Aquaman Green Arrow: Deep Target #1

Aquaman-Green Arrow: Deep Target #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Brandon Thomas

Illustrated by Ronan Cliquet

Coloured by Ulises Arreola

Lettered by Josh Reed

Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Aquaman and Green Arrow! The shadowy organization known as Scorpio has resurfaced, and it’s larger than before. While looting the past for artifacts and treasure, they have somehow altered the timeline, and only Aquaman and Green Arrow can fix it! Celebrating the 80th Anniversaries of Aquaman and Green Arrow, this high-octane story takes this unlikely pair from the depths of Atlantis to the surface world.

I’ve got news for you, there may be two larger heralded event series starting this week at DC but don’t let yourself sleep on this one. I mean the odds of an Aquaman/Green Arrow team up were never really high to begin with and after seeing this issue I’m not sure how likely it’ll happen again so you’d best grab your copy today because if the next six issues are going to be anything like this one then hell, please sir I’d like some more. Also I like the idea that an organisation like Scorpio which was created in the Challengers of the Unknown book (in 1965) is revamped for these two in this story.

I like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a phenomenal job in bringing their personalities to the forefront and boy is Arthur’s one entitled pain the arse to boot. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story we begin to get a better idea of what’s happening.

I greatly appreciate the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. The layers open up these new avenues to explore and of course there’s one huge avenue that needs to be explored, okay maybe two, and this is where the depth, dimension and complexity are added to the story. You’d think each would have a better appreciation for the other already, at least you’d think. How we see everything working together to create the story's ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

I’m a huge fan of the interiors here. The linework is phenomenal and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality in the attention to detail we see throughout the book is utterly marvellous. How we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is incredibly well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of how colour works.

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So Scorpio is testing a new theoretical device, right on. Safety protocols in place to ensure nothing happens that isn’t supposed to and all that jazz. However something does and whammo blammo here we are face to face with a couple of silver spoons, learning to find their two of a kind. The humour and the seriousness of the situation is handled incredibly well and it has this kind of odd dynamic right off the bat that you don't normally see and I think that’s going to be a huge part of the appeal moving forward. There’s a strong story concept here that’s being executed pretty flawlessly and it just goes to show that these two with seemingly nothing in common can find a way to work together then there’s hope for us all.