If your life leads you with questions/
Seek advice from under the sea!/
Dear Aquaman, Dear Aquaman/
Please give your advice to me, Aquaman!

I think what this series needed was a huge kick in the ass. Geoff Johns obviously respects Aquaman and his mythos but I think he was trying to hard to make him acceptable in today’s comics. So that’s why, with the start of this current arc, he’s scraped the idea of making Aquaman fit in into this new universe and just turned the series into a Michael Bay film. It’s made this comic all the better in my eyes.

Not a whole lot happens in this issue in terms of story. We’re getting bits and pieces of what Aquaman’s relationship with ‘The Others’ in pure Johns storytelling. I do love these designs of these heroes and it’s a shame we’re only going to get tiny views of their powers because they are very interesting. That and I hope we get a lot more Dr. Shin in the next issue because Johns certainly hasn’t put a lot of effort into this guy. Clearly he did something to hurt Arthur’s link to humanity but we’ve got really nothing to help us on what that is. But then you see a flashback with Aquaman and his friends stopping an avalanche so it’s hard to complain that much. While I like it this book is going more for action first, story second it would be nice if Johns could stick to it consistently throughout the issue.

What is consistent is Ivan Reis and Joe Pardo’s art. Again it’s so damn hard to think of new praises for these two guys because they just kill it every issue. I mean these guys had to deal with a fucking avalanche and it looks so damn impressive. But they can also handle more of the intimate moments as well. The opening pages of Arthur giving up on the surface world was handled very well and you can definitely see the pain in Arthur’s eyes as he makes his decision. Emotion is always difficult in comics but Reis and Pardo can do it very well. Whether it be Aquaman looking very pissed or from the ‘Panel of the Week’ contender with Mera looking mighty pissed at Arthur over Ya’wara ‘friendship’. This character certainly is spoiled with the art because if the art wasn’t half as amazing as it is here then I’d probably skip this series in a heartbeat.

Just another solid, four star issue in my book for this series. I like the new action oriented direction of this series and it is a lot of fun seeing something new in Aquaman’s origins. Add in some gorgeous artwork by some of the best artists in DC and this series is definitely spoiled with the talent it has. Maybe it would be nice to see more emphasis on story but how can I complain when Johns can throw an avalanche at us and Reis/Pardo can make it look so damn good?