Aquaman #34 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Carlos Rodriguez (pencils), Bit (inks), Rain Beredo (colors)

The Story: Aquaman can talk to fish, but he can’t reason with them.

The Review: I’ve frequently remarked that lately, Mera has had the better storylines in this series, and I guess the implication is that Arthur has not. It stands to reason; while she spends the bulk of her time interacting with the supporting cast and exploring the physical and political landscape of Atlantis, her husband is swimming around and getting beaten up by various opponents. What you’re starting to realize is Aquaman has become one of the weaker parts of Aquaman.

That’s not a good situation when you have an issue that’s all about Arthur from start to finish, and more than half of it is devoted to round two of his match with Chimera. Things don’t go much better for him the second time around; Chimera keeps him on the defensive for most of the battle and only a bit of luck with a leaking petroleum truck gives Arthur the win. I say luck, and not quick thinking, because he clearly doesn’t have his head straight this issue. Considering how badly his telepathic summons worked against him last time, he only has himself to blame when his call of two sharks to his aid goes awry, leading to a scene right out of the end of Old Yeller:

“Break off!! Go!! …Stop—turn away—don’t make me fight you–! Don’t!! No…no!“*

Aquaman Annual #2 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Yvel Guichet & Alvaro Martinez (pencils), Jason Gorder, Wayne Faucher, Raul Fernandez (inks), Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: Aquaman and Wonder Woman’s not-so-excellent European road trip.

The Review: Since I didn’t finish taking the Bar until Thursday, I was a couple days late in picking up my weekly load of comics. I didn’t think it’d be a problem, though; my favorite shop usually carried more than enough copies of every issue. Certainly I didn’t think Aquaman Annual #2 was in danger of selling out. And yet would you believe that I had to call around to four different shops before I found a spare copy for myself? Everything else I got on Friday, but this one wasn’t in my hands until yesterday.

After reading the issue, I don’t even begin to understand what drove the droves to pick it up. I get the initial attraction: who doesn’t like the idea of an Aquaman-Wonder Woman team-up? They’re both major Leaguers; they both have royal bearing; and they both have roots in ancient mythology. Talk about a match made in heaven—you know, if Arthur hadn’t already hooked up with Mera first. But even if a romance was out of the question, the two still have plenty to bond over. Bizarrely, instead of talking over any of the things they have in common, they spend the time either politely or aggressively confronting each other’s priorities to their respective cultures.

Batman and Robin #33 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Friends don’t let friends fight evil gods alone.

The Review: I’m not a hardcore Bat-fan, but I can definitely see his massive appeal.* Despite his mortal frame, the man goes toe-to-toe alongside and against some of the most powerful forces in the universe and doesn’t even bat an eye—yes, pun intended. That kind of courage, guts, pluck, whatever you’d like to call it, always puts him on the verge of open conflict with somebody bigger than him, and it really doesn’t get bigger than the Justice League and Apokolips.

Bruce going rogue with the League goes about as well as you’d expect. He may be Batman, but getting past all his teammates by himself is beyond even him, as it should be. You couldn’t retain much respect for them otherwise. It’s also important that Bruce isn’t entirely in the right here. Vic and Arthur point out the folly of making an incursion into Apokolips and tackling something they’re not ready for, and they’re correct. The League may be party-poopers in this scenario, but they’re rightfully so.

Aquaman #33 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Paul Pelletier (pencils), Sean Parsons (inks), Rain Beredo & Rick Magyar (colors)

The Story: Arthur wants to shake things up in Atlantis—but not like this!

The Review: Again, sorry for the lateness, but Bar Exam calls. It’s nice to know, however, that no matter what happens with this ridiculous test, I will always have Aquaman. Nice, and a little depressing. But just to make it clear, the depression has nothing to do with the quality of this series itself. While it’s lost some of the epic tang of Geoff Johns’ run, Parker has positioned the series to be a dependable hitter, churning out one action-packed issue after another.

It’s not all underwater chaos, though. This issue in particular is remarkably balanced, splitting time not only between pure superhero hijinks and Atlantean domestic dramas, but also between Arthur’s surface and oceanic connections. They don’t all mesh together, exactly (nor do they need to), but they stand side-by-side in a seamless whole, with Arthur as the appropriate unifying force. You can hardly ask for anything more, except maybe for our hero to get some real studly moments.

Aquaman #32 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Paul Pelletier (pencils), Sean Parsons (inks), Rain Beredo & Rick Magyar (colors)

The Story: Apparently, no one read Frankenstein before this whole human chimera project.

