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mruddock27's review against another edition
3.0
I've never really been a big Aquaman fan. Like a lot of other fans of superheroes out there, I found his superpowers lame.
Talking to fish? Really? That's all you can do?
But leave it to Geoff Johns to actually give Aquaman some purpose and badassery for once. He's no longer a one-handed aquatic Fabio riding whales and praying that there might be a puddle nearby so he can do some damage.
Seriously enjoyed this book and look forward to volume 2.
Talking to fish? Really? That's all you can do?
But leave it to Geoff Johns to actually give Aquaman some purpose and badassery for once. He's no longer a one-handed aquatic Fabio riding whales and praying that there might be a puddle nearby so he can do some damage.
Seriously enjoyed this book and look forward to volume 2.
book_whispers's review against another edition
3.0
Geoff Johns, bravo. Bravo. Wow, Aquaman is pretty badass! Using the jokes and "disdain" of Aquaman to build his character is A-mazing! Adding depth to the character, along with a few chuckles. Oh, and the art!! So gorgeous! If this is the version they use to bring Aquaman to live on the big screen they've sold me.
The Trench may have felt a bit rushed overall, but it establishes well the dark and gritty feel the series is trying to build. Balances out nicely with fun super hero humor. While I don't feel 100% for the overall connection if gives with the character, I will be buying more issues.
The Trench may have felt a bit rushed overall, but it establishes well the dark and gritty feel the series is trying to build. Balances out nicely with fun super hero humor. While I don't feel 100% for the overall connection if gives with the character, I will be buying more issues.
katereads2much's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed "Aquaman: The Trench," and it was cool getting to know Aquaman better. I'm excited to have been divested of my incorrect assumptions regarding the nature of Aquaman's powers, and as an added bonus, I am entirely in love with Mara. There is little I love more than when the person who is sent as an assassin ends up in love with the person they're meant to kill. That is one of my absolute favorite tropes behind plots that revolve around "Fake Relationships."
The monsters are creepy as all hell and remind me of the nightmares I had as a kid about the Angular Fish that live in the deep, dark parts of the sea. Watching Aquaman battle to save both the humans who have been treated like food and the creatures who have exhausted their own food supply.
The cliffhanger at the end definitely made me want to find the next issue, so I'll likely be hunting down the next volume soon.
The monsters are creepy as all hell and remind me of the nightmares I had as a kid about the Angular Fish that live in the deep, dark parts of the sea. Watching Aquaman battle to save both the humans who have been treated like food and the creatures who have exhausted their own food supply.
Spoiler
I would have felt no particular compunction about the destruction of those creatures, mostly out of the fear that I would have had for them, but it made me love Aquaman a little bit that he did see it as a tragedy and perhaps even a crime that he destroyed them. He's compassionate, and he reminds me a great deal of Wonder Woman--a fierce warrior whose first instinct is to find a peaceful conclusion to any situation no matter how desperate things seem.The cliffhanger at the end definitely made me want to find the next issue, so I'll likely be hunting down the next volume soon.
rhganci's review against another edition
4.0
(4.5 stars) It took a lot of encouragement on the part of some friends as well as the comics-reading community in general to convince me that even IF Aquaman's book was the best of the New 52, I would want to read it. Well, I did read it, and no amount of hype could have prepared me for the utter humanity that Johns uses to write the character of Arthur Curry, and just what a standout book this first volume of the new Aquaman story THE TRENCH is.
Aquaman's place in the Justice League has been a piece of trivia to me and probably to most people, a cool link to the fringe science and speculative history of Atlantis in the same way that Wonder Woman ties into Greek mythology. But, as the gentleman in the diner reminds him, Aquaman isn't anybody's favorite superhero. That's the point at which the book jumps out from some of the others: Johns uses the character's fan history to generate a fresh allegory, redacting AQUAMAN as an immediate underdog story in which a hero whom nobody believes in--they don't even believe in Atlantis--has to save the people who can only compare him to the all-powerful Superman. The town of Beachrock gets to know Aquaman as a guardian of the shoreline, just as we the readers do, and with such a metastructure, Johns takes the "seventh" member of the Justice League and gives a solo book that stands at least as tall as the others, and better than a few: I'd certainly give this book the nod over Superman's own, as well as one or two of the others. The bad guy is unsympathetic, faceless, and not English-speaking; the symptoms of the problem are hints at a larger one, and the cliffhanger promises more personal quests in the issues that follow, certainly.
Ivan Reis always does great work as well, and while I feel that he sometimes sketches faces with a sort of blurry fervor, I love the large number of facial close-ups that focus on the eyes and mouths, almost always scowling, and the character models of both Aquaman and Mera. Some of the action sequences got a little hard to follow at times, but the manner in which Reis, Prado, and Reis make their work communicate the depth and vastness of the oceans does much to excuse the temporary muddiness that strikes the middle of the book. The book looks great, tells a simple, well-executed story and sets up what is sure to be another, but what AQUAMAN V1: THE TRENCH does as well if not better than the other JL solo books is identify the brand of heroism that its subject is going to espouse: Superman, the descended god; Batman, the rule utilitarian; Flash, the moral compass; Green Lantern, the authority-challenger; Wonder Woman, the warrior; and Aquaman, the underdog. That Johns works from this angle on just about every level wins the book through and through.
