If Aquaman was in a yearbook he would have been voted most likely to have a failed relaunch of his character. At one point or another, someone has tried a new direction with Aquaman. In the vestiges of the DC Relaunch, making this character one of the New 52 is off to a good start. Geoff Johns is handling this relaunch of Aquaman and the epic artistry of Ivan Reis puts this series on the right track from the beginning. This first issue shows the true strengths of Aquaman and the fact that Aquaman is considered a joke to some fans. Mixing in these concepts seems like an odd combination right? You’d be surprised at how well this all goes together.
There’s a major part of this comic I really do enjoy. In the past few years with Aquaman, writers and editors always had some sort of gimmick they wanted for Aquaman to make him cool. From a hook on his hand, water hand, you name it, someone tried to do this in the lovely land of DC Comics. The curse of Aquaman is he’s never been able to overcome the image of he’s a joke. There’s a running theme in the comic of Aquaman being treated as such. At one point in the issue, a group of criminals are being chased by the police, and as Aquaman stands in their way, both the police and the criminals are joking about him. Aquaman is calm and collected as the criminals come his way, and Ivan Reis shines as he depicts Aquaman just lifting the armored van over his head with his trident. That’s what you call Aquaman is about showing and not having to say how cool he is. This is Aquaman, no gimmicks, not caring if people think he’s a joke, just doing what he needs to do.
Geoff Johns shows that Aquaman doesn’t need any extra accessories or other extraneous powers to make him cool. When he enters a seafood restaurant, people are shocked, Ivan Reis captures the looks that everyone gives him perfectly I might add, and the entire staff wonders how to handle this. Aquaman calmly sitting down is what I appreciated out of this scene. Even though he’s the King of Atlantis he still considers himself just another person. As the waitress is talking with him, he treats her problems as important as he would treat his own. When asked about his powers, Aquaman gives the best description of them ever given. I was impressed by how Geoff Johns handled the explanation of Aquaman‘s powers. When a blogger keeps harassing Aquaman at his table just keeps talking, then he says the final line of, “How does it feel to be nobody’s favorite superhero?” then that Trident appeared, I really wouldn’t have blamed him for stabbing the blogger. Geoff is doing a great job in showing you the audience that yes he knows people make jokes about him, but isn’t the joke getting old?
Within all the Aquaman development in the issue you get the introduction to the Trench in a quietly developed, which works well considering that this first issue was mainly about establishing Aquaman in relaunched DC Universe. I’ll be looking forward to seeing The Trench further since they have a nice design by Ivan Reis, and the way the book ended made me feel like the wait for the next issue will feel like an eternity. What else can I say at this point? Go grab the first issue of Aquaman and you won’t be disappointed, this is a great new beginning.