The Review: We have an interesting relationship to science, don’t we? In the real world, we can hardly get enough of it; see the hordes waiting for the newest iPhone, watching the Curiosity rover putter around Mars, buying into anything that says it was “scientifically approved.” And yet our fiction is replete with plots where a scientific experiment/product goes wrong, leaving us the message that we’d be better off approaching science with caution than enthusiasm.

Just as you can expect any story starting with a huge technological leap will lead to a fall, you can bet that if a story begins with people in lab coats mucking with someone’s body, he’s going to arise in some monstrous form to terrorize us all. There was never any doubt that Orson’s gruesome surgeries on the technically dead Coombs was going to hell eventually; Orson has too little conscience and too much arrogance to avoid it. So when the hideously transformed Coombs (who later identifies himself as “the Chimera”) escapes Orson’s control, we view it with as much weariness as horror.

Swamp Thing #32 – Review

By: Charles Soule (story), Jesus Saiz (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Alec channels his inner Jacques Cousteau.

The Review: I may not be reading Red Lanterns or Inhumans or the other umpteen comics Soule’s writing now, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and declare that he’s doing his most inspired work on Swamp Thing. The degree of imagination here definitely surpasses anything he’s doing Superman/Wonder Woman, She-Hulk, or even his creator-owned Letter 44. We may reach a point where the mythos of the mainstream Swamp Thing becomes as rich as its Vertigo ancestor.

Maybe even richer. As Alec takes on a sea-plant body and experiences the sensation of diffusing oxygen underwater, he marvels, “I can’t believe I haven’t tried this yet.” Me neither! It’s not lost on either Soule or Alec that there’s an entire other world of plant life he has yet to discover: “I need to spend more time down here. I should understand this. Just explore. Maybe even do a little science. For a change.” That would be a great change, though the resulting series wouldn’t be very much like your typical superhero book—which is no failing in my eyes, frankly.

Aquaman #31 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Paul Pelletier & Alvaro Martinez (pencils), Sean Parsons & Raul Fernandez (inks), Rain Beredo (colors)

The Story: The king of the sea vs. the king of plants.

The Review: Aquaman and Swamp Thing. Couples don’t get much odder than that. It’s one of those unusual pairings that the now defunct Brave and the Bold might have played with once upon a time, in a one-shot that probably would’ve left little lasting value for either character. Teaming them up through their respective titles allows for a more permanent relationship, that is, if Arthur and Alec can work through their initial tensions.

But let’s be honest here: Arthur could never in a million years stand a chance against Alec, someone who can defy even Superman’s powers. Any fight between them can only end with Arthur’s humiliating defeat, which Alec postpones for as long as possible until he can’t stand the irritation of Arthur’s attacks anymore. Once he proves just how far he outclasses the sea king, at least Arthur is man enough to remark ironically, “Guess I showed him.”

Aquaman and the Others #2 – Review

By: Dan Jurgens (story), Lan Medina (pencils), Allen Martinez (inks), Matt Milla (colors)

The Story: The Others leave the world of the living—and come back again.

The Review: Usually, I give a new series a whole arc to get its bearings, especially if it’s from a set of creators I respect or admire. At the beginning, all I’m looking for is a sign, any sign, that greatness can arise from the title, given an opportunity to plant its roots. Every now and then, I run across a series that falls short of even that fairly low standard, which makes an early Drop necessary. I think Aquaman and the Others lands squarely in that category.

No one expects literary sophistication in comics, but Jurgens can’t even be bothered to create a veneer of credibility with his dialogue. Of all the ridiculous things I’ve seen in comics this week—see the mecha-zombie-ninjas in Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #2, for example—by far the most preposterous is the others casually chatting as they plunge from the sky after their plane gets shot down. Consider the following dialogue (and keep in mind this is all taking place during a freefall).

Aquaman #30 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Paul Pelletier & Alvaro Martinez (pencils), Sean Parsons & Raul Fernandez (inks), Rain Beredo (colors)

The Story: Aquaman is not going to be clapping and exclaiming “Hercules” after this.

The Review: If I can distill the difference between Parker’s Aquaman and Geoff John’s Aquaman to a few, pithy words, it’s the loss of the title’s epic quality. There’s no longer the sense that we’re reading a run for the ages, but rather a more typical superhero series. That’s not a bad change, exactly; instead of decompressed, measured storytelling, we have adventures that feel more spontaneous and bombastic. After enduring so many deep, wide-ranging conflicts, Aquaman deserves to maybe coast a little.

