Aquaman and the Others Vol. 1: Legacy of Gold (The New 52)

Great buy!

Who would have thought - Aquaman getting a second, consecutive, monthly title! Okay, 'the Others' isn't the most exciting name for a super-team, but it's still enough to bring a tear to an Aquafan's eye... this trade paperback reprints the first five issues of the comic, as well as a couple of issues of its parent title.The Others, who appeared previously in 'Aquaman', are Prisoner of War, who can summon the ghosts of a platoon of soldiers who (I think) died under his command; Operative, one of those Batman-types who lives in an airplane called 'the Living Room'; Sky, a Native American girl with all the associated mystical stuff Native Americans usually have in fiction; and Ya'Wara, an eco-terrorist who controls various wild creatures, has an interesting origin involving a female spirit of the Amazon rain forest, and who is the team's designated lesbian. According to the back cover blurb, they're supposed to come from 'nations all around the world', but the story doesn't make this clear - nor tell us what those nations are.After some throwaway stories from 'Aquaman' 20 and annual, it's onto Dan Jurgens' 'Legacy of Gold' storyline from the first five issues of 'AatO'. The Others are all powered by ancient artefacts from Atlantis and someone based in 'Trezygstan' - one of those East European countries US comic writers love to make up (cf Modora, Latveria) - is trying to get said artefacts for what doubtless are nefarious purposes. Jurgens makes some mistakes: after their airplane is hit by a missile, the Others are seen plummeting to earth whilst having a conversation - as if the noise of the wind - not to mention the burning 'plane beside them - wouldn't drown out the sound of their voices! But it's an entertaining story, although - like so many modern comic book storylines - it takes up far too many pages for the actual substance of the story itself.Art: 'Aquaman' 20 is drawn by Manuel Garcia, who produces oddly truncated figures and obviously wasn't paying attention to the script: when Operative refers to his rug being rare and expensive, Garcia hasn't even bothered to draw one! But the penciller on 'AatO' is Lan Medina, who turns in good solid super-hero work, including cute touches such as Ya'Wara's panther curling around her as she sits. But Medina, too, is sometimes sloppy: Operative's grandson Aaron removes his shirt to staunch the flow of blood from a wound suffered by Aquaman; a few panels later the shirt is still pressed to Aquaman's stomach - but Aaron is also wearing it! And when a villain makes reference to "The suits of armour that surround us", it probably would have been a good idea to draw some in the same panel...It's a shame that, with the exception of Aquaman, the Others' costumes are so dull: olive green, dark blue etc. Not for nothing does one of the villains remark "If ever there were two women in need of a personal shopper..." It creates a perception that the Others are just supporting characters for the King of the Sea rather than characters the reader should be interested in reading about in their own right.But I like the logo!