On Wednesday, Aquaman #11 will hit the stands from writer Dan Abnett and artist Phil Briones -- and the issue will chart a course (ah! See? Nautical-speak!) for the coming months on the series.

The issue is a prologue to "The Deluge," the next major story arc from Abnett, who continues to play the international intrigue card as N.E.M.O. is stoking the embers of hostility between Atlantis and the United States.

"Aquaman actually seems to be a much more popular character when he is - to use a terrible pun - a fish out of water. That is to say, put into a dry land situation where he is encountering the real world. Somehow that makes him more impressive than when he is in his oceanic surroundings where we expect to see him," Abnett told ComicBook.com. "We'll see that sort of thing happening a lot as he tries to broker better relationships with America in particular, but with dry land. Also, therefore, when we take him to his Atlantean setting which, as you say, is wonderfully ... huge possibilities there. It's a matter of going, what are the possibilities? We sort of know what Atlantis looks like, but how far can we take that culture? What haven't we seen there yet? What more can we explore? How can we make that feel like a really rounded alien thing?"

You can check out the solicitation text below, and the preview pages in the attached image gallery.

“THE DELUGE” prologue! Aquaman’s mission to unite the sea and surface has taken a great leap forward. But N.E.M.O.—the secret terrorist organization—has other ideas. Black Manta deploys the agents of N.E.M.O. to provoke hostilities between Atlantis and America. The Deluge—the prophesied, all–out global war—is about to begin...

You can pick up a copy of Aquaman #11 at your local comic shop on Wednesday, or pre-order it on ComiXology here.