Aquaman #17 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), Paul Pelletier (pencils), Sean Parsons (inks), Rod Reis (colors)

The Story: Needless to say, these whale-hunters engage in some serious overkill here.

The Review: As an English geek, I always find it interesting when comics declare an issue as an epilogue to some arc, because in reality, they very rarely serve as one.  Traditionally, an epilogue tidies up the last bits of plot left lying around after the bulk of the action is over, giving the final sense of closure and resolution needed for a truly satisfactory ending.  In serial fiction, devoting a whole issue/episode to an epilogue makes for a pretty dull chapter, which explains their rarity.

What you almost always end up getting is something of a hybrid epilogue/prologue, perhaps wrapping up a few loose ends from the last arc, but mostly setting the stage for the next one.  This issue has more of the prologue in its genetics, as it shows Aquaman well along his new reign as king of Atlantis, and it jumpstarts a few new conflicts, one involving Mera and another involving what looks to be a rival for the title of “King of the Seven Seas”—who is not Orm.