Aquaman and Mera reconnect and try to do a few things like normal humans would do. While this is happening, something is coming out of the water to kill. The mystery begins here.
Arthur Curry has gone through quite a few changes over the past year or so, and writer Dan Abnett takes the character back to normalcy, in a sense. What this issue does is reestablish this character as a husband, half-human, and a hero. Arthur isn't out doing anything heroic here, but Abnett's dialogue gives the reader a great sense of Aquaman's purpose in life. This is a dialogue heavy issue, but it's all really great stuff and gives the reader perspective.
There's a whole other side of the issue with these creatures popping out of the water to kill people. The kicker is that they can come out of anything, including a cup of water. Abnett sets this up as a horror scene as sporadically throughout the issue, we catch a glimpse at these murders. The scenes are pretty terrifying and we don't know who or what is doing this. Aquaman #49 does a fantastic job at building suspense for this story.
Vicente Cifuentes continues as penciler, with Guy Major on colors, and John Dell, Juan Castro, and Cifuentes on inks. The art here is solid and really fits the tone for this story. The one thing that was a huge miss in this issue, artwise, was Mera's costume at the end. I am really not a fan of seeing essentially Aquaman's costume on Mera. I may personally be too attached to the Queen of Atlantis outfit.
Overall, this was a really fun issue that brought Aquaman a bit more back to his roots. Abnett is working on who Aquaman is and what he means to the DCU on a very personal level. There's also this additional story being setup that's pretty fantastic, mysterious, and terrifying. Creatures from the deep are pretty scary, so why can't this book have a little bit of that in it? Overall, I highly recommend this issue.