Aquaman (vol. 3): Throne of Atlantis by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Paul Pelletier and Pete Woods collects Aquaman 0, 14-16 and Justice League 15-17 Why I Bought This: I liked the first volume of New 52 Aquaman quite a bit. While volume 2 was not nearly as good, I still bought volume 3 on preorder from Amazon because of the quality of the first one. But even if I hadn’t read the other volumes I likely would have picked this up to see a JLA story with Aquaman in the lead. The Plot: Atlantis declares war on America leaving Aquaman caught in the middle.   (spoilers below)

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...

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller   Aquaman vol 1: The Trench By Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis and Joe Prado Collects Aquaman 1 – 6   Why I Bought This: As I’ve said before Aquaman is my favorite DC character, so if I was going to sample New 52 titles of course I’d pick this one up.   The Plot: Aquaman and Mera try to start a new life for themselves in the small coastal New England town of Amnesty Bay when a new species of carnivorous humanoid creatures emerge from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean .

Waiting for the Trade   by Bill Miller Justice League vol. 1: Origin by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee and Scott Williams collects Justice League 1-6.   Why I Bought This: Even though I’m primarily a Marvel reader, like most of the comic-buying public I was pretty intrigued when DC launched its New 52. This being the flagship title is the obvious one to sample. Plus Jim Lee’s art in the preview pages looked fantastic. On Cyber Monday, Midtown Comics put all the volume 1 New 52 trades on sale at 40-percent off so I finally picked this up (along with Aquaman and JLI ). The Plot: The Justice League comes together for the first time to deal with the threat of Darkseid. Your heroes are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash and Cyborg.

Waiting for the Trade Aquaman Time and Tide By Peter David, Kirk Jarvinen and Brad Vancata Collects Aquaman Time and Tide 1-4   Why I Bought This: I’ve mentioned before that Aquaman is my favorite of DC Heroes. I’m also a fan of Peter David’s writing and many consider this to be the definitive take on Aquaman.   The Plot – It’s an origin story covering Aquaman’s childhood, his entry into the world of super heroics and his first meeting with Ocean Master.   Spoilers ahead.

Waiting for the Trade By Bill Miller Aquaman Sword of Atlantis: Once and Future by Kurt Busiek and Butch Guice Collects Aquaman Sword of Atlantis 40-45. Why I bought this: I don’t recall whether I was looking up Aquaman or Kurt Busiek when I came across this—either is equally probable as Aquaman is my favorite of DC’s top tier heroes but I own little of his stuff as I own little DC relatively speaking; while Busiek is in my view the finest Avengers writer ever and thus I’d like to read more of his stuff. Regardless when I discovered there was an Aquaman series written by Busiek my interest was piqued. That it has a name straight out pulp serials like “Sword of Atlantis” attached to it only intrigued me more. And once I saw the name of the first volume was an Arthurian reference I knew had to own it as there a few things in the world that fascinate me more than Arthurian literature. A quick trip to Amazon later and it was mine.