Salty Sea Daddy: Aquaman Annual #2 Reviewed
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
It’s the Year of the Villain, the sky has blackened, and the symbol of Doom is the only thing visible when one looks up. It’s also Founder’s Day in Amnesty Bay, and a would-be supervillain calling himself Sea Daddy has chosen today to attack Aquaman for the Throne of Atlantis…despite the fact that Arthur is no longer king. Arthur and Jackson take Sea Daddy down with ease, but his weapon fires and destroys the supplies and fireworks that were to be used for the Founder’s Day festival. Aquaman makes it his mission to salvage the celebration, but, when Salty (Arthur’s dog) goes missing, Doom may well and truly have sunk Amnesty Bay.
Aquaman Annual #2 is a low-stakes story about Arthur, Jackson, and the inhabitants of Amnesty Bay trying to make the best out of a bad situation.
It’s a charming story, with small disasters making a bleak day even worse. Arthur has to try his best to wrangle the quirky inhabitants of Amnesty, including the old gods from Unspoken Water.
Salty going missing is a fairly large part of the story. It takes some strange turns, including the possibility that one of the Unspoken Water gods may eat him.
All in all, the story has a happy ending, and its morals are sound and uplifting
Victor Ibanez provides appealing and exhaustively-detailed artwork which looks fantastic and really brings this story to life. Aquaman himself looks as strong and regal as ever, and the shading is quite impressive to boot. Jay David Ramos’ color work gives the right level of bleakness to the environment so that the pall that hangs over Amnesty has a strong visual representation.
Aquaman Annual #2 is charming and strangely fun issue for Arthur Curry and his associates. We get to see them weather the arrival of Doom and the melancholy it casts upon the city. Mix that entertaining plot with great visual work, and you have a book well worth recommending. Feel free to give it a read.
Aquaman Annual #2 comes to us from writers Kelly Sue DeConnick and Vita Ayala, artist and cover artist Victor Ibanez, color artist Jay David Ramos, and letterer Clayton Cowles.
Final Score: 8.5/10
