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The Aquaman Story That Will Launch A Thousand Headlines (MAJOR SPOILERS)

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In Aquaman #44, Aquaman teleports into Atlantis for an impromptu appeal to the better nature of Mera, his ex-partner-not-wife who he has been in mortal combat with.

And guess what? It seems to go well…
IMG_0003…very well indeed.  IMG_0004

Make-up sex is always the best kind of sex, even when it's over a fight over who should have won X-Factor. So when it's over a major international and superheroic incident, it should blow the roof off.

Except…

IMG_0012

 

It's not Mera. It's never been Mera. And right then, it definitely wasn't Mera.

Sexual impersonation has been a long standing literary device, especially in a fantasy setting where shapeshifting becomes part of the common parlance, but of late it's been interpreted as what it is. Rape. Which caused much more discussion in comics of late in Amazing Spider-Man, Batwoman and Superior Spider-Man.

So, yes, under any real definition, Aquaman has been raped, even though the act in the moment was consensual, it wasn't informed. Another change to add to the list. And I think the conversation about this has just begun.

Comics courtesy of Orbital Comics, London. Who will be hosting the  2015 Jonathan Cape/ Observer/ ComicaGraphic Short Story Prize exhibition, with a private view on October 15th, and an exhibition through till the end of the month. 

GraphicShortStoryPrizeExhibition

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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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