Aquaman (2011) #1-13

Aquaman #1-13

Originally released in 2011

Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Ivan Reis

Geoff Johns' Aquaman reboot was seen as one of the highlights of the New 52 era, from what I can gather, so I'm looking into that. My first impression is that the issues go by at a quick pace, but the overall pacing feels pretty slow at times. (A storyline that takes six issues, and by extension six months, to tell seems like it could have been told in four)

The series seems to be setting out to address how the Superfriends cartoon made Aquaman the butt of countless jokes, such as how it made him useless out of water or how it largely focused on his ability to talk to fish, which was only useful in incredibly specific situations. (It does get to the point of being a little on-the-nose, though)

The romance between Arthur and Mera is a focal point of this run; Mera's still not used to life in the surface, but they're happy together, and he's willing to give up his throne in Atlantis if it means he can have a happy life on the surface with her.

However, this domestic bliss is interrupted by the arrival of humanoid piranhas known only as "the Trench." Living in the darkest depths of the ocean, the Trench have found their way to a better-lit area of the sea, and quickly discover the existence of other life, or as they see it, food.

The ocean is vast, and humanity has only explored a tiny percent of it, so the Trench work well at personifying our fear of the unknown.  The Trench are ravenous and insatiable - Aquaman can't communicate with them, but even if he could, it's unlikely that they'd listen to or care about his pleas for them to stop.

Once Aquaman and Mera enter the Trench's domain, the shots of them and their massive queen are haunting.  Geoff Johns was heavily involved in DC's movie output during the era that the Aquaman movies were made, and from the first five or six issues or so, I can clearly see his influence and how they drew on his own comics in particular.

One part that was directly translated to the movies was a supporting character, Atlantis-obsessed scientist Dr. Stephen Shin. He seems to be handled in a more villainous way here compared to the movies, since in these issues, it's mentioned that he previously tried to kill Aquaman because Arthur wouldn't tell him where Atlantis was.

Issue five has Aquaman dropped into the middle of a desert, which instantly reminded me of sequences from both of the Aquaman movies.  Maybe Aquaman being stuck in the desert, or the existence of Dr. Shin, happened in earlier runs and these were referencing or reusing those elements, but it seems unlikely that it's a coincidence for these to appear in both Geoff Johns' run and the movie. (A lot of DC's first attempt at an extended universe was inspired by Johns' work - the Justice League movie, Aquaman, the Flash, Shazam...)

Issue 6 has Mera getting a day in the limelight, as a trip to get dog food leads to her getting arrested and getting involved in stopping a hostage situation. She has a rather cynical view of humanity; she does discover that there are some good humans, but for the most part, life in the coastal town that her and Arthur live near is baffling to her.

The story arc that begins in issue 7 introduces Black Manta. I thought his speech bubbles would only be inverted when he was masked (black background with white text), but that remains the case when his mask is off, making it come across like he's possessed by something.

Aquaman previously encountered Black Manta as part of a previously unknown team called the Others, six years prior to the current day. Going by the group name, I'm guessing that they joined forces because they all shared a sense of feeling as though they're outsiders - they have Atlantean artifacts, and Black Manta is trying to kill them one by one to get his hands on them.

Black Manta and Arthur are trapped in a cycle of revenge - when Dr. Shin helped Arthur control his powers but Arthur's father refused to let Shin publish his work, Shin hired Black Manta to get a sample of Arthur's blood so he'd have proof that Atlantis exists. During Manta's attack, Arthur's father died of a heart attack, so Aquaman went to kill Black Manta only to kill his father instead. The two of them have been at each other's throats ever since.

The main thing that Aquaman learns from this is that he can't bear all of the responsibility himself, and that he shouldn't hide parts of his history from others.  It takes a while for this to sink in, though.

Black Manta finds a secret seventh relic that Aquaman and the Others didn't find - a staff that sunk Atlantis.  While he wants to use it to kill Aquaman, he's made a deal with a supposedly mysterious figure to give the staff to them instead.  Aquaman immediately knows who it is, though: his half-brother, also known as the Ocean Master. (Though it could be a misdirect)

The individual issues move by at a quick pace, though I feel like reading them on a month-to-month basis might have been a little frustrating when they first came out. (There was a break in the middle of the Black Manta/Others storyline, so it would have taken eight months for that story to be released) The Others are underdeveloped for the most part, though there was an Aquaman #0 that I skipped over (it came out during that break) which might have covered them in more detail. Still, Aquaman and Mera are well-developed, and as the series goes on, it does a better job with showing us why Aquaman's reputation from the Superfriends show is unjustified rather than mostly telling us like it did at the start.