Aquaman #20

 

The Others first introduced in Aquaman #7 have been asked by Aquaman to search out a Atlantean glove that has the power to punch through rock, the glove is one of many weapons that were lost during the resent Atlantis war with the surface world. The atlanteans are searching out any weapon's left on the sea bed but the glove has managed to find its way to the middle of the desert, and as its pointed out the desert is not the best environment for water dwellers.

 

The Others consist of military style man know as The Operative, Ya’Wara the animal woman and the Prisoner of War also added to the mix is a young Indian girl called Sky Alchesay, Sky walks between the land of the living and the dead and talks to her dead mother Kahina, who was previously a member of the Others prior to her death at the hands of Black Mantra?

 

The hunt for the glove begins once every gets to meet up via the will of the lightening gods, who bringing down the Others plane in the exact spot where Sky is standing waiting for them (I will point them in the direction of Ryanair Air they can give them some tips).

The glove is been used by a skin walker who is trying to free a lost group of skin walkers buried deep in a cave underground, the skin walker with the power glove turns out to be Sky's uncle Carl (poor name for a villain) who was briefly introduced earlier in the story trying to recruit Sky over protective brother. Having released the trapped skin walkers Carl plans to do whatever skin walkers do, however he didn’t count on the Others coming to thwart him and take away his glove trapping both him and the briefly freed skin walkers in a cave beneath ground, so plan thwarted then.

The issue ends with the Others leaving presumably to take the glove back to Aquaman and when Sky is asked if they (Others) will see her again, Sky replies that if they need her they know where she is then turns and walks back into the desert, man you have got to love an enigmatic ending, well I do.

Issue 20 is a fill in issue which takes you away from the excellent Death of a King story line that has been running in this book, not only is it a fill in but resident scribe Geoff Johns who has done so much to revive the fortunes of Aquaman is not writing it. Add to that very little Aquaman presence as the story revolves mainly around the team know as The Others, who are at best a rag bag team that Aquaman used to run with in his younger pre Justice League days and you would think it had the makings for a for disaster of an issue. However your thinking like mine would be wrong because the issue is so much more than a fill in book, writer John Ostrander does a wonderful job telling a story that is both entertaining and interesting, while dropping little hints and subplots that will surly play out in future Aquaman issues to come.

I did have a few minor points with the book one is that it felt a little rushed especially at the end as the team battled against the skin walkers, and why did Aquaman ask the Others to find the glove why not ask someone of his present team to find it. Surly Wonder Woman, Superman or the Flash could have done the job a lot quicker, but as I said these were minor points and didn’t detract from or spoil the story for me.

I will go as far to say that I would be happy to buy a monthly comic that featured the Others as they proved to be a very interesting group of characters, and to be honest DC have given worse characters their own books since rebooting the Universe so the Others are surly worth taking a chance on.

Come on DC you know you want too