Aquaman #19: Um. That wasn't what I was expecting. In fact, generally speaking, I don't think I've ever seen this* in a comic book before. Talk about your decompression blues. I'm a bit let down, to be honest. After the last issue, I thought this book had been turned up a notch, but it seems to have gone back down again. Oh, it's not bad... I still love the book, but I was hoping for a bit more action, I guess. Still, it's Aquaman, and it's good Aquaman, and the final issue of the arc is the next one, so this gets a Recommended rating from me. 
And some more not-so-rapid thoughts on this one...
Since I got this one in last week's preview pack, I've had a bit more time to pour over it and think of other things to say. The above review was written after my first reading, but what follows came after more thought. But first, my sister Lisa's reaction.
Her first question was if this* was normal from a comic book. I admitted that I didn't think so, and couldn't think of any comic off the top of my head that I'd seen it happen in before. She also kept flipping back to the cover for some reason. She admitted later that it was just because she likes the cover and thought the way it tied into the story was neat. She also made a comment about the flashback and the odd appearance of Aquaman in the flashback. It was clear enough that it was Aquaman, she told me, but she had no clue why he looked that way (for anyone coming in late, this is the first Aquaman comic series my sister has read). She enjoyed the cliffhanger. Unfortunately, since she kept flipping back to the cover, she got the name of the artist confused with the name of the villain, and thus told me she liked the bit where Aquaman grabs Gleason. She read two comics while she was visiting, and it was pretty clear that she preferred Girl Genius #11 to Aquaman this time.
*(spoilers)The entire book is set in one room.(end spoilers)
A book of this nature has got to be near impossible to draw. It's hard enough to make a single page of people talking interesting... the fact that it is visually very interesting is a testament to Gleason's skills as an artist.
I think my favorite page is the title/splash page in which Aquaman has just hauled Lorena off the bad guy and is holding her up. It shows Aquaman's strength, the depths of Lorena's emotions, and the aftermath of Lorena's attack on Geist. A very striking image.
The pages are amazingly dynamic. The composition of the third page is a good example (you can check out this page at Comic Continuum's First Looks). The first panel is a cowering Geist as seen between the figures of Aquaman and Lorena. Aquaman's hand is on Lorena's back. The second panel is Aquaman's face. The viewpoint appears to be from Geist. Aquaman is stern and his eyes are shadowed. The bottom of the page is split into two panels, with the first third being a pulled back shot looking over Geist's shoulder up at Aquaman and Lorena. The last panel is a close-up of Geist's eye... you can tell it's Geist because of the blood from Lorena's attack. It would have been very easy for a lazy artist to try and show this bit of conversation from one point of view. It would have been equally easy for the composition to get confusing. Instead, the action is clear, and it's interesting to look at. Very, very nice.
A note: if the coversation had not been static... if the characters had been moving, the switch of point-of-view might have been confusing. It's very difficult to pull off a good "roving camera" scene when the characters are moving. Gleason has pulled that off before, which tells me that he's mastered the hardest part of comic book art: the storytelling. There are an awful lot of "good" comic book artists out there who can't do storytelling. There are even quite a few that I like a lot that fall short in the storytelling department. I wasn't instantly won over by Gleason's style, but now that I like it I appreciate his mastery of the form even more.
Not that I don't have any nits. It's just that most of my nits are of the writing, not the art. And, unfortunately, most of my nits also involve massive spoilers. So, mind the spoiler space: (spoilers)1) I'm not keen on environmental stories in general. Mad eco-terrorists aren't my cuppa, and I don't think this one is terribly plausible, even in the DCU. Why didn't Aquaman contradict Geist? 2) I figure that Aquaman knew Geist's name the same way in which he figured out his address, it was just jolting to read. 3) There's already a community of water breathers (in Atlantis). Does Geist not know that, or just not care? By the way, I figure Aquaman's charity appearance in San Diego was most likely during that time when Atlantis was on the surface. Just a guess. 4) Aquaman's right, he didn't do it alone, and that's a serious bit of information. Is there any way that the deeper mystery can be resolved in one issue, or will it be dragged out over a number of arcs?(end spoilers)
Ok, I guess that's enough on Aquaman for the moment. I'm enjoying this book a lot at the moment. I like Pfeifer's take on Aquaman, and I'm looking forward to the next issue. Now, if DC would just announce a collection... I've got a couple of people I need to buy one for, cuz Aquaman #15 and #16 are just about impossible to find right now.
