Review: Aquaman #45

Aquaman 45 - DC Comics News

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick

Pencils: Robson Rocha

Inker: Daniel Henriques

Colors: Sunny Gho

Letters: Clayton Cowles

 

Summary

Aquaman has come to terms with the fact that the oceans are somehow a part of him and that they must have the answers to his memory loss.  Caille accompanies him as he searches for those answers.

The ‘god myths’ of the Village of Unspoken Water is revealed along the way.  Their boat is attacked by shards of salt, which corresponds to the goddess mother Salt.

Caille is dragged down into the depths of the ocean, but Aquaman manages to rescue her, but a dark truth is revealed.

AQUAMAN_45_1 - DC Comics News

Positives

I have always been a fan of studying religion and myths, and this issue actually does a great job of creating a viable mythology to the Village. Caille‘s history ties directly into that mythology so for the first time I am actually somewhat intrigued by some aspect of this new direction for the Aquaman book.

AQUAMAN_45_2 - DC Comics News

Negatives

This still tries way too hard to be The Odyssey, some Greek myth or a cheesy romance novel. But at the end of the day it feels nothing like Aquaman. It bothers me to no end that after all these years DC found an identity for Aquaman that was not only not a joke but actually a great read, but then they threw it all away in this new direction.

 AQUAMAN_45_3 - DC Comics News

Verdict

This issue is the first DeConnick issue that was even remotely worth reading. Unfortunately it has nothing to do with Aquaman, it has more to do with mythology building. This new direction for Aquaman is still a bad idea that regresses the character and I would never suggest this title to new readers. I would point them at the Geoff Johns, Dan Abnett or even Peter David run, but I would have them look the other way with this run.

 

 

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Cameron Tevis

Hi, I'm Cameron Tevis and I've been a comic book, anime and film fan my entire life. While I like Marvel and anime my true love is DC Comics. My father, who was a fan himself, introduced me at a very young age to the amazing characters in DC (especially Hal Jordan Green Lantern). I think it's a fantastic time to be a comic book fan and I'm happy I get to write about the company that I love so much. Besides being a DC fan, I am a designer and I recently started a comic book series of my own called Event Cycle 6 published through Aporian Comics. I recently wrote and directed a short film "The Misadventures of Harley Quinn". And most importantly I am now a father to my beautiful daughter Arya Jade!