After his dog goes missing, Aquaman searches around Amnesty Bay for him, while encountering the two worlds he lives in. Minor spoilers for Aquaman Annual #2 follow.
Taking a break from the giant mech battle that’s happening in the main Aquaman series right now, this annual is a much more low-key affair. Pretty much the entire issue is Aquaman searching for his dog. It’s about much more than that underneath the surface, but the search is main plot of the issue. It’s a good thing that the plot doesn’t overtake the issue too because if it did, a lot of what it’s trying to say would be lost. This isn’t one of the best issues of the series, but it’s a good standalone issue that helps build this new status quo.
With this issue focusing heavily on Aquaman’s search for Salty, his dog, pretty much everything becomes even more relatable. Who doesn’t go out of their way to find their lost dog? Even superheroes worry about keeping their pets safe. But honestly though, because the story of this issue is so simple, it helps bring you into the world more. There are distractions to the search, but they play into the overall themes that are being played up. Do the distractions sometimes feel meaningless? Yes, but most of them play into what the issue is attempting to do.
What really elevates the issue beyond being simply mediocre though is the mix of humor with the serious themes it’s trying to convey. Even if the themes don’t land as well as is being attempted, there is humor present to make reading the issue still enjoyable. The issue starts about with a new villain called Sea Daddy if you want any indication about the humor in this issue. Sea. Daddy. That’s some Matt Fraction level naming right there, which isn’t a surprise as Fraction and writer Kelly Sue DeConnick are married. Really though, much of the humor in this issue lands and helps make the issue better.
Where the issue falls the flattest though is in its actual themes. It’s not like the themes are non-existent or simply show up at the end suddenly, it’s just it doesn’t feel like there’s much emotion to them. Pretty much the entire issue rings a bit hollow. The emotion that’s trying to be conveyed simply doesn’t land.
As for the art by Victor Ibanez, it’s passable. There’s really nothing special throughout the issue. It tells the story effectively, but never with any real flourish. But this must be stressed, none of the art is bad. The linework is clean. Layouts tell the story in a comprehensible way. And its paced well. But it really doesn’t do much more than that, other than with the last page.
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