 The operative, Yawara, prisoner of war, Skye, Aaron Cole. He is the Lord of Atlantis and a founding member of the Justice League. He can raise armies, call on the world's greatest heroes and unleash his own astonishing power. But when threats arise that Aquaman can't face either alone or with his usual allies, he calls on others. Hi everyone, welcome to another exciting episode. We are continuing our Aquaman read-a-thon throughout the year. This time for the month of July, we are going back to the New 52 with Aquaman and the others. This is a very interesting title. Here are the covers for the two trade paperbacks. I say interesting because the whole premise of this book stems from the idea that you've read the New 52 run from Jeff Johns when he first rebooted the title, the character, and all that stuff. And he introduced the others. They are introduced very early on. The others, like I mentioned, are a team that Aquaman has that is prior to the League's founding. They are all, I don't want to spoil it just in case you've never read it, but they're all bound by the fact that they each carry an Atlantean artifact that gives them sort of that extra power set or something. And in the case of some of these characters, it actually defines who they are. They get along and they form this strange union way back in the day and then they're called once again when Black Mantle strikes and that sets up a bunch of stories in the main Aquaman book and we kind of never hear from them again. Yeah, they do appear in issue 20 of the New 52 run and that is collected here in the first trade as well as the first annual from the New 52 run. The problem with that is that they use those two issues as an introduction for this series, for this mini series Aquaman and the others. And it's a little bit clunky. Like if you like the characters from the other book, you're not going to have too much of a problem reading them here. But if you're new to this whole thing, it's actually a pretty weak introduction to them. Literally on the first issue, Aquaman issue number 20, the main character, the main reason why I love this team is that they're led by my favorite DC superhero. In the first issue, he's only in it for five panels or two pages for two pages. That's it. Then the rest of the issue is just the others doing their thing. But it's a very clunky introduction because the book assumes that you at least know who they are from their previous adventure. Now they solve this by introducing a new team member and then in the following issue is the long annual that's not very... It's a little bit clunky and cliched and it presents an adventure where they reintroduce everybody and then Arthur's in it throughout the whole thing. And then when that ends, we get the actual Aquaman and the others, the first five issues, and we get another introduction to these characters. So it feels like I'm reading three separate stories with the element of them, like here are the others. They're this secret group of characters that you don't know about but you're going to know now. And then when the story ends, we get the same treatment all over again with a different plot element or a villain or something. And I guess it's needed for new readers, but if you're doing it consecutively like this, it can be a little bit of a drag, especially for new readers, like I just mentioned. But then when we get to volume two, this collects issues six through eleven and the two not so great features and one-shots. I was not a fan of features and so don't expect a positive review here. Those one-shots don't really do much, just present a hypothetical future that doesn't really get resolved. If you don't read features then you're just left like, okay, that happened. But yeah, issues six through eleven actually the highlight of this series. The first five issues present an old Atlantean enemy that wants that gold that was used for the artifacts, he wants it back. So the others are called again by Arthur and they go on this globetrotting quest to figure out what the hell's going on. And it's fine, I guess, but the villain, you know, we've seen that before in other stories. It's nothing groundbreaking, but at the same time it's exciting to see a new set of DC characters take center stage. And Arthur, he does his thing, but throughout the book you feel like you know that the others are taking charge and doing their thing. Now, some of these characters are really interesting if you've read the original stuff or if you haven't. And Tiwara is this actual Amazonian from Brazil. And she's very earthbound and in touch with Mother Nature and all that stuff. And she defends the animals and the trees and all that stuff in a very kickass warrior way. You got the character of the operative. He is basically this James Bond-ish character. He's more of an a-hole than the original James Bond who has all the secret gadgets, all the intel, all that fun stuff that these characters are going to need. Mobile bases with this huge plane or boat. We also have Prisoner of War, one of my favorite characters from the group. He is basically the soldier that is able to commune and is possessed by the soldiers that were killed in action. And he can sort of like be possessed by them and he knows what they went through and he acquires their abilities and all that stuff. So yeah, the book, Clunky Introduction Aside, which by the way issue 20 of Aquaman was written by Ostrander and he did a really interesting job with that issue. And then on the annual it felt a little flat and sort of generic superhero-ish fighting. They go up against Morgan LaFaye. I don't know. It's a very odd title. It's not as great as it could have been. That's my main point. That's my main critique. The art, however, is splendid. I love Land Medina's artwork on these issues. And he really does a good job and brings a sense of dynamic adventure to the book. Everybody looks clean and crisp. Of course the cover is done by the great Ivan Reyes. But you see it with characters like this called Legend, I guess he was called, right? Anyway, the old Atlantean foe, stuff like that. It really is reminiscent of what Ivan was doing back in the main Neo 52 title. Unfortunately, you know, this book did not sell all that well. It got canceled after 11 issues, but I think they did enough. Here's one of those other pages that I was going to highlight and it looks pretty interesting. Overall, the plot elements are a little bit cliched, clunky introduction, but really great artwork from Land Medina. If you are reading the book for the very first time, I don't know. I guess I would recommend sticking with the main title. And then if you're interested in the others, then yeah, go ahead and check this out. Plus you get some cool action with Sheshire and other characters that show up. But it's not something I would wholeheartedly recommend, as much as I love the character of Aquaman. And he's in here quite a lot, as well as Mira. It's one of those books where it's dependent on your love and knowledge of the main title. And it is to be commended. The book was really popular when it came out. You had for the very first time, if memory serves me right, two Aquaman books running at the same time. It is to be commended the fact that these two books were selling, or the original book was selling, so well that they gave the spin-off a chance. And actually, Eleven Issues is pretty damn great. They were able to do two somewhat solid storylines and conclude them in a sort of a satisfying way. I don't think we need a full-blown others series, but it was nice to have these characters and to see other heroes in the DC world get a moment in the spotlight. I don't know if you've read Aquaman and the others, but I gotta say I enjoyed it. It was a fun read. It's not the best one, but it's fun nonetheless. And it's Aquaman. I love the character, and he has very interesting side characters that get overlooked. But yeah, I digress. Whatever. The book is pretty interesting. Guys, what do you think? Let me know down below. Have you read Aquaman and the others? Did you like it, or did you just stick with the new 52 title? As always, you can follow me on your favorite social media platform, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that stuff. Just type a week and eat them, and I'm probably there. As always, thank you. Once again, liking, commenting, subscribing. You are the very best. I will catch all of you on our next video.