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Saturday, November 29, 2008

Crisis On Earth-Blog: Flash Vol.2 #66 - 1992

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Welcome to another blog team-up!

Today The Aquaman Shrine and super-cool Flash blog Crimson Lightning will be talking about the same comic, Aquaman's guest-appearance in Flash (Vol.2) #66:
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The cover, by Mike Collins and Jose Marzan, is fun, and of course recalls all the classic Superman/Flash races from years gone past.

Inside is "Fish Story" (not the first time that title's been used when Aquaman guest-stars) by Mark Waid, Collins, and Roy Richardson. The issue opens with a classic "How did we get here?" splash page:

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We then, ahem, flashback to Wally West and his then-just-friend Linda on a cruise ship together.

After Wally inadvertently embarrasses Linda with his super-speed tennis playing, he notices a pod of whales surrounding the ship. Then the whales started bumping the ship, nudging towards an island in the distance.

The ship crashes onto the island's coral reef, and Wally bangs his head in a fall. As he groggily looks up, he sees something unexpected:
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...Aquaman?!?

Soon, Wally wakes up, hanging upside down along with some other passengers, over some hungry sharks! Meanwhile, other passengers were hard at work, carrying debris out of a small cave, under the command of...The Marine Marauder!

Wally quickly escapes his bonds, but as he gets close to MM, she reminds Wally that if he attacks her, she will command those sharks to chomp down on the other passengers.

Wally suggests to Linda that Aquaman might be able to help, but the Marine Marauder says he is under her command, too--turns out she has been searching for a lost treasure buried in the cavern's grotto, a magical crown supposedly worn by the Storm God Enlil. She started looking for it herself, and when Aquaman showed up to stop her:

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She demands that Flash help in the search effort, and in return, she'll free the hostages. Wally suits up, and goes to look it. He makes his way underwater, and meets up with Aquaman and a school of swordfish, like we saw at the beginning of the story.

They find their way to a giant stone door, which Aquaman (with the help of a finny friend) pries open. It leads to a massive, ornate chamber, with a chest sitting in its center. Flash grabs it, and the still-zombie-ish Aquaman, and heads back to the surface:

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Aquaman, now wearing the crown, is now possessed by Enlil, who informs the Marine Marauder that she never controlled Aquaman--it was he who sent out a mental call, with forced Aquaman to help her uncover the crown.

Enlil, via Aquaman, starts to create giant tidal waves that loom over the island. Flash tells MM to get everyone inside the cave while he tries to knock out the possessed Sea King:

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After being knocked around a bit, he finds himself dumped on the other side of the island. The sound of the rain and the wind is so loud that Wally can't hear anything else, but then neither can Enlil, and he super-speeds behind him, knocking him over, which makes the crown fall off.

Aquaman starts to wake up, while the Marine Marauder takes it upon herself to grab the crown. Flash grabs Aquaman and takes him into the cave, barricading the entrance with rocks, while the Marine Marauder revels in her newfound power.

Except she can't control it, and a giant wave crashes over her, and almost the entire island!

The next day:

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Definitely a fun story (I expect no less from Mark Waid), and in its self-containedness(?), it reminded me a bit of the kind of story you would've seen in a 1960s issue of Brave and the Bold.

Sure, Aquaman's is mostly a zombie though most of it, but what they hey. Nice to see a story that centers around him as much as it does.


I had been wanting to do a cross-over with Dixon's Crimson Lightning blog for a while, and now that he's back from being one with the Speed Force, I figured this was the perfect comic to do it with. I hope all of you check out what Dix has to say about this book, and I hope Dix's readers do the same!


1 comment:

Diabolu Frank said...

*cough* *cough* serpent * cough* crown* cough!