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Aquaman #20 - Skinwalker

2

The Others appear in their own stand alone story as they try to recover Atlantian weapons!

The Good

Aquaman hires the Others to go and find some Atlantian weapons which the Scavenger has been selling on the black market. They team up with a woman named Sky who is connected to some of the dead members of The Others.

The only thing I really got excited for was the overall concept and story in this issue. I really like the idea of The Others working for Aquaman, having to find all these Atlantian weapons and relics, even if they fall into the wrong hands. We get to see one of these weapons called "The Power Glove" (see below) and it's concept is extremely cool, which is that it can punch through any object. The Skinwalker takes it in hopes of breaking an ancient seal to command an undead army.

While Sky is the new character focus here, I found the Skinwalker much more appealing. Native American lore and mythology is not as explored in modern day comics as it should be since it's such a larger part of the United States. He had a very cool look, and I liked his simple, yet enjoyable motivation for the overall story.

The Bad

Don't let the cover fool you. This is not written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Paul Pelletier. It's written by John Ostrander, pencilled by Manuel Garcia, colored by Pete Pantazis, and inked by Sandra Hope, Rob Hunter, Ray McCarthy, and Wayne Faucher.

There is so much time spent on setting everything up that by the time we get to the final confrontation, it's over in just a few pages. A part of this problem is because the creative team is only given so much time to set up this story. The overall pacing of the book is a bit of a mess. The concept here is far too big for one issue.

Everything about this issue feels a tad rushed, whether it's the pacing of the overall book or the fact the art is inconsistent, we get a great concept that falls a bit flat. This is a solid creative team too. There are times where Garcia's art, with whoever was inking on that page, really shined. Over on the next page, the inking would wash out the pencils, and then a few pages later, faces would be strangely distorted.

I can't take an item called "The Power Glove" seriously. I grew up in the 80s, and I'm thinking of something completely different when I hear those words.

The Verdict

Hopefully, someday, The Others will have their own stand-alone book. This is a team that could pull it off. Aquaman is a consistently great book. Sure, there's been a couple bumps in the road, so far, but overall, this has been a stellar series, but this issue was a big let down. Concept-wise, this is a fantastic book that gives DC a reason to use the characters from the Others without just shoehorning them into a book because there was already a connection made between these characters and Atlantian artifacts, but the execution of the actual issue is a bit of a mess. It feels rushed, and it's inconsistent. It has a solid writer and artist, but they needed more pages to work with to make this the issue it needs to be.