Sowing The Seeds Of More War

Justice League 17
DC Comics
Geoff Johns, writer
Ivan Reis and Paul Pelletier, artists

For anyone who hasn't already read the "Throne of Atlantis" story arc crossing over between Justice League and Aquaman the past couple issues, things wrap up here and the conflict among all three sides in this battle is mostly resolved.

I don't want to reveal the identity of the mastermind behind the battle for anyone who hasn't read the issues yet, but it wasn't Ocean Master as past incarnations led me to first believe. In fact, I honestly feel a little bit of sympathy for Aquaman's half-brother as he was duped just as much as the heroes were, and he was only trying to protect and defend his people. When Orm surrenders to Aquaman, you almost expect a degree of leniency for him despite the many deaths Orm has caused on the surface. The real culprit here is the individual who caused just as many Atlantean deaths as human ones.

But these stories don't exist in a vacuum, so while the attack on the surface by the Atlanteans is halted and the Trench are sent back to their underwater domain, this isn't exactly the end of the story. Aquaman is set up to be the new ruler of Atlantis, but they rejected his leadership in the past, so they likely don't really want him now. Also, Mera refuses to go with Aquaman to Atlantis because of her people's history with the undersea kingdom, so they are at least temporarily separated over this issue.

Orm has been imprisoned on the surface for his role in the attacks on Boston, Gotham and Metropolis. As I said, I was pleasantly surprised to see he wasn't the mastermind behind all this, and was kind of looking forward to a reality where Orm and Arthur could be on good terms with each other, but I'm not sure that sentiment will last after his imprisonment. Likely, he will come out of prison with the hatred for his brother readers are used to from before The New 52.

And to top it all off, the general public is unsure of exactly what Aquaman's role was in the Atlanteans' attacks. His attempts to prevent Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman from retaliating against the Atlanteans when he was still trying to get those two sides to talk rather than fight were televised by surface media outlets. Many people fear Aquaman was behind the Atlanteans' attacks. And this comes at a time when some of the general public are uncertain if they can trust any members of the Justice League. All that distrust and fear is furthering the moves by Steve Trevor and Amanda Waller to form their own alternate version of the League.

And lastly, we get more hints that someone is forming a third team, this one composed of villains. We saw the first hints of this in the Cheetah Justice League arc, and saw more evidence of it when Cheetah spoke of recruiting Black Manta. It looks like the next name on the villains wish list is going to be Scarecrow. Could this be the formation of this incarnation's Legion of Doom?

The war with Atlantis is over, at least for now, but tensions are continuing to build.