This is a great Aquaman volume. I'm glad he's getting more exposure and new stories. I also helps that Stjepan Sejic has been added to the creative team.!

Aquaman's alive and taking lessons from Batman in helping from the shadows. I like seeing the different factions playing the game of thrones. If only the bad guys weren't so dumb and mustache twirly. The real star here is the art. How can we get Stjepan Šejić to draw every issue of Aquaman for the forseeable future.? His designs for Atlantis are fantastic. For the first time in a long time, Atlantis looks like a city that developed organically underwater. His facial expressions on his characters display so much emotion. He's able to display what Dolphin is thinking by the face she's making which is important since Dolphin is mute. I also dig how Aquaman uses schools of fish to hide his movements in a fight. Very clever.

Mera learns that Arthur is still alive and seeks for ways through the magic that is protecting Atlantis to reach him, enlisting Garth in her endeavors. Arthur is posing as a vigilante in the Ninth Wave who gets caught up in the Atlantis Uprising movement. Plenty of ends to tie up in the next volume. The question, who will pay for all the problems everyone is creating?

ARC from Netgalley.
That's how you do a Volume of Aquaman!
Picking up from his apparent murder at the end of the last Volume, Corum Rath is now the King of Atlantis. Enacting a shield (called the Crown of Thorns) around Atlantis, Rath is acting more like a tyrant than a benevolent ruler. Jailing or killing hybrids, increasing military strength, Rath means to make Atlantis back to way it was hundreds of years ago. (If Rath had orange-ish skin or wispy hair, I'd make a strong comparison to another world leader who seems to be running his country back to several hundred years ago....) But... there are rumors of a vigilante running through the Underworld, helping others. A ghost wearing the gear of the dead king... an Aquaman...
Yes, Arthur is alive and helping people in the way he does best. In the Ninth Tride (an area of Atlantis), Aquaman runs across a group of hybrid mutated Atlanteans who are being rounded up by military. Scattering the troops and leading one girl to safety, word begins to get back to the local crime lord that territory is being claimed under Aquaman's protection. Dolphin (the young hybrid with the power of bio-luminescence) takes Arthur to a resistance cell and word gets to Vulko, who contacts Mera to inform her of Arthur's not being dead.
Mera rushes (first on her own, then with the help of Tempest) to the destroy the Crown of Thorns and eventually finds a way in. Using a slightly broken amulet, she falls ill quickly and ends up in the clutches of a warlord who wants Atlantis for himself.... King Shark!
Vulko, who escapes from prison with the help of one of Sisters of the Silent School (who dislikes King Rath and wants to preserve Atlantis at all costs) ends up in the catacombs of the Armory, wanting to reclaim Aquaman's trident.
The final scene sees Arthur, trident in hand yelling "Atlantis Uprising!" Battle is coming and the true King has returned. SO GOOD! High recommend.

I'm so impressed with Aquaman! He is finally taking center stage as a super hero. The power struggle to claim his throne leads Arthur down a new path. I thought the secondary characters gave depth to the story. Great action surrounds the rise and fall of Atlantis, and Arthur's journey. The art is gorgeous. Artist Stjepan Sejic adds a unique flair to the comic. There's something to discover on each page. Who knew there were mutants in Atlantis! I'm looking forward to what Abnett has in store for Aquaman and the Underworld. A must read if you would like a learn about Aquaman or are a fan.

Cool, this seemed to me like a sorta restart of Aquaman. For so long Aquaman has been stuck in the sludge of the whole 'I'm a King oh woe is me' thing, and this was definitely not that, well, mostly not.

King Arthur is dead, but Arthur Curry (or Orin) still seems to be kicking in the deepest part of Atlantis. And the current King is not a good one (or totally sane?)

Add to that Mera and Garth (Aqualad/Tempest) are trying to get into Atlantis from the outside and it's a wicked fun TPB.

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to DC Entertainment.

With Aquaman Vol. 4: Underworld, Dan Abnett moves the Aquaman title in an unexpected direction. I'm pleased to see this title so full of possibilities Abnett's got me looking forward to the next volume, and the one after that. The painterly, fantasy-inspired pencils, inks, and colors of artist Stjepan Sejic add another dimension to the title. A fine jumping-on point for new readers.

