Graphic Novel Reviews: Throne of Atlantis - Aquaman 014-017 | Justice League 15-17

The Story

An accidental attack by United States Forces on Atlantis provokes an attack upon the surface by Orm and the forces of Atlantis. Aquaman and the Justice League try to both fight him off and reason with him, but they are captured and imprisoned in the trench where the flesh eating creatures from the beginning of Aquaman were trapped. There they discover that the creatures have been freed.

On the surface, the backup members of the Justice League fight of Atlantis, but it is the arrival of the main body of the Justice League that turns the tides. Aquaman sides with the surface, against his brother, and together the team manages to defeat Orm, and discover the true cause of the attack.

In the aftermath of the attack, Aquaman tries to keep control of Atlantis as its king, but both his own soldiers, and the people of the surface have no trust for him.

Cartoon Reviews: Young Justice

The Story
After being spurned by the Justice League, young sidekicks Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash form their own team. After discovering a clone of Superman in a secret genetics lab, they are formed into a Justice League sanctioned team. From there they are sent on covert missions by the league.

Over the course of the story they discover the existence of a league of villains only known as The Light. They deal with the aftermath of the many layered plots of this society, only to find themselves struggling to keep up before The Light can enter their endgame.

The majority of the episodes are standalone episodic, with an intertwining story connecting them. The format of each individual episode is the traditional format where each episode wraps up the important plot elements for that particular episode. This allows the viewer to be engaged in the series while also getting a complete experience every episode.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Aquaman 001-007

If DC superheroes were on my backlist of characters I cared about, for many years, then Aquaman never appeared on the list at all. And apparently the same is true for many people, considering the many, many jokes about him. And it's clear that writer Geoff Johns is aware of this, as most of the first issue, and beyond, is very self conscious of the fact that most people think of Aquaman as a joke. Johns responds to this by focusing on the fact that Aquaman is in fact still a super hero, and very much a badass.

Does he succeed? Well, I never cared about Aquaman before, but after reading the first seven issues I am very much hooked. Justice League helped cement Aquaman as a badass, but it was his own book that convinced me it was very possible to have interesting stories involving the super hero that most thought powerless out of the water.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Justice League 001-007

It would probably be more appropriate to review the first six issues, as they're the ones that have the unifying storyline, but since I decided to write all these while the first seven issues were out, I'm sticking to my guns. Basically Justice League is the story of how seven heroes fought against Darkseid's invasion, and despite conflicting personalities they were able to work together and save the world. Issue seven starts off a new storyline, but it continues the idea that there is friction between the group, which I like since it shows that it will take a lot for these strong personalities to gel together into a team.

The story starts with Batman and Green Lanter discovering evidence of alien activity in Gotham, and they go to find out if Superman, himself an alien, knows anything about the alien technology they found. But they arrive just as Superman is being attacked by the same aliens that attacked Batman and Green Lantern, and he assumes they are his enemies as well.