Aquaman and Justice League: Drowned Earth by Scott Snyder is an epic tale of alien gods of oceans determined to see Earth’s ocean waters raise and drown the earth, after the oceans on their home planets have dries up or frozen over. Scott Snyder uses the type of story telling that I fell in love with his writing in the first place like his Court of Owls run on Batman, where he starts with a theme and then reinforces it in flashbacks and present action, what I love is there is an over arcing theme but also an individual comic theme as well, he handles this better than anyone in comics, it reminds me a lot of what Joss Whedon did on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel so well in the TV storytelling landscape. This novel feature to many character’s to name them all, If you read DC’s Metal comics or graphic novel’s this story is still dealing with those changes like Atlantis is no on the surface not at the bottom of the sea. I have not read DC’s Metal, I read Dark Days: The Road to Metal and was not a fan, you can find that review here https://readingwithmyeyes.wordpress.c… but this work does a good job of catching you up and actually got me excited to finally explore those titles. A thanks to netgalley and DC comic’s for letting me download this title, (Note : I was not able to open this title and had to purchase it) I’m an honest reviewer and did not let this reflect in my view at all of this title. It was released on April 16th of 2019.

The Plot: Aquaman, Wonder Woman, other Justice League members are searching are searching for a rumored Graveyard of the Gods. As legend tells this is the place the where gods would dispose of there human form, but it’s rumored Poseidon the actual god is down there. They find a graveyard of ships from the past that got lost in there searching. When they arrive they find something they did not expect, they find the entrance to the Graveyard of the Gods is opened with a trail of heat signatures. It is reveals that the Legion of Doom have released alien gods of the ocean from other planets that were trapped by Aquaman’s ancestors and they want revenge on earth. They start by a massive flood of the Earth then they release a new Kraken that infects the flooded waters where if the breathe in the water it turns you into a controllable sea creature who’s goal is to drive you into the waters to change more. Evacuations have started in Gotham with people going to the highest towers to get flown to higher ground, Jim Gordon in an emotional scene is dragged down to the water by sea creatures as he saves a family. Superman has a force wall over Metropolis that keeps most of the water back. Atlantis is the first place hit having only Mera and an imprisoned Ocean Master survive. Aquaman rushes full steam ahead and is easily defeated not knowing the true power of his enemies and his powers are taken and given to Black Manta Aquaman’s greatest foe and member of the League of Doom. Can the justice league survive and can a powerless Aquaman prevail a Drowned Earth?

What I Liked: The writing and theme work is so good the overall theme for Aquaman is exploring new oceans and ideas, plotting and finding the unknown. The Sea creature reminded me of Cthulhu like creatures and there were nods to the Trench. I liked that Flash get’s infected but is able to stave it off longer than anyone due to his metabolism. Jim Gordon turned into a sea creature is powerful and to his character. Ocean Master’s dialogue to Mera that convinces her to trust him to fight for Atlantis. The ending is pretty good and satisfying, there’s a real nice double cross at the end. Really nice character study on Aquaman in the Graveyard of the Gods.

What I Disliked: The art especially the wide drawings closeup are just fine but 80% I was just turned off by the art. There needed to be a synopsis especially on the Teen Titan book I was very lost on what they were doing and it took me a couple of pages to get oriented, I was a little bummed to only see one of those characters do anything further in the novel.

Recommendations: If you are up on current comics then you should definitely read this. If you are not you might be lost for a little bit because there is no real synopsis, but the writing is really good and it doesn’t take too long. If you’re a fan of Scott Snyder’s writing like in the Court of Owls, End Game, and White Knight then this is a great graphic novel that shows off his skills. I rated Aquaman & Justice League: Drowned Earth 4 out of 5 stars.