Aquaman New Justice Reading Order

This reading order is designed to show exactly how to read the Aquaman New Justice era comics. It will walk you through an explanation of how to read Aquaman comics in this era and then provide you with a list of Aquaman New Justice comics. By the end of this article, you’ll be ready to read Aquaman comics with no problem at all.

What to Read Before New Justice Aquaman

Aquaman’s New Justice adventures take place immediately after his Rebirth adventures. You can read all of these adventures by following along with our Aquaman Rebirth Reading Order.

The jump from Rebirth to New Justice doesn’t have any continuity changes for Aquaman. However, the climax of the Rebirth era, the Dark Nights: Metal (Reading Order) event, did something that ended up changing things in the Aquaman series. This had a major impact on both Aquaman and Atlantis as a whole. This is addressed in the Aquaman/Suicide Squad: Sink Atlantis (Reading Order) event at the end of the Rebirth era. This final crossover event helps to directly set up the new status quo going into the New Justice era. So, we suggest checking out what happened in Sink Atlantis before diving into this era.

Aquaman New Justice Reading Order

Aquaman’s story here starts out in another crossover event: Justice League/Aquaman: Drowned Earth (Reading Order). This event continues to address the fallout from Sink Atlantis while setting up future storylines.

From there, Aquaman’s adventures shift to his solo series. This comic sees writer Kelly Sue DeConnick take Aquaman (Reading Order) and related characters, like Mera (Reading Order) and Aqualad, on a series of adventures. These see some serious development for all of the characters and even for the state of Atlantis. Plus, the story is pretty self-contained and streamlined, so you can jump into reading it without having read much of anything else first and without having to read much of anything else on the side.

Besides this, Aquaman make some appearances in the Justice League series. Most of these are relatively minor and only see him play a small role in a much larger team effort. However, his appearances in the “Justice/Doom War” storyline (primarily issues #31-35) continue some story elements from the end of the Drowned Earth event while also detailing some of Aquaman’s most significant contributions to the League. Meanwhile, his appearances in the Dark Nights: Death Metal (Reading Order) event are small but place him in a unique role. You can choose to read these Justice League appearances on their own or alongside Aquaman’s other adventures, just know that you don’t really need to read them at all to understand what is going on with Aquaman in this era.

Finally, the Aquaman and Justice League comics come together again at the very end of this era, with the Justice League: Endless Winter (Reading Order) event. This event features Aquaman in his normal role alongside the Justice League. However, it also gives a quick peek at Aquaman’s life after what happened in Aquaman #65.

Other Appearances

During this era, Aquaman appeared in several comics collected under the title Aquaman: Deep Dives. These are all stories that seem to take place at random points in Aquaman's life or that may not be in continuity at all. These comics include stories from Aquaman Giant #1-4 and Aquaman: Deep Dives #4, #6-7, and #9. He appears as a main character in all of these issues except for Aquaman Giant #2.

Notes

1. Aquaman is a member of the Justice League (Reading Order) for a good portion of this era and plays a part in their adventures. However, his roles end up being pretty minor and he usually just ends up playing a small part in a group effort. The only notable exception is that in Justice League #31-35 he has a slightly more prominent role that directly picks up on lingering plotlines from the end of the Drowned Earth (Reading Order) event.
2. The events of these later Justice League, Dark Nights: Death Metal, and Aquaman comics don't really work well with each other when it comes to continuity. All of them tell stories without too many breaks or where the breaks don't really line up with each other. We've tried to assemble the best Aquaman timeline we can here but it is still subject to some possible problems.
3. Aquaman only has a small role in Dark Nights: Death Metal (Reading Order). His most significant appearances are in the "The Umibozu" story from the Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook and the "Whale Fall" story from The Last Stories of the DC Universe. He essentially makes cameo appearances in Death Metal #1, #6, and #7 that simply show what else he was doing during this event.
4. This Justice League story just presents a random Justice League adventure that is almost entirely disconnected from their other activities during this time. We've just included it here, at this point in the reading order, because these issues were released around this time. You can read this storyline at this time to follow along with release order, read it at any other point in time, or skip this storyline altogether as it doesn't have any real impact on Aquaman's life.

What to Read After New Justice Aquaman

After the New Justice era, Aquaman's story continues in the Infinite Frontier era. Aquaman's adventures in the Infinite Frontier era start with appearances in Aquaman: The Becoming and continue in Aquamen.

Aquaman New Justice Reading Order FAQ

Where Is a Good Starting Point for Reading New Justice Aquaman?

The absolute best starting point for reading Aquaman in this era is as close to the beginning as possible. You can pick up the Justice League/Aquaman: Drowned Earth (Reading Order) crossover and start there or pick up the first volume of the Aquaman series, Aquaman Vol. 1: Unspoken Waters (Continuity), and start there.

What Happens to Aquaman After Drowned Earth?

Aquaman reappears after the events of Justice League/Aquaman: Drowned Earth (Reading Order) in the Aquaman series. Specifically, he reappears in Aquaman Vol. 1: Unspoken Waters (Continuity). However, this comic doesn't explain what happened to him in that event.

It isn't until the events of Justice League Vol. 5: Justice/Doom War (Review) that the conclusion to Drowned Earth is explained. So, if you're only interested in the answer to this question, jump to that book.

Why Does Aquaman Have Amnesia?

In this era, the first few issues of the Aquaman series feature Aquaman dealing with an unexplained case of amnesia. This is not something that occurred as a result of the Justice League/Aquaman: Drowned Earth (Reading Order) event. Instead, the answer to this mystery is revealed in Aquaman Vol. 2: Amnesty (Continuity).