Heating Back Up
I'm a little disappointed that they decided to trot Black Manta out so soon - personally I think it would have been way better if they teased him and his plans out for more issues, but here we go...
This is actually turning out to be a great conflict - the back story to Aquaman and Manta's 'Blood Feud' alluded to on the cover is a fairly standard one in fiction, but it works. The action is really heating up, and while I still don't care for 'The Others', I like the parts with Aquaman/Mera/Black Manta/Shin, if they stick to those aspects of the story, it should come to a great conclusion in the next issue or two.
The art is fantastic in most cases. A two page center spread of Aquaman vs. Black Manta is particularly noteworthy. Unfortunately, Ivan Reis still has trouble clearly conveying motion in action sequences, making characters relative distances and movements confusing in fight scenes. This issue has one particularly bad example where 'The Operative' takes on Black Manta's goons in Manta's lair, and does a back flip to end behind them and strike - the illustration is so confusing - complicated by the similarity in design and coloring of his suit and the henchmen's - that it took me a couple minutes to puzzle out who was hitting whom and how.
Aside from all that, though, there is an interesting core story - Manta's full plans have yet to be revealed, and for the first time in a couple issues, I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes next.
