Geoff Johns latest issue of Aquaman features him stranded in a desert with no water! How will the hero notorious for his uselessness on land fare when he's miles from a source of water?
This issue really starts out with a bang; the first page consists of Aquaman falling from the sky and landing in the middle of a desert. No explanation, just Aquaman plummeting from the sky, seeing his predicament and reacting with a simple, "uh-oh". I really like it when a comic hits the ground running, and this issue really had me hooked with those first couple of pages. How did Aquaman get here? How the hell will he get out?
Of course we go back twelve hours and see how all this happened. Turns out a piece of Atlantean tech was lodged on that big hunk of rock that Aquaman brought to the surface in last issue. When the army calls Arthur in to help them investigate it, they're attacked and, after a series of events I won't spoil for you, Arthur winds up in the desert.
A lot of cool psychological stuff happens in this issue, like Arthur hallucinating visions of his father, and that coupled with the mystery surrounding his attackers makes for a pretty good read. I also like that Arthur is shown to still be upset over killing off the trench creatures last issue; I feel like to often in comics there will be a "I'm so upset" moment, and then the issues to follow will just move on and the character won't be affected.
This issue is mainly a set-up for the larger story Johns is telling, and I'm certainly interested to see where the story will go. Although was a little disappointed with how Aquaman escapes his situation(he just gets rescued), its still a great survival issue featuring some nonlinear story-telling.
Overall, this series continues to show great art from Reis, and Johns starts to reveal the scale of his story.
9/10