Aquaman Volume 4 picks up where the last volume left off. Arthur Curry is dead, Atlantis has been cut off from the outside world, and a new king has taken the throne. But, this is comics, and no one stays dead for too long. Arthur has been hiding out in the slums, committing rebellious acts against the throne to protect mutated individuals that have been exiled to the Ninth Tride, the most desolate and desperate of all the Trides. There he meets a mysterious mute mutant that might be more than she first appears to be.

Aquaman by Abnett is the Aquaman we have all been waiting for. Abnett has been bringing together various strands from the beginning of Volume 1 that are now all being weaved into a beautiful tapestry full of intrigue, deception, heroism from unlikely sources, and the beginning of a plot to rival that of Game of Thrones. The story is complex and layered, so I suggest reading the first three volumes; however, Abnett does a pretty good job of making the story understandable to a new reader. He has created an Atlantis with varying factions, constituencies and races. And he has given us maybe the most powerful and dominant version of Mera. Seriously, she is a force to be reckoned with, especially when she hears whisperings that Arthur might be alive.

Again, Abnett has created a diverse, layered story, and each character has a unique voice. I especially liked the way the communication was depicted between Arthur and the mute mutant named Dolphin. Aquaman really has our hero as a true underdog, and Abnett does not cut any corners to make his path to regain his status easy by any means. This book continues to get better the more Abnett writes it, and this volume got a serious upgrade in the art department. Mind you, the previous art was great, but this new artist really elevated this book to be one of the best DC has to offer. It is becoming a saga full of science-fiction, magic, technology, drama and fantasy; in one word: epic!

That new artist is Stjepan Sejic. He did the pencils, inks, colors and covers, and he did them all flawlessly. His moody tones and shadows really amped up the desperate situation Arthur finds himself in. And, his water lines and depiction of movement are some of the best I’ve ever seen…seriously, I was mesmerized by the swirls and streams caused by underwater movement. Sejic was meant to draw Aquaman. His choice of color is similar to previous volumes, except he uses darker hues and shades. At times, his pencils are visible through the ink and color, which added a layer of grittiness. This whole story leads up to the next volume, in which the many factions vie for the throne, and this extra layer of grit accentuates the tumult caused by a vacant throne and a scared people. I could not say enough about the art. Many of the panels and pages have stuck with me long after seeing them.

Verdict:
Buy it (and the other three volumes)! There is such a great flow throughout Aquaman Volume 4, a culmination of expert storytelling and mesmerizing art. I cannot wait for the next volume! Now, if only July could get here sooner.

Arthur is dead, and his bride queen totty thing stuck in the land of us air-breathers. In charge of Atlantis is a new baddy, with bad intentions. So bad, he's got a punky hair-do AND Braveheart make-up, and that can't be good. But lo and behold the Aquaman isn't dead, and so can come back and biff people up. Thus we get an exceedingly bog standard premise for this book – but way beyond the average in execution. The artwork is great, even if some of the swimming poses look stupid – really pleasing layouts and design predominates. The script can be clunky – some is too expository, and Abnett won't use one term in his world-building when he can expand that to ten – but it's still a good read. In fact, with mutant collaborators, nasty religious Widows, this side and that side, you end up with a fantasy battle book that tests the confines of DC's approach to bursting – it's almost like it wants to leave the marque behind and be its own entity. Cameos from The Titans (well, one of them) is almost all that pins this in the DCU, but I liked the way the format was stretched here. It's a book to make me forget how naff Aquaman has been up to now, and while it's saying almost nothing to declare this the best Aquaman book ever, it says a lot to declare it really good. Some incredibly hokey new sound FX and injury vocalisations, however – but still four and a half stars.

Aquaman Vol. 4: Underworld quickly draws the reader in to an action packed and beautifully drawn world of Atlantis. The shades of blue bring the underwater world to life as Atlantis is under control of a new king. Using old magic, the new king encases Atlantis in a crown of thorns to prevent outsiders from entering. Everyone believes Aquaman is dead but he lives in the shadows with the outcast being a hero when he can. An unlikely army of mutants rallies around Orin to become the hero they need. With a story that is not heavy with unnecessary dialogue, the action in the book keeps your attention and does not let go for a book that cannot be put down. A totally addictive glimpse into the action of Aquaman's world. My unbiased and voluntary review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.