Aquaman #35 – Review

As the most recent issues of this series show, Aquaman‘s not really cut out for your typical superheroics. Despite Geoff Johns and Parker’s best efforts to jazzy him up, Arthur’s power set is still pretty limited.* In the end, he’s just a watered down Wonder Woman with a fancy pitchfork and who can tell sea life what to do, except sometimes. Pitting him against monsters and supervillains on a regular basis won’t do anything for his profile except expose his weaknesses.

Better that the stories isolate him to within Atlantis, where his only competition is Mera—which is enough as it is. Challenge him with the burdens of a king, his one distinguishing factor, and he just might avoid embarrassing himself every other issue. Besides, it’s been a long time since he dealt with problems within the kingdom, and he’ll never build his popularity among the Atlanteans that way.

There are signs that his image is slowly improving. In choosing to exile, instead of execute, the Underrealm traitors, Arthur displays compassion and wisdom that impresses the elders, even though he ends up countermanding their original verdict. Bringing the traitors to the surface is also ingenious for the way it terrifies the deep-sea dwellers, yet also exposes them to the wonders of the world above. It’s good PR for both Arthur and humans, in general.

Hopefully, none of these small gains will be ruined by Drs. Shin and Evans, whom Arthur invites to figure out how and why Atlantis is reacting so violently to him. If you ask me, it’s not the greatest idea to team up two scientists who’ve each attracted a lot of trouble in the past, but it doesn’t seem like Arthur has a choice. Elder Wavi, the only Atlantean enthusiastic about the visit, remarks, “Ages ago a succession of kings practically outlawed education. Hoarding knowledge as a secret until it was lost.” It explains a lot, not least of which why it takes two human scholars to piece together the fundamental workings of Atlantis. Their discoveries are useful for Arthur’s purposes, but surely someone’s going to voice displeasure at the idea of landlubbers having this much inside knowledge.

Anyway, maybe this means Parker will finally dive deep into Atlantean history and culture, which he’s only done piecemeal since he took over the title. He offers a fairly good chunk here: “When Atlanteans die, their electrical impulses—and all they know—are absorbed into the strata. Becoming part of a system. This is how certain functions and safeguards are passed on[.]” An interesting revelation, one that has a lot of useful and challenging possibilities.

For now, this Atlantean gestalt is only important in that it explains why the kingdom itself seems to reject Arthur, leading to an even bigger twist: [Spoiler alert!] Atlanna, his mother, is still alive, which means Atlantis has a hard time recognizing him as her legitimate heir. To be honest, it’s a cliffhanger that has limited impact,** since we’ve never seen his mom and know nothing about what she’s like. But it could be a game changer for Arthur’s ties to Atlantis—if she manages to stay alive. Newly discovered family members have a nasty habit of dying just when you’re getting to like them.

Pelletier has proven his ability to rise to the occasion when the script demands it, but this issue is mostly talking heads, and aside from a nice shot of Atlantis when Shin and Evans arrive, there’s nothing remarkable to see here. It’d be nice if we could get an artist with more pizzazz in their style, if only to give some moments the spectacle they deserve, like when Shin and Evans activate Elder Wavi’s key, casting ghostly faces around the room. Pelletier and Beredo make a neat light show out of it, but you can see it being truly haunting had someone like Ivan Reis or Doug Mahnke worked on it.

– Minhquan Nguyen