This second issue of Tempest opens with our hero facing off against the mysterious being who has been spying on him during his mission to the Hidden Valley. Or is it?
During Garth's moment alone, he decides to forge a new costume and a new identity. When he returns to the still-squabbling Aquagirl and Letifos, its as:
Letifos, now convinced this is not the real Tula, lets loose and the two engage in an all-out brawl. She demands to know why Tula wanted to hold the scroll so badly, but Tula won't answer, only restating she loves Garth.
Garth finally overhears all this, and interrupts the fight--and taking Tula's side in the process. Letifos tries to talk some sense into Garth, but he won't listen. Letifos calls him "O Prince of Fools", and takes off.
Garth is upset, but goes back to performing the ritual as spelled out in the ancient scroll. As Garth feels power surging within him, his body fills with light. But just at that moment, Tula attacks him, planting a kiss on him, but not one of affection or passion:
I knew this Tula thing was too good to be true! Be back in two weeks when we wrap up our look back at Tempest!
12 comments:
Who can blame Garth, though? He lives in the DCU, where death is usually just a temporary detour in the road of life!
Wow, Slizzath is really cool and gross-looking , not a bad villain at all. Impressive this mini was a nicer looking product than the Aquaman book at the time. Hasn't increased my affection for Tempest, though. Just not my scene!
Lots of attention to detail in the artwork, no wonder Jimenez projects usually experience some publication delays, but I really find his end results to be well worth any wait. And Garth's Tempest costume is far cooler than his Aqualad garb, it reminds me of the Arthur's 80's camouflage suit, which I also thought was eye-catching design-wise.
I'm not a HUGE fan of Arthur's 80s costume either (it's over designed for comics, hard to duplicate, and yet has nothing distinct in the silhouette at all, it's just a maskless jumpsuit) but at the very least, it looks good underwater. The red and black looks like a Carnage-like swirling pool of blood to me, and those thigh boots, and that face tattoo... It's easily my least favorite costume of all time for an important marvel or DC character.
I love Aqualad's costume on the other hand--the blue balances the red, and it looks great with Arthur's. It's got the A logo on the belt, cool sailor-type neck line. The older he got the more ridiculous he looked in it, but they should have opted for something more like Jackson's current costume than this.
Love Jimenez though! And I love the affection he has for the characters he works on--it shows, even when I'm not into it.
@David, the red color was carried over from Garth's Aqualad shirt, and he wouldn't have been quite his own man if his Tempest suit was blue just like Arthur's Camo suit. Although, I totally agree about the face tattoo, I guess it was an attempt to make Garth look tougher, but instead it just came of as WTF. ;)
It was a 90s trend, the face tattoo--the X-Men books were full of them. Nothing about his costume says underwater superhero to me. The wave pattern is lost in the colour choices. It says running blood to me which is--haha yeah, I'll leave it there.
Anyway, when he eventually comes back I'm just hoping he'll be wearing something else.
Garth was a hero who had survived despite having suffered from deep emotional turmoil via two major events: He had lost the love of his life as well as having been abandoned by his mentor (after Arthur tried to kill him, that is). Thus, the tattoo was an outward, visible sign to show that he had matured beyond those trials and emerged victorious. Though I was at first horrified that Phil had marred that adorable face...I decided quickly that the tattoo both looked pretty cool and set him apart from other heroes. Tempest wears his heart on his sleeve and his inner scars on his forehead. (Btw, we never learn within the story what transpired during the sacrification ritual which created those marks).
@David, OMG I can't believe you went there with the Menstruation joke, lol, never even thought of that! In THAT case maybe a green or turquoise suit color when Garth returns. ;)
I have a rather large Letifos tattoo on my arm. I was pretty psyched to see her included in this mini as I dug her oh so brief appearance in the Aquaman series of the time.
Letifos and Garth could have made for a really unique and enjoyable pairing, but, as I recall, The Powers That Be had a real problem with that. (Apparently, a fellow can be enamored with a mermaid, a la Clark Kent and Lori Lemaris, but they felt that no one would buy into such a coupling otherwise). They wanted the readership to believe in Atlanteans but not mix-matched Atlanteans...
It raises a lot of questions about their love life and organs that I don't think DC wanted to deal with (understandably)
Seems more like a total lack of imaginaton, as usual...
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