Personally I’ve always been part of the crowd when it comes to Aquaman; I always thought he was the Justice Leagues joke character and I totally bought into the Super Friends version of the character. What was his power? Talking to fish and swimming fast? It really didn’t seem like a character I’d be interested in. So he seemed an obvious choice to do a “First Impressions” on. Even better he has a series written by one of my favourite writers, who’s famous for taking goofy characters and making them cool, Geoff Johns. So let’s get started with my First Impressions of the first story arc of Aquaman Volume 1: The trenches.
The first and most noticeable element of this book is Johns approach to Aquaman’s legacy and his attempts to prove to the world, and us the reader, that Arthur is a worthy hero. As I’ve mentioned Aquaman’s always been perceived as a joke character, well it appears that this reputation has leaked into the comic world as well. Throughout the book Aquaman has to deal with people putting him down. The public presume his only ability is talking to fish, the police ask him if he needs a glass of water to stay on land and criminals don’t fear him. So how does Aquaman deal with this? He deals with it by being a total and complete badass. For example in the first issue, the aforementioned thieves attempt to run him over. To deal with this he simply throws their truck upside down and shrugs off a hail of gunfire from the thieves, before backhanding one so hard that the rest simply surrender. I’m going to be honest I thought this scene was amazing, and this attitude carries on throughout the book. Johns writes Aquaman with a quiet self confidence and Ivan Reiss draws him to look powerful and proud. All of this comes together to give the impression of a character who’s constantly being belittled but never lets it get to him. Not once does he let his reputation affect his self confidence. I’ve got to say this really made me rethink the way I thought about Aquaman.
I should say though despite Johns clearly respecting the character, he knows that there’s a wealth of humour to be mined from his frankly pitiful reputation. One of the most notable scenes is when Arthur enters a sea food restaurant and orders “fish and chips.” The whole restaurant look mortified at this because he can “talk to fish.” Ivan Reis draws Arthurs face with the perfect degree of irritation, as he explains that he doesn’t really talk to fish. You can tell that he’s explained this hundreds of times before and that people don’t care or listen. It’s a funny little scene and the books peppered with them. Even when the threat of the first 4 issues is dealt with, and Aquaman has proven himself to us the reader, a cop says “I still don’t like him.” I laughed out loud when I read that. It really reminded me of a few other comic readers who refuse to accept Aquaman as cool, despite his dorky image being a thing of the past.
Now despite all the humour in the book, I was glad to see that Johns gave the book a good dramatic foundation. It wasn’t a huge part of the issues I read; however it’s clear that Aquaman had a turbulent childhood. His father did the best he could to raise him, after his mother seemingly abandoned them to return to Atlantis, and they certainly seem happy. However his dads attempt to keep him away from the water, the threat of death from Atlanteans and the enigmatic Dr Shin hint at a deeper mystery in Aquaman’s past. I’m guessing that this is Johns seeding future stories and it’s certainly compelling and intriguing enough to rope me in.
Johns also introduces Mera, Aquaman’s girlfriend, in the first 4 issues. I liked her, despite myself, as I usually find the whole warrior woman from another culture trope a bit over used. Now she hits all the usual beats, she’s standoffish with people who don’t respect her culture and her dialogue can be pretty generic, warrior woman. However I think I know why I like her, it’s because it’s clear to me that she’s sincerely in love with Arthur. This is done through a combination of Johns’s writing and Reis’s art. A scene that stands out is during the second issue. Mera and Arthur sit together and look through old pictures of Arthur’s youth. When she finds one of him skiing, she’s totally bemused by the idea and yet she says she can’t wait to try it. I like that; I think it’s to do with her seemingly genuine excitement to try out everything that makes someone human. Now I get somewhat uncomfortable about Mera seemingly abandoning her old life in Atlantis for a man, but as it seems to be completely her idea I’m ok with it, also it could potentially lead to more stories in the future.
The one thing that I didn’t really like about this book, is unfortunately the story. Now it’s in no way terrible. Johns is a good writer who rarely tells a bad tale, but it is generic. A brief synopsis of the first 4 issues would be that The Trench, angler-fish mermen, attack the surface for food and Aquaman must stop them. It’s basically a monster from the deep tale. I think the reason that I find the story so generic is that The Trench despite their pretty interesting visual design have little to no character. They only think one thought, “Food”. Now while this could be quite scary, I found the tension completely dissolved when we found out that they were taking the people back to their home alive. They’d gone from a monstrous unknowable menace to a generic hostage taking race, and I could see where the story was going. I don’t know maybe it’s just me, but if an enemy isn’t charismatic then I’d at least like them to be a threat, especially as the feral nature of The Trench makes it seem like they’re all consuming. The reveal of a Queen in charge of them all, completely removed their mystique as well, as it confirms them to be nothing but a race of “soldier ants” with no character of their own. Part of my cynically believe that this was done so that Aquaman and Mera could slaughter them without, the reader feeling uncomfortable. This again was probably done to make Aquaman seem more badass and adult.
With that said The Trench does raise an interesting moral dilemma. You see the Trench, as presented to us, are nothing more than bestial animals. Their ability to think is not evidence of sentience. All animals are driven by a desire for food and to protect their own, so there desire for vengeance on Aquaman and Mera is just instinct. So if their behaviour is just instinctual and they have no real malice, did Aquaman have the right to seal The Trench and kill their queen? They’re no doubt an endangered species with as much right to the planet as us. However they’re also a huge threat to the surface as well, endangering human life. It’s an interesting dilemma; it could be argued that it’s a metaphor for Aquaman siding with the surface. He protects the coastline like his father before him and he will make difficult choices such as this. However Arthurs not without his humanity and he actually apologises to the queen of the Trench before he kills her.
So there they are, my First Impressions of Aquaman. Overall I was a fan. Despite a pretty generic story Johns does excellent work in characterising Aquaman as someone who you’d want to read about. I think in conclusion the take away point of these issues were definitely to show the nobility and heroism of Arthur. He’s constantly belittled and poked at, and yet he has enough confidence and pride to rise above it. He sides with humanity because he knows that despite all their snide remarks humanity can be great, and men like his father remind him of this. I liked this series so much that I actually went out and ordered the next two volumes immediately after finishing the book, I liked it that much. So as a newly converted Aquaman fan, are there any runs that I need to pick up?
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