Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom: Ready To Blow Your Mind

Black Manta, still motivated by the desire to exact revenge for the death of his father, will do whatever it takes to finally beat Aquaman after failing to do it the first time. With the power of the legendary Black Trident, which releases a powerful and ancient force, Black Manta is more powerful than ever this time. Aquaman will create an odd alliance with his imprisoned brother Orm, the former King of Atlantis, in order to overthrow him. In order to save their kingdom, prevent irreparable harm from happening to Aquaman’s family, and spare the planet, they must put aside their disagreements and work together.

About the plot

How You Remind Me by Nickelback may be the music that represents Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. The Canadian rock group released a fake, MTV-friendly grunge-style hit over ten years after the early nineties genre had completely lost its edge and energy. With James Gunn at the helm of the recently relaunched DC Universe, the whole comic book universe in which the superhero sequel was based has undergone a significant reset. 

Since Ezra Miller’s Flash reset the multiverse so violently, it is unlikely that Arthur Curry’s old mucker Batfleck will ever return (though there are rumors that he and Michael Keaton’s Dark Knight shot scenes for the movie). Instead, Krypto the Superdog will become the new head of the Justice League, and Dumb Bunny will become Queen of Themyscira.

In other words, The Lost Kingdom is a superhero film that is stuck in a time warp, fighting for our attention long after the men in suits have given up and realized that the audience has moved on. Maybe this explains why the film’s first trailer, which was released this week, gives the impression that director James Wan and his colleagues have been pushing the design team to keep working so that it truly feels like an event while they’ve been sitting in an editing room for three years.

What can you expect from the story?

This film appears to have the power to completely destroy people with its eye-popping, supercharged underwater pixel bombs. Massive fantastical creatures from the deep, flashback slo-mo fights reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings and elaborate and magnificent aqua-mechs are all present. However, there’s also a feeling that Wan et al. would have held off on bringing out the heavy weapons until after we saw the movie if they truly had something to brag about. or at the very least opted for something a bit more understated.

Tie-in comics are a strange breed. Something is different when it’s a movie tie-in than when it’s an event series tie-in since the former deal with storylines and characterizations that exist in the greater continuity and may extend beyond that issue and plot. These are tales that are essentially unique. As for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Special #1, well, they are stories with less stakes and less consequence that might not even matter after their particular period in time. As fans of DC’s live-action movies are well aware, new storylines from DC Films will be released after the forthcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, marking the end of the DCEU continuity. 

The three storylines

Actually, there are three storylines in the comic book: one about Aquaman, one about Black Manta, and one about Orm. Readers meet up with Arthur, who is now a member of the Justice League, in the first issue, written by Tim Seeley and illustrated by Miguel Mendonca. As Arthur gets ready to marry Mera, he unintentionally creates yet another enemy. This time, it’s Charybdis, an assassin whose wife and accomplice, Scylla, is unintentionally killed when Arthur handles an anti-meta bomb. Along with 

The second tale in the issue, which features Black Manta and was written by Joey Esposito and illustrated by Ray-Anthony Height, is quite simply the greatest one. Intense, dark, and intricate, Black Manta’s plan to attack Atlantis is revealed to readers. What’s more, it explores Manta’s psychology at a level that I haven’t really seen before. Manta despises Arthur for a few very personal reasons, which this novel deftly examines without undermining Manta’s worth as a person. The artwork is equally amazing.

In the third chapter, which focuses on Orm, authors Ethan Sacks and Scot Eaton provide readers with a glimpse inside the life of Arthur’s half-brother, who was imprisoned under the Atlantean system. Even though the character was the main antagonist in the previous film, this tale shows him to have a little more humanity than one might anticipate, even as he makes plans to flee. The plot seems to be setting the stage for the character to, in a sense, switch sides in the follow-up. It’s a rather good story, and it seems to be the one in this tie-in that should be “required” reading the most.

Conclusion

Overall, the comic book Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Special #1 is quite good. Though the Black Manta story is perhaps the greatest of the three, all three of the stories in this issue are worth reading. The impression that the tale the Aquaman films are attempting to portray could work better on paper in the future than on screen is left with the reader. This intriguing tie-in issue is worth reading on its own, and it will be interesting to watch where the seeds it plants may grow.