Thursday, March 29, 2012

Aquaman #7


Goodness, Geoff Johns does love his killin’. I hope none of you were too excited about the new League introduced on the cover of this issue, because five pages in, one of them is already dead. Black Manta shows up and flays the Middle Eastern heroine right after her debut (sorry, I’ve already forgotten her name).

Johns cut his teeth doing this with Flash villains, making them into sickos more in keeping with modern sensibilities, but leaving the hero nice and bright. I guess I’m OK with that. I’m more annoyed that this whole new league story feels so close to what I understand is happening in Batwing. I thought a new universe would open up a whole new set of possibilities, not set up repeats of the same story.

I know I’ve seen folks online saying that the DCnU feels like a long Elseworlds. I’m still in that boat. Regardless of how cool the new League is, or the new origins of Lost Atlantis, I just can’t make myself buy it. I realize that’s on me, but I can’t help it!

Ivan Reis’ art is stunning. I absolutely love his take on Mera, and his Aquaman is great too, although sometimes he looks a bit young. Black Manta looks awesome! But once again, there are a some cheats here with unnecessary splash pages. I think there are two or three at least in this issue, when the plot elements portrayed don’t really deserve that “moment.” It’s getting annoying with all these new DCU titles. They are short enough already!

Fair

1 comment:

Martin Gray said...

Gawd, I thought this was ruddy awful. More killing, as you say, miserable, scowly heroes, flashy art that doesn't make it clear what was gong on ... I likely won't bother with the rest of this storyline.