Aquaman: Tempest

Aquaman: Limited Series

by Phil Jimenez, John Stokes (Illustrator), Carla Feeny (Illustrator)

A new anthology graphic novel collecting the best stories featuring the original Aqualad, teenaged sidekick to Aquaman--now known as Tempest!

As Aqualad, he was the teen sidekick and protege to his guardian, the super-hero known as Aquaman, bearing the same super-abilities as his mentor that allow him to breathe underwater and communicate with marine life. He also possesses superhuman strength and speed that allow him to move through the ocean with relative ease, as well as withstand the high-pressure depths of the ocean. As Tempest, he lost the marine communication powers, but gained mystic-based abilities that allow him to control the temperature of water and moisture surrounding him, as well as the ability to emit destructive force beams from his eyes. As the adoptive prince of Atlantis, he has at times been forced to assume his mentor's responsibilities as ruler of the oceans during Aquaman's absences, and has in recent years acted as Atlantis' official ambassador to the surface world.

Tune in to see how it all started here in AQUAMAN: TEMPEST.

Collects TEMPEST #1-4, TEEN TITANS SPOTLIGHT #10, #18, AQUAMAN SECRET FILES #1.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels

168 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2018

About the author

Philip Jiménez is an American comics artist and writer, known for his work as writer/artist on Wonder Woman from 2000 to 2003, as one of the five pencilers of the 2005–2006 miniseries Infinite Crisis, and his collaborations with writer Grant Morrison on New X-Men and The Invisibles.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can tell this was one of Jimenez's first scripting jobs. It's so verbose. The villain is an exposition machine. Instead of showing us Garth's history up to this point, it's infodumped to us in mindnumbingly bad maniacal speeches. The book does pick up once Garth reenters are world and the main story begins. Jimenez's art is incredibly detailed. He makes the undersea world come alive. The George Perez influences are quite obvious. I do really like the outcome of this book. Giving Garth a new set of powers, costume, and name was long overdue. He was probably the last Teen Titan to get a makeover. Also included are two solo Aqualad stories that were included to fill this out. They aren't bad, but have nothing to do with the rest of the story.

[Christopher M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aqualad gets to be an adult superhero with his own new name, costume and powers, although, as he breaks the fourth wall to tell us, quite a while after fellow Titans Robin and Kid-Flash became Nightwing and Flash. It's okay, there's a lot of declarative dialogue that stops just short of saying "And what's happening in the story now is...," plus some familiar tropes of rejecting the mentor, finding a magic weapon that was missing for ages despite being right here, discovering you're the chosen one all along, and a "No, Tempest, I am your uncle!" scene. It's more Saturday Morning Cartoon than graphic novel. The extras, collecting bits and bobs from elsewhere with key moments in Aqualad's life, are better.

[Gus Casals · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gorgeous but odd mini series, published at the top of Peter David's Aquaman popularity.
It's a Phil Jimenez written and drawn epic, redefining the character of Aqualad/Garth for the legacy. Jimenez art is at its best here, more refined than his early work, his writing still green. That means a dense story, not always clear and that requires massive amounts of previous reading to make sense.
Having read David's Atlantis Chronicles since original publication, everything falls into place so much better. Beautiful to look at.
The book also contains Jimenez's letter column articles from the original series, some Secret Files and Origins material, and, more interestingly, the two issues of Teen Titans Spotlight that featured Garth, with early art from Erik Larssen and Art Thibert.

[Vin · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some people it might be hard to keep up with more info dump but for me , made me get more into the story. I was hooked and had to read everything at once! I loved how Phil managed to combine the magic , with the new powers , the war consequences and the lost of tula. I really liked the ending and the panels where Garth had to make time far from his army to cry about how much pressure and sadness he was carrying. I loved to see more about this character and I'm glad they decided to go with tempest bc it's such a cool name. I just wish the special would've been longer to ease the pace of the writing and a longer focus on the impact that caused for Garth to find out his people were being slaughtered. Pretty good overall!

[LYS.]

"It might've taken a little while...but I've finally grown up, Tula." —Garth, issue #4

issue 1 was so hard to read, guys, i'm not even joking. like the pages were incredibly crowded in a way that made me SQUINT at my screen. anyway, i'm not an aquaman fan in the slightest, but i read for garth because he's precious and so, so, so sad. like unbearably sad.

also, i'm 2 for 2 on the mmc's dead love interest coming back wrong this year. that's a crazy coincidence. anyway . . . ciao!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

love what the book did for Garth, the art is very good, but the writing is honestly a little weak... I am soooo sorry Mr. Jimenez!!!! I still love you, but I just didn't really like Garth's voice in this at all

[Kendall · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s…not great. Tempest’s authors make him more depressed than Peter Parker and my goat deserves so much better