Aquaman #66 (Endless Winter Part 4) Review

 

Fire and Ice

Writer: Andy Lanning and Ron Marz

Artist: Miguel Mendonca and Marco Santucci

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: December 15, 2020

Endless Winter continues in the pages of Aquaman, and while this was supposed to be a big event, after three chapters, I am feeling left out in the cold!  We have barely seen the big, bad Frost King and instead have seen the Justice League...doing stuff.  Not big stuff, mind you, just stuff.  Since I am way more a fan of doing things (not a stuff guy), I need something to happen in this story, stat!  Is this the issue where things begin to heat up, and will I stop throwing temperature references in willy-nilly?  Let's find out...

It's obvious this story is about family, so it makes sense that we start with the AD flashbacks and the Frost King yelling about the murder of his son.  We get a cool action scene when our past heroes arrive, but it doesn't push the overall narrative forward much, which is par for the course so far.

We then head back to the present, where all this frost nonsense has forced Aquaman and Mera to have a "working Honeymoon" as we see them (with Andy) head off to Atlantis to make sure everything is okay.

If you've been reading Aquaman lately, you know that Mera is no longer Queen of Atlantis, and I am glad that Lanning and Marz make that clear.  However, they make it seem like it's been a while since it's happened when the Honeymoon talk puts it at a couple of days.  It's not a big deal, just odd, and gives way to some actual Endless Winter development.  Yep, Aquaman is going on a quest to get some help battling all this cold and maybe even the Frost King himself.  Again, Lanning and Marz show they did their homework because it felt right.

As I said, Endless Winter seems to be about family, and while Arthur goes off without Mera on his quest, she shows up by the end and in the nick of time to boot.  Mera kicks ass as she always does, and while we've seen Barry and Iris and Superman and Lois, this is easily the best so far.  We end with a quick Frost King Cliffhanger page, but the main attraction is seeing Aquaman and Mera work together and actually get something done.

This was my favorite of the solo issues of Endless Winter by far.  While it follows the same formula as Flash and Superman, this issue made more sense in and of itself while also setting up some big stuff.  The art by Miguel Mendonca was good, and Ivan Plascencia had more of a color palette to work with, which was nice.  I'm not saying this was a perfect issue, but if the remaining ones are more like this, Endless Winter could end up better than I thought.

Bits and Pieces:

Aquaman #66 continues the Endless Winter story, and while it wasn't great, it was better than the last two solo character issues in the event.  Better yet, if you aren't even reading Endless Winter, you can check this out as a nice Aquaman and Mera... and Andy (!) issue.

7.5/10