Aquaman: To Serve and Protect

This is a great collection. I am very fond of the Sub-Diego era of Aquaman, and very pleased to have those stories in TPB. Not as strong as the start of the Sub-Diego arc, but still good. It's a must have for Aquaman fans.

One of the better runs of the character

Thank you DC. Or thank you readers who bought last year’s Aquaman trade “Sub Diego” in 2015. It made the difference in sales where more stories could be sold for fans of Arthur Curry during the early to mid-2000’s period of Aquaman comics. If you enjoyed the direction where the last volume by Will Pfeifer is taken, than you should add this book to your shelf.Issues #22 and #23 are written by John Ostrander with art by Chris Batista, issues #24-#29 are written by John Arcudi, and issues #30-#31 by Marc Guggenheim with art by Andy Clarke.The main story by writer Arcudi shows various tales of the new situation of sunken Sub Diego as Aquaman and his sidekick Aquagirl, Lorena, have to deal with including a mysterious drug connection, a 2-part story of Arthur’s evil wizard brother Ocean Master, and dealing with Atlantis making a ploy on the city. Arcudi does a commendable job carrying the cast that previous writer Pfeifer did. Arthur is still a stern hero figure trying to juggle being a protector and leader on an entire underwater city. While Lorena is a spunky young voice that actually offsets Arthur well. Both characters continue to be underwater versions of Batman & Robin, but it still holds its own identity.While the other issues are stand-alone tales by fill-in creative teams, though they still are reasonably well handled. Ostrander’s issues take place just after San Diego sunk and deal with trying to salvage naval familes and tech, while Guggenheim’s issues are a solid CSI story of 8 homicide victims killed of homicide. They may be short, but they are good on their own.So the big aspect I love about these issues include the beautiful art work of Patrick Gleason from the previous volume. His 6 issues and covers are lush, intricate, and truly lovely to see in a sunken city and show its beauty. Even fill-in artist Chris Batista and Andy Clarke do some good art on their own, but if there is any highlight to be had, its Patrick Gleason’s art work.The setbacks here echo the previous trade before it; the main overarching story about who really caused the earthquake at San Diego STILL doesn’t get answered. It won’t until around issue #39, which I hope gets printed in the future next volume for completionist sakes. Additional plot points that begin here are also left hanging until future issues like the introduction of Atlantis interest to Sub Diego, Lorena’s true loyalties, and a new character mutated from a shark. And the minor problem that the book is really short, what with the main story only taking up 6 issues with 4 fill-ins.Even if a bit short and scattered, AQUAMAN: TO SERVE AND PROTECT is still a welcome addition to the Atlantian king’s small collection of hard and trade paperbacks. It’s still got a good detective feel about it while exploring Aquaman and Aquagirl, with solid art, and just that I’m glad DC looks to finally be putting out the rest of the Sub Diego story arc. If we do get the next collection, artist Patrick Gleason does his last issue #32 as regular penciller (to go on and do the wonderful Green Lantern Corp. series) where Leonard Kirk takes over as artist. Gleason stays on as cover artist until issue #37. Still, if you’re an Aquaman fan, pick this up.

Multiple writers and artists makes for a very choppy read. There are still some captivating stories, its just not the most cohesive volume.

Really great story, especially if you've read Sub-Diego first. The art is also pretty top notch in my opinion.