Waiting for the Trade – Aquaman

Chapter 1 – The Atlanteans drag Arthur through the sea in
chains, stabbing in the side with a lance and then tying him in crucifix
position to a rocky reef in the sun to die of dehydration. Aquaman tries to
call for the fish to help but learns Atlantean magic has turned every fish in
the ocean against him. His JLA communicator has also been sabotaged. However
through effort he pulls himself free of the rock, yet when he tries to go back
into the water he blasted with guns that fire razor sharp coral by the
Atlantean guard.  Collapsing on the beach
he is attacked by a swarm of crabs and now he is both losing blood and dehydrated.
He goes into the interior of the island and finds a lake but collapses before
he can reach it. He tries to use his harpoon hand to pull himself into the lake
but that’s been sabotaged too. He tosses his hook away in rage and it lands in
the lake where it is caught by water nymphs. The nymphs take Aquaman into the
lake where he meets the Lady of the Lake and
is instantly healed. She then offers him even greater power if he will be her
champion, known as the Waterbearer–a role she notes was filled by a different
Arthur once before. Meanwhile Martian Manhunter is searching for Aquaman as the
JLA suspects he is in trouble. He finds Aquaman’s hook sticking out a stone and
then finds Aquaman with a new hand made entirely of water.

Chapter 2 – Aquaman’s new hand can function as a crystal
ball and turn solid enough to pickup objects. Aquaman notes to MM that while he
can survive in freshwater lakes he won’t thrive like he does in saltwater. He
then resigns his membership in the JLA to take time to find his new place in
the world. Back in Atlantis the Atlanteans are mutating sea life into monsters.
Arthur goes hiking in civilian clothes in Ireland and finds an old run down
lighthouse. He meets the lighthouse keeper; an old man named McCaffery and
decides to do some odd jobs for him since his own father was a lighthouse
keeper. McCaffrey goes out to sea, while Arthur works and he meets a local
female cop named Sweeney. Meanwhile the Atlanteans send mutant kelp after an
oil tanker. McCaffery tries to guide them safely to shore only to get electrocuted
by the Atlanteans in hopes of luring Aquaman into a trap. Aquaman hears the
mayday over the police radio and dives into the ocean to help. He has to fight
some sharks (since the sea creatures are still turned against him) and then the
Atlantean guards as well. Aquaman cuts the guards and lets the sharks’ nature
do the rest. Aquaman then touches the kelp monster with his water hand and
learns that it can short-circuit any magic spell (thus reducing the monster
back to ordinary kelp). Aquaman gets McCaffery’s boat to shore but the old man
has stopped breathing. However the Lady of the Lake
appears and teaches him to use his new water hand to heal others. As Arthur he
tells Sweeney who he really is but she doesn’t believe him, and he’s taken to
wearing gloves to preserve his secret identity.

Chapter 3 – The Atlanteans order one of their best warriors,
Rodunn to go to the surface to hunt Aquaman down and kill him. He is armed with
their most powerful lightening gun and a giant mutated sea lamprey. Arthur is pleased
to learn the lighthouse has a saltwater pump so he can shower in sea water.
Then he goes into town with Sweeney to get a haircut. On the way back Arthur
& Sweeney discover a civilian who has been bled by the lamprey. Arthur
tries to use his crystal ball power to find the culprit but is ambushed by
Rodunn. He’s able to short out Rodunn’a magic armor that lets him function on
land but then the lamprey grabs Aquaman, drains his blood and tosses him over
some trees. Aquaman is again on death’s door but he finds a portal to Annwn (an
Irish netherworld of natural magic prominent in druidic lore and other Celtic
texts) where he has another conversation with the Lady of the Lake.
Aquaman emerges back in the real world and takes the fight to Rodunn. Rodunn
gets bit by his own Lamprey but Aquaman saves him first by shorting out the
Lamprey spell and returning it to normal size and then by healing Rodunn with
his magic hand. Rodunn then swears loyalty to Aquaman as his true king. Aquaman
then reveals himself to Sweeney in his new costume, which looks good.

Chapter 3.5 – Tempest (the former Aqualad) and Dolphin have
a baby now. They are living in Atlantis but the new regime is watching them
closely. So Tempest leaves in the night to go find Aquaman.

