Aquaman Sword of Atlantis #49
DC Comics
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Layouts: Mike Manley
Finishes: Ricardo Villagran
Cover: Butch Guice
Aquaman faces the Fisherman who strangely has finally found his purpose. As Aquaman and other Atlanteans are captive of the Fisherman, our hero must save everyone quickly before the Fisherman exacts his vengeance. Will Aquaman save the day? This is the final issue of Kurt Busiek’s Aquaman run.
This issue read like a filler story. It’s as if Busiek could not afford to write a decent story anymore and was trying to get a script going on the side of a table as quickly as possible. Instead of sending off Aquaman on a high note, he indulged in more subplots and exposition that will probably never get resolved by another writer. Clearly, Busiek had a plan when he started this series, but he took too much time to get the adventure going. Nearly half of his run on this series was spent exposing the new character. The other half, was spent on creating subplots and making him meet as much from his old rogues as possible before passing on the torch. This current incarnation of Aquaman, while it may have saved the series from cancellation, only added more confusion to the character. Let us hope the next creative team can clean up the mess that Busiek created.
As with the rest of this story, the artwork is filler material that does not resonate with readers. It’s not that the art is ugly or badly executed. But it has no spirit. Seeing Aquaman tangled up in some creature’s tentacles does not encourage me to seek out what lies beyond the splash page. In all this is a poor exit from a creative team that wanted to change Aquaman’s status quo.
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