The final fight between The Others and the would-be world-rulers known as Maelstrom is taking place, with Vostok watching from afar, unsure which side he is on:
One by one, the members of Maelstrom fall, with writer Dan Jurgens using this last chance to give us Aqua-Fans two nice moments of Aquaman and Mera kicking butt and being total bosses while doing it:
Up on the moon, Vostok has changed the loose nuclear missile's trajectory, aiming right at the base where he is hiding out! Ya'Wara teleports there, trying to talk her friend of this suicidal move. But unknown to Vostok, the missile has been disarmed remotely by fellow Other Aaron. It stills hits the base and explodes, but is relatively minor, compared to what could have been.
Back down on Earth, Aquaman has a meeting with his team, and he decides that they all need a nice, long break:
Up on the moon, Vostok has changed the loose nuclear missile's trajectory, aiming right at the base where he is hiding out! Ya'Wara teleports there, trying to talk her friend of this suicidal move. But unknown to Vostok, the missile has been disarmed remotely by fellow Other Aaron. It stills hits the base and explodes, but is relatively minor, compared to what could have been.
Back down on Earth, Aquaman has a meeting with his team, and he decides that they all need a nice, long break:
Out story ends where it began, with Vostok. Now free of the forces that ruled his life, he climbs aboard a motorcycle, wondering where life will take him next. And with that, we have reached the end of Aquaman and the Others.
Having read Aquaman comics since the Ford Administration, I've been through a lot of final issues of Aquaman series. This cancellation doesn't sting as much of course, but it still hurts. With Aquaman and the Others, the Sea King joined a tiny category of superheroes so popular they could be the "anchor" character of a series primarily featuring other heroes (see: DC Comics Presents, Batman and the Outsiders, Marvel Two-In-One, etc.). I figured this book was a long shot, because The Others had not been given a lot of time to grow a fan base before being promoted to solo series.
I was heartened to know Dan Jurgens, who has had long, distinguished runs on a lot of series (including, of course, Aquaman) would be writing, but in the end I think all the elements just weren't there, or at least in the right proportions. It made sense to sideline Aquaman to give The Others the chance to shine, but as a reader I found it frustrating to see the Sea King appear so little in a book that bears his name. I think bringing in Mera in the second half was a good choice, but obviously by then the writing was on the wall. Which really is too bad, because I think Jurgens' writing style rewards those in for the long haul; I was really looking forward to the second year of the book to see what he and the art team could come up with.
Aquaman and the Others was a noble experiment. DC serves credit for trying it, and just by publishing it at all they confirmed that Aquaman has reached a level of popularity he hasn't seen in half a century. And that's a cause for celebration.
1 comment:
Good Post
This was one of the few ongoing Aquaman series I picked up - don't even know why but I liked it - it had a bit of that Justice League Detroit feel, and I do think he's meant to lead a team.
Great last issue cover. Cheers, AC(Blog from the Bog)
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