Aquaman 2016 54

Black Manta and Mech Manta invade Amnesty Bay with one target in mind-Aqualad! Can Aquaman save his protégé from his deadly lineage? Or will the combined might of the Mantas finally be Arthur Curry’s undoing?

“THE DELUGE” prologue! Aquaman’s mission to unite the sea and surface has taken a great leap forward. But N.E.M.O.-the secret terrorist organization-has other ideas. Black Manta deploys the agents of N.E.M.O. to provoke hostilities between Atlantis and America. The Deluge-the prophesied, all-out global war-is about to begin...

“UNDERWORLD” part one! In this extra-sized anniversary issue, former terrorists have replaced the Atlantean police. Crime lords control huge swaths of the kingdom. And a deadly undersea arsenal is trained on the surface-dwellers. All is as King Rath commands—and yet whispers persist of a rebel in the slums of Atlantis: A hero with the potential to change the world. A whole new era of AQUAMAN begins as master storyteller Stjepan Sejic (Sunstone, Death Vigil) joins series writer Dan Abnett for Arthur’s boldest and most harrowing adventure yet!

“THE DROWNING” conclusion! As this first epic concludes, Aquaman and Mera are on the run for a crime they didn’t commit. They’ve fought through every kind of firepower the U.S. military has thrown. Now all that’s left between them and Atlantis is the Man of Steel…

“The Drowning” part four. Aquaman is arrested for a war crime he didn’t commit: ordering an Atlantean terrorist attack on the surface, killing hundreds! The young king is willing to sit behind bars if it means peace between two worlds, but one ally is determined to break Aquaman out, no matter the cost: his girlfriend Mera!

“THE DROWNING” part two. Unity between land and sea is Arthur Curry’s greatest dream. But Black Manta has a dream too: to destroy everything Aquaman stands for, starting with the sea king’s Atlantean embassy and everyone in it.

Born to both the surface and the sea, Arthur Curry walks in two worlds but can find a home in neither. The King of Atlantis looks to reconcile his split heritage as he embarks on a new mission that may finally make him choose between his two paths. POLITICAL PLAYER: “As the leader of a world power,” writer Dan Abnett says, “Arthur believes it’s time Atlantis became part of the global community. Atlantis has been on the outside for too long: feared, mysterious and misunderstood. But that means getting the world used to Atlantis…and vice versa.

"THE DROWNING" Chapter One Black Manta returns, and as Aquaman attempts to broker lasting peace between Atlantis and the surface world, his greatest foe engineers a plan to destroy everything and everyone the undersea hero loves. THEY SAID IT: "I'm excited to draw a vast undersea world with all the visual flourishes of fantasy and science fiction that it affords," says artist Brad Walker. "I've done so much work in outer space-based comics, and I love the freedom that allows."