Aquaman #24 – Review

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

The Story: The awkward moment when you realize you’ve been the bad guys all along.

The Review: It’s hard to say whether the DCU post-relaunch is superior to the one pre-relaunch, but Aquaman has definitely profited from this new universe in a way he wouldn’t have had he been reborn with all that old continuity still hanging around his neck.  A clean slate afforded him the chance to exorcise all the confusion and strangeness of past portrayals, usually from writers who couldn’t agree on a core take on the character, his history, and his mythos.

Charged with the task of giving some kind of clarity to Aquaman’s life and direction, Johns has carried it out through a combination of reviving enduring chapters of the sea king’s back history (e.g. his half-Atlantean heritage, Mera, Vulko, Orm, Tula) while adding new parts to his current continuity (e.g. the Others, Murk, Warden Urn).  Now that Johns has put in three years of building up Aquaman’s world, the timing seems right to start breaking down old assumptions.