Aquaman #9 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), Ivan Reis (pencils), Joe Prado, Oclair Albert, Andy Lanning (inks), Rod Reis (colors)

The Story: All those years of PTSD therapy, undone by one super-villain attack.

The Review: As I read through this issue, it struck me that I haven’t been giving Johns enough credit for what he’s been doing on the title.  In many ways, Johns has had to reintroduce Aquaman like a brand-new hero, giving him a fresh mythos for a new generation of readers.  At the same time, Johns has not only been preserving the essentials of Aquaman’s lore, he’s been portraying Aquaman as a hero who comes with a rich history already attached.

The Others represent this strange mixture of new and old in Aquaman’s current continuity.  Though I still think it an unusual choice for Johns to spend so much time establishing a whole other set of characters when his star still has a long way to go in the development department, he’s been doing a remarkably good job at it.  The opening with Prisoner-Of-War shows Johns’ writing at its best: largely stripped at dialogue, yet incredibly informative and emotionally stirring.  I will happily accept any number of Others if Johns can write them all like this.