Aquaman #20

Aquaman #20

Writer: John Ostrander
Penciller: Manuel Garcia
Inkers: Sandra Hope, Rob Hunter, Ray McCarthy and Wayne Faucher
Colorist: Pete Pantazis
Letterer: Dezi Sienty
Cover Artists: Paul Elleteir, Sean Parsons and Rod Reis

Aquaman #20 features The Others in “Skinwalker”, a story by comic writer John Ostrander. In this issue, John steps away from Star Wars and dusts off his super hero skills as he dives back into the real of DC Comics. As someone who has never read any of the New 52 Aquaman issues or anything about The Others, this was an interesting comic. It did a good job of providing a self-contained story.

Aquaman shows up briefly in the beginning, and from then on it’s all The Others. Their team is formed by an old gun in a ninja suit named The Operative who is more or less in charge. His grandson, Aaron, flies their mobile headquarters which is a C-130 cargo plane that’s fully furnished with a luxurious interior. Rounding out the team is Ya’wara, a scantily clad Amazon type figure with two leopards at her beck and call. And then there’s Prisoner of War. He goes into battle with a sack cloth on his head, shackles on his wrists, dog tags around his neck, and ghost soldiers at his command. It’s a colorful bunch.

The impetus for the story begins with Aquaman sending The Others to Arizona in order to retrieve an Atlantean artifact known as the power glove. Little do they know that the power glove is in the hands of a skinwalker (think shape shifter and werewolf). This also leads them to a young female shaman named Sky. From a storytelling perspective, Sky is nifty. She lives partly in the real world and party in the spirit world. This allows her to speak with ghosts who tell her things. Because of this, she’s near omniscient. She knows who everyone is, where everything is and what they’re secrets are. It moves the story along quickly and enables her to immediately join the team on their mission.

Overall, it’s a fun story. There’s action, good art and intriguing characters. I’m an Ostrander fan, so if John writes some more I’ll definitely check them out. However, I’m tempted to read some of the series just to learn more about these characters. I give Aquaman #20 a four out of five.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.