Aquaman No. 46 review: Even with amnesia, Arthur is the same

Aquaman and Caille travel to the island of Namma unknowing that once they arrive, they will immediately be attacked by her as she reaches her full power.

The past several issues of Aquaman have been fantastic. Kelly Sue Deconnick and Robson Rocha have taken the character to places that are completely different from where he has been in possibly the history of the character, and its intriguing to say the least. There’s a different type of story being told here, much to the benefit of the series, and even though this issue felt a bit uneven, it still benefits from the ambition.

Kelly Sue DeConnick is a great writer, and she has been doing a great job on Aquaman, which continues in this issue, even though there are some hiccups. The overall story that is being presented throughout the issue and the series as a whole is genuinely intriguing, which doesn’t change with this issue. The difference is that some of the dialogue feels about conventional when it comes to Namma and the pacing of this issue feels very off. Sometimes it will move with a breakneck pace, and then the next page slows down considerably, slightly killing the pace of the fight. Separately, these two different paces can work, as shown in this series before, but together, they don’t really work.

All of those negatives aren’t to say the issue is bad or anything, it isn’t, but they were glaring enough to be a problem. However, the thing that outshines them all is how Deconnick writes Arthur, or Andy here. Even with amnesia, she writes him as true to the character as he can possibly get. He doesn’t care about the throne of Atlantis or the Justice League or politics, he simply cares about helping people. While those other mentioned story points have made for interesting and great stories in the past, it’s great to see Deconnick use the character with all of that stripped away, and he’s still the same Aquaman.

Image by DC Comics/Art by Robson Rocha

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The art in this issue by Robson Rocha is absolutely outstanding, as well. Even if the pace of the issue as a whole is off, his art flows so smoothly that it almost helps to completely even out the pacing of the writing. Each panel flows so well into the next, and it makes the issue so entertaining to read. Whether it be a wide shot of action or a close-up of a character, everything just flows so well. He even makes a Dutch angle work in the comic format somehow.

More important than his ability to make his art flow is the actual look of it and it’s gorgeous. His facial expressions are magnificent, and his figures truly feel like they’re alive. He gets body language down so well in several different circumstances in this issue that it’s hard to think of what he can’t do. He even does the slight horror elements that are present in this issue well, which are harder to do than one might think.

7.75/10

Aquaman hits its first hiccup since Deconnick and Rocha took over the series, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good issue.