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Sunday, February 01, 2009

Aquaman (Vol.6) #69 - July 2000

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Comics Weekend "Glory"

Last issue ended with the war between Atlantis and Cerdia finally over, Tempest's son rescued, and Garth's granddaughter Donna finally getting to see the amazing nation of Atlantis.


This issue picks up with Donna delivering her report to her class (with the help of what looks like an iPod--Dan Jurgens was a few years ahead of Steve Jobs, it seems), and she tells of how the citizens of Atlantis started to return home:
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Dolphin is overjoyed to see Garth, with their son, waiting for them in Atlantis.

Mera wonders where Aquaman is, and Vulko chimes in Atlantis needs it's king. But Arthur is already working on his kingly duties, namely the rebuilding of Atlantis, with the help of some friends:
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Mera asks where Arthur is, and Garth tells her that he is chasing down Ocean Master.

And we see just that, as Aquaman uses an Atlantean ship to chase Orm down. Not deterred by his half-brother's obvious anger, Orm turns his ship around and fires several torpedoes at Arthur's ship, seemingly blasting it to pieces.

Orm thinks he's killed Arthur--yeah, right:
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...I absolutely love this sequence. Steve Epting really took pains to give Aquaman a really impressive, powerful feel, either moving through the water like a bullet, or ripping open a bad guy's ship like the Man of Steel.

Orm's ship crashes, and Aquaman grabs Orm and saves him. Orm returns the favor by trying to blast him with that damn scepter, but Aquaman commands a bunch of his finny friends to pound him relentlessly.

He even calls forth a giant, prehistoric-looking sea monster, whom Orm assumes will eat him, causing him to officially give up.

Aquaman grabs Orm's scepter, breaking it in two, which reduces Orm to a helpless rag doll. He takes his brother from the clutches of the creature and heads back for his ship.

Later, Aquaman makes an appearance at the U.N. to address what has happened. He claims that, under the articles of war, Cerdia rightfully now belongs to Atlantis:
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...the end.

A great storyline comes to a great ending, full of the majesty and honor that befits the character of a superhero who is also a king.

Its also a nice in that, in many ways, the seemingly-endless "Atlantis vs. The Surface World" arc that was part of Aquaman's back story for so long finally gets resolved. Why hasn't this series of issues been collected as a trade, DC?

1 comment:

Vincent Paul Bartilucci said...

I agree that this was a great storyline. It had an interesting framing device and Jurgens and Epting (and Ryan) made it easier to accept Aquaman's "mid-life crisis" look than any creative team before.

My only reservation with this tale is that it shares some basic ideas with McLaughlin's iniial storyline from the 1991 series. I kept wondering why Jurgens just didn't use Oumland again or, at least, acknowledge the prior Atlantis / Surface World war. Was there any mention of Oumland that I missed?

That's one of Aquaman's problems. Very rarely does any new creative team build on what's gone before. I know I mentioned this once before so bear with me but take something as basic as Atlantean millitary uniforms. Every freakin' artist who works on the damn book makes wholesale changes to what Arthur's troops look like.

It's just another example of the lack of respect that Aquaman receives. If a new creative team was invited to work on a Superman book you'd be damn sure they'd learn what Krypton looked like.

This has been, "Rant for a Sunday Morning."