Aquaman (1994) #51
Title: Noble Deeds
Cover Title: War of Kings!
Cover Date: Jan 1999
Writer: Erik Larsen
Pencils: Eric Battle
Inks: Norm Rapmund
Colors: Richard and Tanya Horie
Lettering: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Kevin Dooley
Cover: Erik Larsen
Cover Price: $1.99
OVERVIEW:
Aquaman has Noble on the ropes, but is surrounded by Noble's loyal troops. Aquaman has Mera use her hard water powers to damage their ships, and his forces go on the offensive. Noble, in the meantime, rallies his troops and destroys a building.
A piece of the building comes down on a little boy. Mera can't save him, but Noble does. While he's distracted, Aquaman has a whale attack Noble. Mera tries to chide Aquaman, but he's too busy rallying his troops.
Aquaman and Noble discover they can communicate due to Aquaman's telepathy, and Aquaman declares himself King of the Undersea World, which gets Noble mad enough to follow him into the palace, attacking at every turn.
Using his telepathy, Aquaman summons fish to distract Noble while he finds and dons a replacement hand for his broken hook. He then uses his telepathy to summon enough fish to hamper the efforts of the Lurkers.
Aquaman takes Noble rapidly up toward the surface, giving him the bends. At a point where Noble in is serious pain, but not yet dying, Aquaman declares a truce. He makes Noble the second-in-command of the cities, and leaves him as ruler of his own city.
COMMENTS:
The cover is ok. Nothing to sneeze at.
The interior art and coloring are simply bad, again. The artwork is horrendous in places, passable in others. It doesn't convey the story well at all, and confuses what would've otherwise been a fairly straightforward plot. I'll get back to that point when I discuss the plot, but understand that much of my complaints with this book still center around the shoddy art and coloring.
A couple of instances of bad art: look at Mera's hand on page 8. Is Mera an old granny? I've rarely seen a better drawn example of severe arthritis. On Mera, it is very out of place. Also, look at the lines on the male faces, especially on Tempest. At times, you almost cannot tell the difference between the contour lines and Garth's scar. A little definition is fine, but this is so heavily inked as to be ridiculous. Tempest still looks like he's wearing a ripped suit instead of the magical swirls of his real suit.
I was afraid we'd get more cheesecake shots of the women, but we got some decent drawings of Mera on pages six and seven, even though it's a bit unrealistic for a hardened warrior like her (see issues #47 and #48) to constantly have her mouth open in shock. More on that later. Mera is, of course, still wearing that awful sea serpent snot dress, and on page 4 her hard water powers, which have previously always been emitted from her hands, are coming from her head (unless I'm misinterpreting and she's actually getting shot in that panel (it's hard to tell)).
The coloring is so limited that at times it is difficult to tell what you are looking at. Everything is grey, Atlantean and Lurker alike, as well as buildings and coral. Only the main characters are ever fully colored, and then only in a few different shades.
Plot-wise, this story is really simple. Aquaman fights, Aquaman wins, Aquaman is noble (forgive the pun) and grants his vanquished foe a place in his court. However, following the story through with the art can be difficult:
Now for some character rants.
Since when did Garth pepper his speech with surfacer innuendo? "Do I make you randy, baby?" seems like an incredibly unlikely thing for shy Garth to say, even to his lover. Another writer, another personality transplant for the former sidekick. This personality appears to be a clueless jerk.
Mera spent years as a warrior Queen in another dimension, but here she is reduced to open-mouthed shock at every turn. As for saving the child, her powers could have instantly formed a shield above the child, especially if she and Noble were close enough that Noble could reach the kid in time.
Vulko is a warrior. In The Legend of Aquaman, when Aquaman returns to the city after years of being a hero, he learns that Vulko led a rebellion against the tyrant rulers of the city, inspired by Aquaman's own strength. He's certainly not a babbling and fearful fat guy, as he's made out to be here.
And onto the flow of the plot...
Despite the art, the first half of the book is almost clear. On page 10, the plot does a quick shift to some of the guests at Aquaman's party. Nothing major, right? But then, on page 17, the story is broken by another appearance by these characters, in the middle panel. The story is broken again, much worse, by the shift to the next page. A speech balloon breaks off in a double dash, which makes it appear like it will be continued in the next panel. Instead, we go back to the guest characters in an utterly confusing scene shift between pages. Very poorly done.
Another plot flaw: Aquaman is dealing with Noble, right? And supposedly his fish are taking care of the rest of the Lurkers. So where'd the Lurkers who attack the puffer-fish kid come from? And where are all the Lurkers who are trapped by the fish? Heck, where are the fish?
Aquaman defeats Noble, and then graciously allows him to remain ruler of his city. Noble seems a wee bit too subdued for a guy who claimed earlier that he would "continue until my very last breath" to make Aquaman "pay for such impudence" in stating he was King. And Aquaman himself seems way too trusting (as Garth observes) of a guy who just tried to kill him.
Other thoughts...
CONCLUSION:
I can't say I like this issue. It's just one long fight scene that wraps up too abruptly and conveniently.