It's more complicated than that, but we'll touch on that later. Plus, you probably already know what "Blackest Night" is anyways or else you likely wouldn't be here.
Anyways, issue #15 of Titans focuses on one of my favorite characters, Garth. "Tempest" is his super-hero name, but most people probably know him as the former "Aqualad". That's right -- Aqualad grew up just like the Robins and Kid Flashes of the world, and Garth became Tempest.
I did this review back in about, oh, July 20th or so, but I was really just getting my feet wet (Aquaman pun intended) with reviewing comics.
I hope you enjoy! Now, let's take a step in the past about 5 months ago!
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This being my first comic review, I'll try and make this somewhat of an easy read. I want to start out by saying that both Aquaman and Tempest are two of my favorite superheroes of all time. Jokes aside, I think there is so much more to the underwater duo than the bad "Robot Chicken" jokes you've probably heard of.
Before I start, I'll give you guys a brief catch up, to the best of my knowledge and ability :
*Arthur Curry, the original Aquaman, is dead. He died somtime during the events of the "Sword of Atlantis" storyline after strange infection that possibly spawned from his "hard water" hand that was given to him by the Lady of the Lake sometime during his 2003 storyline. We were left to believe that at some point before the "Sword of Atlantis" storyline started, the infection took full force and nearly took over half of his entire body, causing him mass amnesia, as well as having "visions" of what was actually his memories. At some point, after working with the young man who would take up the mantle of Aquaman, Arthur finally passed away.
*Arthur Joseph Curry was the second man to take up the Aquaman mantle, and did so during the "Sword of Atlantis" storyline. However, not much has been seen of him since the end of the "Sword of Atlantis" series.
*Tempest, the former Aqualad, is out searching for Dolphin, his wife, and their child. They seemingly dissapeared when Atlantis recently was attacked and much of the city was destroyed. He has not been seen for some time.
So as of right now, we have the city of Atlantis with no ruler, Arthur Curry is dead, the man who was destined to take up the mantle of Aquaman seemingly wants no part of it, and Aquaman's second-in-command has left the city in search of his family. All this is happening while deep in the far reaches of the space, the Guardians of the Universe are meeting because of the current "war of light" that is occurring, as well as the foreseeing of the "Blackest Night."
The "Blackest Night" (for those who don't know) is DC's big blockbuster event in which the dead characters from the DC universe will more or less be reawakened as zombies and given Black Lantern Rings, thus allowing them to become the "Black Lanterns". This ultimately all ties into the whole "war of light" that is going on in DC with groups like the Green Lantern Corps, the Sinestro Corps, the Red Lantern Corps, and so on and so forth. However, where as the other colored units tie in mostly with the Green Lantern universe only, the "Blackest Night" event is pretty much affecting the entire DC universe.
Now that we're all caught up, let's begin -
How's that for a first page? As an Aquaman fan, it doesn't get much cooler than that.
I should mention that even though this issue leads you to believe that all the Titans are involved, only two actually show up. Technically, only one shows up, considering the other one who shows up has most likely graduated to the Justice League or something, but I'll get to that later.
The first few pages (the one above included) are nothing more than Tempest going over the history of Atlantis and helping us catch up. He goes into the fact that because he was born with purple eyes, he was seen as an outcast by the people of Atlantis, and thus, left to fend for himself. It wasn't until Aquaman, someone who also was once looked down upon by the Atlanteans (for his blond hair) that Garth had anyone who cared about him, yet also someone to look up to.
Sadly, we quickly find out that Garth has returned to Atlantis to bury his family. Yes, that's right - Dolphin and Cerdian, his wife and child, were both killed in the attack on Atlantis. He expected them to have tried to escape and might possibly be somewhere in the farthest reaches of the ocean, but after looking everywhere he could, he realized that they fell victim to the damage, and his answer to their fate was in Atlantis all along.
I don't want to spoil too much, but I assume you're reading this because you probably have no interest in buying the issue. So, even though I'm pretty much going to cover everything, you should still check it out yourself. I will say that even if you are a slight Aquaman fan or a slight Aqualad fan, you're going to love this issue.
Tempest sees the city of Atlantis as a lost capital without any guidance. Arthur Joseph Curry does not show up in the issue, but we are told in a conversation between Garth and some Atlanteans that Joseph came to the throne room and returned the Aquaman armor that he once wore as a sign that he wanted no part of being Aquaman. They speak of him as a "stranger" that they originally hoped would take up the throne, but he decided against it.
Tempest goes to the burial site of his wife and child when he runs into Slizzath, Garth's uncle, who basically is a mutated sorcerer lobster villain. He looks pretty creepy, if I say so myself. Slizzath exchanges a few words with his nephew, then draws Tempest's power into attacking him, committing suicide and telling Garth that he wants to be on the "winning side." It's pretty easy to tell as the reader that Slizzath did this so he could rise as a Black Lantern. After the shocking event, Garth is left unconscious and brought back to the city.
As it becomes more clear that Atlantis wants a leader and they are looking to Garth to fulfill that position, he travels to one of his oldest friends, Dick Grayson, who of course has now taken up the role of Batman. They exchange a few words and we get some cool dialogue and art out of it. It's a cool scene, indeed.
After seeing the new Batman with his own eyes, Garth returns to Atlantis. The last panel of the comic is of Tempest sitting on the throne, ready to lead Atlantis until Mera, the Queen of Atlantis (and Arthur's former wife) wishes to lead her people again.
It may not sound like much, but wow, I was not expecting such fan service. Most people don't see the appeal in a hero like Aquaman, but to me, I can't see how they don't see the appeal. It's extremely disheartening to know that the DC Universe has no living Aquaman at this time, but with Tempest taking up the role as the temporary King of Atlantis, he may be preparing himself to slip into the role of Aquaman just like Dick Grayson did to the position of Batman.
And with Blackest Night just getting started, I can only hope that we get to see Garth and the Black Lantern version of Arthur duke it out. It should be extremely entertaining.
In the end, I really loved this issue. It's such a great setup for bigger things to come, and everything from the story to the artwork is just fantastic. Like I said - this is a must buy for Aquaman fans.
