Aquaman #60 – Kelly Sue DeConnick, Writer; Miguel Mendonca, Artist; Romulo Fajardo Jr, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: Kelly Sue DeConnick will be taking a break from this title come August, with one more issue to go before Jordan Clark steps in for a story focusing on Jackson Hyde. So it’s fitting that this issue is setting up one hell of a mid-run finale. It also, unfortunately, seems to set up a lot of typical comic book tropes that always happen when dealing with superhero kids and babies. When we last left off, Princess Andy was missing, Mera was in a coma, and Arthur was on the rampage. It was clear that Orm and his city of Dagon were involved, but their end goal wasn’t clear. This issue begins with a great opening segment, as Jackson and Caille aid the search by retrieving the destroyed Manta Mech and its powerful AI of Manta’s father, and use it to search the ocean and find Andy, unharmed, in an abandoned ship. It’s anticlimactic, but also much better than this story ended the last time Arthur’s child was kidnapped.
The machinations in the city of Dagon are probably the most interesting part of the issue, as it’s clear that while Orm is back to his villainous ways, he’s also a far smarter villain, less prone to casual cruelty. On the other hand, he’s manipulating a child goddess to his whims. I’m less thrilled about the series of deus ex machinas that end the issue, with the Gods becoming aware of a massive coming war and setting up a series of events that both wake Mera from her coma (good, but a rather unsatisfying story) and potentially take Andy out of the title indefinitely. This is what I was worried about as soon as they introduced Aquaman and Mera’s child, because no title seems to know how to write heroes as parents. What are the odds that when she returns, she’s aged up the next time a writer wants to use her? There’s a lot of good in this series, but a lot of the comic book tropes it plays with take away from the epic mythology DeConnick has been building.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
