Aquaman(3) #14
Title: Lamentations
Cover Title: -none-
Cover Date: November 1995
Crossover: Underworld Unleashed
Writer: Peter David
Pencils: Marty Egeland
Inks: Howard Shum
Colors: Tom McCraw
Lettering: Dan Nakrosis
Asst. Editor: Eddie Berganza
Editor: Kevin Dooley
Cover: Jim Calafiore, Mark McKenna, and Patrick Martin
Cover Price: $1.75
Continuity: IN
OVERVIEW:
Thanatos is free, and claims to be the new Aquaman. Aquaman joins Mera, Dolphin, and AJ (the boy) in their prison. Mera apologizes to Arthur, and explains that AJ might be Arthur's son.
A pilot walking through a terminal falls on some marbles and hurts his shoulder. A security guard in the terminal notices a man walking in a restricted area. The man kicks him in the leg, tells him about a blood clot that loosened, could kill him, and walks off while the security guard has a heart attack.
Mera tells Arthur that she had AJ about nine months after arriving in the place they are stuck in, during which time she thought Thanatos was Arthur. Arthur notes that she's only been gone a few months, but the boy is twelve and a half. Dolphin directs Arthur's attention to the viewer, which shows Thanatos headed toward Poseidonis.
Thanatos gets to Poseidonis only to find the inhabitants gone.
The former inhabitants, meanwhile, are in the tunnels that connect the cities of Atlantis. Vulko notices wall drawings that tell the stories of Shalako (who had control of hard water, like Koryak does), Kordax, and Atlan. Dardan, a Shalakite, notes that though the tunnel predates the sinking of Atlantis, the drawings depict events that happened after the sinking, and after the tunnel was sealed. Koryak doesn't care and leads the people on.
Arthur tries to leave, but runs into a force wall. He then decides to try to use the viewer, which has gone blank, to find help.
Back at the airport, the man who kicked the security guard's blood clot loose is now up on a tower, preparing to cause more chaos using the power Neron (from Underworld Unleashed) has given him.
Thanatos uses the city's broadcast system to send a declaration of war to the surface world, but now has nothing else to do but find some followers.
Arthur tells AJ to pray that he's not Arthur's son, because if he is then he is caught up in that nasty prophesy that has caused Aquaman so much grief.
The man on the surface, the lacky of Neron, causes a plane to crash. It hits a submarine and the two vessels sink and explode, causing an unerwater earthquake that crushes Thanatos. Courtesy of Major Disaster.
Aquaman manages to get the viewer to work, and it focuses on... Atlan!
COMMENTS:
Major Disaster is actually a halfway scary bad guy in this issue. Thanatos is just plain annoying, and it is satisfying to see him get crushed.
Mera is beginning to act like her old self again, though she is still confused from Thanatos's mind control. I love her thought, "What's this 'Orin' stuff?" when Dolphin calls Aquaman by name.
Vulko notes that Shalako's power of hard water control is very similar to Koryak's powers, but Koryak doesn't seem to care at all about the past.
Aquaman expected to see something in the viewer, but Atlan was probably the last thing he expected.
CONCLUSION:
One of the few really good Underworld Unleashed tie-ins, we get two villains mistakenly fighting each other. All while still moving the plot along...