Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #48

Writer: Kurt Busiek
Pencils: Ricardo Villagran
Colors: Dan Brown
Letters: Todd Klein

For those not in the know, Kurt Busiek has helmed a new take on Aquaman since the “One Year Later” approach kicked in late last spring. He has introduced a new character as Aquaman – a kid named Arthur Curry who just happens to be related to the old Aquaman and, due to his mother dying from complications and his being dangerously premature, was injected with a serum that allowed him to live in the water, thus surviving and developing certain superhuman abilities. Following the destruction of his father's lab during a hurricane, young Arthur finds himself in the midst of underwater upheaval and eventually chooses to restore order to the undersea kingdoms. What we now have is a high fantasy, sword-and-sorcery adventure tale, complete with quests and mysterious destinies. Enemies will become allies, fates will be revealed and mermaids will be slept with: ya gotta love Busiek.

Thus far he's done a wonderful job of establishing the variety of races that comprise the ocean's plains and ranges and the lawlessness that has taken root since Atlantis' destruction and the disappearance of the former Aquaman. This provides for any number of stories as we follow young Arthur in his quest to take on a mantle thrust upon him. We are now past his introduction to the undersea world and following him on his first quest, involving a slightly modified old enemy of the original Aquaman. This particular issue is mostly set-up with some character development achieved via Arthur's explanation of his fears regarding people placing their trust in him. I'm making it sound pretty boring and that is mostly because, well, it is. We are offered more insight into who Arthur is and what drives him, but it is not exactly like this is page-turning material. I get the feeling that everything in here will matter later – certainly in the next issue and in all likelihood beyond that – but that doesn't quite do it for me on a single issue note. Even the retooling of a classic Aquaman villain doesn't do much more than pose questions here, and not exactly the questions you need answered right now. Sure, a threat is present, but given how little we know about said threat there is no way to know how concerned we ought to be. This feels like one of those occasionally necessary ho-hum issues that gets you to where you need to go next.

This issue also sees an artist change, with Ricardo Villagran taking over penciling duties from Butch Guice (don't even think about asking me how to pronounce his last name). Guice did still draw the cover and I think it provides a pretty clear illustration of a few of the problems I had with the art throughout this issue. With Guice a rougher quality marks the work; the effect very much simulates seeing things in murky or dark, brackish water. Also, each character, while possessing a distinctive design, is somewhat sketchy in his/her overall appearance. Consequently there is almost a woodcut look to each panel, rather reinforcing the fantasy overtones of the book. As a final point, characters' hair (those with hair or something somewhat similar to it anyways) moves all over the place in the water's currents; one half expects Aquaman to be blinded in battle every other panel by some sudden eddy along a reef. Overall, the impact of his drawing style is subtle, as it sets the mood without overpowering the viewer and gives the book a very specific feel. I provide this much detail about Guice's artwork and point to his cover design as an example because I am not at all impressed by Villagran's work.

Villagran maintains a similar sketchiness to the art, yet it feels somehow too specific. We have a pretty clean view of pretty much every character in any given panel, leaving little room for mystery. What Guice did so well and Villagran does not at all is forcing the reader/viewer to fill in the blanks herself, to kick the imagination into overdrive; this for me is where the art seriously assists the fantastic elements of the story. Aquaman, King Shark and the Dweller of the Depths have maintained, until now, a larger-than-life appearance; they stride across the pages by way of tight close-ups and epic sweeps; here they just look small in a monstrous landscape, but not in a particularly effective way. Similarly, Aquaman's looks like it's gelled pretty heavily along the part, with the wings flowing about but in a rather set-piece manner. On a final note, Villagran consistently shows the Dweller's left arm...and it's solid. We know at this point that the Dweller is the old Aquaman somehow transformed with half his body now a mystical water; and by half I mean the left half. That's the whole point of him wearing that weird looking cloak: to hide his most identifying feature from view. Why then would an artist draw something that so blatantly flies in the face of a major plot point? For that matter, why did no one stop him? It's just really irritating.

Before wrapping up I would like to comment on the lettering in this issue and every other issue thus far. Aquaman has been very fortunate to have Todd Klein manning those duties as he is, from what I can tell, the best in the business (Wikipedia him if you need further education on this point). He certainly does a fantastic job of creating different moods and textures for the various characters and settings. In particular the font differences among Arthur, the Dweller and King Shark certainly gives the impression each is speaking in a very different manner. King Shark is gruff, declarative and menacing in his speech while Arthur seems to sound like just about everyone else, both above and below the water. The Dweller, on the other hand, comes across as refined and perhaps a bit removed in his manner – he may even have an accent that separates him from the plebes – as designated very well by his being the only character whose comments are both in the upper and lower cases. It's hard for me to really get into what makes a good letterer given my own general ignorance on the topic, but Klein certainly assists the storytelling with the attention to detail and intricate nature of his work.

Overall I would have to say that I'm probably with this series for a long haul (though with Busiek leaving soon and Tad Williams taking over; we'll see how long I last after that). Much like Johns' work with The Flash a few years back, Busiek has taken one of the upper second tier heroes in the DC Universe and pumped life back into his story. The fact that he hasn't ditched the original completely in this revamp and has even woven his story into his successor's is not only admirable but impressive. Regarding this issue though, my feelings remain lukewarm. It isn't good and it isn't bad: it just doesn't feel like much more than a set-up for the next issue.

Ranking: Gimli because I could probably explain it to you in ten seconds and you'll be all set for the proverbial shit-fan interaction coming our way in #49.

^^^^ wondering what this ranking means? ^^^^