Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Aquaman / Green Arrow: Deep Target #5 Review

 


Land of the Get Lost
Writer: Brandon Thomas
Artist: Ronan Cliquet
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 22, 2022

This book has been something else.  Freaky Friday body-switching, changed timelines, and dinosaur people, oh my.  That might sound like fun, but Brandon Thomas does all of it without much overall explanation or reason to care.  So, how does this issue plays out after the last issue's crazy cliffhanger?  Let's find out!


Aquaman / Green Arrow: Deep Target #5 opens right where we last left off, with the whole world gone dinosaur and Anderton acting like Arnold in T2, demanding they come with him if they want to live.

Brandon Thomas gives a whisper down-the-lane type of explanation of what is going on and, even without it being clear, still has to fudge his way through parts.  Scorpio (the evil organization, if you forgot) was sick of being taken down by the heroes all the time, so they used time travel to change the odds.  The "tabula rasa" that changed everything to the current dino status quo was the Hail Mary to put Scorpio on top if things went real sideways, but there was an error.  Now, it's pretty apparent the "error" was deliberate, but we will have to wait to deal with that. 




In the meantime, why didn't Scorpio do their big plan at the start?  Why wait?  They took the time to set it up but just waited to use it as a last-second resort instead of a huge Plan A, and I don't understand the reasoning.  All of Scorpio's technicians (except one) are jumping for joy, though, which is odd considering the situation.

So why aren't Ollie and Oliver dinosaur men?  Well, Thomas shrugs it off using the ill-defined way they swapped bodies as an explanation, and seriously, at this point in the story, who would expect any real answers?!?

So, what else goes down in this issue?  Anderton saves our heroes and flies them to his volcano lair just outside the city, where they meet Emmett.  Now, Emmett has to be the sad-sack technician who gummed up the tabula rasa so he could remember Anderton, right?




The rest of the issue involves making a time travel plan and then doing it.  I don't know why Thomas spends more time with the boring part of coming up with the plan to then swipe quickly through the action scene parts of doing it, but by the end, we at least get Ollie and Arthur in their own bodies.  Does any of this make sense?  Unfortunately, no.  While that's nothing new to comic books and the weird science (!) in them, this still feels off.  We've all heard the expression, "You can't build on a foundation made of sand," but the same thing goes with a foundation of bullshit.  Trust me.

This series looks great, and I do see some people having fun with it, but I'm not one of those people.  This series continues to feel like it's horrible fan fiction being made up on the fly by someone who has no idea what they are doing.  Maybe this mess sounded good in a "wouldn't it be cool if that happened" sort of way, but it all comes off as a "you had to be there" joke on paper.

Make sure to listen to our Weekly DC Comics Recap and Review Podcast to hear us talk more about this book.  Just look up "Weird Science DC Comics" anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Bits and Pieces: 

Aquaman / Green Arrow #5 continues the train wreck this series has been from the start.  So what else is there to say about it?  If you've liked it or hated it so far, this issue won't change your mind.  However, if you haven't read it yet, I advise you to avoid it.

5.0/10

No comments:

Post a Comment