Aquaman: The Waterbearer #[nn]

This 2004 DC trade paperback collects the "Castaway!" storyline, presenting a reinvented Aquaman whose mysterious water-hand glows with barely contained power as massive tentacles coil around him — a striking image by J. G. Jones that immediately signals a darker, more elemental take on the King of the Seas. Looming in the background are two ghostly figures — a brooding, shadowed face and a luminous woman — hinting at the personal stakes surrounding this lone, defiant hero. With Rick Veitch writing and Yvel Guichet on interior art, this is a compelling entry point for anyone curious about Aquaman stripped down to raw survival and strange new abilities.