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Aquaman and The Others #3
DC Comics, $2.99, 32 pages
Released: June 4, 2014
Story Grade: C-
Issue Score: 59.75
NOT RECOMMENDED
"Legacy of Gold, Part III of V"
(20 pages / 98 panels / 1,535 words / 11:50 read time)
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Penciller: Lan Medina
Inker: Allen Martinez
Colorist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Brian Cunningham
I want to like this book a lot more than I do.
Aquaman didn't appear too often with the JLA when I was a kid and so, even though we're now in a different universe, I like to image he was off leading his own team during those Justice League adventures from which he was absent. Somehow, the idea of Aquaman as the big fish in a small pond appeals to me. It also helps that Geoff Johns crafted some very compelling characters with an interesting bond when creating The Others (although not the best name for a super-hero team, ever) over in Aquaman's main title. However, it's hard for a team to remain compelling when two of its six members are quickly killed off. Of the replacements, I have little use for the Operative's grandson and even less for Sky Alchesay. I still don't know what her Atlantean artifact, the Seal of Clarity, actually does, as accessing the Ghost Lands appears to be her own native power.
I suppose it doesn't help that all recnt adventures of The Others have been penned by John Ostrander and Dan Jurgens. I'm probably the only fan in my age bracket who doesn't sport a nostalgic perma-chub for Ostrander's Suicide Squad, while Jurgens has always struck me as being very Kirbyesque — great artist, terrific story plotter, but maybe not the best scripter on the planet. The work of both men on The Others has been '80s old school (not necessarily a bad thing) but also very by-the-numbers. And speaking of old school, I'm not familiar with the name of inker Allen Martinez, but, from the looks of things, it's Latino for "Jerry Ordway." A lot of the panels look dead on like Ordway's line, to me. That'd ordinarily be a good thing in my book, but coupled with staid scripts, the art contributes to the feeling that The Others is less about making time for new characters in the DCU than making work for old talent.
That said, Lan Medina — another name with which I am unfamiliar — is presumably new to comics. There is a lot of promise here. Although I'm ragging on the old-timers, I am a traditionalist when if comes to my comics and I do like a nice, clean, art style. Too many comics artists these days fill their figures with unnecessary rendering, made all the worse for lack of a discernible light source, or proper spotting of solid blacks to lead the eye. Medina's work is, on the whole, solid, if, at this point in his career (I assume Lan is a boy's name), unspectacular. There are a few problems. Some of the poses are kind of static. Aquaman running across the castle courtyard, for example, looks like it was drawn directly from the stick-up-butt desktop mannequin most artists have hanging around the studio, while the shot of Aquman brandishing his trident during the Sayeh rescue screams, "Sorry, didn't have a photo reference for this one."
That scene, by the way, is beyond inexplicable. Aquaman and Aaron enter a dungeon cell to find Sayeh being threatened by a knife of some sort that appears to have shaken loose from the chandelier, which, I admit, I barely noticed it. In fact, it was only after turning back in at attempt to figure out what hey-hoo was going on that I noticed it at all. Then, the following page has a giant spider-robot centaur scissor-hands dude lording over Aquaman's body, but the way he's colored, he appears to be part of Sayeh's vision of Aquaman's death. Aquaman then does a proportionless lunge at the ceiling fan blades, which appear attached to bone, unlike the blades on Mr. Centaur-Spider, although it's unclear what the bone is attached to, if not the ceiling. Then, with a "TANG" the blades disappear and our heroes stand pretty as you please for a panel or two until Legend shows up in a shroud of smoke. Later, when Aquaman is impaled as Sayeh foresaw, it's by Legend, not the refuge from Superior Spider-Man.
So, was robot spider guy actually in the cell, or was he part of the vision? We never see him except in that one panel and never see what the boney blades were attached to. They really could have been swinging form the ceiling for all we know. I suspect there's an answer in Jurgen's script. Really, and especially when working with new artists, an editor should demand to see breakdowns before accepting the penciled art boards and forwarding them on to the inker, which is apparently what happened here.
There are a few other art problems the editor, be it group editor Cunningham or his assistant, Ameded Turturro, should have caught. Darya, who looks more Southern California than Eastern Europe, is clearly the one speaking on Page 4, although it's Sky Alchesay we're looking at. The Others see Anton Solokov in Darya's dimensional portal window thing where holding a knife to Sayeh's throat — in fact they even comment on him — but he then wanders into the castle a couple of pages later to a bit of introductory dialogue along the lines of, "Hi, my name is Anton and I'll be your villain this evening."
There are some scripting issues an editor should have worked out, as well. Darya and Anton, with their apparently unlimited powers, are straight out of central casting for comic book villains. "My 5,000-year-old grandfather hates you, so I hate you, too! Nyah! Nyah!!" They really could have used a rethink. Meanwhile, there was no apparent thinking behind Man-of-War's mention that one of his ghost soldiers used to be a detective. His whole thing is that he's haunted by his platoon, all presumably grunts like him. A person who joined the army after being a police detective intimates a level of education that would have made him an officer upon enlistment. I find it very unlikely that one of Man-of-War's soldiers was ever a detective. Worse, while any of the soldiers could have pointed out a stand of hair sans detective training, the offending follicle plays absolutely no significance in this story. It's just a wasted page, really, other than that fact that it leads to a beat-down by Darya's bug-eyed ninjas. Like centaur-spider, the "ninjas" appear nowhere else in the book but for these two panels, although they have turned up in previous issues. Still, to avoid reader confusion, they should have being depicted elsewhere, or otherwise explained, perhaps in a better establishing shot when The Others are transported to the Solotov's home base.
Still, there are good bits here. The idea, slowly dawning on The Others, that Aquaman views their artifacts as his property sets up a dynamic that's far more interesting that any conflict with the villains in this issue. Also, Ya'wara's talk with Kahina about how she's uncomfortable with anything not grounded to earth is an interesting character bit.
One last odd thing about the issue, however, is the way in which it just stops once Aquaman is gutted by his own trident. With no Next Issue blurb or anything else to indicate the issue was fini, I actually turned the page expecting more. Anyway, speaking of endings, it's time I stopped, this "capsule comment" having already rambled on far longer than intended.
Oh, except for one last thought: Ya'wara's jungle cats should be depicted wearing Star Trek red shirts — they survive away missions about as long.
Still, running out of panthers is the least of this title's worries. If a dramatic turn of quality does not come about with the second story arc, scheduled, it seems, to start with Issue 6, I honestly can't see The Others lasting past #12.
[COVER: 7.75 — PLOT: 6.0 — SCRIPT: 5.25 — LAYOUT: 6.75 — ARTWORK: 7.50 — EDITING: 5.25 — COLORS/PRODUCTION: 7.25 — DOLLAR VALUE: 6.0 — COLLECTIBILITY: 3.75 —GOSH-WOW FACTOR: 4.25]
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