Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Jesus Saiz
Publisher: DC
Released: 4th June 2014
I dropped Aquaman from my pull-list a few months ago when Geoff Johns ended his run on the title by draining all of the life force out of the character and handing off an empty, fishy shell to a writer who I don’t care much about. I think it was Jeff Parker, or a similar Marvel/DC clone that took over, and since then I haven’t cared one single flipper about Aquaman. But now he’s back, barging into my Swamp Thing book, and blanding it all up for a month.
This is one of those crossover books that nobody wants, except the company accountants. Writer Charles Soule does his best to explain away the unwanted intrusion, but he writes Aquaman as a humourless automaton of the sea, a completely boring character who is about as interesting as yesterday’s fry-up. The story involves a monster. Swamp Thing is in the sea, messing around with plants. He defeats the monster, and Aquaman has a bit of a moan whilst he is doing so. That’s it. The art is big and bold, trying to inject some life into a flat story, and it almost disguises the sense of apathy that surrounds the entire issue, but not quite.
The final few panels are the most interesting part of the book as Charles Soule gets to dump the limp fish man and get back to the story that he was telling before he was forced into this pointless diversion. That story involves two interesting new protagonists, Lady Weeds and the Wolf, and it will kick into gear next issue. Swamp Thing isn’t usually this bad, but a rotten fishy smell has stunk out the joint for this month. Charles Soule is a great writer, when he wants to be, but it’s obvious that he couldn’t care less about Aquaman. What he has done here is treat the intruder with the disrespect that he deserves. It’s wrecked the book for the month, but his point is well made. Rating: 4/10
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