Aquaman #11 - A Review

Aquaman has bested The Shaggy Man and, in doing so while saving the city of Amnesty Bay, done much to mitigate the warmongering of various elements in both the Atlantean and American governments. Yet Black Manta and his followers in N.E.M.O. have more tricks up their sleeves. Could this be the beginning of the dark time foretold in Atlantean prophecy - the Deluge that will destroy both Atlantis and the surface world?


With this issue, several previously planted plot seeds begin to bloom and Dan Abnett proves himself a master writer. The story is light on action and heavy on set-up, but it proves a riveting read regardless. The rich ensemble cast Abnett has built for this series over the previous ten issues (some seemingly throw-away characters despite the emotional investment put into them) are brought into play in a more direct capacity and there are a number of amazing emotion-driven moments here.

Would that Abnett's script was well-presented by the artwork. Philippe Briones is a fine artist but there's some discontinuity between the script and the finished artwork. Consider the above scene where Arthur refers to Mera's costume being ripped and her being injured when she appears to be perfectly fine. I believe the word balloons between the characters may be mixed up but it is still a glaring error that should have been caught by the editors in either case.

Despite this, I still enjoyed this issue immensely and would recommend this as a wonderful jumping-on point for anyone interested in Aquaman.