Episode 003: You brought me the ocean
“Jake Hyde doesn’t swim—not since his father drowned. Luckily, he lives in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, which is in the middle of the desert, yet he yearns for the ocean and is determined to leave his hometown for a college on the coast. But his best friend, Maria, wants nothing more than to make a home in the desert, and Jake’s mother encourages him to always play it safe. There’s nothing “safe” about Jake’s future—not when he’s attracted to Kenny Liu, swim team captain and rebel against conformity. And certainly not when he secretly applies to Miami University. Jake’s life begins to outpace his small town’s namesake, which doesn’t make it any easier to come out to his mom, or Maria, or the world. But Jake is full of secrets, including the strange blue markings on his skin that glow when in contact with water. What power will he find when he searches for his identity, and will he turn his back to the current or dive headfirst into the waves?”
The story is by Alex Sanchez and is illustrated by Julie Maroh, both great contributors to other queer media that we shall someday get to!
This week we are reviewing You brought me the ocean, a DC comic by Alex Sanchez and Julie Maroh that introduces us to reimagined version of Aqualad as a gay teenager planning for his future after high school. My first two picks for media so far have had quite a white, European focus, so I thought it would be nice to review a different type of medium that focuses on an african-american story instead.
You can either listen to the podcast on the left, or you can read below for a majority of the transcript of the podcast! Now as always, our discussion will begin with a brief summary of the comic followed by spoiler free thoughts and feelings about the comic. This will be followed by an in-depth discussion of some of the key plot points that occurred and we will then finish off with my overall rating of the comic and a heads up about what we are looking at next time. If you have not had a chance to read You Brought Me the Ocean and don’t want to hear any spoilers, then please feel free to skip the detailed section and listen to it afterwards if you so wish.
So if you are like me and not an avid DC comic reader, then let me tell you that this comic is actually fairly approachable since it isn’t asking you to know tonnes of backstory and history of multiple characters to get meaning out of it. It really sticks to the idea of being a fresh introduction to the established DC character of Aqualad and keeps the focus on our key characters for the story. But we do get a quick cameo or two for a panel from one or two well known DC characters, even if they never actively get involved in this story.
The story itself is much more slice of life than you would initially think when you hear it is a DC comic about a teen with super powers, since it actually misses out most of the ‘superhero thing’ to focus on the teenage viewpoint instead of trying to decide what to do with your future, who you are, and telling the people you love who you are too. It actually plays on the aspect of coming out and figuring out who you are in a really interesting way, with the aspect of having super powers at times being the topic of ‘coming out’ to people rather than Jake’s sexuality.
As well as the main story, there are also a few extras contained in the trade paperback. You have a lovely intro from Alex before you dive into the story and then at the end of the comic you also have character designs with some notes of the development from Julie. There is also a list of resources for people who might need support such as Trevor Project, GLAAD, Jed Foundation, and Safe Horizon at the back of the book. I always appreciate when people help signpost resources for people who may be struggling, especially since you won’t know the situation of the person consuming this media and it may actually be a vital lifeline.
In terms of representation, before we even mention members of the alphabet family, it’s great to have a diverse cast of characters within this comic! We have African Americans, Asian Americans, and native American characters all presented along with one character who has a physical disability, all of which helps give the spotlight to other parts of society that are not always given center stage in media. It’s also great to see that neither of our gay characters is white, since it is usually the story of the white gay guy coming out that gets most of the attention.
We get to have two perspectives on being gay within this comic, one from the perspective from already being out and getting abuse from small minded people in a very small town in rural America, and the other from somebody who isn’t exactly sure of who he is and is afraid to upset or let people down when he does come out. It’s nice to have those contrasting experiences and seeing the support that they can provide to each other as the only characters we are led to believe that identify as queer within the town.
Now as it is a graphic novel, you have to talk about the art style and I think Julie Maroh provides a unique style that is a treat for the eyes. It definitely feels refreshing to have a more stylised artform compared to the slick, polished look of superhero comics we usually see in DC and Marvel. It’s always good to have a variety of art styles in comics to provide different ways of viewing the world you are stepping into.
Final Feelings and Recommendation
Now would I recommend this to you? Yes. Yes I would! Not only does it give representation to other members of society that can be overlooked at times in the media, but it's also a really sweet comic which people can get through in a day and take away some really important messages. I think this is a graphic novel anyone can just pick up and enjoy!
Overall, I would give this graphic novel an eight out of 10 puddles of water as the story is quite heartfelt and rather than being about the superpowers of this teen, it's about his relationships with those around him as he finds himself.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Now, just a reminder that at this point, I will be going into a more detailed analysis of the comic which means there will be spoilers! If you haven’t managed to read You Brought Me the Ocean yet and you don’t want anything spoiled, then this is your last chance to avoid the discussion. Or you can go ahead and close the page, go read the comic and then come back afterwards to finish reading. I promise I won’t mind. Still here? Well then, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The relationship builds quite quickly between Kenny and Jake once they start interacting, which does feel slightly rushed since we have a page count to fit, but it is still handled in a respective way. As the go for a hike, Kenny asks if Jake is gay and gives him the advice to be upfront with Maria so that she doesn’t get the wrong idea about their friendship which could lead to her getting hurt, as we do see happen later on. They do also spend time talking about their parents since they both have experience of losing a parent, Jake shows his scars and powers, as well as some casual flirting at points which does show they are real people and not just automatically becoming a couple for the sake of the story. But we also see how Kenny and Jake are in different places when it comes to their journey of understanding who they are.
