Waiting for the Trade - Aquaman

Waiting for the Trade

by Bill Miller

 

Aquaman: The Waterbearer

by Rick Veitch
collects Aquaman #1-4, Aquaman Secret Files #1 and JLA/JSA Secret Files #1
 

Why I Bought This: I came across this at a comic show two months going for $5. I love Aquaman enough to probably buy any solo trade he was in at that price but the fact this one involves him meeting the Lady of the Lake from the King Arthur legend ensured I was buying it and jumping it to the top of my reading pile.

 

The Plot: So this is an early 2000s relaunch of the title after the 90’s title that started with the Peter David run, which apparently ends with Aquaman presumed dead and Atlantis presumed destroyed during the “Our Worlds at War” crossover. In truth both were teleported into the distant past where the Atlantean citizens became experts in sorcery, and where Aquaman had to resink Atlantis to get them back into the present. (All this happens prior to this trade and is helpfully explained in a precap page of text next to the credits). This story starts with the Aquaman deposed from his throne and declared a traitor to Atlantis. The Atlanteans mean to crucify him but fate has other plans in store.

 

Chapter 1 – The Atlanteans drag Arthur through the sea in chains, stabbing in the side with a lance and then tying him in crucifix position to a rocky reef in the sun to die of dehydration. Aquaman tries to call for the fish to help but learns Atlantean magic has turned every fish in the ocean against him. His JLA communicator has also been sabotaged. However through effort he pulls himself free of the rock, yet when he tries to go back into the water he blasted with guns that fire razor sharp coral by the Atlantean guard.  Collapsing on the beach he is attacked by a swarm of crabs and now he is both losing blood and dehydrated. He goes into the interior of the island and finds a lake but collapses before he can reach it. He tries to use his harpoon hand to pull himself into the lake but that’s been sabotaged too. He tosses his hook away in rage and it lands in the lake where it is caught by water nymphs. The nymphs take Aquaman into the lake where he meets the Lady of the Lake and is instantly healed. She then offers him even greater power if he will be her champion, known as the Waterbearer--a role she notes was filled by a different Arthur once before. Meanwhile Martian Manhunter is searching for Aquaman as the JLA suspects he is in trouble. He finds Aquaman’s hook sticking out a stone and then finds Aquaman with a new hand made entirely of water.

Chapter 2 – Aquaman’s new hand can function as a crystal ball and turn solid enough to pickup objects. Aquaman notes to MM that while he can survive in freshwater lakes he won’t thrive like he does in saltwater. He then resigns his membership in the JLA to take time to find his new place in the world. Back in Atlantis the Atlanteans are mutating sea life into monsters. Arthur goes hiking in civilian clothes in Ireland and finds an old run down lighthouse. He meets the lighthouse keeper; an old man named McCaffery and decides to do some odd jobs for him since his own father was a lighthouse keeper. McCaffrey goes out to sea, while Arthur works and he meets a local female cop named Sweeney. Meanwhile the Atlanteans send mutant kelp after an oil tanker. McCaffery tries to guide them safely to shore only to get electrocuted by the Atlanteans in hopes of luring Aquaman into a trap. Aquaman hears the mayday over the police radio and dives into the ocean to help. He has to fight some sharks (since the sea creatures are still turned against him) and then the Atlantean guards as well. Aquaman cuts the guards and lets the sharks’ nature do the rest. Aquaman then touches the kelp monster with his water hand and learns that it can short-circuit any magic spell (thus reducing the monster back to ordinary kelp). Aquaman gets McCaffery’s boat to shore but the old man has stopped breathing. However the Lady of the Lake appears and teaches him to use his new water hand to heal others. As Arthur he tells Sweeney who he really is but she doesn’t believe him, and he’s taken to wearing gloves to preserve his secret identity.

Chapter 3 – The Atlanteans order one of their best warriors, Rodunn to go to the surface to hunt Aquaman down and kill him. He is armed with their most powerful lightening gun and a giant mutated sea lamprey. Arthur is pleased to learn the lighthouse has a saltwater pump so he can shower in sea water. Then he goes into town with Sweeney to get a haircut. On the way back Arthur & Sweeney discover a civilian who has been bled by the lamprey. Arthur tries to use his crystal ball power to find the culprit but is ambushed by Rodunn. He’s able to short out Rodunn’a magic armor that lets him function on land but then the lamprey grabs Aquaman, drains his blood and tosses him over some trees. Aquaman is again on death’s door but he finds a portal to Annwn (an Irish netherworld of natural magic prominent in druidic lore and other Celtic texts) where he has another conversation with the Lady of the Lake. Aquaman emerges back in the real world and takes the fight to Rodunn. Rodunn gets bit by his own Lamprey but Aquaman saves him first by shorting out the Lamprey spell and returning it to normal size and then by healing Rodunn with his magic hand. Rodunn then swears loyalty to Aquaman as his true king. Aquaman then reveals himself to Sweeney in his new costume, which looks good.