Aquaman's place in the Justice League has been a piece of trivia to me and probably to most people, a cool link to the fringe science and speculative history of Atlantis in the same way that Wonder Woman ties into Greek mythology. But, as the gentleman in the diner reminds him, Aquaman isn't anybody's favorite superhero. That's the point at which the book jumps out from some of the others: Johns uses the character's fan history to generate a fresh allegory, redacting AQUAMAN as an immediate underdog story in which a hero whom nobody believes in--they don't even believe in Atlantis--has to save the people who can only compare him to the all-powerful Superman. The town of Beachrock gets to know Aquaman as a guardian of the shoreline, just as we the readers do, and with such a metastructure, Johns takes the "seventh" member of the Justice League and gives a solo book that stands at least as tall as the others, and better than a few: I'd certainly give this book the nod over Superman's own, as well as one or two of the others. The bad guy is unsympathetic, faceless, and not English-speaking; the symptoms of the problem are hints at a larger one, and the cliffhanger promises more personal quests in the issues that follow, certainly.
Ivan Reis always does great work as well, and while I feel that he sometimes sketches faces with a sort of blurry fervor, I love the large number of facial close-ups that focus on the eyes and mouths, almost always scowling, and the character models of both Aquaman and Mera. Some of the action sequences got a little hard to follow at times, but the manner in which Reis, Prado, and Reis make their work communicate the depth and vastness of the oceans does much to excuse the temporary muddiness that strikes the middle of the book. The book looks great, tells a simple, well-executed story and sets up what is sure to be another, but what AQUAMAN V1: THE TRENCH does as well if not better than the other JL solo books is identify the brand of heroism that its subject is going to espouse: Superman, the descended god; Batman, the rule utilitarian; Flash, the moral compass; Green Lantern, the authority-challenger; Wonder Woman, the warrior; and Aquaman, the underdog. That Johns works from this angle on just about every level wins the book through and through.
bpol's review against another edition
4.0
One aspect I really enjoyed was them having Aquaman deal with people making jokes about him and considering him a terrible super hero in the story. Aquaman can be a really interesting hero in the right hands. Maybe these are the right hands.
daybreak's review against another edition
4.0
Fairly nice. Not really an origin story but gives you some background details nonetheless. Liked the jokes about him though I don't really get why people make fun of him : he's clearly superior to humans and is badass etc. Love the fact that for once it's the father who brought him up and the mother who is the superpowered one : refreshing and changes from the routine. Nothing much to say aside from that.
howattp's review against another edition
4.0
I really, really enjoyed this reintroduction of Aquaman into the current run of the DC pantheon. After being an essentially absurd, laughable protagonist for so long, it's nice that Johns acknowledges it and seamlessly moves past it.
apageinthestacks's review against another edition
5.0
I've never thought Aquaman was particularly lame. To be fair, I've never read anything with him or really had any introduction to him at all except for various things that I heard. One was how much he was ridiculed (i.e. the way The Big Bang theory treats him, for one), but underneath all that I've always had a thought of him as being this awesome super-powered being who lives underwater (which is basically what he is in the New 52). Add that to the casting of Jason Momoa, and I've been excited for that movie ever since, even though I still knew next to nothing about the character except for random feelings that had absolutely no basis.
Well, Aquaman is awesome. Even moreso than I thought he would be. I loved the main villains of this (very Lovecraftian, which is never a bad thing), and it really did a great job of making a very un-respected hero into someone incredibly cool. I suppose one nitpick would be that there was a little more telling than showing I would've liked (especially in the "Aquaman is cool" department), but overall it was really enjoyable and he did have great moments. This may just be my favorite New 52 title after Scott Snyder's Batman that I've read so far (which granted, I haven't read all that many titles, but Aquaman being able to hold his own against the utterly amazing Batman run of Snyder is really saying something).
I'm so glad that my feelings of Aquaman being low-key awesome were justified, and I can't wait to read more.
Well, Aquaman is awesome. Even moreso than I thought he would be. I loved the main villains of this (very Lovecraftian, which is never a bad thing), and it really did a great job of making a very un-respected hero into someone incredibly cool. I suppose one nitpick would be that there was a little more telling than showing I would've liked (especially in the "Aquaman is cool" department), but overall it was really enjoyable and he did have great moments. This may just be my favorite New 52 title after Scott Snyder's Batman that I've read so far (which granted, I haven't read all that many titles, but Aquaman being able to hold his own against the utterly amazing Batman run of Snyder is really saying something).
I'm so glad that my feelings of Aquaman being low-key awesome were justified, and I can't wait to read more.