COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Aquaman # 7

Reviewing Aquaman # 7 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis.

Geoff Johns continues his bid to make Aquaman a cool character in the New 52 DC Universe and he does so by slowly teasing us with a glimpse into Arthur’s past. Not only are we seeing slivers of his past, we also get to meet the people he used to roll with and the one person that has a vendetta against the Atlantean king – Black Manta.

This issue starts off with a chase. And just like any tried-and-tested story, the chase ends with death and the revelation of the killer (which in this case is the aforementioned Aquaman nemesis). The book then switches over to Arthur and Mera who are hard at work being superheroes.

Okay too much spoilers already. So let do this review without spoiling too much.

I love the art for Aquaman # 7, I can completely say that Ivan Reis is in his element when it comes to drawing great looking shots of either Aquaman or Mera (who is called Aquawoman). The play on the color was pretty interesting. I also love how the book’s colorist Rod Reis managed to make Manta’s face look grimmer than what is usually depicted in the past.

While the relationship between Aquaman and Mera gets to be explored albeit in a short form, there’s still something to look forward to for the next few issues of “The Other League”. If you’re a fan of action sequences in comic books, you’d be happy to know that there are two big, kick-ass fighting scenes in the book. Who the combatants are you have to buy the book to find out.

Johns is still on the road when it comes to making Aquaman cool. One minor complaint I have with the whole book is that we rarely get to see some cool character defining moments for the protagonist. It’s already been 7 issues since DC Comics relaunched and we still have yet to see some awesome looking one page of Aquaman doing something incredible or something that will make people go “Oh wow, I didn’t know he could do that”. Oh wait, he actually did something cool but that was in the pages of Justice League.

Overall theres nothing out of the ordinary for Aquaman # 7. It has good art and a pretty straightforward story.

VERDICT: 8.5/10