Written by Ram V.
Art by Christian Ward
Published by DC Black Label
Ram V. is truly an interesting writer. He has almost an entirely different approach to writing comics that the industry that we haven’t seen before. It blends horror a bit with a hint of philosophy.
Christian Ward is responsible for the more interesting books in the last few years. He’s done some interesting writing himself but he is primarily known for for his art.
These two creators have teamed up for this book to give us one to the most interesting and unique takes on Aquaman that I have ever seen.
The creative team here have decided to make a cosmic horror book and I am here for it.
The pair are creating this under the Black Label brand for DC and it is a weird but good fit. The story goes into some really dark and scary territory, especially for an Aquaman comic. It is a really great set up, too.
The story being with a convert operation team on the the ship the Andromeda who seemingly discover a really strange object at the bottom of the ocean. They decide to probe deeper and see what they find out about it. Once they do, they wish that they never had.
Needless to say, this covert team end up in a lot of trouble.
They find something of a black hole and they end up in its grasp. They aren’t really sure what they can do to get away from it. They discover that there is something there too that isn’t of this earth. It is hard to explain what it is, but that’s because Ward’s art obscures it enough while at the same time making it extremely terrifying. This object of being seems to be waking up as well. What does that mean for the world at large. This covert team starts to panic at the implications! Things look really bad. That is when Aquaman himself gets involved in the happenings going on here.
Christian Ward’s Aquaman is a sight to behold.
He is strikingly illustrated and composed very well. His eyes just glow, like he’s powered beyond belief. Yet, there is something very relatable to him at the same time. It is a very powerful and different interpretation of Aquaman. He gets thrown into this cosmic horror plot of trying to save the world from the creature who may be threatening all life on earth.
We get to see Aquaman trying to save the crew of the Andromeda. This leads to a series of events that get increasingly crazy as the book goes on.
The book basically turns into a battle between Aquaman and the mysterious object from beyond this worlds. It is told pretty well over the three chapters. The creators use Aquaman pretty sparingly too with this. He’s in the book just enough. We do get to know the characters of the Andromeda pretty well though. At a certain point, Aquaman feels a bit like a secondary character. It is an interesting take, but also makes the character feel more powerful when he does appear.
It is basically an Aquaman book that handles cosmic horror by way of Lovecraft. Aquaman has to fight these horrible creatures as save everyone. However, there may be more to the creatures and their actual origins that may make it impossible to kill them. As we learn more about them, the stakes increase.
Ram V. does a great job writing this, increasing those stakes at every turn. He takes the story and makes the themes work at an incredibly high level. Every scene and every bit of dialogue functions on a higher level than just the surface. It is a deceptively complex script that really works remarkably.
A lot of what is being shown from the script feels like it would be incredibly hard to visualize. That is what makes Christian Ward’s art even more impressive. He does an incredible job not only translating the story, but making it all real. His storytelling here is top notch and it sings on every level. I also have to mention the character and creature design here. All top notch work.
This is one of the best best Aquaman stories in recent years for sure. I’d be down for more stories from this creative team set in this semi alternative universe.
RATING: A
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