Josh pointed this out with his ‘Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark’ review of last week and I want to bring it up here. Books don’t need to have a deep meaning or a very ‘important’ feel to them every time. I don’t look at a Morrison book and automatically think it’ll be pick of the week. Just because I like his style of storytelling doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate ‘big, dumb fun’ in my comics. This is no more apparent then in this week’s issue of Green Lantern where….and I have a smile while typing this out….was nothing but big, dumb fun.

When you have Lobo in a comic, you’re definitely not going to be getting any ‘heavy’ moments like you’ve seen in previous issues of Green Lantern. He’s here for two things: To kill someone and cause as much collateral damage as possible. That’s basically all we get in this issue as an epic Atrocious vs Lobo fight happens. Along the way we get some really funny moments, some nice action scenes, and even some advancements of the plot. Geoff Johns really has a good knack at writing Lobo. There wasn’t a moment where he didn’t make me chuckle and even made some fun on himself for writing Hal Jordan in the past. When we have Sinestro getting in some witty banter and some Dex-Starr action (more on that in a second) this was just really a fun issue to read from beginning to end.

What makes this issue even better is just the insane and gorgeous artwork by Doug Mahnke. He has killed it with every single issue of this series and there is no sign of Mahnke slowing down. This isn’t the first time Mahnke handled Lobo before and it shows, as he really does some great panels with him. From the opening two page spread to Lobo shoving a yellow construct forcefully down Sinestro’s mouth; it’s all beautiful. Mahnke also handles some more chilling moments though, like the opening two pages with a returning character and more involvement with the constructs kidnappings. If there is anyone that can handle the insanity with this month’s issue, it is Mahnke and he handled himself brilliantly.

Then we have the best thing going for this issue and it was a long time coming: The origin of Dex-Starr! It’s so funny to think how an idea (that was just a joke from another writer) has now turned into a phenominon. Here though we actually get a pretty sad origin for the red kitty of death and even the ridiculousness of the character can’t help but make me feel sorry for it. It’s like how Daniel Way handled the origin for Hit-Monkey. Just like that character, Johns handles this with seriousness and again you just really feel sorry for this damn cat. Also, good work by Shane Davis to really make this origin look good. For some panels I really thought I was looking at Frank Quitely designs; it’s that good looking.

You get a lot of bang for your buck with this issue. An insane, but gorgeous and extremely fun, issue of Lobo fighting Atrocious and all of the other Guardians. Add in an origin of the deadliest kitty in the galaxy, and you have quite possibly the best issue of Green Lantern to date. Geoff Johns should bring Lobo back every issue to keep things entertaining. Considering how this issue ends….that might happen quicker then I thought.