Review: Aquaman #4

Each attempt over the years by DC to reinvigorate or reinvent Aquaman has had me as a beginning reader. Then, for some reason, it seems the creative troupe lost interest but kept belting out the pages anyway. That made me lose interest, and so it went.

Not this time! (At least I hope.) With four issues under their collective belt, Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis are doing their best work on this DCnU relaunch since the Green Lantern days, and that is saying something.

Johns is firing all thrusters as the arc of the very carnivorous Trench comes to a close this issue. With few talking heads and a lot of slam-bang action, Johns delivers the needed exposition and still makes Aquaman look like the baddest-ass since Wolverine’s heyday in the ”˜80s. And instead of pushing the sea king’s past behind him, the writer is laying the groundwork for more story — have all writers forgotten the best story comes from a character’s history, even a refurbished and relaunched history?

And Mera is becoming the most active gal pal/femme fatale since the Daredevil/Black Widow hook-up. (Yes, I am old, but I know quality, lol)  Cannot wait to gander inside her head as her sorta-solo issue arrives.

The fate of the Trench will leave many scratching their heads, believe me, but it also just adds another layer onto Aquaman who in four issues has become one of my favorite DC reads of the month.

Of course, the fantastic line work by Reis is deft with detail and emotion, making us feel the water, the darkness, the very breath (underwater?) of these hungering creatures. On the surface and beneath the waves, the artist has captured Johns’ A-Man perfectly.

If ya want a great yarn of a sea king without pointy ears and winged feet, this should be your destination! Despite what the folk living in the DCnU think, Aquaman is the coolest!