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Monday, April 04, 2016

Aquaman (Vol.8) #50


"Dead Water" by Dan Abnett, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, and Andrew Dalhous.

Some police and FBI agents are investigating a shark attack. The FBI getting involved in that is odd enough, but even more when you consider the attack took place...on the roof of a skyscraper!


The FBI calls in Aquaman, who is currently talking with Mera at Spindrift Station, the newly-built embassy for Atlantis and the surface world. After meeting with the FBI agents, the Sea King determines he has to use himself as bait to lure this "Dead Water" being (who we saw last issue) out into the open. This works, and soon the two are locked in a massive battle in the middle of Albany, NY. This battle is picked up on the news, and Garth wonders if Atlantis should deploy some troops. Mera says to hold off...for now. 


Aquaman plays some mind games with the creature, which sucks him down into a weird inter-dimensional portal that seems to be nothing but infinite blackness. Arthur senses that there is a normal man inside this creature, and has been transformed into this realm he calls The Otherness. 


Aquaman manages to free the man, and brings him back to "our" reality. He insists on bringing the man back to Atlantis to save his life. Meanwhile, Mera delivers her first address to both constituencies, and it goes over like gangbusters. She's comfortable and funny, everyone loves her. Aquaman, a few miles away on his way back to the city, is proud of his partner...even blushing a little when the FBI agents tease him about it.

Next: Scavenger!


Writer Dan Abnett delivers on the promise of his first issue on the series, giving us a solid adventure story that is fun. Aquaman and Mera are back together, with the latter having a new purpose and not just as an adjunct to Arthur. After so many months of forced separation, it was great seeing them back as a team for this extra-long 50th issue. It bodes well for us Aqua-Fans, now that DC has announced Dan will be the regular writer on the book after it starts over with the "Rebirth" event.

I hope we see Mera in her regular garb going forward, and not just in her Aquawoman uniform, but I'm pretty sure we will. In over fifty years of Atlantean shenanigans, I don't think we've ever had quite this set up before--Aquaman free to be a superhero, with Mera handling the royal duties stuff--and I'm very curious to see where this all goes!


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This change in Mera's outfit makes no sense at all, it's kind of disappointing to see her reduced to nothing more than a female version of Aquaman, which pretty much shows how shallow the writing is. In one of Mera's first appearances in New 52, a police officer called her Aquawoman and she corrected him by saying that wasn't her name... I miss Jeff Parker...

"I don't think we've ever had quite this set up before--Aquaman free to be a superhero, with Mera handling the royal duties stuff--and I'm very curious to see where this all goes!"

Oh great, Atlantean politics, I can't wait for a Vote of no Confidence... if you're really into big fight scenes and forced dumb cheesy jokes, than this issue is for you...

Unknown said...

I'm sure she's wearing the Aquawoman costume for her political/surface world appearences only and will rock her usual outfit in Atlantis. I think this was a lot of fun and Abnett is a great writer. Parker and Pelletier had a fantastic run ( Issue #28 and Maelstrom were particularly brilliant imo) and I'm sure Abnett will too based on the first couple of issues actually being better than Parker's first 2.

Lucien Desar said...

Great synopsis and post Rob!

I really dug this issue (sorry I have been reading a lot of early 1970's comics lately) . The artwork was really well done and what impressed me was Mera's hair looked amazing underwater. I liked the swirl effect they did with it.

The plot was tight, fast and without a lot of exposition which some modern comic book writers seem to do. I like Aquawoman and I would fully support her to have her own series, although a Mera series would be even better. I think this is all a larger plot arc and I predict Atlantis attempting to bridge for peace is going to fail miserably which will split Arthur and Mera and have them as enemies. Mera will represent Atlantis and Arthur the surface world followed by lots of warfare.

I hope they have some more one shot issues. Arthur & Mera dealing with environmental villains, mystery/murder hi jinx, and maybe even pirates! (almost anything that follows plots similar to Sea Devils would be fun)