Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis 40

DC Comics
Script: Kurt Busiek
Art: Butch Guice

My working theory on the new Aquaman subtitle is that DC editorial has adopted a strategy of the best defense is a good offense. Is it Conan underwater? Sure. And DC can either acknowledge this up front and move on, or spend months denying the comparison only to finally agree that the two are similar, but you know, different...because of the water. And the sharks.

Getting Kurt Busiek to write this book was a very savvy move on DC’s part. So many of us afford Busiek an implied trust there can’t help but be a significant boost to this monthly’s lagging numbers regardless of whatever resistance there is to the direction the new title implies. (I’ll be shocked if this issue does anything less than double the previous average, which was hovering around 18K.) For me, Busiek is on the short list of writers whom I’ll give a four to six issue cushion no matter what title they’re on, and, as evidenced by my purchase here, can also get me to shell out for something previously off my radar. With Busiek we don’t always know if it will be great but we can trust that it will be at least pretty darn good and absolutely faithful to both the genre and whatever preceding iconography exists. And this 1 Year Later debut is all of that.

So there’s a new Aquaman and his name is Arthur Curry and he can talk to fish and he seems destined to be a king of the oceanscape. (Over at the Absorbosacon, in one of the more interesting comicblogosphere exchanges regarding this book, someone commented that “oceanscape” might not be correctly used, prompting Busiek himself to chime in with a complete etymological breakdown of that word and several others proposed. Kurt Busiek, firmly at the intersection of word geeks and comic geeks.) I know this might be annoyingly clever to some, but I found the repurposing of the Aquaman tropes nicely intertwined with current DCU/OYL theme. It also conveniently set up several escape hatches should the title need to fall on its sword at some point in the future.

Butch Guice's art works well too, although I'll quickly tire of seeing Aquaman with solid black eyes. There also seemed to be some inconsistency in the rendering of the King Shark – he’s two to three times Aquaman’s size during the fight scene and much smaller on the cover and in other places within the book. Perhaps that’s by design and the character somehow increases size when in battle. (Didn’t Marvel have a sea-oriented character like that once? Orca?) Whatever the case, it was a bit distracting.

So it was interesting and I’ll be following along for at least a few more issues, making this the first time I’ve ever followed an Aquaman title. I’m sure there are plenty more of you who’ve picked this up for similar reasons, we know Busiek won’t disappoint. That’s the good news for DC. The bad news is that Busiek (and Grant Morrison) can’t write everything.

Comments

[joncormier]

Kurt,

Not to try and be funny, but I think we're in the same boat - this is the first ever Aquaman book I've ever purchased as well. I'm happy I did. I think it's a great blend of the Aquaman tropes and history with a new take that works for the setting. I've been wanting a good sword and sorcery fix but didn't have the cash for Busiek's Conan trades (at least not yet). This is also the first Busiek book I've ever bought and it's got me wanting to find more. I'm thinking of picking up Marvels if I can find it.

I see a lot of potential in this new direction, but I also understand why people are worried about it. I could very easily go pear shaped - didn't they try to make him more grim 'n gritty before? Didn't work out too well if I recall.

[rsteans]

The prior run on this book (the whole Sub-Diego bru-ha-ha) was promising, but the creative team seemed resistant to ever make the story pay off. I believe that storyline ran for well over a year, and you never came any closer to understanding who the shadowy figures were or why their malevolent plan included turning San Diegoans into water-breathers. The story just seemed stuck in a holding pattern that was completely unnecessary. In the silver age, they would have resolves the whole thing in a 6 page back-up story.

In the end, as much as I wanted to know what the editors had in mind, I welcomed the change just to get on with it. Who has time to spend a year and a half hoping NEXT month they'll finally spill the beans?

I'm givng this series a full six issues before pulling the chute, but so far it looks promising. And, yes, I read Busiek's Conan, too, so I'm inclined to give this book the benefit of the doubt.