Aquaman #48
John Jack
Recap
Arthur drinks of the Unspoken Water and visits Mother Shark, who ferrys the dead to their final destination. Mother Shark offers Arthur (who receives the gift of his name, for one thing) his memories, with the knowledge that it's not all good news. What follows is a quickly paced recap of Aquaman's canonical history since the n52 culminating in a bit of a revelation.
Review
Strange, usually I’m not a fan of recap issues, but not being as well read on Aquaman as some other heroes (meaning I’ve only read maybe a hundred Aquaman issues as opposed to a couple thousand for Batman and Superman) it doesn’t have the annoying monotony that can result in a recap of the Last Son of Krypton or One Night in Crime Alley at this point. This issue should be boring and bland, but it has the same feel of the 2005 History of the DC Universe by Dan Jurgens, a high compliment.
The art by Victor Bogdanovic, taking over from Robson Rocha (whom I adore and will miss), might be some of the best I’ve seen from him. I liked his work on Silencer a lot, very Capullo-esque, and this issue continues that but the scenery is SPECTACULAR. Great work. According to the credits, Bogdanovic did his own inks with help from Jonathan Glapion and Daniel Henriques, I can’t tell who did what so kudos to all 3 and colorist Sunny Gho, great work.
I did want to mention I coincidentally watched The Meg last night and the visuals are extremely complimentary, if I can make a suggestion to watch a terrible movie in order to supplement an excellent comic.
Final Thoughts
Honestly a fantastic issue if you are new to the character and a really good one if you aren't, if not for the visuals alone.
Aquaman #48: It’s All Coming Back to Me
- Writing - 8/108/10
- Storyline - 8/108/10
- Art - 9/109/10
- Color - 9/109/10
- Cover Art - 9/109/10