DCU Comic Book Reviews

AQUAMAN:  SWORD OF ATLANTIS #57

Finding Zero

December 2007

Written by Tad Williams

Layouts by Shawn McManus

Finishes by Shawn McManus

Cover by Butch Guice

Synopsis

After preventing Krusivax and Vandal Savage from sinking half of the Pacific Rim, Arthur Joseph Curry (aka the new Aquaman) attends to his wounded father.  His dad, however, is upset and agitated because his son had died.  Meanwhile, Cal Durham learns his girlfriend Kyesha has been taken hostage.  Cal and the others run to save her.  In Poseidonis, Queen Mera encounters the Narwhal.  At Kyesha’s home, Cal attempts to protect his girlfriend, but is stopped when the door is laced with poison.  After Cal feints, Kyesha’s abductor gives Arthur Joseph truth serum.  Under the drug’s influence, Arthur Joseph encounters the Lady Of the Lake who confirms that he had died some time ago.  His father then tried to heal him by using a part of Aquaman’s water hand.  When that failed, Arthur Joseph was buried in the ocean.  When Aquaman raised a part of Sub Diego, portion of his soul entered Arthur Joseph, bringing him back to life.  The truth serum than wears off.  Arthur Joseph frees Kyesha and saves everyone.  In Poseidonis, Mera realizes that Narwhal is Koryak, Aquaman’s son.  Meanwhile, Arthur Joseph decides to got Atlantis and find a way to become worthy of the name Aquaman.   

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

My first reaction, after I had finished the final issue of this series, was that I thought it was a poor way to end this book.  Well, okay, let me rephrase that.  What Williams was able to accomplish with the mythos of Aquaman and how he explained what happened to both the original Aquaman and Joseph was brilliant, especially when you consider that the Lady Of The Lake was the driving force in the very first issue of this series.  It was a neat trick to bring her back and it worked well in a “circle of life” type of ending.  When all was said and done, I like the outcome and I think it leaves the potential for a lot of different stories, including resurrecting Arthur or examining Joseph.  Regardless what they do with the new Aquaman book (if there is one), at the moment, I really hope that DC does something with Joseph.

The problem I have is that Williams left two plot points dangling, which surprises me.  The first is the events in Dyss and the second is Garth and the ship to the other dimension.  It looked as if the two were connected in some way and I was hoping to find some explanation, but instead neither of these bits was even in this issue.  And unless DC is picking this up in Countdown or in the upcoming Final Crisis, I doubt we will see any resolution, unless someone wants to use Garth and needs to explain how he got from here to there. 

For the past whatever number of issues, Williams and McManus managed to put together an excellent short run on this title.  Williams scripts were full of kinetic energy, bouncing from one plot point to the other without losing sight of the fun and the humor while managing to fill in gaps from several dangling plot threads of previous writers.  Having said that, I have to wonder if knowing the book was going to end and being forced to tie up loose ends actually helped Williams.  When you only have a few issues to address a lot of things, you don’t have to worry about the future or what is going to happen to certain characters (like the clownfish doctor) so I think it allowed Williams to toss whatever he could into the mix without having to deal with later. 

I would be curious to know if the ending to this series was part of Kurt Busiek’s plan when he first created Arthur Joseph in the One Year Later stunt or how much Williams added onto it on his own.  I’ll probably never know, but I am curious. 

Comic Connection

Aquaman raised a part of Sub Diego in the four-part series World War III, which attempted to explain what happened during the missing year after the One Year Later leap. 

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