Aquaman #20: Two artists, one good the other okay. Pretty good story. Mildly recommended. $1.75/$2.50Cn

Oxy-10 Memorial Award to Aquaman #20

"Thy Keeper's Brother" is really two half-comics smooshed together. There's even two art teams on the two stories.

The first story is, of course, Ocean Master versus Aquaman, with Egeland art. It's about sibling rivalry and how nothing can make you feel good about yourself if you're convinced you're not worthy. It seems that every other line out of Ocean Master's mouth has something to do with his power and his position and all that...and most of the rest are about how he still feels second-best to Orin. And it's not even as bad as it could be...he doesn't know he's Orin's brother by blood yet in this continuity. Garth knows everything now, from a plot standpoint, having been taught by Atlan over the last few subjective years, and it's Arthur's turn to be the clueless newbie, something Dolphin can sympathize with.

We find that Neron is apparently a figure of worship among the Himalayan Atlanteans, and he brought Orm to them as his personal messenger. Despite his feelings of inadequacy and tendencies towards pointless rage, he actually does take his new position seriously. Staci, who turns out to have survived the zap last time, manages to talk some sense into him. Oh, he's still gonna kill Arthur, but he's not going to let this get in the way of being spiritual leader of his new people. Meanwhile, looks like Admiral Strom is a cyborg or android or something, as a casual reference to his internal weapon systems indicates.

In the end, it looks like it's all over for Arthur and Company. Orm's got a battery of psychics training mental blasts on them all, shredding their souls. Arthur finds out that the power Neron granted Orm also gave him a really bad skin condition. Then he plays his ace card. "Luke, I'm your fath..." wait, wrong one. Anyway, he tells Orm they're brothers. Orm doesn't buy it, but foolishly gets in the way of his own people and a mindlink thingy is forged. All sorts of truths flood Orm's mind, things that happened and things that didn't happen anymore (i.e. pre-Crisis). If you think Arthur's been pretty on the edge lately, consider what it does to someone already there, like Orm. You can almost hear his mind snap. And he almost decides to trust Arthur...when Strom shoots him. This is bad. Orm kinda, well, blows up the mountain, killing everyone in it (except for those who found the secret escape tunnel, no doubt).

In the other story, Caldwell does a so-so job of showing Atlan arrive in some city, one of the ones Koryak's group was looking for. The city has no soul. And looky here, it's Kordax! He's not too happy with Atlan for imprisoning him, and he sics Koryak and the Atlanteans on him. Despite some clever tricks, Atlan gets taken down by Koryak.

Next issue, the invasion starts.