 Hero. Always a word they tried to hang on me. Never a word I was comfortable with. At least now I understand hero. I remember the first time I was called hero. So begins Arthur Curry's recollection of the epic journey that led him to become the mythical superhero we know as Aquaman. He is unquestionably one of the greatest heroes the world has ever seen, but his rise to power was not easy. Hi everybody, welcome to another exciting episode, a very special epic edition of A Weakened Geekdom. I am your host, Emmanuel Hernandez, and in honor of 2018, and the fact that we are getting a live action motion picture of my favorite DC superhero, Aquaman himself, Arthur Curry, I am celebrating all year long with Aquaman videos. Starting from this video to the movie's release, I will be doing multiple videos, sometimes one or two a month. I don't know. But trust me, there will be a lot of content regarding the king of Atlantis. I will be reviewing Neo 52 stuff, Rebirth. I will do videos on the character's backstory. Why I like the character so much. My top Aquaman stories, yada yada yada. Eventually I will do the movie reviews, spoiler movie reviews, all that stuff. I love the character and hopefully you guys are excited for the character of Aquaman. And today, as you read in the description title or the title of this book, we're doing a video on Peter David's Aquaman run from the 90s. One of the definitive editions of the king of Atlantis. I cannot recommend this book enough. If you want a cool badass story, continuity free, because you can pretty much understand everything from the get go, I highly recommend Peter David's Aquaman. He did the impossible. He took a character that had been chastised and made fun of thanks to silly cartoons and made him into an utter epic badass. First with the time and tide trade series that was like four issues and then began his epic run of Atlantis Chronicles and the Aquaman run itself. Now, if you read the Atlantis Chronicles, you're going to have a much cooler time when you start reading this collection right here, which is being reprinted for the very first time, because as you know, the character has virtually no deluxe hard covers or none of that stuff, which sucks. If you're on social media and you can use the hashtag omnibusforaquaman, I would appreciate it, because come on man, he needs it at this point. So yeah, long story short, Peter David did the impossible. He took a character that I was laughed at and made him a badass and made him relevant, cool, and just perfect for everybody to dive into. No pun intended. One of the aspects that I really commend Peter for doing is the fact that he took this character with this awesome set of superpowers and just basically did something I was not aware of until I read his little intro at the beginning of the trade, where he's like, this is a character that's basically the Tarzan of the ocean. I hadn't thought of it like that and it makes total sense. A lot of people are like, oh Tarzan is so badass because he does this and that and he's super strong and all that stuff. But with Aquaman, you get fans that make fun of the character because he's underwater and talks to fish and all that stuff. Why wouldn't you, why would you make fun of that? Why? I mean, who wouldn't want to swim the vast oceans and see all the wonderful awesome creatures that are down below? That is badass. And withstanding all the pressures from the ocean debt, bulletproof, he can survive a gunfight or knives and swords and all that stuff, and he packs quite a punch. The character's awesome. Anyways, Peter David's run reinvents the wheel, sort of, and brings you a new origin, not too different than what was done with the Golden and Silver Age and all that stuff, but still presents a new introduction for the character and you get to see his origins. Now, if you want to read the origin of Atlantis itself, you got to pick up the Atlantis Chronicles. Read that book. So when you start time and tide, it flows right into that perfectly because, of course, Peter David did the Chronicles first and it's just a seamless transition that I really dug the hell out of. And Peter, of course, writes a very troubled character that is trying to find his way in the world. You're going on this journey with him and he's telling you all the different things that he has had to accomplish or do and you get to see his first romance, you get to see his ongoing feud with Ocean Master Orm himself and you get new origins for several of these characters. Peter did a very interesting thing by mixing mythology, folklore, and all that stuff to weave a story about a character that's of both worlds. He's from Atlantis and he's from the surface world and it's a character that has this very intense inner battle of trying to figure out which side he belongs to and what his true purpose in life is. Does he respond to the aquatic or does he respond to the surface dwellers? That is some of the stuff that you can find in this book. The art in it is fantastic. Super 90s in an awesome way. The characters are buffed out. They look like freaking Greek gods. Everybody from the females to all the males in the book. It really impresses stuff. If you like 90s art, you are in for a treat. I know subsequent volumes got a lot better, but it's pretty cool to see. My one complaint is the transition between time and tide which you get for flashback stories of Aquaman. They look cartoony and then you go into the run itself. The first issue is Zero and the art is super grim and gritty. Even though the character is blonde and you get really bright colors he's drawn very gritty in a dark and somber tone underwater. So it's a little bit shocking because you can see right here with this art style and then it transitions into this type of art style that is very emblematic of the time and looks right for Aquaman because you gotta understand that the character was going through this renaissance. Nobody gave the character a shot and people were not reading the book so Peter took a gamble and rewrote the whole book. He completely deviated from what was the norm of the character's look and with the book comes the infamous hook hand and you get to find out in the very first trade why he has the hook hand and all that stuff. It's just really fun. The storylines are action packed and actually they do withstand the test of time. They don't feel dated at all and it could easily be happening in this day and age and you get some cool character cameos like Flash and Superboy from the 90s and all that stuff. I just recommend it man. It's awesome. The book also reintroduces Garth Aqualad if you will and their dynamic is a little bit different because Arthur has become a little bit more cynical. He's no longer the monarch of Atlantis and he's a recluse in his Aquacave if you will. Probably one of the weaknesses is the fact that the book is kind of 90ish so the style and writing will differ from modern interpretations of the character or modern comic books I should say. But still Peter David to me provided the ultimate template for this character that anybody could jump into and have fun and get a cool badass Aquaman story and I remember when we first saw the picture of the awesome Jason Momoa as Aquaman a lot of people were like oh that's not Aquaman. I'm like oh yeah that is. That's Peter David Aquaman right there. It is that awesome so if you are willing to give it a shot I promise you you will have a very cool fun time with a character exploring the oceans having swashbuckling awesome adventures and getting into fights with these crazy enemies that range from the mortal to the supernatural to the alien element from New Gods territory. I'll just say that much. But yeah it's a solid book and I wish a lot more people would buy into it because there aren't a lot of collected editions for the character and it kind of you know you want more people to get these books so they'll keep printing more and more. So if you want to try it out you got nothing to lose you're getting a solid material from one of the best writers Peter David's synonymous with greatness all of his work at Marvel and DC and all that stuff just really awesome stuff that I hope you can check out because it is worth your time in my opinion. Guys as always you can like comment and subscribe to A Week in Geekdom and I thank you for being with me on this journey you guys are awesome thank you so much every single one of you I love you guys and you can follow me on your favorite social media platform so we can keep the conversation going just type A Week in Geekdom and I'm there for you guys. Alright I have got to go we've got more stuff to read, review and geek out over so I will catch you on our next Aquatic Book Adventure He's nearly indestructible I should say skin proof, oh skin proof