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Saturday, September 13, 2014

Aquaman: Futures End #1 - Oct. 2014

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Comics Weekend "Long Live the Dead King" by Dan Jurgens, Alvaro Martinez, Raul Fernandez, and Chris Sotomayor.

It's five years in the future, and in Anarctica, Vulko and Tula are on some sort of secret mission deep at the bottom of the ocean. Meanwhile, on the "future Atlantean outpost" known as Atlantis Island, two members of The Others are under attack from some Atlanteans, who don't like the idea of this place at all. But their attack is short lived:
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Aquaman manages to fight them off, but allows them to return to the sea. We learn things have been pretty bad the last five years: war has come, which led to Xebel being mostly wiped out. The refugees from that dimension have come to our world and taken up residence in Atlantis, causing all sorts of problems, both social and physical. Aquaman helped establish Atlantis Island as a way to draw attention to his people's plight from the rest of the world, but tensions are running high. Luckily he has someone to go home to:
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...what the what? Where's Mera?!?

Mera is at one of the Xebel refugee camps, watching her people starve. She has had enough, and confronts her former love when he comes back to Atlantis. Aquaman is trying to deal with the larger political picture, but Mera, concerned about her people starving, has no time for that. They engage in a brief fight, but clearly Aquaman has no interest in battling his former love. He accuses Mera of being more upset about..."her", but Mera insists it's about the people.

As if things weren't bad enough, the Dead King of Atlantis returns, defeats Aquaman, and reclaims the throne, promising to restore Atlantis to its glory, or die trying. And he has help:
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Of course, to be continued!


Alt future stories are always fun, because they allow creators to engage in storylines they would normally never get to do. Here we get to see Aquaman and Mera at odds (not that that's new, considering their pre-New 52 history), not to mention Aquaman and Ya'Wara as a couple. Let's hope none of this ever comes to pass in the "real" world!

Some nice artwork by Alvaro Martinez and Raul Fernandez, I especially liked this moody shot of Mera as she moves into the shadows, in more ways than one:
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5 comments:

BlUsKrEEm said...

I hated this story. The art was excellent, and it was well written, but the story itself is pretty much the opposite of what I want out of a New 52 Aquaman. The Mera / Yawara love triangle has seemed forced since Yawara was introduced, and I really don't care for it; The Dead King has been the weakest story line of the series so far, and really don't want to revisit it; and I really hate having my regular story interrupted for an event tie in book. I say Bah on the whole concept.

please tell me there isn't an Others Future End issue this month?

Gareth said...

Agree with most of the above comment, this book was poor.

Anonymous said...

I'd have to say I agree with the above as well.

Anonymous said...

Keep Jurgens away from Aquaman personally don't like him penning anything with Aquaman involved dislike some stuff in The Others..

Bring Garth back and have him lead the team or something..

Joe said...

Been really discouraged with both Aquaman books lately but frankly I'm just glad to have a reprieve from Jeff Parker.