LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Reveal Trailer, My Thoughts

Batman and video games have a long relationship, going all the way back to the 1986 video game for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, and the MSX computers. Another relationship Batman has had for a long time is with the LEGO System of building toys. Not just in sets (the first Batman LEGO sets debuted in 2006), but also in video games. The first LEGO Batman video game was released in 2008. Developed by Traveller's Tales, this game was the first of their Lego video game series to be given an original story. This game was given positive reviews but was also criticized for a lack of innovation. This game would get two sequels and a spin-off that would feature other characters from throughout the DC Universe.

And now, the Caped Crusader has returned to the LEGO video game universe in the upcoming game LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. Announced at the 2025 Gamescom trade convention, this game will have a new story and draw inspiration from the Batman: Arkham games. The game will be coming to the X-Box Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Windows, and later to the6 Nintendo Switch 2. Let's look at the trailer, shall we?

One thing that Batman is known for: the suiting up montage.

"Outta the way, Alfred! I need my grappling hook! Gotta look cool!"

I don't think those guys are safety inspectors.

Heh heh, rubber duckies. 

I bet Batman just has a ton of fun scaring the heck out of criminals.

Paying homage to Batman Begins here. I also got a giggle out of the Bat-Emblem-shaped stain on Alfred's outfit.

Everything's better with Danny Elfman's "Batman '89" theme.

Mixing the Arkham games with the 60s series onomatopoeia. That's the words for noise.

1989 Batman reference!

"I am fond of blueberries, though. Wanna get blueberries?"

Catwoman thinks he sounds very handsome. And if she's like most versions of Catwoman, the mask is not the only part of Batman's suit she wants to get into.

Hey is that the Batmobile from The Batman?! Awesome!

Batman Returns-style Penguin! This game really is a love letter to all eras of Batman. 

Not even the might of Bane can match the power of the Lego on the floor. Yeah, never leave Legos on the floor, kids. 

Well, this game looks like it will be fun. Shame it's not coming to the first Switch. I'd love to play it on there. I do enjoy a good Lego game, though. This does look like a good excuse to save up for a Switch 2, though. I do love superheroes and LEGO, so this is right up my alley! Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time!

All-Star Superman #8 (August 2007)

It's that time again! It's time to join Superman in what looks like his final adventures! Last time, the planet got invaded by Bizarros, this new take on them being more like zombies than in the traditional Silver Age comics. Superman ended up trapped on Bizarro World, and his powers are weakening, only to end up meeting a strange new being called Zibarro. How will Superman get out of this mess? Let's find out in All-Star Superman #8!

The cover is a Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant piece.

"Us Do Opposite"
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciler: Frank Quitely
Inker: Jamie Grant
Letterer: Phil Balsman
Editors: Bob Schreck, Brandon Montclare
Executive Editor: Dan DiDio

The story begins on Htrae, aka Bizarro World, where Superman ended up after the events of the last issue. Superman can't escape because Bizarro World is shifting into a place called the "Underverse". It's causing the sunlight to shift in color from yellow to red, and being a Kryptonian, Superman is powerless under a red sun.

Zibarro, the imperfect Bizarro clone we were introduced to in the last issue, starts lamenting how alone he is, the only intelligent being in a world of backwards mindless Bizarros. And it still won't matter in the end, as when the All-Night comes, he'll be subsumed into the sludge like everyone else here. Superman can't possibly understand how lonely his existence can be.

Yeah, that's hilarious. But that's tabled when Superman hears a voice.

Page 4, Panel 1

Yup, that's Le-Roj, the Bizarro version of Jor-El, Superman's biological father. Which makes sense. Bizarros are all about being opposite to Earthlings. Jor-El got blowed up real good, Le-Roj lives. Anyway, Le-Roj grumbles about some blueprints not making sense (In Bizarro terms). Superman exclaims that it can't be hopeless. There has to be a way to escape Bizarro World...and then he gets an idea.

If a spaceship can be built, Superman can escape this place like he escaped Krypton as a baby. Zibarro thinks that is impossible. The Bizarros are idiots, and they'll just be consumed when Bizarro World goes fully back to the Underverse.

Back on Earth, Leo Quintum briefs Lois on the situation. Once Htrae goes back completely into the Underverse, even Superman won't survive there for long. This understandably has Lois rather confused. After all, the Man of Steel seems to have become more powerful than ever in recent months. Leo realizes that Lois isn't aware Superman has actually been dying since the vents of issue #1. Lois puts it together and realizes that Luthor caused that space disaster as a way to finally achieve one of his life goals: Killing Superman...and he used the very thing that gave the Man of Tomorrow his power to do it.

