Green Lanterns and the Guardians for their trespasses. Hal's blue ring asks him for the umpteenth time what he wishes for and Hal tells it he wishes it would shut up. The ring registers Hal's sincerity and powers him up with the power of the blue. The blue power beats on Larfleeze while simultaneously powering up the Green Lanterns present. After the rings power is expended, it leaves Hal's finger and begins to search for a replacement.

-Larfleeze is saddened by the fact that the blue ring is gone, and tells the Guardians that he can still attack them if need be. The Guardians, now tired of fighting and of the mindset that it's probably best if Larfleeze keeps the Orange Battery, as opposed to an unknown quantity, decide to strike a deal with Larfleeze. The Guardians send the Green Lanterns away while they finalize their deal with Larfleeze.

-On the surface of Okaara, Hal reveals that he saw an image of Sinestro asking for his help while he was being powered by the blue ring. The Guardians teleport to the surface of Okaara, but refuse to disclose what kind of deal they made to appease Larfleeze.

-The main story of this issue ends with us discovering that Larfleeze wanted to know where to find a blue ring, and the Guardians sending him straight after Ganthet, Sayd and their fledgling Blue Lantern Corps...

-The epilogue sets up Blackest Night with the two Green Lanterns sent by Scar to find the corpse of the Anti-Monitor finally completing their journey. The two Lanterns discover the huge Black Lantern that sprung up around the Anti-Monitor after his defeat in the Sinestro Corps War. The Black Lantern registers living beings in its proximity and the corpse of the Anti-Monitor(?)springs to life and attempts to kill the two Lanterns.

This comic was kind of a mixed bag for me. I really enjoyed it, but I'm so psyched for Blackest Night(which is a mere two weeks away!!!)that I really just wanted this issue/story to end so the Blackest Night festivities could get underway. I've been waiting for the Blackest Night to get started for so long that I really didn't care how the Orange Lantern story concluded. Is that a dumb way to look at things? Yes, but that's me. For a score, I'll go with an 8 1/2 out of 10. I enjoyed this issue and would happily recommend it, but in the long run I didn't really care about it.