Chapter 4 – Arthur tells Sweeney he has no interest in
reclaiming the Atlantean throne just in time for Tempest to arrive to ask him
to liberate Atlantis. When Aquaman tells Garth this, he doesn’t take it well
and uses a spell to astral project their spirits into small fish so Arthur can
see how bad it is in Atlantis for himself. He sees the mutations, citizens
under house arrest, and his wife Mera—who allegedly sits on the throne—being
drugged by the shadow government running things now. This enrages Arthur so
much he makes a move to intercede even though he’s just a fish causing the head
sorcerer to detect the truth and send mutated barracuda after the heroes. As
always with astral projection if the fish with their souls in them die Aquaman
& Aqualad die too. In addition Atlantean soldiers find Arthur and Garth’s
bodies on the beach and decide to stab them in their astral sleep. Sweeney
however intercedes and scares the Atlanteans off. The hero fish get eaten by a Barracuda
with Tempest bit in half and Aquaman swallowed whole and about to be digested,
when he uses the link with his new magic hand to reverse the crystal ball
effect, have the detach from his human body, crawl across the beach and touch
Tempest thus short-circuiting his spell and returning the heroes to their
bodies in the nick of time. However Garth is in system shock from having his
fish be eaten and is on the verge of death but Aquaman uses his healing hand. When
Garth recovers he is able to convince Aquaman to try to reclaim Atlantis but
then the Lady of the Lake shows up and forbids
him from using the magic hand she gave him to wage war.

Chapter 5 – The Atlanteans continue to mutate sea life in a
well written creepy scene. We also see they are using political prisoners in
the process and dumping them in mass graves. Meanwhile Vulko, longtime to
advisor to the king of Atlantis, is overseeing the forced march escort of
prisoners set for exile or execution. He becomes stunned to see first the
cruelty of the guards, and later to learn many of the prisoners have been condemned
for either political dissidence or because they know of the drugging of Mera
(which is the first Vulko is hearing of that as well). Vulko attempts to stand
up for the prisoners but the guards decide they are just going to execute him
too. And then the political prisoner being experimented on in the opening pages
climbs out of his grave as a Jelly-fish like meta-human and kills the guards.
Vulko thanks him and dubs him Man O’ War, then frees the other prisoners and
vows to restore justice to Atlantis.

Critical Thoughts: This
has some interesting ideas but it doesn’t really feel like an Aquaman comic.
Aquaman getting exiled from the ocean could be an interesting story idea.
Aquaman meeting the Lady of the Lake and
playing with the Arthurian parallels has a lot of potential. Even using Ireland as the
setting of a superhero comic is something new that could work out very well
given time. The problem is the whole water-hand thing. It just looks weird and
its powers are too far away from what makes Aquaman a fun hero. The healing
touch is ridiculously powerful—he brings two people back from the dead in this
story. The short circuiting of magic with just a touch and no heroic effort is
a pretty strong superpower also. Throw in clairvoyance and really it’s just a
weird mystical power set that isn’t Aquaman—who has also been stripped of his
signature power of talking to fish in this story. You could create a new hero
with these same powers and this same setting and it might make for an
interesting read but it’s not what I want to see when I buy an Aquaman comic.

While I’m not thrilled with the direction of the story, I
will say the story itself is well told. Aquaman’s desperation in chapter 1 and
his various tactics to save himself and call for help are well realized;
although the repeated Christ symbolism in that chapter is a bit much. I can
admire how this author gets Aquaman where he wants by slowly discarding all of
the elements of Peter David’s run. While I like the Peter David run quite a bit,
I can see why future authors wouldn’t want Aquaman to have a harpoon hand
forever or would want to give him a shave and change the grim and gritty 90s
look once it’s a new decade.

The mutation scenes throughout the story also work very well
both in making interesting monsters and echoing the darkness in Atlantis. The
Vulko chapter is quite good in this regard, and the new Man O’ War character is
interesting enough visually that I wouldn’t mind seeing him again—especially since
he is more fish-based and thus feels more natural in an Aquaman story that a
lot of the magic stuff. The chapter with Arthur and Tempest turned into fish is
also quite an intense bit of story-telling.

One other nitpick is I am not sure of the rationale behind
the Lady of the Lake  preventing Arthur from using her gift (the
water hand) for war. I mean I get the ultimate goal is probably to make Aquaman
a mystical protector of either Ireland or the environment in general and that latter
vibe doesn’t lend itself to being pro war. But traditionally the Lady of the Lake gave King Arthur Excalibur and he used that gift in
a bunch of wars, so it doesn’t completely jibe with the mythology they are
steeping this in.

I also want to say I like offering a precap page at the
start to recap the dense continuity that preceded this story. A lot more trades
in general could use that approach.

 

Grade: C+. While
the direction of Aquaman himself in this trade ultimately isn’t my cup of tea,
the writing itself deserves credit for exploring new ideas and having a sense
of how it wants to portray the central character and his supporting cast both
old and new.