Leo assures her that P.R.O.J.E.C.T has been busting their butts to try and cure Supes. So far, they've failed. Not to mention when they looked at the data from the solar probe that Luthor sabotaged, they discovered that something was hiding in the sun. 

Back to Htrae! Superman tries to get the Bizarros to help him, but they won't. Zibarro points out that it's useless, but Superman realizes something: Bizarros think in opposite to humans. For example, a Bizarro will describe something a human finds boring as "interesting". Using this, Superman convinces the Bizarros to help him build the rocket, saying they can be "lazy" and the rocket will be "useless". In Bizarro speak, they can work hard and build the useful rocket! 

Bizarro not only agrees to help, but he brought his own help: The Unjustice League!

Page 12, Panels 1-4.

Yeah, the Bizarro JLA is hilarious. Sadly, in the Bizarro tradition, they're as useless as the Justice League is effective. Zibarro notices the plans for the rocket indicate there is only room for one person. Superman explains that the rocket will be subjecting him to some imaginable stresses, and there's no guarantee that he will survive, much less Zibarro. After all, Zibarro seemingly has no powers. Superman does promise him that he'll try and help Zibarro.   

Zibarro screams he'll gladly take the risk, as he's desperate to get off Bizarro World. He doesn't fit in. He's a flaw, a failure, an imperfection. But Superman points out that Zibarro is unique. He's special. He's not a freak, or an imperfection. He's a sign. He's proof that Bizarro World can be better. After all, why else would this world make him? 

The All-Night is coming. The Bizarros are getting ready to launch the rocket, and they're not willing to wait until Superman is on it. However, Superman has weakened very badly by this point. He's struggling to even stand. Zibarro muses that he wants what Superman has: love. Respect. A home where he belongs. But he muses that maybe in his own way, Superman is as lonely as he is. After all, he's seemingly the last survivor of Krypton on an alien world. He helps Superman to the rocket.

When he's on it, Superman calls Zibarro a friend, which seems to genuinely touch the copy's heart. He isn't able to light the rocket, so Superman insults his Bizarro counterpart, who angrily tosses him off of the planet. Back on Earth, Leo Quintum reports that Htrae has been completely absorbed into the Underverse...and Superman is seemingly gone. The story ends on a hopeful note: Zibarro smiling and waving goodbye as Bizarro World retracts into itself. 

I enjoyed this issue. It was an interesting one-off tale. The concept of Zibarro is actually pretty brilliant. A planet of copies upon copies upon copies? One is bound to end up not quite right by Bizarro standards. The idea of a Bizarro that is much saner than his fellow Bizarros is rife with story-telling potential. The ending is bittersweet for Zibarro, but I like to think that it's more sweet than bitter. After all, as Superman said, Zibarro is proof the Bizarros can become better than what they are now. Things can improve for them. There will be bumps and forces will cause stumbles and backtracking, but ultimately, Zibarro is hope the Bizarros can grow beyond their current state.

I did find the Bizarro Justice League hilarious. It also implies that the rest of the JLA does exist. I know issue #2 mentioned Batman, but I like that this implies that the other members of the JLA exist as well. I would have liked to have heard their thoughts about Superman dying. Yeah, I know this is Superman's tale, but I would have been fine with a cameo of them reacting to it in various ways. 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again about Frank Quitely's art. I'm not a fan of it. But I think it really works well for the Bizarros and Bizarro World. His tendency to make people look rather "uncanny valley" really helps make the Bizarros look like pale imitations of humans. It works here. 

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2011 trade paperback All-Star Superman. Thanks for reading 

World Lizard Day

Today is World Lizard Day!

Lizards are cold-blooded animals, mostly members of the order Squamata. There are about 7,000 species of lizards, living all over the world, except for Antartica, naturally.

Lizards tend to have four limbs, and move in a side-to-side motion. However, there are some species of lizards that are legless like snakes. They're still considered lizards because they lack some of the features of snakes, like having eyelids, long tails (snakes have short tails and long bodies), and their lungs are equal in size (snakes have a short lung and a very long one). A lizard will also typically have a short neck that elevates the head. They also can regrow their tails if they get broken off.

Most lizards are small animals, but they still can vary greatly in size. For example, the Nosy Hara leaf chameleon can be a few centimeters long, and the Komodo dragon can be three meters long. Lizards can also have a wide variety of diets depending on where they live. The majority of lizards are predatory animals. They can be carnivorous, omnivorous, herbivorous, even insectivorous. Some species of lizards have variable teeth. What that means is that they have teeth that can do different things, like humans have.

