We can all quit pretending that Aquaman is a joke right? Aside from a dorky depiction on a cartoon decades ago, Arthur Curry is consistently one of DC’s coolest heroes. My man (my man!) can talk to fish, navigate the deep seas, he’s super strong, he deals with magic and pirates and monsters and aliens, he rules. The seven seas that is. Recently, Aquaman has gotten a creative team worthy of his majesty, and they’ve been cooking with heat!
Who’s This By?
You’re asking me about Kelly Sue Deconnick? Hell yeah! KSD has been writing comics since 2004, but she really started to pop when she started doing work for Marvel in 2010. Her miniseries “Osborn: Evil Incarcerated” was quietly awesome, and it started an illustrious partnership with artist Emma Rios. The two of them would later go on to create “Pretty Deadly,” which is published by Image. KSD also does the excellent “Bitch Planet” with Valentine de Landro. But we’re sort of beating around the bush here. Deconnick is most famous for her work on “Captain Marvel.” Though she didn’t create the character, her take was so definitive, it inspired every version of Carol Danvers seen since, including in the hit feature film. More recently, Deconnick has been doing work for DC, which brings us to “Aquaman.”
Robson Rocha is an in-house artist for DC, and though he is a company guy, he’s more than a simple journeyman. Rocha came to DC around the same time KSD was starting out at Marvel. This was the era of the New 52 relaunch, and there were 52 series being published, so lots of work to be done. Rocha did art on a bunch of those series, including “Superboy,” “Teen Titans,” “Demon Knights,” and “Red Hood and the Outlaws.” He’s proven himself to be a team player and a great talent, who will turn any script into a coherent finished product. And with KSD writing those scripts, the finished product is awesome.
What’s This All About?
Oh, now you wanna know about Aquaman? The monarch of Atlantis? King of the seven seas? Co-founder of the Justice League? Arthur Curry is an A-tier DC hero who we all trick ourselves into thinking is a C-lister. The current run started with issue #43, and with the new creative team came a new tone. Just as DC was dissolving Vertigo, Aquaman sort of became a Vertigo series. It’s a book drenched in mist and shadow, full of mystery and danger. There’s action and adventure to be had, but this run plays up the magical side of the DC universe, and that’s a very good thing.
More concretely, it’s a story about Aquaman freaking out and ditching adult responsibilities. His wife (fiance? DC is weird about marriages) is pregnant, and Arthur is just not ready for all that. While Mera continues to rule in Atlantis, Aquaman is trying to find himself.
So, Why Should I Read This?
From anyone else, a story about a deadbeat superhero dad ditching his partner to bro out would be cringe-worthy. From Deconnick though, it’s incredibly engaging. She’s a smart enough writer that she knows all the lazy story moves a lesser writer would take and indeed, that’s partly the point. You can’t help but feel Deconnick’s frustration with how we talk about the responsibilities of parenthood, and she’s got a couple of things to say about it. What’s awesome is that she shows a lot of compassion for Aquaman, even though he’s so much in the wrong. The story isn’t going to end with a simple choice of “be a dad” or “be a cool superhero.” Lives are messy, and the compromises we make are never perfect. That’s really the message at the heart of this series.
Continued belowBut also, it’s about forgotten gods, legendary ship captains, undersea politics, and the rise of one of the coolest villains DC has to offer: Black Manta. He’s a guy who answers the question: what if a submarine pirate but also Iron Man? And he’s lurking in the shadows, ready to come back into the life of the man he blames for his father’s death. That’s a lot of good ingredients. Between strong themes, experienced scripting, exciting art, and that spooky Vertigo tone, “Aquaman” is more interesting than most superhero books, period.
How Can You Read It?
Issue #50 is out today at your local comic book store. For those that prefer trade paperbacks, the first volume is being billed as ‘Unspoken Water,’ and will be available on August 13th.
