A cosmic crime lord dooms a planet in this The Green Lantern exclusive

The Green Lantern Corps is a squadron of interstellar police officers, but for many years the corps’ comics have focused much more on bombastic space opera rather than police procedural stories. That’s changed with the current The Green Lantern series by writer Grant Morrison, artist Liam Sharp, colorist Steve Oliff, and letter Tom Orzechowski, a team of comic-book veterans whose combined talent has elevated the concept to new levels of intrigue. Morrison has doubled down on the space cop angle, with each issue focusing on a specific case that highlights Hal Jordan’s occupational knowledge and how well he works as a squad leader. Morrison does exceptional work imagining alien societies that feel truly unusual, and the art team brings these creatures and environments to the page with impeccably detailed, brilliantly designed visuals that whisk readers away to these foreign worlds.

This exclusive preview of this week’s The Green Lantern #4 spotlights the spectacular alien imagery Sharp, Oliff, and Orzechowski create together, beginning with a stunning page showing moth-like beings in front of a crisp blue ocean. Sharp reinforces the otherworldly nature of this scene with moebius strip panels on this first page, and as this threatening exchange continues, the panel borders gain sharper edges that reflect Countess Belzebeth’s severity. Oliff matches the intricacy of Sharp’s linework in his coloring, which also accentuates the tonal shifts in the narrative with intense palette changes. Alien speech patterns and vocal rhythms are informed by Orzechowski’s wavy lettering, and all the aspects of the artwork function work together to heighten the strange, extraordinary ideas in Morrison’s script. `