This brawn-on-brawn battle with Hercules certainly fits the bill. There’s a smidge of tragedy in how far the mythic hero has fallen, of course, and a touch of dramatic potential regarding his treacherous imprisonment by the Atlantean king, but that’s only an inch of depth we’re talking about. Aquaman versus Hercules is half-mindless entertainment, with the occasional call for reason (“Try to think! Remember who you were!“) thrown in.

Aquaman and the Others #1 – Review

By: Dan Jurgens (story), Lan Medina (pencils), Allen Martinez (inks), Matt Milla (colors)

The Story: If the Justice League’s not available, we can always call those Other heroes.

The Review: Never in my geekiest daydreams would I have imagined a day when there’d not only be an Aquaman series that was actually popular, but two Aquaman books. That’s truly an abundance of riches, especially when you consider icons like the Flash haven’t gotten their second title yet (some, like Martian Manhunter, haven’t even gotten one). But are audiences ready for that much Aquaman? Can his current popularity handle that kind of exploitation?

I suppose the better question is: can the Others? The very existence of this issue shows that Geoff Johns was onto something when he created Aquaman’s personal justice league, but I’ve always felt that it would take a very clear vision of the Others’ purpose to bring them back. It probably would’ve helped if we’d known how they came together to begin with. They’re all permanently attached, but it’s never been clear what forms that attachment besides the Atlantean relic each of them holds, and this issue does nothing to change that.

Aquaman #29 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Paul Pelletier (pencils), Sean Parsons & Norm Rapmund (inks), Rain Beredo (colors)

The Story: What the Atlanteans really needed were hieroglyphics for “Do Not Enter.”

The Review: I have to admit, when you take the time to count up all the things science has given us over the years—indoor plumbing, refrigeration, penicillin, instant ramen—it’s pretty obvious that intellectual curiosity has paid off for us. Even so, fiction seems obsessed with stories where the pursuit of knowledge unleashes forces that humanity isn’t ready for, from the most recent issue of Letter 44 all the way back to Adam and Eve. I guess we could use the constant reminders of our own fallibility.

You know who could have used that reminder? Dr. Daniel Evans, the archaeologist who burgled Aquaman’s trident. It’s doubtful he would’ve heeded the warning; directly confronted by Arthur, he stammers, “I couldn’t risk that you would refuse to lend…,” which is scientist talk for “I knew you wouldn’t let me do it if I asked so I just went ahead and did it anyway.” Sadly enough, this isn’t the most imprudent decision he makes. His actions involve a whole lot of stupid.

Batman and Robin #29 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray, Mark Irwin, Norm Rapmund (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Contrary to appearances, Batman and Aquaman are not here for whale-watching.

The Review: It must be rather comforting to come from a family in the resurrection business. I don’t know if that’s exactly where all the Al Ghul’s get their death-defying steeliness, but I imagine it helps them get through the day, knowing if they happened to perish by assassin’s blade or errant bomb that they have some extra insurance on the side. Anyway, the point is we should all have expected Damian to come back even before he died.

Despite that, it’s not certain that’s where Bruce’s current search for his son’s body will end up. Although it seems natural for this series to eventually restore Robin to its title at some point, this Batman and… tactic has gone on far longer than you thought. Tomasi doesn’t seem in any hurry to bring back the Boy Wunderkind anytime soon, even though this issue puts Damian back squarely in Bruce’s focus, after the thrilling distraction of Two-Face’s rampage.

Aquaman #28 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Paul Pelletier (pencils), Sean Parsons & Andrew Hennessy (inks), Jeromy Cox (colors)

The Story: With any luck, Arthur can avoid getting Carrie-d at this high school function.

The Review: Geoff Johns did a lot of great things for this series, but one of the best things he did was firmly establish Arthur’s life in Amnesty Bay: holing up in his dad’s old lighthouse, getting fish and chips at the local diner, adopting a dog.  It was too easy to laugh at Aquaman when he was the undersea foreigner who visited the surface on occasion; you’re less comfortable poking fun at someone who genuinely wants to fit in.

