The final issue of Emperor Aquaman opens with the Sea King facing off against his mortal enemy, Wonder Woman:
We flashback a couple of months, and see how Arthur tricked Prince Brion (aka Geo-Force) and ended up using him as an ultimate weapon. Mera has doubts about the morality of this plan, but Arthur charges ahead. We also see how his brother Orm talked Mera into forming a secret strike team, under the ruse of stopping the war before it starts.
Back in the "present", Diana is desperately trying to talk sense into Arthur. She tells him she believes Orm and Diana's Aunt Penthesilea are in cahoots, and have been orchestrating things behind the scenes to bring about a war. For a change, Arthur listens, and tells Vulko to hold firing their ultimate weapon, which would rip New Themyscira from its roots.
Orm had been captured by some of Diana's Furies, but he's playing possum: with the help of his cohort, he sets off a series of explosions on Atlantean ships! Then it all goes to Hell:
Back in the "present", Diana is desperately trying to talk sense into Arthur. She tells him she believes Orm and Diana's Aunt Penthesilea are in cahoots, and have been orchestrating things behind the scenes to bring about a war. For a change, Arthur listens, and tells Vulko to hold firing their ultimate weapon, which would rip New Themyscira from its roots.
Orm had been captured by some of Diana's Furies, but he's playing possum: with the help of his cohort, he sets off a series of explosions on Atlantean ships! Then it all goes to Hell:
Vulko sets off the weapon, and the ground trembles for miles. As is starts to shatter the buildings on New Themyscira, Aquaman gives in to his rage and attacks Diana, believing she's been lying all along!
Wonder Woman, seeing the futility of fighting Aquaman as the world crumbles around them, takes off and climbs aboard her invisible plane, with Arthur right behind:
...to be concluded in Flashpoint #5!
Overall, I liked this issue, and the whole Emperor Aquaman series, although I'm sure part of it has to with it being a solo Aquaman book, after so long without one. We've seen so many Elseworlds versions of the Big Three, its nice to have Aquaman be the focus of a "What If?" alt-world like this one.
The one moment in this issue I wish paid off more is at the end, when Aquaman cracks Diana's invisible plane with his trident: that's something we really hadn't seen before, and I think there could have been a little more space devoted to such a great moment of Aquaman Bad-Assery.
Wonder Woman, seeing the futility of fighting Aquaman as the world crumbles around them, takes off and climbs aboard her invisible plane, with Arthur right behind:
Overall, I liked this issue, and the whole Emperor Aquaman series, although I'm sure part of it has to with it being a solo Aquaman book, after so long without one. We've seen so many Elseworlds versions of the Big Three, its nice to have Aquaman be the focus of a "What If?" alt-world like this one.
The one moment in this issue I wish paid off more is at the end, when Aquaman cracks Diana's invisible plane with his trident: that's something we really hadn't seen before, and I think there could have been a little more space devoted to such a great moment of Aquaman Bad-Assery.
1 comment:
I liked this, too. The general feeling of confusion of what and who to believe felt real, in a situation like he was in.
The one thing I got a bit confused on were the back-and-forth time-jumps. Had to stop and reread to make sure I was following when things were occurring.
But yeah - has been a good, fun, Else-Aqua tale!
Post a Comment