Review by Ian Keogh
There’s a place deep in the Pacific Ocean where redundant space technology is pulled down through the atmosphere and dumped at sea. It’s also the area where something from beyond has targetted a planetary downfall. A team of international experts is gathered and deposited in an undersea base awaiting further clarification.
What DC publish under their Black Label imprint isn’t necessarily connected to their mainstream universe, which has to be borne in mind throughout the first chapter. There are only brief glimpses of one Arthur Curry emerging from the sea, and even fewer of a man in an advanced diving suit recognisable as his enemy Black Manta. There seems no knowledge of Aquaman in the wider world.
For anyone expecting a straightforward superhero adventure the opening chapter is likely to be hard going. There’s plenty of consideration of the sea as a metaphor, adapting realpolitik, and the primary concentration is on those journeying to the bottom of the sea, one even named Verne in case the point is missed. Ram V has proved an intelligent writer more interested in story than continuity, and the exploration of the unknown is an ideal vehicle to say something about humanity, yet while there’s a continuing tension Andromeda takes a very long time to come alive.
The better artists on an Aquaman series are able to transmit that the darkness under the ocean is akin to the darkness of space, and equally unknowable, and Christian Ward certainly manages that. At his best, these pages are wonderful, with a fine sense of colour added to imagination, yet his approach lacks consistency. The drawing of a few scenes is basic, one being a confrontation in an Admiral’s office, puzzling and distracting when compared with the creativity on show elsewhere.
Sadly, a top of the line creative team misfires here, and Andromeda’s potential is never realised. Aquaman is almost secondary to myth building, the flawed human cast have connections with the sea, but aren’t greatly interesting, and after a long slow build-up V’s plot devolves into the standard action thriller. At its best Ward’s art is phenomenal, yet it accompanies an ordinary story.
