Black Manta

The positive about this is that the story is well-written. Brown manages to make Black Manta sympathetic without making him heroic. He's very much the anti-hero, not quite so driven by revenge as he has been in the past, but forced into events by circumstance rather than any desire to do right. The villain, a potential usurper trying to take his place, plays into that, and there's also a good addition to Atlantean lore that I can see being used to spin off more stories in the future. Some of the supporting cast jump in and out a bit too quickly, but Manta's main sidekick is portrayed effectively and given a strong personality.

On that basis alone, I might just give this four stars, but then we get to the negative. Despite only being a six-issue mini-series, this swaps between two artists... and one of them just isn't very good. De Landro's art isn't my preferred style, but its dark edges and gritty style suit the subject matter, so it works well enough. Smith, on the other hand, leaves everything looking like an unfinished sketch. Such things are subjective, of course, but for me, this was weak enough to be offputting in the issues that he pencilled and that's a problem in such a visual medium.