Aquaman, Volume 2: The Others Review - Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis

By Noel Thorne / May 20, 2013

Arthur Curry is Aquaman, the grumpiest mermaid ever, who returns for a second outing in The Others in what is his weakest and most forgettable adventure yet. A villain called Black Manta is killing Aquamans old friends collectively known as The Others, the group he belonged to before joining the Justice League, and stealing the sources of their power which happen to be relics of Atlantis. Aquaman, Mera and the Others must regroup to defeat Black Manta and stop him from getting the powerful instrument that sank Atlantis back to his mysterious employer... The biggest and most insurmountable problem with this book (and with many of DCs New 52 books) is the complete laziness of DC to fully commit to each series being a reboot, as theyre supposed to be. If you reboot a character and a series then you have to reintroduce all of the characters and retell all of the major events in the characters lives - simply assuming that those reading these books were reading the comics pre-reboot and will therefore know what youre talking about without introducing things properly for new readers is simply sloppy and lazy. Or using flashbacks to tell entire arcs is just pointless if all the important stuff happened before this book, why even reboot in the first place? After all isnt the point of a reboot to tell the important stuff first-hand anyway? So who is Black Manta? We get some back story about him being a treasure hunter, once hired by Doctor Shin to get some of Arthurs blood in order to prove the existence of Atlanteans thus validating his years of research into Atlantis. Mantas father is murdered by Aquaman after Manta attacked Arthurs dad who died shortly after of a heart attack. So we at least know why Aquaman and Manta hate each other - Aquaman blames Manta for hastening his fathers death even though the coroner pronounced Tom Currys heart attack inevitable, while Manta has a real claim to be angry at Aquaman who actually did murder Mantas dad, albeit believing that he was killing Manta.

Besides motive though, were told nothing about Manta - why is he called Black Manta? If its purely because of his appearance (black outfit, weird helmet), why adopt this persona? Is he connected to mantas in some way? Did he build the outfit? How is he able to shoot Cyclops-like red blasts of energy from his eyes? None of these questions are answered. Lets talk about The Others, the group Aquaman belonged to before he joined the Justice League. The Others are: Kahina/The Seer, a psychic; YaWara, an Amazonian warrior skilled in hand to hand combat with an entourage of panthers; Prisoner, a former soldier haunted by the spirits of his dead friends; Operative, a geriatric special ops guy; and Vostok, a man who likes isolation. Who are these people? How did they meet? Why did Aquaman gather them together to form a team? What was their purpose? What are their goals? Again, were never told, were just forced to believe that this bizarre collection of characters suddenly decided to get together to help the world (though that goal is never stated, Im just assuming this as why else would they form?). And what a bunch of ragtag characters! I understand that a real psychic would be handy and could pass as a superhero, but the rest of them? Prisoner (terrible name) is baffling his superpower is depression and suicidal feelings from being haunted by the ghosts of his dead fellow soldiers. And this is a superpower, how? This would make every vet with PTSD a possible candidate to join The Others! And how does wearing a bag over your head do anything? He cant see! Operative is literally an old man, so who knows what thats all about he is spry though. And Vostok - this guy might be the strangest character in the book. He was raised to be the perfect cosmonaut so he is perfectly comfortable in total isolation. He likes to be alone and cant function well around people. Agoraphobia is not a superpower, Geoff Johns!

