] type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Aquaman (Vol. 7) #18 - July 2004

sgComics Weekend I know I say this every time, but what a nice cover by Alan Davis--hard to beat a giant globby creature with a million eyes as a bad guy!

While the citizens trapped underwater are learning that some of the other denizens of the sea seem to be looking out for them, Aquaman and Lorena are encountering this weird creature living inside a machine underwater.

The creature seems intertwined with the machine, and Aquaman can sense that. But what he doesn't know is, he's beign watched. One of the people watching orders the creature to kill Aquaman, and it explodes into action.

Aquaman fights it momentarily, but then realizes that the creature is, in fact, a collection of smaller creatures, which he commands to separate, which it does, shattering a large chunk of the machine in the process!

Aquaman does his telepathy thing with part of the creature, and "sees" someone in involved in this, just a few blocks away from the disaster! At this point is a neat sequence, where we see this stranger working away, while the fish in his fish tank start congregating all together in one corner of the tank, as if they're...expecting someone.

Aquaman and Lorena come to the surface, where they discover something unexpected
:
sg
...I like how we don't get the hackneyed "don't tell me what to do" bit. Instead, Lorena realizes who's the experienced one here. And even though Lorena's no wallflower, she's not stupid, either, so we're spared a few panels of drummed-up conflict.

The suspect in question notices his fish acting strange, when Aquaman and Lorena bust in! To be continued!


I think my favorite moment of the book is the one with the fish, because it gives Aquaman a deep, deep connection to the Earth itself, and you get the idea that there's a whole level of conversation going on that humans have no awareness of, but that Aquaman is tapped into.

It's another small moment that, to me, makes Aquaman impressive and different among almost all other DC superheroes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Playing catch-up again, here, hope it doesn't go completely to waste. I'm enjoying your commentary on this series Rob, as I always enjoy your comic coverage, but this is one that I've actually read so it is even more interesting to me to see how one of the great Aqua-fans reacts to it.

This issue was very much just to move the plot along, something the writers did with alacrity, but the problem they had is they are trying to tell such a complex story that many other factors get pushed to the background.....like the action. The first knock-down drag out we would have had in issues turns into a few panels of action and an out-think. Now, I like a thinking hero, I vastly prefer it to someone who just punches their way through all problems, but come on! A giant monster fight wrapped up in a few moments....and another cheating cover on top of it! Don't get me wrong, the issue still succeeds, and I love that moment with the fish you mention, but I really feel like this run, as good as it was, is missing something.