DCU Comic Book Reviews

AQUAMAN #16

American Tidal, Part 2

April 2004

Written by Will Pfeifer

Pencils by Patrick Gleason

Inks by Christian Alamy

Cover by Alan Davis & Mark Farmer

Synopsis

Six months tragedy struck San Diego and half the city sunk into the Pacific Ocean.  Aquaman stands at the edge of the water and tells the crowd that a young boy had been found who had been able to breathe and live under water.  Just then, a woman swims to the surface.  Quickly, Aquaman grabs her and pulls her under the water as he calls for Martian Manhunter to teleport them to JLA headquarters.  They place her in a tank of water and wait until she calms enough to learn more about her.  While waiting, Aquaman has a nightmare of bodies pleading for him to save them.  Later, Martian Manhunter uses his telepathy to recall the day of the tragedy and the aftermath.  Through the girl’s eyes, Aquaman learns there are more survivors living under water! 

Review

This is getting good.  The ending was not a surprise, especially to anyone who has read any of Pfeifer’s interviews; he seems to really want to talk about the endings to all of these issues.  Regardless, the story was handled real well and there were a lot of small touches that help to make this a great whole, such as Aquaman’s quick reaction to save Lorena, Aquaman’s assessment of the stupidity of having the JLA headquarters on the moon, his own thoughts on being in or out of the water, and the scenes seen through Lorena’s eyes of her life.  I also liked Lorena’s ascent to the surface, which reminded me a lot of the boy’s ascent in the first book (and, no, I haven’t gone back to see if there are similar; maybe later). 

It is interesting to note that both the boy and the girl had both been at the zoo at the time of the tragedy.  One could surmise that the zoo and the survivors are in some way connected, although exactly how or what I am not sure.  I am also curious to know exactly how many survivors there are down there.  The final picture suggests that it may be a fairly substantial.  So what the hell is DC going to do with them?  Will there be a miracle cure so they can breathe air again?  Will they be shuttled off to Atlantis (assuming there still is an Atlantis)? 

Someone else mentioned this to me; somehow it escaped me:  Aquaman can speak to all kinds of sea creatures, so why didn’t he ask any of them if they had seen survivors down there?  Don’t you think he would ask, especially after they found the boy?  Hell, the boy was eating fish, so I would think they would be nervous about being eaten. -- MRB

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