The bottom line is The Others are terrible characters. Theyre a terrible group of heroes and its a complete mystery why Aquaman would hang around them or think they would be useful in his fight against Black Manta. But thats the crux of the book really, as theyre not - Manta starts killing them off and that triggers Aquaman into hunting Manta down, even though he doesnt really like these people (its been 6 years since he spoke to any of them). The Others are basically a plot device rather than real people and the only reason they are considered heroes in the first place is that Aquaman gave them relics of Atlantis which granted them a questionable amount of power - though from what they accomplish in this book, those relics are useless. Plus, their forgettable name The Others makes them feel expendable (which they definitely are but doesnt bring them closer to the reader theyre just losers). While The Others and Black Manta are pretty awful characters, Aquaman and Mera are no better themselves. Mera is permanently pissed off wearing a scowl at all times and threatening to kill everyone she encounters remember that were supposed to like her. And Aquaman? He is a superhero, or at least thats what hes called, yet he does the most questionable things that go against that label. First off, this whole mess is arguably his fault. 6 years ago, when he was even crazier than he is now, he went and recklessly killed someone without checking their identity - that he would kill someone in cold blood in the first place isnt very heroic, but to kill the wrong person who could easily be identified by, oh I dont know, looking at the person? Un-heroic and dumb. In Aquamans defence, it was a dark and stormy night And that one event led to this book. During this same period, hes in Siberia with The Others where Black Manta has planted explosives for some reason (I would say if I knew but its never said in the book) and when innocent people are threatened with death, Aquaman tells The Others not to bother saving them and to let them die! It takes the entire group, minus Aquaman, going back to save these people for Aquaman to grudgingly save a small child whom he promptly drops into the snow after saving her. Again, hes a superhero, apparently. That might - might - be excusable by saying that he was young and stupid then - hes changed now, hes a better man for those experiences! But hes not. In the present day, when hes not threatening to kill Dr Shin, hes stabbing Black Mantas henchmen (by the way, when did Manta get so many henchmen who wear these elaborate Manta outfits? Isnt he just a treasure hunter, not a Bond villain?), literally murdering men, and threatening to murder even more people like Manta. Aquamans not like Batman or Superman who dont kill, Aquaman kills, and he kills a lot in this book. That he doesnt kill Manta at the end makes no sense and is totally out of character. After all, when he gets mad and tries to viciously murder Manta, his oldest friends The Others inform Mera that he is acting exactly like himself. So his true self is an incredibly violent psychopath. Again, Aquamans a superhero - apparently. Aquaman never smiles - not once. Like his angry wife Mera, he is constantly irritated with everything. It might be because everyone in the first book made fun of him but nobodys doing that in this book so youd think hed cheer up for a minute or two, wouldnt you? Nope. And this book once again raises the question of when and why the world began mocking Aquaman - 6 years ago he was the tough guy he is today, so why would people think he sucks? 5 years ago he was part of the Justice League saving the world from Darkseid and his parademons, so why would people think he sucks? At what point did he do anything for people to think so poorly of him and not the other members of the Justice League? Geoff Johns has never made this clear. But if you thought Aquaman hatred is limited to just the ordinary people of this world, youd be wrong - apparently Aquaman also hates Aquaman! He hangs up the outfit and says hes ashamed of who I am. Aquaman is nothing but a costume. Mera has to ask him to put on the costume, that he shouldnt undervalue who Aquaman truly is like the rest of the world. When did Aquaman start hating being Aquaman?

Also, when did Aquaman become bulletproof? I remember in the first book that bullets ricocheted off of his armour but in this book bullets literally bounce off of his bare skin, unharmed. So hes Superman now? Geoff Johns doesnt just plot this book poorly but he writes it very badly as well. In #11, he falls prey to that old comic book trope of having the characters say what their superpowers are while theyre fighting. So when Mera and Manta throw down, Mera tells him her powers, and then Manta responds in kind telling her about his powers - bear in mind theyre fighting so these rambling speeches of theirs are ridiculous. This book is a 21st century comic thats about as good as the worst excesses of the Silver Age, decades ago in the 20th century. Its like Johns hasnt read any modern comics! In the same issue, Johns literally has the individual members of The Others stand up and tell you their biographies/powers. Prisoner goes first I cant forget anyone... and continues for the rest of the page, then Vostok stands up two pages later and says I was raised in a solitary chamber... telling us his sad story. When exposition like this is shoe-horned into the story like this its simply clumsy, bad writing. The one saving grace of this book is Ivan Reis art which is as fantastic as ever. But I will say that reading this book is quicker than your average comic book, despite being 7 issues long - this is because Johns gets Reis to showcase his art, giving him numerous splash pages and single pages where you get to see the art without any writing on the page, or sometimes with a few words to a page, so the pages fly by. Aquaman, Volume 2: The Others is a complete and total mess. Johns writing is among the worst hes ever produced, the plotting is awful and the story forgettable and dull, despite the near-constant action, featuring characters you dont care about. Aquaman as a character isnt advanced much beyond the fact that he used to be an even angrier mermaid than he currently is. This comic is just terrible. Collecting Aquaman #7-13, Aquaman, Volume 2: The Others by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis is out now in hardback at your local comics shop and online at Comixology and DCs Online App.