Aquaman continues his quest to build trust between the people of the land, (us then) and the people of the sea the Atlanteans. Unfortunately for Aquaman this is not an easy task given that Atlantis attacked several city's drowning thousands of people, in the Throne of Atlantis story line that featured in the early days of DC's new 52 (what ever happened to that bright new dawn for DC).
However undeterred by mistrust on both side Aquaman has built an Atlantean embassy to help build bridges, unfortunately last issue it was destroyed by Black Manta leaving his dreams seemingly in tatters.
Despite this Aquaman is determined to rebuild his embassy and his dream of peaceful coexistence, a dream that is given a blow when he is told his embassy status has been revoked and he no longer has access to his embasy. So it a trip to Washington to speak with the president to try and resolve the situation, but not before he has had a chance to say a proper good morning to his future wife Mera (her words not mine).
So its off to Washington where they both turn up at the White House and ask to speak to the President, now if I had known you could get into the Whitehouse by tuning up in costume I would have given it a go when we visited. A tense meeting at the Whitehouse between Aquaman, Mera and the Chief of Staff goes from bad to worse, when Aquaman becomes the focal point of blame when an Atlantean splinter group sinks a US ship at sea. This leads to a final panel that seems a little out of sorts for me, given Aquaman is a Justice League member and a visiting king with his queen would he really be treated this way?
Interspersed in the Aquman story is Black Mantas prison van breakout by a new character (to me anyway) of Black Jack, now she looks an interesting character but given she's dressed in black leather and has an electronic eye. I'm guessing she is someone who cannot be fully trusted, a feeling that Black Manta apparently shares with me as he tries to fight his way through her henchmen. Before doing what all villains and heroes do eventually and actually listen to what the other person to say, and given that they both have a common interest an alliance of sorts is agreed for now.
The Aquaman book suffered a little during its new 52 run but its had a solid start so far during Rebirth, but for me this is the weakest issue of the rebirth run so far. Having said that its still not a bad read, and writer Dan Abnett is doing a good job writing a more thoughtful and diplomatic Aquaman. Philippe Briones has the artwork duty on this issue and it is simply gorgeous and worth the price of the book alone, his attention to detail is exceptional and the book is well worth several look troughs just for the artwork alone.
As I wrote earlier Aquaman Rebirth has been a solid read and is certainly a step up from its run in the new 52, it hasn't reached the heights of Geoff Johns run yet but given time it looks like it could get there.