As a big fan of a superhero’s out-of-costume moments, I’ve loved each development to Amnesty Bay as much as I’ve loved the purely Aquaman bits, like the Others or Atlantis’ troubled royal heritage.  You can thus imagine how much I’ve looked forward to Arthur’s high school reunion, which on paper is just a great idea.  School reunions are just so rife with dramatic possibilities; even for us regular folks, there’s a lot of baggage that comes from confronting that particular part of your past.  Imagine adding the weight of a secret origin on top of that.

Aquaman #27 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Paul Pelletier & Netho Diaz (pencils), Sean Parsons & Ruy Jose (inks), Rod Reis (colors)

The Story: Aquaman proves that size really doesn’t matter.

The Review: Parker didn’t quite establish a clear voice for himself when he took over this series last month, and this issue shows he’s still figuring out which direction to take Aquaman.  While Geoff Johns’ run can be divided into its early superhero period and a later mythic period, Parker tries to blend the two with the Karaqan, whose origins are part of Atlantean lore but whose effects mostly call upon Aquaman’s superhero experience.

Actually, this would be a pretty good way to balance the different elements of Aquaman if only the Karaqan was more interesting as a concept.  Aside from a few observations about the monster’s physiology, we learn nothing more about the Karaqan that wasn’t already alluded to in the last issue: its role as Atlantis’ legendary protector and its supposed loyalty to Atlantis’ king.  In fact, the only reason you can think of for why Parker repeats this information at all is to fill in Arthur, who didn’t get the benefit of Neol’s speculations last time around.

Aquaman #26 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Paul Pelletier & Netho Diaz (pencils), Sean Parsons & Ruy Jose (inks), Wil Quintana & Andrew Dalhouse (colors)

The Story: It’s a bird.  It’s a plane.  It’s Aquaman!

The Review: Whenever a writer leaves a series I’ve particularly enjoyed, my first inclination is always to follow his lead.  Even if his successor has a sterling reputation, I simply don’t believe a person can truly emulate another person’s successes.  If it wasn’t for this gig, I’d probably follow through with those instincts.  But since I’m duty-bound to give most things a fair chance, I’ve instead come up with some criteria for evaluating the writer who steps into the old one’s shoes.

The biggest rule: don’t trample over your predecessor’s hard work.  If you want any hope of retaining fans of the last run, it’s best to respect and incorporate what has already been established.*  In the case of Aquaman, this task is crucial, but also easy because Parker can’t afford to abandon anything Geoff Johns created without carving out whole slices of the hero’s shining-new canon.  Even so, you get the distinct feeling that Parker doesn’t quite leverage the inventory left for him as well as he could have in this issue.

Aquaman #25 – Review

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

The Story: This ocean ain’t big enough for the two of us.

The Review: To say that Aquaman is as much a creature of the land as the sea seems to be stating the obvious until you consider the dearth of Aquaman stories which take place on the surface.  Writers naturally put Arthur in the water by default, but doing so probably marginalized Arthur’s value on land over time.  By returning Arthur to his lighthouse home, Johns was pushing to show that Aquaman can be as much a hero out of water as in it.

Which is why it’s such a shame to see Johns backtracking from that initial push as his run on the title winds down.  After so many issues developing Arthur’s domestic life in Amnesty Bay, this issue renders all that effort moot by committing him to his undersea kingdom indefinitely.  Granted, this was always going to be his destiny anyway; choosing to remain in a small coast town would limit his adventures pretty severely.  But leaving now feels premature, since Johns has only scratched the surface of Arthur’s surface life.*

Aquaman Annual #1 – Review

By: John Ostrander (story), Geraldo Borges & Netho Diaz (pencils), Ruy Jose, Allen Martinez, JP Mayer, Mariah Benes, Oclair Albert, Julio Ferreira, Jay Leisten (inks), Rod Reis & Hi-Fi (colors)

The Story: The Others must race to stop a witch from saving the world.

The Review: Here’s a fun fact: Ostrander nearly shares my mother’s birth year, month, and is just shy of the day.  That definitely funks up the way I think of his writing.  I mean, do I really want someone my mother’s age to be writing comics for ostensibly a new generation of readers?  Not that it can’t be done.  Jim Shooter did a bang-up job on the Three-boot volume of Legion of Super-Heroes, and he’s only a couple years younger than Ostrander—and my mother.

On the other hand, I haven’t been all that impressed with Ostrander’s recent DC work, which makes me all the gladder that it’s only occasional.  While the premises of his stories are usually solid, his heavy-handed execution definitely reveals his age, or so it seems to me.  Under his pen, Aquaman and the Others seem a little too prone to theatrics; they’re blunter, louder, more melodramatic than their introverted personalities would support.