After Maria spots them kissing and Jake freaks out, Kenny understandably gets frustrated with the situation since it will be hard having someone who is not yet ready to be out of the closet and the feeling of being hidden from the world can be quite hard when we already have to fight so hard to be seen and heard. And unfortunately he does take this out on his dad at first, assuming his dad would just say the situation is his fault for being gay anyway, before getting frustrated while they are also fixing part of the motel. Yet his dad actually states that Kenny has always been impatient with people and things, and that although he has been out for a while, this is still new and scary for Jake and he will need time. This is important for us all to remember as we should never be assuming when it is time for anyone else to come out of the closet, it’s a very personal choice of when that happens and we need to be supportive and understanding that it’s not always easy or safe for people to just run out of the closet straight away.
One of the key relationships we get for Jake early on is with Maria, although we can see that even if they have been childhood friends, there are some tensions now coming into play as they approach the end of high school. They have bonded over years of living next door to each other, which does result in the sometimes cliched trope of the female best friend falling for our gay protagonist, but this is handled with care by having Maria’s mom reminding us that just because we thought we might be with someone in a romantic way, we shouldn’t let that ruin the friendship we have if that isn’t possible. I think we sometimes get too much of the female interest then becoming an antagonist or just disappearing when these things come up, so it is refreshing to see Maria come and be supportive of Jake once she has had time to process this new information.
Meanwhile Jake has his faults in the relationship too, having kept various secrets from Maria, such as applying to Miami without herto see if he even could get in, his romance with Kenny, and finding out he has water based super powers. During their fight she mentions how she wanted him to be honest with her since they are friends and they should both be wanting whatever is best for the other person that makes them happy. Really good friendships are about supporting each other through the difficult times, and if friends are going to be upset because you are queer then they are not worth keeping. And I imagine in the DC universe of comics, telling friends you have powers also isn’t a big deal considering how well most people take this news! So it is a shame it takes a while for Jake to remember he can trust Maria and that even though there is this odd situation where she has maybe read too much into their relationship, she still loves and supports him as good friends do.
Another key relationship for Jake is that with his mom, who when we first meet her we get the idea quite quickly that she is a helicopter parent who is very protective of her child. And as we move through the story we have their relationship develop as they both start to be more honest with one another. This starts with Jake telling her he is gay, which she says she loves him anyway like parents should, but then he also comes out about his powers. As mentioned before, we almost have this reversal of coming out since his powers are the ones she overreacts to and insists he stops and hides from people. She then tells him about his father actually being Black Manta and having experimented on her during her pregnancy in his quest for the first amphibious human.
Obviously this throws Jake into a bit of a tailspin realising his mom has been lying to him about his dad for ages and he runs away for a bit to process this. But it's also worth remembering that Mrs Hyde was in an abusive relationship and had a lot of trauma to deal with after making the brave choice to leave that situation. Once we know this bit of her history, it's a lot easier to see why she is so protective of Jake and why she is afraid of his powers and wants them to move and hide in case his dad comes looking for him. And by the end they have had that frank conversation where Jake points out they can’t keep running forever and that things will happen to them but they will deal with them as they occur. It really does show the maturing of their relationship, one which we all face when we get older where instead of just following our parents instructions we sometimes disagree and then have those discussions and come to a better solution for all involved.
When we first meet Kenny’s dad, we see him mentioning that one of the family friends will be around with her daughter and he is not so subtly trying to set up Kenny with her. Yet this is quickly called out by Kenny since they are both queer, and we get some of the usual comments we hear from parents that are not accepting of their childs sexuality yet such as the “how do you know if you don't try” comment. As Kenny puts it, he “can’t change being Chinese, just like he can’t change being gay”, which perfectly shows how sexuality isn’t just something you choose, it’s just a natural part of who you are. There is a moment when Kenny also highlights to his dad that he gets enough of this flak from people in school for being gay, so its hard enough being who he is without also having this at home, which I think a lot of parents maybe don’t get right away when people are coming out and they are less accepting. The struggle of having to fight for who you are every day is so much harder when you have to do that at home as well, when that should be somewhere you are getting unconditional love from.
Even though we do see tensions between Kenny and his dad early on, we also get to see that Mr Lui really does love his son and wants him to be happy when he spots Jake at the motel pond and actually sets it up so that Kenny goes outside so that they can both talk out the issues they are having. At the end of the day, Mr Lui puts his childs happiness first over whatever his own thoughts or opinions are, and that does show some really positive growth as he learns to support his queer child.
And to balance out the positive development we have from some characters, Zeke is our toxic masculinity stand in. We get this very clearly every time he appears in the comic, from making homophobic remarks of kill the queer in class at Kenny and getting held back by the teacher to his attempts to belittle Jake in front of Maria as a way of trying to flirt with her, he is very much based on trying to take other people down to make himself seem bigger. And the worst of his behaviour is at the end when he and his friends are drunk driving around town and decide to commit a hate crime by attacking Jake and Kenny, and also Maria when she jumps in to help them. Although they are painted as quite a black and white character as a simple homophobe, I think this works well since the main focus of the story is on the nuance of Jake’s journey of coming out and running towards the future to avoid overly complicating the story.
The ending of the comic is quite upbeat, since it ends with all of the families coming together for a meal and the three teenagers now getting to spend time together now that everything is out in the open. And it’s really nice that we then have very positive relationships between the three of them as they are sitting watching the sunset together, being optimistic for the future, whatever that may bring each of them, since it can sometimes feel quite rare to have happy endings that involve not just the couple but the best friend who had assumed there could be something with one of them.