Another book I wasn’t going to buy but needed to get once I saw the preview for! Damn previews! I’m pretty neutral on Geoff Johns. I’ve liked a lot of his stuff, but it can get a bit over-done and really lose track of the characters. It’s tough to balance character pieces with epic cosmic wars and all that good stuff, so I wasn’t really sure at all what I’d be walking into with Aquaman #1. I have no history with the character outside of the Justice League (so exactly like what I had with Wonder Woman actually). I picked it up on a lark, and man am I happy I did.

Johns nailed Aquaman’s character and in only a few pages made me care about the guy. I love the look of the new suit and Arthur’s facial expressions throughout. Ivan Reis just killed on this book better than anything I’ve seen him do in Green Lantern. Arthur ranges from bemused to confused to irritated, and each time it combines with Johns’ tight script and story to really bring out the pathos of Aquaman. That’s right, I said Aquaman’s got pathos, and how! I never knew Aquaman’s real origin, but what we get here in #1 intrigues me, and I can’t wait to see more of Arthur interacting with both the Atlanteans and surface world and never truly fitting in either.

I’m really excited to see where the story line goes. It’s extremely simple and straight forward, but the story doesn’t matter as much as seeing what Johns does with the character. One thing I’ve learned this month is how wildly different I can react to different works by the same writer. Justice League bored me and felt stiff and hokey. On the other hand, Aquaman feels like an extremely modern while also timeless version of the character. Sure we get references to blogging and youtube (there must be some kind of directive from DC editorial to mention at least one of these things – or Twitter – in each #1), but it’s unobtrusive and at worst just a tiny bit distracting. Aquaman’s a fantastic character piece that has me really excited to read Flash #1!