Even the truth won’t set him free as all he wants is revenge now.
What They Say:
FLASH FACT: Arthur Curry’s rage has sunk countries, killed millions, and begun a world war. But as the end approaches, he will have to gather the ferocity needed to destroy his enemy utterly.
The Review:
With the background of the main storyline involving the war, this book and the Wonder Woman book have been instrumental in really bringing in the back story that allows the whole thing to breathe. With Emperor Aquaman, it’s focused on the Atlantean side quite well but showing how he and Diana came together, the way things were torn apart and just how far he’ll go to push back against her. With the loss of Mera along the way, Arthur lost more of the meager human side he had retained from his awkward upbringing and it’s made him go the distance as we’ve seen by what he’s done to King Bryon. With this issue, we see more of how that unfolded, the uncertainty that Mera had about going this route with him and how she was manipulated into the situation that caused her death.
As we’ve known from the start, there’s been people on both sides of the war manipulating things into where it is now and it’s at a point of no return. But even Diana tries to turn back the tide, having learned the truth about the traitors on both sides and wants to convince Arthur to pull back. There’s actually a moment where he does try to dial it back, but the traitors who have their own plans for power are put into motion and it all turns horribly wrong. While you often do want to see a book or TV show go the distance and let it all collapse, most of the time it’s saved at the last moment with maybe some damage. But here, it falls apart so quickly and boldly that you have to step back and really take it all in.
What makes this all the more powerful to read though is the way Arthur can’t really hold back against his feelings. With what has happened on a global scale being bad enough and the various personal losses and the things he’s been forced into doing in order to fight back against. The loss of Mera was the big tipping point for him and Diana’s pride really does her in here as she continues to wear Mera’s helm, even after learning the treachery that occurred overall. Putting that in front of Arthur and having other events conspire to hit at the same time really pushes him over the edge, and it’s good to see that he has those limits that can be pushed past and he’ll act on them. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t truly finish out since everything concludes in the final two Flashpoint issues, but there’s a lot to like here.
Digital Notes:
This digital edition of the series from Comixology contains no extras as there is only the one cover included and nothing else outside of the pages themselves.
In Summary:
If I had to keep two miniseries to work alongside the main Flashpoint series, it would definitely be this one as well as the Wonder Woman miniseries. This book gives us a look at the world from Arthur’s point of view, his origins that are rather different in some key ways and the way he decided to fight back against Diana after everything went wrong. It’s a solid book, a bit uneven at times, but deals with a lot of material across several flashbacks to pull it all together. If it had told things in a bit more linear fashion it might have come together better, but they had a lot of parallels to draw and wanted to tease out the mystery of what happened a little too much. But like Wonder Woman, it’s one of the pillars of the world in which Flashpoint occurs and it contains a lot of good material that I’d love to see fully expanded and detailed in novelized form. Good stuff with flaws, but generally fun and enjoyable.
Grade: B+
