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Aquaman and the Others #1
DC Comics, $2.99, 32 pages
Story Grade: C–
Issue Score: 55.75
MILDLY RECOMMENDED
And speaking of failing to deliver on promise . . .
While Geoff Johns may well be lauded for almost single-handedly breathing new life into Aquaman, for my money the most exciting thing he did during he tenure on the title was to create The Others, even if that is among my least-favorite names ever for a super-hero team. Unfortunately, since then, two of my favorite comic book creators from last century, John Ostrander, and now Dan Jurgens, have failed to catch my interest with these characters.
Ostrander’s efforts felt terribly forced, as if he was hacking out something fast to pay the rest. For no particular reason, I kind of hate the Sky Alshesay teen Indian he created to fill the void left by the deaths of Kahina and Vostok. I still am not sure what Sky’s Altantean artifact does, as crossing over into the ghost lands appears to be her own power. Jurgens story reads better than Ostrander’s, but still feels like plotting-by-the-numbers, with bits of dialogue that feel wedged in to move that plot along, or too obviously establish a character trait. Eventually, the Others are going to have to be about more than the next villain who tries to take their artifacts.
The art by Lan Medina is perfectly serviceable, although it falls apart toward the end of the book, as if he (or she, not sure what gender “Lan” might be) was feeling rushed. There are a few bad choices in panel layout. The script on Page 6 was the only indication I had that Ya’wara had attempted to use her artifact on Page 5. The whole scene with the Operative also is kind of a mess, especially his Copperhead-like entrance into the yacht’s stateroom. The inking by Allen Martinez is really great in some places, especially the first page, but gets heavy-handed in others, robbing some, especially the Aquaman splash page, of all their potential impact.
One final comment, the logo is weird. No, seriously. The letters in “Aquaman” uses the logo from his solo title, employing rounded edges, even on letters like “M,” “N,” and “A” that normally have sharp edges. Meanwhile, the letters in “Others” all have sharp edges, even on letters like “O,” and “S” that are normally rounded. This could be metatextual commentary on the discord between Aquaman and his team, but it looks like somebody just married an “Others” logo to “Aquaman” without really thinking how they’d look together.
[COVER: 5.75 — PLOT: 5.0 — SCRIPT: 5.25 — LAYOUT: 6.75 — ARTWORK: 7.50 — EDITING: 3.75 — COLORS/PRODUCTION: 6.0 — DOLLAR VALUE: 5.0 — COLLECTIBILITY: 6.50 —GOSH-WOW FACTOR: 3.75]
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