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Aquaman #46
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artists: Vicente Cifuentes, John Dell, John Livesay, and Guy Major
Cover Artists: Trevor McCarthy
Publisher: DC

After last month’s unnecessary detour to another land, we finally get a reaction out of Aquaman, who was deceived into believing that Siren was actually Mera. The unfortunate problem with this story line, however, is that even though Mera was acting completely out of character, it never once occurs to Aquaman that maybe something is wrong with her. Historically, she has always sided with him and fought along his side with unwavering loyalty, which should have been reason enough to question her claiming his throne. Another problem he has been having this entire arc is that he has been spending all of his time fighting Atlantis and rescuing the people of Thule, when he would have been much better off trying to figure out how to stop Thule from invading his world, overthrowing the Sorcerers of Thule, and somehow managing to leave their realm operational, because innocents or not, bringing a whole population of people from another realm into his world is bound to cause problems with the world. It may not be intentional, but this arc is doing a terrific job of showing how inept of a leader Aquaman is. 3/5

Robin: Son of Batman #6

Writer: Patrick Gleason
Artists: Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, and John Kalisz
Cover Artists: Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, and John Kalisz
Publisher: DC

To be honest, I was expecting Damian’s atonement for the Year of Blood to have lasted a lot longer than this. Not that it ending is particularly a bad thing, since it was getting a tad tedious to see him return a different artifact every issue, however the way it was initially presented, his atonement seemed as if it would be a lengthy journey. Nevertheless, this issue wraps up a strong first arc. Patrick Gleason has done a very good job setting up this arc to move Damian past the abrasive and at times violent individual he once was. There are couple specific things that Gleason does in this issue that are particularly noteworthy. Damian’s parting of ways with Nobody/Maya, while hopefully not a long lasting one, was executed particularly well. Often creators forget that they’re dealing with kids and will unnecessarily try to force romance into the mix, and Gleason specifically avoids that here. Also, the way that Gleason handle’s Damian’s relationship with his mother is great. Him giving her a second chance is a great sign of his growth, but the fact that he threatens her to stay away from his people shows that he’s still essentially the same kid he’s always been. 4/5

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Arnab Pradhan
arnab@comicattack.net