With the upcoming release of  Aquaman in December, I wanted to go back and look at some of his best storylines in the comics. Here is my first pick in our look back at the King of Atlantis.

When an Atlantean wizard loves a woman very much they sometimes produce a hero like in Aquaman by Peter David Book One.

In this title, Aquaman decided to chronicle his life and early adventures in a journal.  Born with the name Orin, as a baby he was left on Mercy Reef to die alone.  If the plan had worked, when the tide rolled out he would have been left on dry land and would suffocate due to being unable to breathe out of the water. However, as it turned out, Orin could, in fact, breathe air and survived.

Young Orin was adopted by dolphins and who raised him until his early teens.  Throughout his early life, Orin thought he was just a misshapen dolphin, having never seen humans before. Then one day when he was about to ask another dolphin out on a date, his mother decided she needed to show him what he really was.  She told him to hop on a boat in look in a window and for the first time ever, Orin saw a creature that looked like him.

Aquaman met aliens, fought a brother, and fell in love on his way to becoming the Hero people could look up to.

Aquaman by Peter David Book One was written by Peter David with art by Martin Egeland et al.  DC Comics published the collected works in 2018, the original series started in 1994.

I have never read an Aquaman comic before so I had no idea if I would like it. . . thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve ever even read a book with Aquaman in it let alone a solo book.

When I saw this book was from 1994 I was very apprehensive at first, comics from roughly the year 2000 and earlier are written differently.  I find them to be very simple and slow and I find it gets worse the older the comic is, the older comics I’ve read have been torture for the most part. However, this volume was a total surprise for me.

It had a much more modern feel and didn’t seem dated at all – with the exception of the art. I don’t mean that in a negative because the art was very well done, but it was done in an older style that you don’t see anymore.

When I think of Aquaman, like most people I think of the Aquaman from Super Friends, he is a joke in that and is always made fun of.  This comic did a really good job of separating him from that past joke persona.  Aquaman is a badass and ends up with a sweet harpoon hand. The most badass thing I can think of is a harpoon hand.

This volume takes the reader through Aquaman’s career and for the most part, every issue or two is its own story.  I like seeing the quick stories of Aquaman’s past, but I did miss having a big villain who the hero is trying to defeat the entire volume. Even though it didn’t follow a linear story, I was never confused or bored by it, every issue was interesting and well paced.

I absolutely loved this volume and if other Aquaman comics are half as good as this I can’t wait to read more.  My only problem was that I wanted a more traditional linear story with a villain, however, that is just a personal gripe and in no way makes this a bad comic.

Rating:

5/5