This week was rife with some good pulls, but when it came down to it, I pretty much had to go with Geoff Johns as an overall pick — to cover not only Green Lantern #55, but Flash #3 as well. However, it was Hal Jordan that beat out Barry Allen in the coveted Wednesday race. Judging the book by its cover, variant or standard, we know one thing: cranked hair metal and a loud chromed astro-Harley are to be abound. Translation, Lobo has himself a bounty to hunt.

Johns crafts a wonderful interlude piece in the overarching New Guardians story arc (GL #55 is Chapter 3), which appears to setting up the aftermath of Blackest Night as applied to the Spectrum Corps. While the opening three pages contribute to the wider mystery of the Entities, what follows is a complete blast of a brawl that is both artfully drawn as well as wittily bantered.

To start, in the first splash of Lobo, Mahnke gives us the Lobo we all know in the first two-page shot of him charging Atrocitus with Hal in tow. The imagery evoked the prefix that made the west wild; our bounty hunter being an apparent relic of a time (and especially a galaxy) long gone. The perfect intro for an awesome anti-hero playing delightfully into every cliche of the genre expertly crafted by Johns;

Case-in-point:
Lobo: “Your name Atrocitus?”
Atrocitus: “Who wants to know?”
Lobo: “I’ll take that as a big ‘YES’.”

Only here, all of downtown NYC was utilized as their saloon for the brawl with no sign of stopping. All I could hope for in the future is to see Lobo calmly grind through his teeth, “Get off my lawn.”

It doesn’t end with the conclusion of fisticuffs, however, as we get a bonus second story: The Origin of Dex-Starr!!! This alone, the beginnings of everybody’s favorite Rage-Spewing-Little-Kitty-Of-The-Apocalypse. Finally, we know where he came from, in a touching little story that shows a real depth to a character that probably started as a visual gag. To be honest, I did not see this as being his actual origin in the lead up, believing him to be something more cosmic along the lines of other Corpsmen/women. One thing is for sure, this little guy is on a mission, and he is definitely a good little kitty. Here’s hoping for many more appearances.

The combination of stories, which actually do tie together into what might be a larger origin/mission story for Dex-Starr over coming issues was a straight-up fun romp with GL, and a needed break in the monotony that is Brightest Day lately (though Issue #4 of BD showed promise). It is the perfect example of a fun comic that goes to prove why month after month GL is a staple of my pull list.