Type Comic
Date 2011-09-28
Tags fiction

The Trench, Part One

Aquaman #1 (2011-11)

We open underwater on a group of scary looking fellows with big, sharp teeth. One says, "It is true. There is an above." Up they go.

Elsewhere, on land, Aquaman stops a group of crooks and heads to a seafood restaurant for lunch. But he's too famous--if not exactly popular--to have a quiet lunch. When his lack of popularity is very rudely pointed out to him ("So how's it feel to be a punchline? How's it feel to be a laughingstock? How's it feel to be nobody's favorite super-hero?") by a very persistent blogger looking for a story, he leaves.

After, at the shore, he remembers his father, a human lighthouse keeper. He tells his wife, Mera, that he intends to remain on land, to start a new life there, with her. Let the Atlanteans find a new king.

On a fishing boat, a group of fishermen encounter the scary looking fellows we met earlier, when one of the fishermen is pulled off the boat by his fishing line. The water turns red and one of the sea creatures comments that "there's food up here."

The focus on how it feels to be Aquaman is good; I always like stories like that. The thing with the human-eating sea creatures isn't developed enough to be either good or bad. We'll have to wait and see how that one turns out. The art's mostly good, but there's nothing spectacular about it, and there are a few panels that look a bit off. Overall, it's another "wait and see."