New 52 Year One Retrospective: Aquaman

Continuing my look at the New 52 titles over the last year, we move on to a title that has received a lot of acclaim from fans and critics alike this year; he may be nothing to you, but he is a king beneath the sea; it's Aquaman!

Aquaman
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Ivan Reis, Rod Reis, Joe Prado

Aqua Man has, for a long time, been something of a joke to comic book fans. Characterised as having silly super-powers, and not taken seriously at all. That’s pretty much how I viewed him too. Then this series came along. In the first issue, we have Aquaman stopping a crime, only to be laughed at by the police. In another great scene, he goes into a fish restaurant to order fish and chips, only to face the amazed reactions of the other diners. The first issue was a really strong opener, with the ending showing some hideous sea creatures attacking a fishing boat. The storyline also deals with his past, and with the truth behind the event that sank Atlantis. We also get some information on a team called The Others that Aquaman was part of six years prior to the series. I don’t know enough about Aquaman to say whether these are new characters or not, but they seem interesting, as does finding out more about Aquaman’s past, which seems a little less than happy. There are a few problems here and there, a couple of issues are a little action heavy, and light on the character development, and the forced exposition of Vostok’s backstory made me cringe. But overall, the plot is compelling, the characters are very easy to become interested in, and I can’t wait to continue reading this series.

The art on this title is fantastic, the water effects, the sea-monsters, the characters themselves. It’s consistent, the colouring is great. Of the New 52 titles, this is definitely my favourite title art-wise, almost every page took my breath away, and when that continued even past the first issue, I was amazed that they were able to turn out this quality of work each month. There are some fantastic splash pages in there too, ones that made me stop just to stare at them. I’m usually more interested in the writing than the art when it comes to comics, but the art on this book is too good to not spend some time just soaking it in.

Overall, I’d probably say this is my favourite series of the entire New 52. If you haven’t read this, you need to, and it gets 5/5 stars from me. I really hope the quality of this title can be maintained once the current team leaves it after issue #16, it has managed to turn Aquaman from a joke into a nuanced hero to be taken seriously, in my eyes at least.