Aquamen #2..... 2.5.... stars

 

Aquamen: Issue 2

It's no secret that both DC and Marvel have been taken to the woodshed by Scholastic and Manga of late, when it comes to selling comics or graphic novels that are marketed towards pre teen and teen readers, but here at least, is one area where DC is outselling Marvel. When one reads Aquamen 2, one gets the sense that the writing is targeted for younger teenage readers, which in theory isn't a bad thing, except one major problem...

Aquamen is designated for the direct market, and I'm unaware of where comics can be bought for younger readers these days outside of comic stores, for the days of finding a plethora of comics on the twirling magazine racks at your corner store is long gone, so I'm not sure how much of these printed issues are going to get in the hands of 12 years olds, which brings us to problem two....

It is clear that the narrative resolves around Jackson Hyde as opposed to Arthur, but the problem with this is,  unless you've been tuning into the Young Justice cartoon, no one really knows who Jackson Hyde is outside of regular DC readers. The majority of adults, teenagers and children, identify Aquaman with Arthur, both from the recent successful movie, and from the fact, until this year, there historically has only been one Aquaman, so that is what readers are going to want when they buy the title. In short, Aquaman not Aquamen. 

I think one can say with confidence that DC has been making moves to set things up to replace some of their big name characters who are white, with non white characters in hopes having more racially diverse superheroes at the forefront of their brands (If this was not the case, than Garth would simply become Aquaman, not Jackson Hyde, but he to my knowledge he is still Tempest, and appears to play only a subordinating role in this issue) This brings us to yet another problem, whenever DC or Marvel try to replace a fan favourite character, they are met with an immediate sales backlash!

Now I actually really like Jackson Hyde as a character, but if I found out the next Green Arrow title was called Green Arrows and Ollie took a back seat to Mia Dreaden in the title, I would lose my f'n sh#t!!!, so I imagine hardcore Aquaman fans aren't impressed. 

Wally West was the first successful legacy character because DC took about a good 25 years of building him up as Kid Flash before having him replace Barry Allen. If they want to do the same thing with Jackson Hyde, than Aquamen (and stories revolving around Jackson Hyde) would be better printed off in graphic novels, until you have a generation who is ready to identify him as Aquaman, and take over the mantle from Arthur. 

I seem to have digressed with these problems at hand, which means I haven't actually gotten to reviewing the issue itself, and why I feel it's targeted for younger readers, and at this point I'm too tired to do so, I'll just state that the writing was underwhelming. 

2.5 Stars