Written by Geoff Johns
Illustrated by Ivan Reis Aquaman has been left for dead in the middle of the desert! But how did the King of Atlantis find himself marooned in such a hellish environment? As Aquaman struggles to survive impossible odds, what extreme measures will he resort to in order to stay alive?
One of the greatest joys of fandom, of any kind, is experiencing that moment of shared thought between you and the creator. “THAT’S EXACTLY HOW I WOULD HAVE WRITTEN IT!” We’ve all had those moments, where our ambitions for the things we love match up perfectly with what we actually get.
I wish I could say that Aquaman elicited one of those moments.
Hit the jump for more on why this book just isn’t working for me.
The underlying conceit of Aquaman is that he is the among least popular superheros, and a bit of a punchline to the world at large. This is a fine starting place for a comic book – in fact, if used properly, this could be a fun meta-story, where no matter what Arthur does, people still laugh at him. But for this to work, there needs to be two things firmly established from the start:
1) Why do people think he’s lame?
2) Why aren’t people, at least somewhat, afraid of him?
In the DCnU, heroes are still relatively new (iPods are about twice as old as superheroes are in current DC mythology), so it would make sense that a lot of heroes are still trying to establish themselves as a known entity to the world at large, and that some would be misunderstood.
However, everything that Arthur has done has been, frankly, pretty bad ass. Bullets bounce off of him, he can control all the creatures of the ocean, he kills things with a trident – he’s no sissy. Maybe in Aquaman: Year One, we’ll see that he used to ride a wave to “Wipeout” and delivered pet goldfish while wearing an apron and pig tails.
People pretty much, all over this book, walk up to him and say “Aquaman LOLz,” not fearing that he’ll super-punch you across two zip codes. Again, this just doesn’t seem to be in line with who the character has been established to be – he isn’t friendly, he isn’t patient, he’s frankly kind of a dick. And, if I remember much from my high school years, you don’t mess with the dick-ish guy with muscles, lest you want a beating.
So yeah, this character makes no sense to me.
Issue #5 continues to place this already imperfect character in puzzling situations. I know the “fish out of water” pun is too great to ignore, but DC has exactly one book that takes place in the largest place on Earth, the water, and yet the characters hang out on land way more than they do in the water. Dropping Aquaman in the desert leads to a series of predictable scenes from any desert-based story in history – or, really, any “injured person stranded” story. In fact, this is pretty much a poor man’s version of the “Chupacabra” episode of The Walking Dead TV series, with Arthur playing Daryl – he pulls a weapon from his body, wanders around, has a hallucination of a family member, and eventually winds up back home.
This issue hammers home the biggest problem with this series: why would anyone care about Aquaman? What about his character is enthralling, sympathetic, interesting, or even unique? His powers keep being brought up in relation to other heroes (“You have super hearing? Like Superman?”), and with the exception of last month’s battle underwater, we have rarely seen any underwater action.
What is another shame of this book is that it is wasting Ivan Reis, who has excelled in the (limited) underwater stuff. In this issue the most interesting thing he gets to draw is a water-hologram. That’s it. Why would DC put one of their top artists on a book that doesn’t fit their skill set. Reis excelled on Blackest Night, because the Black Lanterns fit his detailed, “realistic characters in an insane world” style. A style that, mind you, should fit this book like a glove. Aquaman and Mera travelling on the ocean’s floor, drawn by Reis, should be completely awesome.
Instead, he gets to draw a lot of sand, and we are left with a bratty, emo Aquaman, surrounded by douchebags laughing at him, and Mera having no real characteristics besides “worried wife.” At least there’s a dog.
Final Verdict: 3.4 – Pass
