After his solo film made some pretty big waves back in 2018, DC’s been building out Aquaman’s corner of the DC universe with various event books and miniseries framed around his supporting cast. For Arthur Curry’s newest title, DC is bringing the King of Atlantis over to their prestigious Black Label in a miniseries that both looks and sounds pretty awesome.
The three-issue Aquaman: Andromeda — from writer Ram V (Venom, Catwoman, Swamp Thing), and artist Christian Ward (Black Bolt, Blood Stained Teeth) — will see Arthur Curry in the real-world location of Point Nemo. Nemo is notable for being the furthest point of the planet’s oceans away from land, and he’ll have to venture there to rescue a group of scientists who’ve travelled there in the titular Andromeda submarine. But the Andromeda isn’t just any normal submarine: it’s running on an experimental engine driven by a black hole, and the crew has just found “a spaceship graveyard.” Naturally, that piques Black Manta’s interest, and Aquaman isn’t far behind — but something is threatening to wake up, and it sounds pretty alien.
Andromeda is a “sci-fi horror human character drama,” according to Ram V, and new territory for the superhero. So much of the character’s storylines and history throughout the decades has leaned into (underwater) swords and sorcery, leaving science fiction and horror particularly untapped wells. Those two genres are areas in which Ram V excels, and he’s certainly excited to bring his expertise to Arthur Curry. Speaking to CBR, he talked about how it was important to ensure how he and Ward were “presenting a concept and an idea that genuinely felt fresh and new…I wanted to see if we could drop it into a different genre and make it work.”
Going to such uncharted waters means a new outfit, and that’s where the Coral Suit comes in. On Twitter, Ward talked about the creation process of the new threads. While he always knew he wanted the suit to incorporate coral, it was Ram describing the book’s take on Arthur as “mythical and ancient” that helped narrow down the focus. By looking to to films like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and David Lynch’s Dune for inspiration, Ward found a look he’s very much proud of, and he thanked DC for letting him “go bananas” for the new look, which you can see in the cover down below.
Overall, this book sounds like a real blast. V’s a real good writer, Ward is a hell of an artist, and DC Black Label has had a solid output of books as of late. Combined with the fact that there’s surely some scary shit deep underneath the ocean, and Aquaman: Andromeda sounds like a title worth checking out when it debuts on June 7.
