The Deep Ocean
The opening of this issue retreads a flashback we've seen before, but using new perspectives, digging deeper and putting the whole thing in a more emotional and personal light. And it leads into a very cinematic opening sequence as the credits come in one panel at a time as Aquaman swims the deep ocean at night.
This is a really great issue, FINALLY taking a break from the slew of action, action, action that we get so much from this series. I frequently accuse Geoff Johns of taking the low road, glancing past deeper exploration of serious topics in favor of more, admittedly awesome, action. This series has been chock full of so much fighting all the time, and it's good to see Johns FINALLY go out and give us a calmer tale.
It's a very emotional story, a young Arthur Curry's just suffered through the death of his father and is enduring the onslaught of the media jackal when he can't take any more. He flees to the natural home he's always secretly known, the ocean. There's a plethora of experiences he has that definitely shaped the man he is today, from fighting off a shark, to rescuing a father-son team from a storm, and meeting a man from Atlantis.
Ivan Reis delivers some excellent artwork in this issue, demonstrating that fight scenes isn't his only talent. He showed shades of this in the unfortunately lacking desert issue, but here it comes full force. We really feel the true atmosphere of the ocean, both deep under the sea, and right at the surface, every facet of emptiness, both calming and dangerous; the ocean is a thing of wondrous beauty, and Ivan Reis can really show that.
This issue comes at an odd place, solicits originally implied The Others would be ending with #12, but it's continuing onto #13, with this issue stuck right in the middle of the climax. At the same time, some of this information is likely essential for the upcoming Throne of Atlantis arc. We get some tidbits of information about Aquaman's half-brother Orm, also known as Oceanmaster.
The only real problem with this issue is the way it begs for continuation, but is just a one-off tale. This was set up really well as if this was a first issue, ending with Aquaman's first sight of Atlantis. If this was a normal first issue, the second would involve his wonderment at the city of his origin, discovering the secrets that lie within. I don't know when this issue will be followed up on, if ever. Or how natural the transition back to the past will be if it happens. This issue leaves me hungry for more in a very direct sense, but leaves me with absolutely no indication of when more will ever come on this specific plotline.
In Conclusion: 4.5/5
I was going to give this a 4 initially, but I have to respect Johns' finally going for depth and emotional content over action for once, and really the only flaw is the odd nature of the ending, which relates more to the other issues in the series over this one.
