Talking About A Revolution: Aquaman #15 Review

“Aquaman doesn’t care about white people. Surly Irish drunken white people.”

-Me, after reading about the flooding of Boston in Aquaman #15.

Aquaman #15 is the second part of the Throne of Atlantis crossover (the first part was in this week’s Justice League #15), and the second issue in a row where the Justice League moves heaven and earth (well, mostly they move water, but you get my drift), in the aftermath of Atlantean tidal waves flooding three Eastern cities, to save Gotham and Metropolis… while allowing Boston to marinate in its own saltwater, spilled Guinness and seething, neverending rage at Manhattan. And while the Justice League does its level best to save everyone who isn’t in Boston, Aquaman’s brother is busy amassing an invasion force in Boston Harbor, with plans to sink the city to the bottom of the ocean – think Billy Joel’s Miami 2017, only instead of references to the Yankees and 42nd Street, it’s about the Red Sox and Lansdowne Street, and it’s not sung by some piano-playing wuss from Steinbrennerburg.

As a native Bostonian, I’m beginning to develop a persecution complex. Well, an even worse persecution complex.

But that kind of reaction will tend to happen when we’re in the second issue of a crossover event, and there is a lot of parallelization with the plot and events of the first issue, without very much forward motion or momentum from the first chapter in Justice League, although there is a pretty good cliffhanger at the end… even while Fenway Park is filled with Rays and Marlins – and not the good kinds from Tampa Bay or, well, wherever the hell in Florida the Marlins play what they pretend is baseball.

There’s no getting around it: a large part of this issue is a reiteration of things we either saw or were told in Justice League #15, although that’s probably good news for readers who follow Aquaman and not Justice League… although considering there were only about ten new comics from all publishers this past week, if you’re enough of a comic fan to pick up Aquaman, you probably bought Justice League, if only to take home enough product to keep your hands from shaking until January 2nd.

So we see Aquaman and Batman making rescues in Gotham (and explaining why Batgirl isn’t around), Cyborg monitoring the action in orbit on the Justice League Satellite (and explaining why Flash isn’t around), and Superman and Wonder Woman in Metropolis (explaining why Vulko is around). But it’s not all recap and reiteration; we also learn a few more details about the Atlantean war plans that Aquaman helped write – including that he had targeted certain members of the Justice League for immediate neutralization (including Batman – the regular guy with the Batarangs – and not including Flash – the guy who can run in circles on the surface of water and create gigantic waterspouts or whirlpools), and that following the tidal waves, move two is to sink whatever city was most damaged by the initial attack… and considering the Justice League has so far done fuckall to help Boston, guess where the Atlanteans are bivouacking? Yup, Boston Harbor… although given what a cesspool of industrial pollution Boston Harbor is, I doubt they’ll survive long enough to actually attack. But I digress.

So storywise, there’s not a lot to recommend this book if you’ve already read Justice League #15. What does recommend it is the additional focus writer Geoff Johns puts on the somewhat conflicted nature of Aquaman’s loyalties between Atlantis and the surface world. Johns gives us several pages of dialogue between Aquaman and Batman, ostensibly about what Atlantis has planned, but which include a bunch of tidbits about how he tried his best to be the king Atlantis wanted while he lived there and how he learned to sympathize with an antagonistic view of the surface during that time, and yet he reacts violently when Batman implies that Atlanteans are Aquaman’s “people.” Throw on top of that the obvious conflict Aquaman feels at the end of the issue, when caught between his brother and The JL Big Trinity, and it adds some interesting character moments for Aquaman that I generally found to be satisfying.

But the tricky part of this issue is that it really doesn’t advance the plot all that much – again, good for those who missed Justice League #15, but for the rest of us, it just means a bunch of what generally amounts to exposition. Sure, that previously mentioned conversation between Aquaman and Batman is good character stuff, but it still amounts to four pages of two guys talking in one boat. There are two pages of the thrilling rescue of Commissioner Gordon and Detective Bullock from the tidal wave, followed by two pages of discussion about the scope of the disaster. The exposition does help flesh out the true scope of the disaster, and the level of danger that the Atlantean invasion really means – the last time Boston drowned was October 27, 2004, and Sam Adams was involved – but it still is a lot of discussion and plot establishment, which gives the whole issue a feeling that not very much is actually happening. Sure, there’s the opening rescue, and the quick attack on the Batboat, but those beats almost have the feeling like Johns said, “Shit, that’s five pages of people talking. Better blow something up to keep things interesting.”

Paul Pelletier’s art is solid enough, if nothing particularly spectacular. He draws in a generally fine line, with usually realistic figures (although there is one panel of Mera where she is standing as if someone stapled her knees together, and one of Aquaman on story page 15 where it really looks like someone put Aquaman’s head on backwards) and expressive faces, but man is Pelletier in love with parallel facial detail and shadow lines; there are a few pages here where it looks like Aquaman and Batman spent their time in the gutters working each other over with cutthroat razors. But still, Pelletier keeps the camera moving around during the pages of discussion (one of which is a nine-panel grid of two guys talking, and without Pelletier’s camera moves and perspective changes, could have been one of the most boring comic pages in recent memory), his pacing is generally appropriate, and he actually draws a pretty damn good Trench sea monster. However, Pelletier cheats some of his backgrounds, taking advantage of the setting’s heavy weather to make the background a slash of rain, and I guarantee you the man has never seen the actual Boston skyline. But in general, it’s a pretty decent performance, if nothing  you’d bid up the price for on eBay.

Aquaman #15 is not a bad comic book; it doesn’t do much to advance the plot, but it fleshes it out in a way that will bring readers who missed part one of Throne of Atlantis up to speed, it adds story and character detail for those who did see part one, and leaves a pretty solid cliffhanger to bring up interest in part three. But it is heavy on the conversation and the exposition, so anyone looking for an action-filled book isn’t gonna find it here – picture walking into Independence Day five minutes after the aliens blow up the White House. So come to see Aquaman mired in conflict and differing motivations, but for action? Maybe tune into Justice League #16 for part three.

Where, if parts one and two are any guide, Boston will be set on fire. To try to quell the locust plague. All while Superman flies off to save a treed cat in Manhattan.