Fishboy #41

This volume is Fishboy #41, collecting the 41st issue of the DC Comics series AQUAMAN: SWORD OF ATLANTIS. The story takes place on the "One Year Later" timeline following Infinite Crisis: Atlantis has been destroyed in a catastrophe, its people scattered, and the order of the undersea world has collapsed. The name of Aquaman is now carried by a young man raised in an artificial environment and able to breathe underwater by nature: Arthur Joseph Curry. He lost his parents in a storm and, guided by the mysterious "Dweller in the Depths," is pushed step by step toward the role of hero of the Seven Seas. This issue presents the second part of the six-part Once and Future: Arthur searches for his missing parents in the ruins of the Curry-Jonas Marine Research Center, is dragged beneath the sea by King Shark, and then meets a messenger sent by the Atlantean queen Mera. Mera hopes to win the new Aquaman as an ally, and Arthur's alliance with King Shark for the sake of freedom sparks a fierce quarrel with Azil, captain of the Atlantean guard, ending in a duel. Writer Kurt Busiek portrays the ruin and rebirth of the undersea world in a fantastical style, while artist Butch Guice uses dark, deep-blue tones to create an oppressive underwater atmosphere.