Aquaman #55 Review: There Will Be No Amnesty in This Bay

Kaiju vs. Manta Mech in Amnesty Bay. There’s nothing much that Aquaman do other than help those fighting. Thankfully, Mera is also around to bring the fight to Black Manta. Spoilers for Aquaman #55 follow.

After a couple of small missteps, Kelly Sue DeConnick and Robson Rocha’s run on Aquaman seems to be returning to form. There have been some parts of this storyline that haven’t quite worked as well as attempted. Regardless though, this issue takes everything set-up in this story is used in this issue which makes for an incredibly fun read. There’s a lot going on, a bit too much at times, but there are still some great character moments and fun action.

Ok, the fact that there’s a giant mech vs. kaiju fight occurring at all in an Aquaman comic is awesome. Straight up awesome. There are no two ways around it. It’s like Pacific Rim meets Aquaman. If you don’t get any joy out of seeing a fight like this, then I truly feel sorry for you. It gets even better when Black Manta in his mech begins to fight a giant water version of Mera. Seriously, it’s great. This issue is basically an episode of Power Rangers without the complete cheesiness of the show and some better character moments. It’s wonderful.

What elevates this issue beyond the awesome, crazy fight is the solid character moments in it. Both Mera and Aqualad have great moments, both of which are drastically different from one another. Mera’s revolves around the fact that she’s pregnant and is still being the badass she always is. Seriously, making a giant water version of herself to fight a mech, c’mon, that’s great. That doesn’t mean that she isn’t as strong as she normally is though as she pushes herself to her limit. For Aqualad though, his entire arc in this issue is about him pushing through his pain. It’s a solid showcase as to why he’s the right choice to be Aqualad. The only real problem with this issue is that these moments are few and far between, sandwiched in between the action.

Robson Rocha does a great job with the art in this issue as well. Over the past couple of issues, with the focus being more on sci-fi than fantasy, the art hasn’t been as good as it had previously been. However, with this issue, more fantasy elements are involved and Rocha shines once again. He manages to balance the sci-fi elements with fantasy elements incredibly well, which makes for an exciting read. There are a couple of panels where his linework is a bit rough, but there really aren’t that many.