DCU Comic Book Reviews

AQUAMAN:  SWORD OF ATLANTIS #55

Ring Of Fire

October 2007

Written by Tad Williams

Layouts by Shawn McManus

Finishes by Shawn McManus

Cover by Butch Guice

Synopsis

Arthur Joseph Curry (aka the new Aquaman) has been captured and held hostage by Krusivax and Vandal Savage, the real villains behind the sinking of Sub Diego.  They had thought they had captured Lorena, but she managed to escape and return to Sub Diego to seek help from Mayor Cal Durham.  Cal calls the Teen Titans.  Meanwhile, Topo has found a recording made by the Chairman of Progene Technologies, Gregory Jupiter, announcing his company is responsible for sinking multiple cities along the Pacific Rim.  In Sub Diego, someone mumbles incoherently about the truth, which he must tell the mayor.  On the Outskirts of Dyss, Narwhal wants to be left alone to learn who he is.  The Pardoner tells him if he leaves now he will never find happiness.  Narwhal doesn’t care.  At the Loma Sea Valley, Leah tells Garth there are two other empires under the sea:  Dyss and Viatha.  . At Progene, Jupiter realizes that he will be the most hated man on Earth because the catastrophe will always be linked with his name.  Arthur tries to convince Jupiter to let him go so he can stop it.  Jupiter realizes Arthur’s restraints.  Arthur tries to escape, but runs into Vandal Savage.  Just then Lorena and Call arrive, along with Cyborg.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Normally I tend to scoff at, and get frustrated with, exposition issues.  Those are the ones where we spend an incredible amount of time reading one character explain what is going on so the writer can explain the plot to the reader.  But in this case, I actually enjoyed it, mostly because Williams is managing to tie together a lot of loose ends from the original storyline that sank Sub Diego.  The other reason is that the character of Jupitern with his drunken speech, was a good piece of writing, making the exposition seem less dry and more character motivated as he releases some of the burden he now feels for being part of the plan to kill hundreds of millions of people.  Beyond the exposition scenes, Williams manages to toss in some good action and a decent brawl between the new Aquaman and Vandal Savage, while pushing forward other plots, like whatever is happening to Narwhal and Garth (and I think they are connected).  There are, I believe, about two issues left in this series, so it has hard to imagine how Williams will finish all of the dangling plot elements in such a short time span, but these last few issues have been plotted at breakneck speed (without it feeling too fast and furious) so perhaps it will get to the end without it feeling rushed.  No matter what, up to this point, Williams’ run has been very good, including the exposition issue. 

It is weird that the speech bubble on the first panel of 10 is placed in such a way to obscure what is written in on the wall.  Perhaps the writing on the wall (ha!) is no that important in the overall story, but it still seems strange.  Couldn’t the bubble be placed in the lower left hand corner?  Do we really need to see the chair?

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