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.

Aquaman #23 – Review

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

With most of the DC couples in disarray post-relaunch, us romantics have to cling to the few solid relationships remaining.  It’s really a testament to Johns’ convictions that Mera and Aquaman have become one of DC’s most prominent couplings.*  Just a few years ago, we barely knew anything of Mera, yet since then, she’s experienced a resurgence parallel to her husband’s.  Now, the two of them are nearly as well-known as a unit as individuals.

For fans of the undersea lovers, I’m sure alarm bells must have gone off upon the discovery of Mera’s first fiancé, suggesting a possibly ugly confrontation over the fact to come.  What a relief that Johns makes the smart character choice, showing Arthur as nonplussed by his wife’s secret but otherwise as trusting of her as ever.  Perhaps the ladies will disagree, but I found his brusque yet sincere declaration of love rather romantic, especially since he takes the time to deliver it in the middle of a crisis:

Aquaman #22 – Review

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

The Story: Behold the true king to the throne—all four of him.

The Review: While there is something noble about the person who has power or money and doesn’t want it, the rest of us are probably thinking that attitude is kind of a luxury in itself.  Aquaman’s reluctance to take the Atlantean throne seems humble, but he always had the freedom to choose when to reject kingship and when to take it back on again.  Would he be so cavalier about losing his power if it was forcefully taken from him?*

He’s spent a great deal of his return to royalty thus far insisting that he’d rather not have the position, that he has accepted it only out of a sense of duty obligated by his blue-bloodedness.  So what happens if the Dead King’s words turn out to be true and—spoiler alert—Arthur really doesn’t descend from royal lineage?  Well, we know that being King of the Seven Seas is just part and parcel of Aquaman’s character, so that role won’t be going away in any permanent sense.  But should he retain his kingship, it’ll be deserved, not by default.

Aquaman #21 – Review

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

The Story: It’s never a good day to choose between wife and kingdom.

The Review: Practically every writer nowadays, more or less, has taken advantage of the decompressed style of comic book writing at some point or another, and it’s not hard to see why.  Given the leeway a decompressed number of issues provides, a writer can create stories more closely related to the richness and complexity of their prose relatives.  On the other hand, some writers have simply taken advantage of a longer story only to make a story longer, not better.

Johns doesn’t necessarily falls into this category, but it’s hard to deny that in nearly every arc he’s ever written, there’s at least one issue where so little happens that you could just as well skip it and not miss a thing.  Unfortunately, this is that issue.  Although you do get one or two small developments along the way, they’re not really enough to justify the amount of page-time Johns takes to deliver his story.

Aquaman #20 – Review

By: John Ostrander (story), Manuel Garcia (pencils), Sandra Hope, Rob Hunter, Ray McCarthy, Wayne Faucher (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Oddly, a girl who sees dead people is not the strangest member of the Others.

The Review: One of the best concepts Geoff Johns introduced on his run here has been Aquaman’s first team effort, the Others.  Johns not only managed to give each member a well-defined personality and design, he also gave them a strong team dynamic, as if they really had worked together for years.  Their intimacy was so convincing that it was kind of bittersweet to see them part ways when it was so tempting to give them a title of their own.

In this issue, Ostrander sort of tests the viability of the Others as characters in their own right, without Aquaman as their center.  Indeed, here Arthur seems more like a featured player in his own title.  Despite being their de facto leader (though the Operative may disagree with that assertion), he comes to them as someone asking his friends to do him a big favor, one he’s not yet comfortable presenting to his current team.  He stands equal to the Others, which in turn boosts their own standing.

Aquaman #19 – Review

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

The Story: Aquaman will need to have a serious talk with Mera once her secret comes out.

The Review: I’ve grown so used to seeing all of DC’s titles released with the same issue number each month that when I saw Aquaman’s #19 amidst all the #20s, I panicked and wondered if I missed yet another comic from last month.  Fortunately, I was reassured that the mix-up was not my fault and for whatever reason, Aquaman #19 shipped out later than its counterparts.  Phew.  It would’ve been pretty embarrassing for me if something like that had slipped by me.

More than just a sting at my pride, missing this issue would have left me quite baffled once the next one* came around.  Even though Johns’ decompressed style of storytelling regularly leaves us with whole issues where the plot doesn’t advance at all, here we get not one, but several major developments that’ll have an impact not only on the story at hand, but on the entire Aquaman mythos going forward.

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.

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.