"Death of a King Chapter Two" by Geoff Johns, Paul Pelletier, Sean Parsons, and Rod Reis.
This issue of Aquaman opens with our hero putting in a call to his old friend, Topo. But this is not the Topo many of us remember:
Members of Aquaman's Atlantean army are scared that "the monster" has been awakened, but the Sea King and Topo seem to have a relationship of mutual respect. Despite this, and Aquaman's pleas for help in finding The Scavenger, Topo retreats back into the crevice he came from, ignoring his king. In response, Aquaman seems crestfallen.
After a quick interlude with Orm in Belle Reve, we find Murk and Tula on the outskirts of Atlantis, where the former is going to visit an old friend(?) named Swatt. This being lives far away from most of Atlantis so he can "come and go" in private, and indeed when they arrive Swatt is gone. Murk thinks nothing of inviting himself in, which Swatt doesn't take too kindly to when he returns:
Murk is here to ask Swatt for help rescuing Orm, but before he can answer, Tula is called away by Aquaman for help. Meanwhile, a sailing boat is caught in the massive snowstorm caused by the Ice Giant seen at the end of last issue. Mera, knocked unconscious at first, wakes up to find the boat's passengers all dead:
Mera blasts the giant with a blast of frozen water, and then escapes into the sea. Many miles away, Aquaman and some of his army are on the trail of the Scavenger's ship. But a trap has been set for them, involving fuel being ignited, causing a massive explosion.
They all stagger to the beach, to find one of the two men who found the ships dead. Aquaman detects a second heartbeat coming from inside the ship, and he rips it open, finding their lost man, who looks as though he has undergone torture and experimentation.
Down below, Mera is found by two armored men, whom she seems to know. She asks to see someone named Nereus, who we learn is waiting to make his presence known...to his wife!
To be continued!
Overall, I thought this was a mixed issue of Aquaman. The New and Badass Topo reveal is great, but it sort of fizzles out when he tells the Sea King to go get stuffed, essentially. Obviously he'll come back into the story at some point (as they say, if you introduce a Topo in the first act, he has to go off in the second) but I, like Aquaman, was disappointed this great big intro amounted to very little.
I'm intrigued of course to learn that Mera is/was married, and I'm already looking forward to Aquaman and Nereus squaring off. How The Others fit into this, I have no idea--I'm more than a little surprised Geoff Johns is working them back into the book so soon.
Art-wise, this is a fairly dense issue, with some pages having eight or nine panels of dialogue. There's a two-page spread of Mera swimming around the ship's burial ground that's well executed, and the full page shot of Topo rising into the frame is icky fun (well designed and executed by Pelletier and Parsons, and, as usual, beautifully colored by Reis). I hope we get to see him eat Murk soon!
THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST: Episode 52
