Green Lantern #40

Part two of the "Agent Orange" arc arrives in this 2009 DC issue, serving as a prelude to the looming Blackest Night event. Philip Tan and Jonathan Glapion's cover pulls no punches: Hal Jordan, ring blazing with green energy, clashes head-on against the fiery orange form of Agent Orange — a serpentine creature visible at his shoulder — while a second, smaller Green Lantern figure streaks below them against a planetary backdrop. Written by Geoff Johns, this is the kind of cosmos-spanning confrontation that made Green Lantern one of DC's most compelling reads of 2009.