Aquaman #42 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Cullen Bunn
Art By: Trevor McCarthy, Jesus Merino, Walden Wong
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 22, 2015

King On The Run

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Well, Aquaman has seriously pissed off Mera and whether that attitude is justified or not, Arthur is on the run from his own people.  It all stems from this pseudo invasion that's going on that has the possibility of destroying Atlantis.,,,,,, I guess.  It's all very vague and all we really got from the last issue about that is, these structures began appearing out of nowhere around the world and when they did, some black oil poison began tentacle-ing out........ and doing stuff?  I don't really know, like I said it's all very vague, but apparently if this continues, it means the destruction of Atlantis and since Aquaman went off on his own to deal with the menace and decided that it wasn't all bad because there are innocent people that are attached to this........ You know what?  It's like there's an ancient Atlantis that is forcing it's way into our world and Aquaman is saving the people that need to be saved and Mera is pissed that he's not just destroying the invading force, since Arthur left her in charge of Atlantis and it's people.  So Aquaman is Atlantean Enemy #1 and hopefully in this issue the plot comes together more and I can actually understand what's going down with all the structures and poison showing up and what these ancient Atlanteans that Arthur is saving have to do with it.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Aquaman fighting off hordes of monsters in that parallel world that is bleeding through to our own.  It seems that one of the ancient Atlanteans that Arthur has saved is a warlock and with his power, he's able to open a portal to this "other place" so Aquaman can save more of the innocents and get them back to his Amazon hideout....... the actual Amazon, not the warrior race Amazon.  We do get a little tidbit of information from the warlock, Entriax though.  It seems that as this other world is poisoning our own when it crosses over, Aquaman too poisons this other world, but Entriax uses his magic to make sure that doesn't happen.  Does that mean that with everyone that Aquaman brings back to the Amazon for sanctuary, that they are poisoning our world?  It's never really brought up, but it would stand to reason wouldn't it?  Anyway, Aquaman rescues the people and makes his way back to our world, where he declares that these small saves aren't really doing much and eventually he will just have to sacrifice the people he can't save and simply destroy the other world before it poisons his own world beyond what it can stand.

Once we get that initial battle out of the way, we jump into flashback mode and initially I was all for it, but after going back to see that Aquaman gives control to Atlantis to Mera while he goes after this invading force and then finds decent people among the structures, including the warlock Entriax.  I realize that this entire flashback sequence is simply things that we already know from casual conversations within the two issues of this story arc.  So really it serves no purpose other than filler and no new information is gained.  That's really disappointing, especially since I'm having a bit of hard time understanding what's exactly going on with this ancient Atlantis bleeding through and poisoning our world. 

In the end, another structure bleeds through and Aquaman....... I guess has one of the space/time distortion detector because he shows up and starts doing some destroying.  Too bad that an elite force that Mera put together to hunt down Aquaman shows up.  Their ranks include a King Shark that I don't like because it's not the one that I fell in love with from Suicide Squad, an undersea terrorist named Scylla, Charybdis who Aquaman compares to King Shark, Ch'tok: a warrior from the trench and Garth, who Aquaman doesn't know yet.  So yeah, except for Garth, I have no real connection or knowledge about any of these characters.  Anyway, a battle ensues between Aquaman and this team and while they're fighting, a giant monster emerges from the structure............because I guess Aquaman didn't destroy it in time, but like most of this issue........... I just don't know.

That's it for this issue of Aquaman and I was really excited about taking over reviewing this book because I dig Aquaman and I usually love Cullen Bunn's writing, but I've spent the last two issues of this book confused because Bunn refuses to explain this whole concept that he's throwing at us.  It's really frustrating.  Besides for this "elite team" that showed up at the end of this book, this really plays exactly like the previous issue and since I wasn't really a fan of that, this comes off even worse.  If that wasn't a big enough disappointment, I really don't like the art in this book either.  Whether it's Aquaman with his new gruff exterior in the present or his classic look in the flashbacks, he just looks weird in this book and I'm not a fan.  I wish I could tell you more about it, but I'm no artist and because of that, it looks way better than I could ever do, but I'm just personally not a fan........which I hate saying because comic writers and artists are my personal rock stars....... So sorry guys.  I really hope that the next issue of Aquamn gives me some more info on what's going on and the possible ramifications about what these "other" people in our world are doing to it and that it's not just a rehash of the info we've already gotten.

Bits and Pieces:

Aquaman has a new look and a new mission, but I really don't know what any of that means because besides for what feels like only an initial idea about what this arc should be, this story doesn't seem to be going anywhere.  Pretty much if you read the previous issue, you're caught up on all the information that you'll get here.  Just a really disappointing issue with equally disappointing art.  Hopefully this series picks up from here on out because as of right now, this story does nothing for me.

3.5/10