Reading Comics 146 "Aquaman"

via DC Comics

It took me forever, but I've finally read the conclusion to Geoff John's Aquaman.  

Yeah, about a year late.

But the local comics shop had the original comics available, or at least the last two issues, Aquaman # 24 and 25, and so I got them and now have read them.

And it struck me, this was a little like Johns revisiting some of what he'd done in the pages of Green Lantern.  Now, before you say some hogwash like Johns repeating himself let alone others, that's the story of storytelling.  That's what it's all about.

Now, the last Green Lantern story Johns told concerned the First Lantern, his vision of how the Guardians of the Universe began creating what would become the space cops as embodied by Hal Jordan and others.  The First Lantern returned as a villain, naturally.  The same, it seems, as the King of the Seven Seas, the prototypical Aquaman who ruled ancient Atlantis and subsequently returns, as a villain.

The whole idea of the Others, it now seems apparent, was Johns recreating the spectrum corps in a new context, too.  

And it's about bloody time.

For so long, when Aquaman wasn't that crazy person who talks to fish (or lobsters, as depicted in the new Throne of Atlantis animated adaptation), he was thrust into some quasi-fantasy context that, sure, revolved around the obvious backdrop of the famed lost city that toppled over, sank into a swamp (er, your knowledge of Monty Python and the Holy Grail lore may not be extensive enough to know how pathetically hilarious I just was) and left our hero a fish out of water even though he technically patrols, y'know, most of the world.  But as he does with every concept he touches, Johns expanded Aquaman's horizons.

And he did it by dipping into the same waters twice, as it were.  But context is always key.  And I think it's worth celebrating this latest breakthrough.

The Others all have connections to artifacts (which is also like the Top Cow characters whose backstories hinge on how aware you are that Witchblade kind of long ago stopped being just that chick who was one of the many blatant excuses the '90s had for female characters wearing as strategically little as possible) stemming from the new Atlantis mythology.  You may have noticed that Aquaman and the Others has been an ongoing series for some time now, too.

I haven't read Aquaman since Johns left.  It took so long to read how Johns left, it only figures.  I don't know if those who inherited this Johns playground have properly exploited what he left behind, or if they've simply been enjoying the new visibility of the property.  Which, actually, wouldn't be a bad thing, because there now stands on record a number of key Aquaman arcs, "Throne of Atlantis," "Death of a King" (the arc that concludes with these issues), and of course the introduction of the Others.

It was also fun to see the art of Paul Pelletier, which has been missing from the pages of DC comics for years now, but was some of my favorite material from the '90s.  His work is still recognizable, but has more, ah, depth now.  Which is always good.