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Saturday, February 19, 2011

Brightest Day #20 - April 2011

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Comics Weekend "AquaWar Part Two" by Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, and more.

This was the issue Brightest Day we've been waiting for--22 pages of Aqua-Action! Let's get right to it:
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Aqualad asks his father why he sides with Siren and her people against his own son and his mother. Manta's reply: "Your mother meant nothing to me. Just like you."

But before Manta can blast the young man, Mera and Aquagirl (Aquagirl, yay!) come bursting out of the ocean, along with an army of hard-water sharks. Aquagirl kicks Manta in his giant domed head, leaving Aqualad completely awestruck.

Mera tends to her husband, and they turn to Aqualad to take care of Aquaman's gaping wound:
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...this has to rank as one of Aquaman's most badass moments ever: he gets his hand cut off, has it electrically cauterized, and then goes right back into battle. Yeah, Aquaman's lame.

Speaking of not lame, right after this we're treated to another amazing moment, this time from Mera: buoyed by her husband's belief in her, Mera lifts up the entire ocean, dropping it onto Siren and her army, dragging them away from the coast. Then Aquaman takes over:
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Aquaman calls forth his undead finny friends, who start tearing into Siren's soldiers. Before things can get any worse, Aquaman tells Siren to "Fall back--or else."

While Mera and Siren duke it out, Aquaman has Aqualad use his powers to re-open the portal at the Bermuda Triangle, which sucks Siren, her army, and Black Manta inside, sending them back to their dimension. Manta issues a threat to his old foe that he will be back for his son, and Siren does the same to Mera.

For a first time in a long time, Aquaman and his family gets to celebrate:
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...hey, you can't blame Aqualad. I have a crush on Lorena, and I know she doesn't really exist.

Unfortunately, this light moment doesn't last:
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To be continued!


Whew, what an issue! Aquaman and Mera each get an amazing, badass moment, Aqualad comes into his own, and Aquagirl joins in. It took a long while to get here, but man I was thrilled reading this.

Sure, it ends kinda badly for our little family, but I think its pretty obvious Geoff Johns and Co. are going somewhere. Case in point: this tweet from Johns to F.O.A.M.er Joe Slab a couple of days ago: "
You will be happy where Aquaman goes. HE ROCKS! :)"

18 comments:

Rock Roche said...

The scene with Mera lifting the ocean was incredible, but Aquaman's army takes the cake. Great aqua-focused issue and looking forward to Emperor Aquaman in Flashpoint.

(Still hoping for his own ongoing or take over in Adventure Comics)

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

That scene with Mera was awesome! my head was doing the special sound fx while reading it, if you were there you'd be paralysed with that display... and time again if you were scuba diving or something while Aquaman called a wall of sea lif....undead.

Rex! said...

Notice that, on the last page, Aquaman's back in his classic (collar-less) uniform.

Shlomo Ben Hungstien said...

sorry for the dumb question i'm about to ask here but i'm kinda outa the loop with a lot of the Blackest Night/Brightest Day stuff but from what i can see here it looks like Black Manta just cut off Aquaman's hand in the previous issue?

Wings1295 said...

Very cool stuff, awesome actually! Aquaman and Mera are on par with any other top-tier DC heroes and this just proves it.

Wings1295 said...

And I hope this Aqua-family can stay intact once everything is said and done. Quite a great way to pull them all together and it would suck if it was only for a few panels.

Orly De Gaulle said...

@Rex: yeah, I'm guessing that's a screw up - like how the hell is Mera crying underwater. Sure, we could make the argument that it's hard water from her powers, but then she'd be bleeding too, right? Or how Aquaman's belt went to the White Lantern look too, but left behind the White Lantern Belt instead of his Aquaman belt. Overall though, excellent storyline. This better lead to an ongoing monthly and I'd like to see Gleason back on that whenever his run on Batman & Robin ends.

Adama said...

Man, I was sooo jealous of Arthur when Mera went all badass on the villains. What a woman!

HollyH said...

@Orly: I don't think those are screw-ups. (Except for Mera's tears underwater.) Arthur very distinctly switches from the costume we're familiar with, to the collar-less one with the WL symbol for a belt buckle, only in that frame where he gets hit with the blast from Deadman's ring. I'm gonna say that the change has to be deliberate, and we just don't know what it's supposed to mean yet. (I also don't get why the WL buckle would be left behind along with the trident, but I hope we'll get some answer for that too.)

We've seen Arthur flip into this look before. I refer you to BD #1 -- its alternate cover (which I think was posted here by Rob) showed Aquaman sitting on a throne, in an all-white costume consisting of the collarless top and the WL buckle. He also suddenly appeared in that costume in a panel inside the comic, when the WL commands him to find Jackson ("Find him first.").

HollyH said...

(Oh, for crying out loud -- typo, I meant BD #7, not #1.)

IADW said...

There were some awesome moments alright - I wondered if Aquagirl was going to swim back into the picture!

Looking forward to the last few issues!!

Anonymous said...

I really, REALLY wish that the wider picture and tone of DC comics was something that I could be happy supporting, because it is awesome to see Aquaman back in action...and even with a new Aqua Family! That is fantastic! I'd vastly prefer that the original family hadn't all been killed in terrible, pointless ways for that to happen, but at least the Sea King is getting some respect. It is a step in the right direction, and if Aquaman does one day get a new ongoing, I will have to seriously consider my modern mainstream boycott.

Anonymous said...

Ohh, and the thing with Aquaman's hand, which I agree, is a really awesome, hardcore moment, reminds me a bit of a similar moment on JLU. In the cartoon Aquaman has a pretty lousy portrayal, personality wise, even though he is presented as powerful and regal. However, there is one moment that is just plain awesome, and it completely encapsulates who Arthur is.

His son is suspended above a dire peril, and Aquaman is chained next to him. He manages to break the chains and free one of his arms, but he is having trouble with the other and time is running out. He rips off the symbol on his belt, hacks at the chains...no good. Finally, he looks at his son, looks at his hand, and CUTS HIS OWN HAND OFF to escape the chains. The next scene has him showing up back in Atlantis with his son, but minus a hand. Now that is just pure awesomeness.

Shlomo Ben Hungstien said...

well looks like i had to resort to google to find out how Arthur lost his hand again. god forbid somebody on the Aquaman shrine could have stepped up and answered a simple question for me somewhere over the last week.

Wings1295 said...

David H.: You could also have gone back a few posts to read the previous Brightest Day post right here on The Shrine.

Jack said...

From day 1 Brightest Day has been all about Aquaman for me. He is my favorite. I want him back in the League, back in the satellite, and running game with all the other Big 7. The confrontations between him and Black Manta in this series are gripping! Manta is a freaking nightmare and the bad-ass villain I always knew he was intended to be. When he shows up, you want to gasp and Johns has been doing that for me every step of the way. I'm sorry about the hand but it's not gonna keep Aquaman down!

Shlomo Ben Hungstien said...

Wings
what the $%&@ are you talking about?