Book Review: Aquaman vol #1 (New 52)

Book: Aquaman volume #1: The Trench (issues #1-6) by Geoff Johns with illustrations by Ivan Reis, Ink by Joe Prado and color by Rod Reis

Edition: I read the individual issues

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

I thought the first six issues of Aquaman were a well-written masterpiece. It's hard to believe that Geoff Johns wrote such an amazing group of first issues especially when you think about the fact that he also wrote those horrible mediocre first issues of Justice League. Perhaps, the writers are spread too thin and given too many series to write and maybe it disrupts the creative process, who knows?

Anyway, I loved reading this. As I said the writing was just phenomenal and it's one of the reasons why I have stuck with this series since the beginning of the New 52 while I have long since dropped Justice League.

The first four issues center on The Trench storyline. The first issue opens with an impressive scene of Aquaman stopping some robbers in an armored truck. The funny thing is, Arthur not only doesn't get respect from the crooks but also from the police. But that scene alone proves that Aquaman is not some lame superhero. The story continues with both Aquaman and Mera being contacted by a local Deputy to assist the police down at the docks due to a large group of people having gone missing.

But just when the police pull what looks to be a cocoon out of the water, a massive group of strange and mysterious creatures emerge from out of the water. Aquaman, Mera and the police try to fight off the creatures but ultimately the creatures nearly overwhelmed them before they took off. Some good news, they were able to save a dog who had been placed in one of the cocoons. More on the dog later. 

Before one of the dead creatures could be taken away by the police, Arthur and Mera take it (despite the police protesting against it) to an old associate who's a scientist. After examining the creature he gave them clues to where they could find the creatures. The duo head down to the bottom of the sea and go up against the creatures as well as saving many of the abducted people. The fourth issue ends with the Deputy going back to see Arthur and Mera to try to see if they would like to adopt the dog.

The fifth issue opens with Aquaman crashing into the desert then the story flashback to what took place hours ago. This issue delves a little into the Atlantean world with scientists some how triggering an alarm from a device after they removed it from the wall of one of those cocoons. They contact Aquaman to get his assistance once he arrived to check out the device, a mysterious group of armed people show up to retrieve the device and quickly leave but not without Aquaman tagging along.

After a huge fight and an explosion later, Arthur crashed into the desert. He was able to get the device back as well as gain some rather interesting information about Atlantis. He returned home later thanks to the police only to find Mera gone with a note that she's gone to town to get some dog food.

The sixth issue focused on Mera's adventures in town as she attempts a rather normal task of trying to buy dog food. But no matter where Mera and Arthur go, they always draw attention. In the store Mera was asking for help with figuring out which dog food to buy, and unfortunately the sleazy manager at the grocery store decided to help her. However, things didn't work out too well for him, when he didn't heed Mera's warning to not touch her. He wound up with a broken arm but unfortunately for Mera someone called the police.

There was bit of a showdown between them until she surrendered but that was only so she could accompany them to where a father was holding a gun on his daughter. Even though Mera tried to help, it was not appreciated by the police.

However, someone did appreciate her, it was the young lady who worked at the grocery store. Earlier in the story, the manager had been speaking to her in an inappropriate way. She showed up while Mera was thinking about her past and gave her a bag of dog food and toys. I thought that was really nice because she wanted Mera to know that not all of the humans were bad. This issue ends with Arthur wanting to find out who sunk Atlantis.

These first sixth issues were amazing and I loved the artwork as well. There was nothing bad about this and that really means something when I say it because the New 52 has been plagued with a lot of generic and poorly written books.  Aquaman has always been one of my favorite characters however most comic book fans tend to think he was a lame and useless character. But I'm glad this series has shown fans how awesome he really is.