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Saturday, July 21, 2007

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #54 - Sept. 2007

sgOk, I had time to go to the comics shop today and pick up my weekly fix, and got right down to read the new Aquaman(I'll only be able to say that three more times...*sob*).

Picking up where we left off, Aquaman and his AquaTeam(I'm tired of writing all these names...this comic has more people in it than The Avengers on open-enrollment day) are starting to figure out why and how Black Manta is involved with the mysterious company Progene Tech, who had attempted to clone and patent the original Aquaman's DNA.

Aquaman and Lorena investigate a subsidiary company called Tri-Dent Industries, and this starts a fun sequence, since we get to Arthur be heroic and not have to share space with everyone else who is floating around this book. After kicking some preliminiary ass, Aquaman is attacked the "new" Human Flying Fish, a character I certainly didn't think we'd ever see a modern version of, since he was considered pretty damn silly even back in the sixties. But we learn he's a tool of Tri-Dent, an actually manages to hold Aquaman off long enough to knock him out.

When he wakes up, he is being held bu Krusivax, who has a very personal reason why he's orchestrating all this DNA-copying and why he wants to kill Aquaman, any Aquaman he can find! As a way to insure Arthur does what he wants, Krusivax(great bad guy name, btw) brings out another prisoner--Arthur's father! But Arthur's dad explains that this Aquaman can't be his son, because...his son is dead!

Meanwhile, we find Tempest on a mission to find a mysterious oracle-type woman, who resides in a very secluded, deep part of the ocean. He does find her--a woman named Leah--who tells Tempest she's been dreaming about him!

We go back to Aquaman, and find that Krusivax is working in tandem with someone else in his plan of revenge and world domination...Vandal Savage! To be continued!

Another fine issue, and it's nice to see the story get paired down a bit to give the new Aquaman(ooh, I still hate typing that) more to do and take center stage. He maybe gets kidnapped and lectured by the bad guy one too many times in just the last six issues, but what the hey. I have to admit--knowing Aquaman is cancelled yet again, I think I appreciate the book more, since I know its going away...

McManus does another solid job on the art, his portrayal of Lorena seems very sexy to me without dressing her like a Lady Death or 90s-era Sue Storm. I've said it once, and I'll say it again--DC, try giving an Aquagirl title a chance.

The cover, by the Dodsons, is also cool and fun and I think is actually going to be sold as a poster. It seems DC is bringing out its big(ger) guns to do the book's covers--Paul Rivoche last month, the Dodsons this month, Kevin Maguire next month--just in time to cancel it.

*sob*

2 comments:

Plaidstallions said...

I'm hoping they clone the original back, I hate this pretender.

Luke said...

Human Flying Fish was awesome. The cover was nice, but last month's cover is the one which should have been posterized, I think.