Aquaman (3) #21
Title: First Strike!
Cover Title: Before The Storm!
Cover Date: June 1996
Writer: Peter David
Pencils: Jim Calafiore
Inks: Peter Palmiotti
Colors: Tom McCraw
Lettering: Dan Nakrosis
Asst. Editor: Eddie Berganza
Editor: Kevin Dooley
Cover: Mike Zeck
Cover Price: $1.75
Continuity: IN
Note: Dedicated to Neil Pozner
OVERVIEW:
In Thierna Na Oge, two sisters, Bres and Nuada Silverhand, are fighting. Nuada wins, and tells her people to prepare for HIM.
Aquaman, Dolphin, and Garth barely escape, with Garth piloting. Garth takes them to Thierna Na Oge.
Strom survives the destruction of the mountain, and is teleported by an alien ship that looks suspiciously like the ship under Poseidonis.
Atlan got away from Koryak and Kordax, probably by dimension jump, and Kordax is not pleased.
Aquaman wakes up to Nuada's nursing, and thinks that he knows her. She tells him that he is feeling echoes from other timelines that no longer exist. Nuada offers the help of her city before Aquaman can ask.
Bres, meanwhile, finds the aliens and joins them.
Garth kisses Dolphin, after explaining that the five cities of Atlantis are almost incarnations of Atlantean history.
The Aliens attack Thierna Na Oge, and the city fights back. Big battle scene.
During the fight, Dolphin fights off a compulsion to kill Aquaman. Nuada kills her sister.
When it's over Aquaman says it was too easy, that is was only a test.
On the ship, Strom just laughs.
COMMENTS:
The cover of this issue makes Aquaman look like a Tritonian.
The first three pages of this issue are a tribute to the now out-of-continuity Neil Pozner series. Nuada and Bres are creations of that series, as is Thierna Na Oge. Nuada banishes her sister, Bres, but she joins the aliens and meets her doom at her sister's hand.
Garth refers to Ocean Master's city as the Dreaming City. Garth's kiss of Dolphin is a test for him, he's still not over Tula.
Nuada knows about Orm, because of the echoes of the timelines now gone, in which she was imprisioned by Orm with Aquaman.
Aquaman kills in the fight. He fights brutally, and, like Nuada, kills. This isn't the Silver Age Aquaman at all.
Aquaman says the fight is a test of their mettle. Strom doesn't seem concerned by their mettle.
The letter col discusses what Tiamat is, and why there are so many in the DC universe. There's also a letter from someone who wants Aquaman to kill Guy Gardner. *sigh* As much as I dislike Guy, I don't want Aquaman to kill. It's disappointing enough that he's killing in war...
And the letter col has a name now, Ebb & Flow.
CONCLUSION:
I quite love the Nuada Silverhand character, and so this story is a true delight for me. The fights are slightly boring, but having Aquaman remember things that no longer happened works for me.