Most lizards lay eggs to hatch their young. The number and size of the eggs can depend on the species. Unlike mammals, lizards do not raise their young, often abandoning the eggs after they are laid. There are some species that do have live births, though. The gender of the babies can be dependent on the ambient temperature. Lower temperatures produce more females while higher ones produce more males.

Lizards are predators, but they can be prey themselves. And they have a variety of ways to protect themselves from predators. Lizards are fast and agile, allowing them to flee predators. They can also shed their tails to help distract predators. And horned lizards can squirt blood from special pouches under their eyes. This blood contains toxic compounds. 

Most lizards are generally harmless to humans, but the Komodo dragon has been known to stalk and attack humans. In fact, some are kept as pets. I'd like to have a pet chameleon myself. Chameleons are neat. 

Lizards are part of mythologies and folktales all over the world. For example, Hawaiian myth has a lizard king named Mo'o. African folklore links them to ancestral figures.

So yeah, lizards are pretty cool! If you want to learn more cool lizard facts, you can read some here. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time!

Fantastic Four #232 (July 1981)

In honor of the release of Fantastic Four: First Steps (Great film, by the way), I thought I'd take a look at a comic book starring Marvel's First Family. Now, I wondered what comic I should look at this week. First steps clearly drew from the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby era (which makes sense, as it was the foundation for the Marvel Universe as we know it today), but I decided to go in a bit of a different direction. I love 80s comics, so...why not look at something from the John Byrne era? 

This comic was the first issue of his run on the run. Well, kind of. You see, he had actually joined the book with issue #209 (August 1979), his role being pencil breakdowns for Joe Sinnott to make into finished art. The first FF comic he wrote was actually a promotional comic starring the FF for Coca-Cola. They didn't like the comic as they felt it was too violent, so it got made into issues #220-221 (July-August 1980). It wouldn't be until this comic that he fully took over as writer, penciller, and inker. Originally, it was planned for Byrne to write with Bill Sienkiewicz doing the art, but the latter would go and do Moon Knight instead, and the rest is history. 

Byrne was just what the book needed at the time, as Fantastic Four was struggling in the early 80s. His work and imagination helped revitalize the book, as he wanted to show what made the FF great in the first place. Byrne's run would see the FF go through changes, like She-Hulk joining up in place of Thing for a while, Alicia Masters leaving Ben for Johnny Storm, and the group would even get a new headquarters. He left the book after five years, claiming that he grew tired of "office politics" and he found the book "no longer fun" to work on. But that would be in the future. For now, let's look at the proper start of John Byrne's run, Fantastic Four #232!

The cover is a John Byrne and Terry Austin piece. It's really cool. It depicts what looks like a giant Diablo trying to make the FF into the victims of a ritualistic sacrifice. It's a really cool creepy cover, got me wondering how the First Family of Superheroes are going to get out of this.

"Back to the Basics!" 
Writer: John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: John Byrne
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Letterer: Jim Novak
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The story begins with Diablo, the mad alchemist, doing what he does best: Mad alchemist stuff. He's created small effigies of the FF, and it's not because he wants to enter the action figure-making business. A shame really, as I think he could make a legit mint. Worked for Todd MacFarlane. 

Now, this is the FF's book, right? So, what are they up to? Well, let's first check in on the team's powerhouse: Susan Storm, the Invisible Girl. Yeah, she hasn't become the Invisible Woman quite yet. That's a ways off. She's getting her hair done. It's the 80s, after all. It is then that a being made of rocks attacks, demanding the head of Sue Storm. Naturally, Sue is not interested in just letting this wannabe Ben Grimm get it, so she goes invisible to try an avoid the beast. she wants her FF flare to call for help, but the rock creature blasts dirt all over the room. The dirt sticks to Sue, threatening to suffocate her.

"Aw God! It's in my mouth! Tastes like donkey poo!" 

Elsewhere, Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters are leaving a Broadway show. They both were moved to tears by it. Ben notices that it's raining...on him.

Only you, Ben. The rain then solidifies into a bubble.

"Doc says I'm not supposed to be in wet clothes!"

Ben tries to fight his way out, but the bubble is stubborn. He also has another problem: He didn't get a chance to take a breath before he got trapped. And now he's running low on air. 

