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Saturday, September 28, 2013

Aquaman (Vol.8) #23.2 - Nov. 2013

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"New Fish" by Geoff Johns, Tony Bedard, Geraldo Borges, Ruy Jose, and Rod Reis.

Aquaman's part of Villains Month concludes with Ocean Master #1 (aka Aquaman #23.2). It opens a little while ago, at the dawn of Atlantis' invasion of the Surface World:
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Now, of course, things are not going quite so well for Orm; he's an inmate at Belle Reve prison, bored as he listens to his court-appointed lawyer go over his trial defense.

After a sympathetic guard brings him a bottle of water (which Orm guzzles down), the lights go out!
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As all the inmates--now freed thanks to the Crime Syndicate--flee from the prison, Orm takes a moment to talk to the guard who brought him the water. As he lays there severely wounded, the guard asks Orm for help, which he offers in the form of breaking the guard's neck. Now on foot towards the ocean, he finds walking a tedious way to travel:
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On his way home, Orm runs across two super-powered fellow inmates, who are busy attacking some innocent civilians in a nearby general store. They go after him, and learn how big a mistake that is:
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A woman he saves begs Orm for help in rescuing her eight year old son, who she is afraid is vulnerable to all the escaped convicts now flooding the streets. Orm responds he doesn't care, and continues walking even after they see that the young boy (and his babysitter) are about to be violently attacked amid the chaos.

He makes it a few steps into the sea, when he hears the young boy cry out, in fear for his mother:
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...Not The End!


I can't believe I'm asking this, but, where the heck is Murk?!? He's spent what seems like the last three years planning to rescue Orm, only to get beaten to the punch by the Crime Syndicate. I guess we'll find out when Aquaman proper returns in issue #24.

I liked the art by Gerlado Borges (who we interviewed earlier this month), and am looking forward to his work on the Aquaman Annual. He's aided immeasurably by Rod Reis, who continues to bathe the world of Aquaman in a series of captivating hues.



3 comments:

BlUsKrEEm said...

I was looking forward to the Manta issue and was sorely disappointed in it, which didn't give me very high hopes for Orm's issue, luckily I was surprised. I really dig the N52's version of Orm, and while this was a bit darker then the previous Ocean Master tale (what was expecting from Villians month?) it was a good tale. I hope Orm gets more page time in the future.

Joe said...

Was it ever established who killed Aquaman and Orm's mother? I remember Volko mentioning rumors Orm did it as a child in the zero month issue maybe.

I feel like the closing scene is a throw back to that.

Russell said...

WAY better than the Black Manta issue. This character is still interesting. Hoping for more good things for him in this series...