Jay's Chatterbox: You Brought Me the Ocean Review

Hello to all my fiendish friends! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week in this wonderful world in which we are currently existing. Today, I'd like to talk about a graphic novel that's been gaining quite a bit of praise, and for really good reason.

You Brought Me the Ocean is a very interesting story. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. Aqualad's never really been one of my list of characters to follow. If the Bossman hadn't shifted my focus onto this book, I probably would have overlooked it to talk about something else. But, here we are!

Let me start off with a point I never really bring up and that's the art style. It's very unique considering the typical Comic book style of most of DC. Instead, we see some lovely watercolor effects which fit into the story very well. Considering how much Jake connects to the water, it would make sense he would see the world in such a media.

Plot-wise, this is a tale as old as time. Jake has many secrets and many closets to come out of; both of which are equally important and both will change the course of his life. Now, I personally am more of a fan of what some might call “casually queer” media. It's there, it's widely accepted in the world, we accept it ourselves, we get into the story. But that is far from realistic. And this really depicts how hard it can be to come out as any form of LGBT in a world that seems so straight thinking (this is not a pun, I promise.)

You Brought Me the Ocean brings up some parts that are much more homophobic. From parents trying to “fix” their kids to peers outright bullying them. But, just like Jake's water-bending abilities, he can't hide his sexuality for long. Not without hurting himself. Or the people he loves.

Which now I'll be talking about the romance in the story. Jake and Kenny's relationship is very cute. It's a little rushed in my personal opinion, but it helps to remember they are teenagers and this is pretty true to any relationship I can remember in high school; be it my own or friends.

But, then again, when adding the addition of superpowers? Going from “you're cute, what's your name?” to “I would literally die for you” in the span of a week is just a tad bit fast. Even for someone in high school.

Overall, this is definitely one of the good ones. It's a great origin story for Aqualad with a few twists I wasn't quite expecting. I do hope to see a sequel to it in the near future but I am pretty satisfied with the way it ends. The story doesn't necessarily have to continue it would just be nice to see. And I do look forward to seeing what will be done with it on HBO Max.

That's all I have for now. I hope you all have a good weekend. Don't do anything the Evil Lair wouldn't give a stamp of approval. Until next time.

Fare Thee Well!