So, considering that we're just about to see Ben Grimm friggin' die, let's look in on Johnny Storm, shall we? The second Human Torch is flying over Central Park, because he has a bit of a meeting of his own: a redhead named Frankie Raye. The two are having some issues in their relationship, but that ends up tabled when a wind monster attacks the Four's resident firebrand.

When Red Tornado wants his money, he's going to get his money.

Ten minutes earlier, Reed Richards was doing what he does best: working in his lab in the Baxter Building. He's looking into some strange energy fluxes in the city at the moment (presumably thanks to Diablo), when he notices that it's gotten rather warm in the room. 

He goes to open a window when the reason for the heat reveals itself: an angry fire monster.

"Oh dear, Johnny's on a bender again."

The fight causes the temperature of the Baxter Building to increase, making the lab get hotter and hotter. Soon, Reed may melt from it. The fire monster blabs that his comrades are taking out his teammates. Reed manages to escape by leaping out of the Baxter Building in the form of a ball. He then stretches out into a sail-like form and glides to Central Park. It'll be a good place to deal with the fire monster. It's a big space, and the damp leaves on the trees will reduce the potential firestorm. It's here he meets up with Frankie Raye, who tells him about the wind monster attacking Johnny.

Reed engages the wind monster, and the fire monster catches up with him. However, the fire monster backs off when Johnny Storm tries to engage it, saying it's forbidden to battle their analogues. The fire monster tries to flee, but Johnny is in...hot pursuit.

Yeah, sorry. This gives Reed a brainwave. 

He pretends to flee, the wind monster chasing him. Back at the hairstylist, Sue is able to free herself from her dirt prison with her forcefields. She then also gets the idea to use her forcefields as a form of quick transport. Meanwhile, the drowning Ben Grimm spots a sporting goods store. He realizes they may have scuba tanks. Summoning the last of his great strength, he heads inside. Luckily, one of the employees has a filled scuba tank ready to go. 

To her horror, Patty realized the tank was filled with laughing gas.

The water monster then covers the employee in its element. Sue Storm-Richards to the rescue! She uses her forcefields to contain the water monster, allowing Ben to fight the Earth monster. He shatters the monster with one Mighty Punch. However, like the T-1000, shattering the earth monster doesn't kill it.

Reed arrives, air monster right behind him. He spots Sue outside of the sporting goods store, deducing that she lured the earth monster there for Ben to deal with. He spies a nearby generator, and picks up a couple of live wires, as he has a plan to deal with the water monster. Don't worry, folks. He's wearing unstable molecule gloves. They're good for this.

He has Sue snare the air monster in a forcefield.

"This will make a wonderful decoration, darling."

He then uses some electrical wires from a water generator on the water monster. The electricity causes the monster's watery body to undergo electrolysis, splitting it up into its component gases: hydrogen and oxygen. Science wins again!

This also allows Reed to confirm that Diablo was the man behind these critters. Ben defeats the earth monster by blasting it with water from a broken pipe, causing it to "melt" into mud. Finally, the air monster. Reed has Sue compress the monster with her forcefield. It's difficult, but the lady pulls it off. The increased pressure of the forcefield caused the air monster to condensate into water. Three monsters down one left to go: the fire monster. And they have no idea where it is. Johnny pursued it, but they have no idea where they went off to.

I don't think they'd be that hard to find. 

I've heard of a firefight, but this is ridiculous!

The fire monster, being literally made of fire, is able to bring the heat better than Johnny could. However, our man has one trick in his bag that could help: his Nova Blast. Basically, Johnny released his flames in one massive burst of power. Think of it like a pro wrestler's finishing move.

Johnny Storm was banned from eating beans forever.

The blast consumes all the oxygen in the immediate area, snuffing the fire monster out. However, this also knocks Johnny's powers out of commission for a bit. He ends up falling into the river, but he's able to signal a nearby tugboat. 

Reed explains to Sue and Ben that this is clearly the work of Diablo. Ben finds that ridiculous as he seemingly died during the events of Fantastic Four #193-194 (April-June 1978). Reed points out that Diablo has escaped death before. Reed then makes a call to someone he knows can help. 

That night, Diablo tries to sneak out of town, when he's caught by Reed. Diablo points out that the scientist can't connect him to the attacks by the elemental monsters. Reed admits that's true, but he's done some checking. As it turns out, a group of statues representing the classical four Greek elements had been stolen from various museums...and Diablo has them in a nice little customized suitcase. Diablo wants to know how Reed found him. Well, he called in one of his Illuminati buddies.

"That'll be $50, Reed."

