Aquaman #16

This is weird. Geoff Johns has spent this entire crossover writing the Trinity very badly, yet this issue seems to have them snap back into their accurate personalities. Batman, in particular, actually apologizes for his previous inexplicable brashness, and even proves to be more useful than Aquaman himself at investigating the mysteries they find deep in The Trench.

Paul Pelletier is delivering some really solid artwork for this series now that Ivan Reis has been transferred to Justice League. His work's not quite as detailed, but overall he makes everything look pretty much just as good, especially in the ocean. Last issue was a lot more on the surface, so it looked a little different, but this issue is mostly in the water and it looks a lot better.

This arc is proving to be a catalyst for both series' involved in the crossover. For Justice League, we get to see The Grid in action, as Cyborg's call to arms comes to surprisingly instantaneous fruition. It seems a little odd that we jump right to people already arrived, but what's weirder is the way not everyone Cybog called arrived, and it's not the ones that made the most sense who arrived. Thankfully we don't have the confusing appearance of Captain Marvel, but Black Canary arrives despite already being involved in the Birds of Prey and Firestorm shows up despite him currently being perceived as a huge global threat by the government, and having barely had any interaction with other heroes. And the one new character, Goldstar, DOESN'T show up, so what was the point of showing her on the monitor? And honestly, how come these characters can show up despite being busy in their own series', but The Flash can't because of the events in his series? Geoff Johns seems to have a very erratic decision process on what elements are consistent with the rest of the new 52.

There's a lot of great character development for Cyborg, but the biggest thing about this issue is the revelations. There's a lot of interesting details added into the mythology of the sinking of Atlantis and the legacy of The Dead King, but the biggest shocker is the final page reveal of Vulko as the mastermind behind the theft of the Scepter and the missiles that sparked the Alantis/Surface war. This confirms my suspicions about why we never saw who made the deal with Black Manta despite Aquaman accusing Orm. The only problem is that this was pretty much the only possibility for the betrayer, so it was kind of obvious; so I mostly wrote him off because of that and because.... I dunno, it just didn't seem to make sense. That made it more shocking, but it might be TOO shocking to the point that it's only shocking because by all means it shouldn't make sense. But I can see how it works.

In Conclusion: 4/5

This is the best part of Throne of Atlantis thus far, it isn't bogged down by Geoff Johns completely failing to write the Justice League properly with everyone having the temper of The Hulk. The characters seemed a lot better written, and the revelations were both huge and mythology building. The only downside is that not a whole lot happened this issue, it was mostly a buildup issue.