Chapter 3.5 – Tempest (the former Aqualad) and Dolphin have a baby now. They are living in Atlantis but the new regime is watching them closely. So Tempest leaves in the night to go find Aquaman.

Chapter 4 – Arthur tells Sweeney he has no interest in reclaiming the Atlantean throne just in time for Tempest to arrive to ask him to liberate Atlantis. When Aquaman tells Garth this, he doesn’t take it well and uses a spell to astral project their spirits into small fish so Arthur can see how bad it is in Atlantis for himself. He sees the mutations, citizens under house arrest, and his wife Mera—who allegedly sits on the throne—being drugged by the shadow government running things now. This enrages Arthur so much he makes a move to intercede even though he’s just a fish causing the head sorcerer to detect the truth and send mutated barracuda after the heroes. As always with astral projection if the fish with their souls in them die Aquaman & Aqualad die too. In addition Atlantean soldiers find Arthur and Garth’s bodies on the beach and decide to stab them in their astral sleep. Sweeney however intercedes and scares the Atlanteans off. The hero fish get eaten by a Barracuda with Tempest bit in half and Aquaman swallowed whole and about to be digested, when he uses the link with his new magic hand to reverse the crystal ball effect, have the detach from his human body, crawl across the beach and touch Tempest thus short-circuiting his spell and returning the heroes to their bodies in the nick of time. However Garth is in system shock from having his fish be eaten and is on the verge of death but Aquaman uses his healing hand. When Garth recovers he is able to convince Aquaman to try to reclaim Atlantis but then the Lady of the Lake shows up and forbids him from using the magic hand she gave him to wage war.

Chapter 5 – The Atlanteans continue to mutate sea life in a well written creepy scene. We also see they are using political prisoners in the process and dumping them in mass graves. Meanwhile Vulko, longtime to advisor to the king of Atlantis, is overseeing the forced march escort of prisoners set for exile or execution. He becomes stunned to see first the cruelty of the guards, and later to learn many of the prisoners have been condemned for either political dissidence or because they know of the drugging of Mera (which is the first Vulko is hearing of that as well). Vulko attempts to stand up for the prisoners but the guards decide they are just going to execute him too. And then the political prisoner being experimented on in the opening pages climbs out of his grave as a Jelly-fish like meta-human and kills the guards. Vulko thanks him and dubs him Man O’ War, then frees the other prisoners and vows to restore justice to Atlantis.

 

Critical Thoughts: This has some interesting ideas but it doesn’t really feel like an Aquaman comic. Aquaman getting exiled from the ocean could be an interesting story idea. Aquaman meeting the Lady of the Lake and playing with the Arthurian parallels has a lot of potential. Even using Ireland as the setting of a superhero comic is something new that could work out very well given time. The problem is the whole water-hand thing. It just looks weird and its powers are too far away from what makes Aquaman a fun hero. The healing touch is ridiculously powerful—he brings two people back from the dead in this story. The short circuiting of magic with just a touch and no heroic effort is a pretty strong superpower also. Throw in clairvoyance and really it’s just a weird mystical power set that isn’t Aquaman—who has also been stripped of his signature power of talking to fish in this story. You could create a new hero with these same powers and this same setting and it might make for an interesting read but it’s not what I want to see when I buy an Aquaman comic.

While I’m not thrilled with the direction of the story, I will say the story itself is well told. Aquaman’s desperation in chapter 1 and his various tactics to save himself and call for help are well realized; although the repeated Christ symbolism in that chapter is a bit much. I can admire how this author gets Aquaman where he wants by slowly discarding all of the elements of Peter David’s run. While I like the Peter David run quite a bit, I can see why future authors wouldn’t want Aquaman to have a harpoon hand forever or would want to give him a shave and change the grim and gritty 90s look once it’s a new decade.

The mutation scenes throughout the story also work very well both in making interesting monsters and echoing the darkness in Atlantis. The Vulko chapter is quite good in this regard, and the new Man O’ War character is interesting enough visually that I wouldn’t mind seeing him again—especially since he is more fish-based and thus feels more natural in an Aquaman story that a lot of the magic stuff. The chapter with Arthur and Tempest turned into fish is also quite an intense bit of story-telling.

One other nitpick is I am not sure of the rationale behind the Lady of the Lake  preventing Arthur from using her gift (the water hand) for war. I mean I get the ultimate goal is probably to make Aquaman a mystical protector of either Ireland or the environment in general and that latter vibe doesn’t lend itself to being pro war. But traditionally the Lady of the Lake gave King Arthur Excalibur and he used that gift in a bunch of wars, so it doesn’t completely jibe with the mythology they are steeping this in.

I also want to say I like offering a precap page at the start to recap the dense continuity that preceded this story. A lot more trades in general could use that approach.

 

Grade: C+. While the direction of Aquaman himself in this trade ultimately isn’t my cup of tea, the writing itself deserves credit for exploring new ideas and having a sense of how it wants to portray the central character and his supporting cast both old and new.