Aquaman #18 – Review

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

The Story: Heavy is the head that wears the crown—oh, wait.  He doesn’t have a crown.

The Review: Johns has always said he likes working with the B and C-listers of the DCU because they all have the potential for just as interesting a history and world as the top class heroes.  He’s right, of course.  Basically he’s touching upon a point that applies to all fiction writers: every character, even the ones with the smallest roles, deserves to have some kind of life that gives them dimension, and when they do, it makes the story that much richer.

So when Johns explores Aquaman’s Atlantean roots, what he’s really doing is adding a huge piece to the DCU mosaic.  Even if Johns ends up doing little with it himself (which I highly doubt), it’ll always be there, ready for any other writer to pull out or add to when the time comes.  For the moment, however, Atlantis is going through a pretty exciting development period where Johns is reimagining classic parts of its mythos and giving it new flavors as well.