Yup, ol' Doc Strange himself. Yeah, the Illuminati wasn't established yet, but I can imagine that this was the reason that Reed was able to contact Strange so quickly.

I enjoyed this comic. It's a simple story, but it lives up to the title. This is really a jumping on point for new readers, and something probably done by Byrne himself to introduce himself to the readers before he gets truly comfortable with the characters and stretches his muscles. The idea of the Fantastic Four reflecting the four classical Greek elements is not a new one. Heck, I know of one pastiche of the FF that was explicit about it. And it's not hard to see why. Another thing I liked about this story was that the heroes used some brains to win the day out. I do wish the statue thefts were more set up at the beginning, but otherwise that, this was a fun story. Byrne himself also turns in some strong enjoyable artwork for this. 

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2009 trade paperback Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 1. Thanks for reading this blog entry! if you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time!

International Cat Day

Today is International Cat Day!

This day was started in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare out of a desire to honor cats. 

International Owl Awareness Day

Today is International Owl Awareness Day!

Over 200 species of owl exist, found almost everywhere on Earth except for the polar ice caps. Owls tend to be nocturnal critters (exceptions are the northern hawk-owl and the burrowing owl). 

Because of their being almost everywhere on earth, owls are known to many ancient cultures. North America and Europe tend to associate owls with wisdom and intelligence. That's because owls were associated with the Greek goddess Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare. 

Aquaman #9 (June 1995)

As a tribute to Peter David, who had passed away recently, I wanted to look at a comic he wrote this week. The man had brought his pen to numerous characters over his long career, and some of his runs on certain characters have become quite influential. As such, I wanted to cover a comic from one of his runs. And since I also wanted to look at more DC stuff here, why not look at another issue of his Aquaman run? We have visited it before, after all. And I'm quite fond of it, so...yeah. This is Aquaman #9!

The cover is a Joe St. Pierre, Howard M. Shum, and Tom McCraw piece. I think it's pretty good. It depicts Orin and Deadline fighting in the sky. Not much else to say about it other than it looks neat.

"Dreaded Deadline Doom"
Writer: Peter David
Penciler: Joe St. Pierre
Inkers: Howard M. Shum, Rodney Ramos
Colorist: Tom McCraw
Letterer: Dan Nakrosis
Editor: Kevin Dooley, Eddie Berganza

The story begins with the mysterious metahuman villain known as Deadline shooting through a coin to demonstrate his skill. We've met this man before, in my review of his first appearance: Starman #15 (October 1989). He admits that being paid in old coins is a new one for him, as he's been paid for his work in many other ways before. He'd have to have the coins checked to ensure they're the real thing, of course.

He asks his employer who he wants whacked. The target? Aquaman! Duh! Well, that makes sense, this is the King of the DC Universe seas' book, after all. He orders Deadline to wait until our hero gets on land, as that is where he's the most vulnerable. Speaking of Aquaman, this is his book, so what's he up to? 

"Yeah, I'm trading this in for a bigger car."

Yeah, they're heading home. They just dealt with a whole adventure that involved the mother of his son Koryak being transformed into an Elemental called Corona, and they're heading home to the kingdom of Poseidonis. Perhaps seeing it will cheer the kid up, but Orin fears that it may not help so much. After all, he's taken to being a bit broody. Like father, like son. The three come up to the city and note that it's gotten crooked. Literally. 

"I swear, I leave this place for five minutes..."

They arrive and a brief conversation with King Thesily, who runs the place. Orin has something else on his mind right now: repairing his harpoon prosthetic. It got damaged by Corona, but he's already contacted STAR Labs and contracted them to make a new one. He asks Dolphin to show Koryak around the city. He also wants to know how Garth, aka Aqualad is doing. Despite his codename, Garth's hardly a "lad" anymore, so Orin thinks he'll be fine.

He turned out to not be fine at all.

Ohhhhhh, Aquaman is not going to be happy that Garth is a spooky scary skeleton...well, when he finds out, anyway. Because he's at STAR Labs getting his new harpoon hand prosthetic put in. And it's quite purty.

And Peter David wondered why people thought Aquaman had a hook.

It has all sorts of fancy new features! It slices, it dices, and it can cut through an aluminum can in less than a second! The harpoon is also cybernetically linked to Orin, allowing him to control it with his mind like it was his original hand. It can even retract into the casing. Which is when Deadline shows up, with a gun. He blasts at Aquaman, while the former monarch gets the scientist to safety. Afterwards, Deadline hits our man with a gas attack. After the gas weakens the monarch, the assassin plans to finish him off, thinking he'll be a lot easier than Starman ever was.

