Review: Aquaman: King of Atlantis “Chapter One: Dead Sea”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The first chapter sees Aquaman and Mera traveling to Outpost 4 to rescue the surviving Atlantians.

Our Take:

Aquaman has been making a splash in the live-action DC universe recently since his big-screen debut in Batman v Superman. Brought to life by Jason Momoa, the character, whose aquatic powers may sound silly to some people, managed to make comic book fans take him seriously and has continued to do so in Justice League and his solo film. Today, he’s making a return to animation with a brand new miniseries on HBO Max. It made sense since the character was riding on the heels of the “Justice League Snyder Cut”. Plus, this year’s DC Fandome is right around the corner. While we won’t see Momoa return as the aquatic superhero until next December, at least we get to see him in action again this week via animation.

The first chapter in the three-part miniseries is said to take place after 2018’s Aquaman. The titular character (Cooper Andrews) is now adjusting to his new role as king of Atlantis after defeating his half-brother Ocean Master (Dana Snyder). While attempting to rebuild Atlantis, Aquaman and Mera (Gillian Jacobs) are tasked to travel to Outpost 4, a part of the ocean Ocean Master didn’t check, and rescue the survivors. Instead, they found a giant drill built by Mortikov, who’s responsible for removing the water and burying Outpost 4 with sand.

Like Thundercats Roar and Teen Titans Go!, Aquaman: King of Atlantis offers a comedic and kid-friendly approach to the source material yet maintains the chaotic action from the previous iterations. Unfortunately, the results in the recent Thundercats and Teen Titans iterations were pretty hit-and-miss regarding the direction and animation style. The same can be said for this miniseries sequel to the DC blockbuster. While it provides slight hints of enjoyment in its action and story, the first chapter floundered to make a good impression for me.

One of the only good things about the episode’s story was Aquaman himself. Chapter One focuses on the beginning of the character’s journey to be a great king for his people amid his mission to save the Outpost 4 survivors. In my eyes, this was one of the best parts of the 2018 film, and I’m pleased to see that they still kept that scenario here. Of course, this was primarily due to the film’s director, James Wan, serving as one of the show’s executive producers. Aside from that, the story is an 11-minute episode that’s unnecessarily stretched out to 45 minutes with an antagonist that wasn’t as likable as Ocean Master.

While the changes in the characters’ personalities take a while to get used to, especially Mera’s “bad girl” attitude, the voice cast was talented enough to reflect their comical personas. Cooper Andrews from Walking Dead fame takes over for Momoa as the aquatic superhero. I have to admit that he did a decent job manifesting Momoa’s iteration of the DC hero regarding his vocal performance. Gillian Jacobs and Dana Snyder were also suitable in their roles as Mera and Ocean Master, respectively.

The animation resembles the same style as Thundercats Roar, which features vibrant environments and cartoony character designs that came out of a kids’ comic book. It’s very fluid and dazzling when it comes to the backgrounds and action scenes. However, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the characters’ facial expressions, which looked a tad ugly during a few scenes. Maybe I’ll start to grow attached to them in the later episodes, but until then, I wasn’t into the show’s close-up shots of their unattractive faces so far.

Overall, the first chapter in Aquaman: King of Atlantis wasn’t seaworthy enough to appeal to every fan of the DC superhero, including me. The animation looked nice, and the voice cast did the best they could with their performances. Unfortunately, the story and forgettable humor in “Dead Sea” already have this animated miniseries treading on rough waters. Let’s hope it can get to safer terrains with its upcoming episodes to attract a bigger audience.