We tread new waters as Villains Month recedes with its final few issues, in this issue we’ll learn about the fishy fate of Orm after the events of “Throne of Atlantis”, now does this issue swim? Or does it just flounder? Let’s find out.
Positive:
The illustrations from Geraldo Borges are quite solid throughout this issue, both his attention to detail, and the amount of emotion he can put on the page, especially during a number of moments can be rather breath taking. That said, while there are a few good artistic flourishes in this book most of it sadly is fairly average and not a lot is very memorable.
Now the little bit of glimpses we get at Orm’s character throughout this issue we see a couple glimpses of that strong old fashioned warrior mentality, and there is actually one very powerful moment that allowed us a strong look into who Orm is and his mentality. I won’t spoil it, but for those of you who have read it, “Security Guard.”.
Negatives:
The problem with this issue, and well Ocean Master in The New 52 is they seem to be trying to set him up as some kind of anti-hero now, and hey, they would be a great twist…if we still had that 70ish years of backstory. As is Orm was just a political leader whose people were attacked and killed for no real reason and retaliated causing the deaths of thousands. Now was he justified in any way? Absolutely not, my point being is that they’re already trying to set up this “new” character or Orm, as a villain a few months ago, then once ToA was finished he became a jerk who we could understand where he was coming from, and now he’s…becoming a hero, or an anti-hero it’s hard to say, Geoff Johns leaves this on such a full stop it’s hard to say where this will go or where it’ll eve pick up again.
I made sure to say stop instead of ending because there isn’t really a satisfying ending here, the whole comic just stops leaving you fairly unfulfilled with promises they’ll pick up on this…someday.
Verdict:
Probably one of the weaker Villains Month issues I’ve read so far, the art is fair but the meat of the book is fairly unsubstantial and all they do is bait you with ideas that Ocean Master might, kind of, sort of, become something other than a villain in the future. I wouldn’t recommend it.
