Some thoughts about Aquaman #23.1: Black Manta

What happens when one of the deadliest assassins on earth has lost his principal motivation?

Black Manta is free thanks to the new reign of the Crime Syndicate but now that Aquaman is gone where can he direct his anger? The answer will suddenly appear once that Ultraman steps on his life.

This the first of two collaborations between Geoff Johns and Tony Bedard on Aquaman. However, Bedard hasn't delivered a truly impressive job since the New 52 started so my expectaions about him are pretty low already, so what's my opinion about this issue? I thought it worked... for the most part.

Bedard's portrayal of Black Manta is faithful enough to his current interpretation, the action he commits, his motivations and past, all of it is well explained, the narration was solid too. The problem is that this issue felt like a pretty short read and Manta's motivation for going against the Crime Syndicate is a bit too simplistic, it does the job though.

Claude St. Aubin is doing the pencils in this issue and his work looks pretty good, but at times it looked kinda inconsistent, especially at the depiction of some villains.

Well, this was solid, not great but solid nonetheless.