101. Aquaman: Deepwater Disaster by J.E. Bright

Aquaman: Deepwater Disaster by J.E. Bright. Illustrated by Dan Schoening, Mike DeCarlo & Lee Loughridge. (Canada) - (US)
DC Super Heroes

Pages: 54
Ages: 8+
Finished: Apr. 23, 2011
First Published: 2011
Publisher: Stone Arch Books
Genre: children, early chapter book, superheroes
Rating: 3/5


First sentence:

A wild storm raged in the Gulf of Mexico.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Capstone Publishing.

Reason for Reading: My son loves these books and I always read them first before handing them over for bedtime story time. They are above his reading level yet.

I used to love reading Aquaman comics when I was a kid in the seventies, so he's always been one of my favourites. In this fictional story we have a "ripped from the headlines" plot about an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that catches fire and then they discover that the pipe has broken and oil is spewing into the ocean causing an ecological nightmare. Aquaman is off to the rescue getting all the crew off the rig but while there he comes across his arch nemesis Black Manta. Hardly believing Black Manta is behind this mess they talk and Manta has just come along to fill up his vehicle with free oil but is not the one responsible. Aquaman convinces Black Manta to join with him in a temporary truce to fix the problem at hand. And along with the help of the creatures of the sea they manage to cap the pipe.

I'm not a fan of eco-fiction as it can degenerate quickly into didactic lessons and political agendas but this is well written with none of those problems. The focus is on the issue at hand. The danger to the environment and animals is realistic. While onus is quickly established, the book never sinks to concerning itself with blame but with taking action in solving the situation. Now if we only really had superheroes out there to fix all our problems!! A fun and exciting story as usual from this series for emerging readers or older reluctant readers.