Review: Aquaman Vol. 5- Sea of Storms

Quick Summary

Pros: This story gives the best look into Atlantian culture and politics that the series has provided so far, and it is very interesting. Seeing Aquaman interact with his old classmates is a humorous treat.

Cons: Large portions of the story are rather lackluster in terms of plot. The entire portion of the story dealing with the Giant Born is very poor in terms of quality and imagination.

Overall: This collection features some very good moments, some very bad moments, and some pretty mediocre moments. Together this make for a collection that ranges from being fun and interesting to read to being frustrating and boring. Overall this is a step down from the previous volumes, hopefully the next volume will feature a better ratio of highs to lows.

Story

Aquaman Vol. 5: Sea of Storms is very much a mixed bag, partially because of how large it is, with portions ranging from good, bad, and somewhere in the middle. The good includes getting to see Aquaman interact with his high school classmates and the Atlantian politics that are shown off. The bad includes most of the Giant Born arc, which is one of the worst portions of this series so far. Then, the mediocre extends to the Swamp Thing crossover and the Karaqan attack. This mixture places this collection firmly on the fence, it is not really a bad book but it doesn’t have a lot going for it either.

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The collection starts off by diving straight to the deep end with the Atlantian political world. This series has already touched on the intense sense of both tradition and xenophobia which dominates the political sphere in Atlantis, but this has been mostly just used as a gateway to introduce other plot related topics. This time readers finally get to see it in action. The intense political and cultural divide is explored mostly through Mera and her interactions with the council, which is a perfect window into how the people of Atlantis think. It also is explored through Aquaman and his stance on ruling, which he almost considers to be secondary to being a hero. Overall, it was nice to see the political aspect of Aquaman’s character receive some well deserved attention.

Between this is a short scene where Aquaman and Mera go to the surface to attend Aquaman’s high school reunion. Though a little out of place and odd at first, seeing Aquaman interact with his high school classmates was a very entertaining portion of this collection. It helps to break away from the gloomy and brooding Aquaman that has been present through the entire start of this series so far. It also shows that Aquaman can be a funny and lovable character when given the opportunity, very reminiscent of Superman when he has his calmer moments as Clark Kent. Mostly though it serves as a decompresses and relaxed reprieve from the constant turmoil in the series, something that any reader can appreciate.

Not everything is great though, as the portions of the story dealing with Swamp Thing and the Karaqan attack are pretty lackluster overall. They mostly consist of action sequences for the sake of action sequences and a plot that is only somewhat interesting. Aquaman interfacing with the monster’s brain to see its history and Swamp Thing entering the creature’s mind were interesting moments and hopefully they get built upon more, but overall there was not much here. This leaves these scenes feeling like filler as they featured characters with little to no motivation for fighting and fights that have no history or buildup to them. Together this makes these arcs flashy and action packed but leaves them feeling hollow and somewhat pointless at the same time.

Now for the bad, the entire Giant Born arc felt completely odd, uninspired, and distracting. Aquaman leaves his trident, an extremely valuable weapon which had already been taken from him before, just laying around completely unprotected in a location where his enemies know he has a history. This is a completely ridiculous concept, yet it is only the start to this story. From here Aquaman has to fight an army of generic looking monsters with just as generic powers until he gets saved by the very man who caused the entire mess, who does this with deus ex machina type instant monster killer. The arc also tries to slide in some morals about man being the same as monsters but doesn’t even stick with it long enough for it to end up meaning anything. Overall this entire portion of the story was very off putting and weakened the entire collection with it.

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Art

For the most part, the majority of this collection is drawn by artist Paul Pelletier. Pelletier’s work throughout this series has been very consistent and has looked good on nearly every page he has drawn. This collection is no different. Characters and places look great and the enemies, in particular, are drawn very well. It isn’t the best looking book on the shelves right now but it maintains a consistent level of quality and contains few major errors. Overall, readers will not be disappointed in this collection’s artwork.

Continuity

Aquaman Vol. 5: Sea of Storms continues the story from Aquaman Vol. 4: Death of a King (Review).

The story here continues in Aquaman Vol. 6: Maelstrom (Review).

This story makes a few references to other series which are detailed below. Besides these everything else referenced in this story comes from earlier volumes in this same series.

• Wonder Woman makes an appearance to help Aquaman fight of the Giant Born. While doing this her lineage is discussed, this includes references to revelations that take place in Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood (Review).
• This collection features a crossover with the Swamp Thing series, specifically with the events occurring around Swamp Thing Vol. 6: The Sureen.