Back in Poseidonis, Koryak demonstrates his ability to create blasts of "hard water" (think hard light, only water). Vulko notes it's remarkable that he has this ability, as Mera (Orin's ex-wife at the time) could also do it. Koryak couldn't do the things Mera could, but his hard water blasts are more devastating and powerful, able to easily punch a hole in Posedonis guard armor. Vulko wonders how he got this power. After all, Mera came from another dimension. Koryak has no idea; he's just been able to do it for years. I think this was meant to imply there may have been a connection between Koryak and Mera, but my theory is that he's a metahuman. 

So, how's Aquaman doing? Deadline thinks he has the easiest assignment ever. After all, Aquaman has a rep of being a bit of a goofy superhero. He's seen as the guy whose super-gimmick is "swimming and telling fish what to do". At first glance, it would seem kind of goofy. Thing is, this is Peter David's Aquaman. And this Aquaman...is arguably one of the most dangerous men in the entire DC Universe. He easily manages to get through the fog, and they start fighting.

Deadline blasts Aquaman out of the building, realizing that because our man is of the ocean depths, he is quite tougher than the average man. His eyes are adapted to see in low light, so he can find ways past the gas. But the superpowered assassin realizes something: Aquaman can't fly. Well, of course. He's not Namor the Sub-Mariner. He doesn't have the little wings on his ankles. Thus, he can just simply drop the monarch from a very high up in the sky.

As this is going down, Vulko tries to explain to Koryak that the people of Poseidonis have been through a lot, including being conquered. As a result, they're a bit paranoid and untrusting of outsiders. Koryak is both, being the son of Aquaman and a Native Alaskan woman. Say, is Koryak still canon? I keep thinking that he is and is not at the same time. The conversation is interrupted by Koryak witnessing a piece of a building about to fall on some kids. The Son of Aquaman shows that he's just as much of a hero as his father, saving the kids. The Posiedonians nearby are very grateful, which is nice.

Back to dry land! Deadline drops Aquaman, but his new harpoon prosthetic has some new tricks. One of them is the ability to shoot the harpoon/hook. It's attached to a line, which he uses to catch the flying Deadline.

"You nearly punctured my favorite foot, you Aquajerk!"

Deadline tries to get Orin off of him, by blaster and slamming him into buildings. But the prosthetic reels Orin in, allowing him to wreck Deadline's flying discs. The two then end up falling into a sewer. Orin taunts Deadline to take shots at him now, but he's vanished.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Garth wasn't made into a spooky scary skeleton after all. His death was faked, and he has actually washed up...somewhere. 

"This is the fifth time he's washed up on my beach this month!"

The story ends with King Thessily watching over Koryak basking in the praise of his people. The King grumbles about his people seeing him as a figurehead. He can't stand the fact that Aquaman, Koryak, and Dolphin are more beloved than him. He holds up an old coin, revealing he was the man who hired Deadline to kill Aquaman. The story ends with Thessily presumably cursing everyone out. Aquaman, Koryak, Dolphin, and even his own people. And in the next issue, Orin will meet the then-only Green Lantern left: Kyle Rayner. 

I enjoyed this issue. It had a lot of whiz-bang action with the fight between Deadline and Orin, we get some political intrigue, and we also get some character moments. As is also the David style, we also get some bits of humor here and there. I do wish we did get a bit more of Koryak and Orin trying to build a father-son bond, but we did get some intriguing mystery regarding Koryak's hard-water powers. After all, as established earlier, only Mera could do that before, and she was from another dimension. 

One of the things David wanted to do with Aquaman was show that he can be one of the most dangerous superheroes in the DCU, and I think he had done that. Orin is shown here to be no cakewalk for Deadline. He's tough, and he is a fighter who can think on his feet. I also liked the scene with Koryak saving lives on Poseidonis. It helps show that at heart, he's a good man. 

Joe St. Pierre is an artist I don't remember seeing much in Big Two books. Searches on him tried to get me to a Belgian artist who died in 1960. From what I can find, he also worked on Wolverine's book. I do like his style. It almost has a cartoony vibe to it, and I think he would have been a perfect fit for a Plastic Man book. I also liked the panel shapes he used in the beginning when Orin, Koryak, and Dolphin travel to Poseidonis. Helped sell the ides of undersea motion. 

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2018 trade paperback Aquaman by Peter David Book Two. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time, and thank you for everything, Mr. David.