Aquaman #4 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (writer), Ivan Reis (penciller), Joe Prado & Eber Ferreira (inkers), Rod Reis (colorist)

The Story: Hey, Trench—your mama’s so fat, she cuts herself and calls it rare!  Booyah.

The Review: As relatively civilized beings, we impose some standards of morality upon ourselves, one we in our lily-handed society can easily adhere to.  But when the wheel turns and our survival is at stake, it’s perhaps unsurprising that all those rules and ethics tend to go out the window.  For some people, the sacrifice is a no-brainer; an impure heart is easier to nurse when you’re not dead.  For others, prioritizing life and principle can be a finger-chewing exercise.

Arthur easily falls into the latter category, which makes sense given his royal heritage—you know, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” and all that.  As former king of Atlantis, he probably had to make all kinds of decisions which affected scads of lives at a time, and so he does here.  Even though he no longer acts for the Atlanteans, he has another race of people to think of, so it’s inevitable that he had to “seal” the Trench’s fate for good.

Although Aquaman has to do some quick soul-searching to deliberate what his course of action toward the Trench should be, Mera spares no tears.  Johns has really played up her warrior’s gait since he took over the character, and while that’s certainly made her into a very compelling character, it also poses a risk of making her too strident.  Her black-and-white perspective on what to most of us would be debatable issue (“They’re primitive.  Unintelligent.”) may drive a wedge between her and her husband in later, even grayer conflicts.

Besides, her view of the Trench as “mindless creatures” is just patently wrong.  While their behavior definitely lacks subtlety, their needs are simple: preserve themselves at all costs.  Johns does a remarkably good job showing how endangered their species is.  Seeing all those sick, mutated, inbred Trench infants floating dead in a dark cavern actually does fill you with both repulsion and pity.  “Survival of the fittest” may be nature’s mantra, but it’s a cruel one, indeed.

Aquaman #3 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (writer), Ivan Reis (penciller), Joe Prado (inker), Rod Reis (colorist)

The Story: These guys would make one heck of a ninth-grade biology dissection project.

The Review: Johns gets a lot of attention and devotion because he not only brings such genuine enthusiasm to the job, he also injects enormous heart into the work.  He has this knack of getting at the emotional core of characters, using it to springboard the stories he writes for them, a narrative technique David Uzumeri of Comics Alliance calls “Johnsian Literalism,” and one that’s proven consistently successful over the last few years.

For some heroes, figuring out what makes them tick is a cinch, but getting an understanding of Aquaman takes a little more digging.  While his romance with Mera offers warmth to the series and a strong character to bounce off of, the real emotional current which drives the story is the Arthur’s relationship with his late father.  It’s no coincidence each issue prominently features a flashback to the old man, whose love and values obviously still resonate deeply with our hero.

It’s this connection to his father, more than anything else, which keeps Aquaman fighting the good fight on land.  After he clears out the Trench from the harbor, the authorities on deck begrudge him some props: “…you gave it a really strong effort and I appreciate that…I’ll make sure to tell the reporters you helped us out, okay?”  But Arthur’s not in this for the press, good or bad, and he proves it by taking off with the Trench cadaver against the military guys’ wishes.  If anything, he’s out to prove his dad’s assertion that “…he’s a good kid…  He’s such a good kid.”

Aquaman #2 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (writer), Ivan Reis (penciller), Joe Prado (inker), Rod Reis (colorist)

The Story: Just don’t expect Aquaman to break out into a verse of “Candle on the Water.”

The Review: Last issue tackled the merits of Aquaman as superhero right on the head by having him addressed as a joke at every opportunity by nearly everyone he met.  While amusing, you can’t really do that kind of thing for too long before it becomes not only predictable, but also counterproductively ingrained in your head.  At some point, preferably earlier rather than later, Aquaman has to break out of these low expectations and truly prove himself.

Fortunately, Johns spends most the issue showing that in spite of the jokes at Arthur’s expense, people really do turn to him in times of crisis.  Unlike most of his comrades, his identity is public knowledge, down to his lighthouse abode.  That means in a pinch, people can seek him out, as one officer does here.  It’s not every hero that can be summoned by knocking on his door, shouting for help, so this might turn into an important distinguishing feature down the line.

No matter how lame or unpopular a figure gets, he’ll always have his cult of fans, and Aquaman is no exception, even in his fictional world.  And in any situation involving threats to/from/on the sea, it’s a no-brainer who you’ll turn to.  As the deputy sheriff says, “[My sister] was on that cruise ship that sank off Iceland.  She saw what [Aquaman] can really do…”  The line bodes well for the future; it means we’ll see our hero do more than stab things with his trident.

But, oh, he stabs things with his trident so well, doesn’t he?  Most the action has Arthur charging into a whole slew of the glassy-eyed, toothy creatures known as the Trench, not even flinching when they sink their ridiculously long fangs into his shoulder.  At first, their only motive seems no more sophisticated than simply wanting some grub, but that doesn’t explain why their scarred leader show such interest in dragging Aquaman back to their depths of their home.