Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Blackest Night Primer - Agent Orange

Our Blackest Night primer continues to roll along, this time trying to claim two hamburgers for ourselves with a spotlight on the greed loving Agent Orange, also known as Larfleeze, the lone member of the Orange Lantern Corps. These corps primers will cover the basics of each corps, from their oath to their leaders to their homeworlds, as well as their strengths, weaknesses and noteworthy members heading into the event.

If you missed any of our Blackest Night primer, make sure to check out the index post for basic information, links to all the other posts and the schedule for upcoming posts. When you're ready, hit the jump for everything you need to know about Agent Orange.


Corps Colour: Orange
Emotional Spectrum: Avarice (Greed)
First Appearance: Green Lantern #39
Homeplanet: Okaara (Sector 2828)
Leader: Larfleeze
Key Stories: Agent Orange
Oath: Unknown

Origin: The origin of Agent Orange goes back billions of years to a point in time before the Green Lantern Corps even existed and the Guardians of the Universe were still using the Manhunters as their primary agents. Larfleeze, along with several of his fellow guildmates, stole several valuable artifacts, including a mysterious box that turned out to house the imprisoned Parallax and another that contained a map left behind by Krona that spoke of a powerful artifact.

Fleeing the Guardians and their Manhunters, who did not want Parallax or the map to fall into the wrong hands, Larfleeze and his fellow thieves fled to the location marked on the map - Okaara of the Vega system. There, they found the hidden treasure, an orange power battery.

Unable to destroy Larfleeze, the Guardians made a deal with him. He would be allowed to keep the orange light and the Guardians would cede dominion of the Vega system to him in exchange for the box containing Parallax and on the condition that Larfleeze never share the orange light nor leave the Vega system.

And, so, there Larfleeze and the orange light stayed for thousands of years until being awoken in the recent Agent Orange storyline.


Initiation: Unlike other corps, who actual have multiple members, for the Orange Lanterns, there is only Larfleeze. All other Orange Lanterns are merely constructs created from the stolen identities of anyone Larfleeze or his constructs kill. It is unknown if the constructs maintain aspects of their personalities or powers after being created.


Powers: Harnesses avarice from the emotional spectrum to create orange light constructs, which are created in the likeness of anyone Larfleeze or his constructs kill. Larfleeze directly wields the power of the orange power battery and has it at his side at all times, which grants him considerable power. With it, he is strong enough to kill even a Guardian of the Universe. The orange light can absorb most any energy and is particularly strong against Green Lanterns. It was hinted in interviews that the avaraice entity is contained within the orange power battery that Larfleeze holds.


Weaknesses: Avarice cannot drain the power of a Blue Lantern's ring and is weak against the Star Sapphire's violet rings. Furthermore, the strength of the Orange Lanterns depends on the state of mind of its only member, Larfleeze. If he is distracted, the constructs will falter, as was the case with his confrontation with Hal Jordan in Agent Orange. There is an obvious addictive component to the use of the orange light and fear of losing that power can lead to mental instability.


Notable Members

Larfleeze

Larfleeze is the only member of the Orange Lanterns and goes by the codename, Agent Orange. He is millions of years old and has spent the majority of that time in isolation for fear of losing his power. His personality resembles that of Gollum from Lord of the Rings with his one track mind in regards to his 'precious' orange light. Physically, his appearance is that of an oversized Muppet.


Hal Jordan (Sector 2814)

While technically not a member, Hal Jordan managed to temporarily become an Orange Lantern when he took hold of Larfleeze's power battery. It was a brief moment, but, with Hal's penchant for using every ring he's come in contact with, his experience may be an important plot point during Blackest Night.




Orange Lantern Constructs

As stated, Larfleeze is the only official Orange Lantern and all others are merely constructs created by him. These constructs, however, are actually stolen identities of people Larfleeze, or his constructs, have killed. Among these constructs are the likes of the Controllers, a Guardian of the Universe, former Green Lantern, Gretti, and an unknown number of other lifeforms Larfleeze has killed throughout the millenia.


Related Posts


3 comments:

brandon said...

I believe Hal finally setted on Gonzo as the Muppet he resembles most. lol

Sebastian said...

Geoff Johns is really having fun with this story. Awesome!

Daryll B said...

So we decided that we aren't going to use 'Mine!!!' as his oath? lol

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