I had this cool Aquaman cardboard stand-up (drawn by Neal Adams, no less) for a while, but had yet to post it, when my pal and F.O.A.M. member Damian "Tiny Titan" Maffei generously sent me the whole complete set of 'em! Thanks Damian!
These stands-ups(made by the same company that made the Super-Hero Stickers put up here a few weeks ago) each measure around 6" high, and use some classic stock art to represent the characters. We've got a Neal Adams Aquaman, Flash, and Captain Marvel, plus a Curt Swan Superman and a Dick Giordano Wonder Woman. But no Batman, oddly enough.
Neat as they are, I never could understand what the appeal of these were, exactly. Even back in the mid 1990s, when I was working in an art studio designing products for Comic Images and we actually made Marvel character stand-ups, I didn't see why anyone would buy them, at least in the quantities we were producing them. After you pull out the little perpendicular base support, there you were. Put in on a shelf and don't touch it.
That said, these are still pretty nifty, so maybe you should just ignore the previous paragraph. _________________________________________________________
Coming Tomorrow: Our first-ever AquaShrine Contest! The contest will involve identifying the artist whose work is shown, and the first person to submit the correct answer will receive any one of the Super-Hero Stand-Ups shown today. (I presume you'd want Aquaman, but you can pick any of 'em!)
Be advised Tuesday's post will go up around 12:15am Tuesday. Good luck!
Comics Weekend I know I say this every time, but what a nice cover by Alan Davis--hard to beat a giant globby creature with a million eyes as a bad guy!
While the citizens trapped underwater are learning that some of the other denizens of the sea seem to be looking out for them, Aquaman and Lorena are encountering this weird creature living inside a machine underwater.
The creature seems intertwined with the machine, and Aquaman can sense that. But what he doesn't know is, he's beign watched. One of the people watching orders the creature to kill Aquaman, and it explodes into action.
Aquaman fights it momentarily, but then realizes that the creature is, in fact, a collection of smaller creatures, which he commands to separate, which it does, shattering a large chunk of the machine in the process!
Aquaman does his telepathy thing with part of the creature, and "sees" someone in involved in this, just a few blocks away from the disaster! At this point is a neat sequence, where we see this stranger working away, while the fish in his fish tank start congregating all together in one corner of the tank, as if they're...expecting someone.
Aquaman and Lorena come to the surface, where they discover something unexpected:
...I like how we don't get the hackneyed "don't tell me what to do" bit. Instead, Lorena realizes who's the experienced one here. And even though Lorena's no wallflower, she's not stupid, either, so we're spared a few panels of drummed-up conflict.
The suspect in question notices his fish acting strange, when Aquaman and Lorena bust in! To be continued!
I think my favorite moment of the book is the one with the fish, because it gives Aquaman a deep, deep connection to the Earth itself, and you get the idea that there's a whole level of conversation going on that humans have no awareness of, but that Aquaman is tapped into.
It's another small moment that, to me, makes Aquaman impressive and different among almost all other DC superheroes.
Comics Weekend I have decided to move my weekly Aquaman comic review to the weekends, so now I'll be doing two Aquaman comics per week, on Saturdays and Sundays, which I think will help with following continued stories, for those of you who don't own the comics themselves.
So for now we're going to keep talking about the brief run of the last Aquaman series, where writer Will Pfiefer and artists Patrick Gleason and Christian Alamy were joined by master illustrator Alan Davis on the covers. As you can see, Davis continued his streak of dynamic, exciting Aquaman images. At the end of the previous issue, Aquaman--with the help of Martian Manhunter--had tapped into Lorena's mind, and discovered that many of the victims of the San Diego disaster had not, in fact, died, but were still alive and living underwater!
This issue opens with the people getting a series of telepathic messages from Aquaman telling them that he is here to help them, and to stay right where they are as he attempts to free them from the rubble they're trapped under. And boy, does he:
Some of the kids don't listen of course and find themselves in the middle of a school of sharks. Luckily for them, Aquaman commands the sharks not to attack, and the kids return home.
Aquaman explains to them what has happened, and how something has changed them to allow them to live underwater, and that they can not return home.
Meanwhile, Lorena wakes up in the JLA Watchtower and she is met by Manhunter, who assumes a more usual form(that of a young human man) to talk to her. After being told by J'onn what has happened, she decides to head back down to help Aquaman, who is single-handedly rescuing people from the wreckage.
Aquaman then gets a message from a dolphin about a machine it found, and he and Lorena check it out. The machine didn't fall in the water, like the rest of the city, but put there...and then turned on.
They look inside the center of the machine, and find some sort of living, amorphous creature! To be continued!
Again, another solid issue, although I found Aquaman a bit cold here--instead of gentle and warm, he sort of stands in front of these trapped people, rigid and cold, and just sort of declares what's happened to them.
But with the addition of Lorena to the book, I can see that writer Pfefier is drawing a greater contrast between the imperious Aquaman and the more earthy Lorena, which will help loosen Aquaman up a bit. (Sure, you could make the argument that Aquaman, having lived with Surface World people for decades, shouldn't be so aloof, but I have no idea anymore what stories in the character's past are canon and which ones aren't)
Gleason and Alamy's art is effective, if a tad dark and gloomy, but that's the story they've been given to tell. And there are moments like this:
...where the super-realism is set aside for a more graphic approach, which I think is quite nice. I love Aquaman's head poking out of the water in the second panel there. __________________________________________________________
Bonus! This week's issue of JLA: Classified saw the final installment of a nifty Classic JLA storyline by Roger Stern and John Byrne.
Aquaman doesn't have much to do in this particular issue, but its still fun seeing Arthur, as we all know him, alongside his fellow JLAers.
Sadly, this is the final issue of JLA:C, which frustrates me to no end. From the issues I read of the book, all I could think was, "Why isn't this the regular JLA book?"
(By the way--writer Roger Stern has one of the most fun official/fan sites devoted to him and his work that I've seen for any comics pro, and you can check it out here.)
This is one of a handful of Aqua-Centric pages from a DC Comics Super Heroes coloring book. I've never seen this particular book, but the pages were scanned and sent to me by F.O.A.M. member Doug Zawisza(author of the upcoming TwoMorrows' book The Hawkman Companion). Thanks Doug! Sure, Aquaman is in his pirate/Wolverine look, but what the hey--I'm just happy he was included. And I love that goatee Ocean Master is rocking there!
He also sent the cover, which sadly does not feature the Sea King--but it does have the mullet Superman, so there's that.
Another spiffy ad by Ira Schnapp (I should really do a theme week for these ads sometime), where he has to jam a lot of copy (including the goofily-named criminal organization O.G.R.E.--twice!) in a small space. But, somehow, it all works. "See them pull it off", indeed.
It was handy having two distinct Aquaman logos to use--the classic one, and then one that could fit into a tinier space since it contained no curve. Couldn't have done that with Superman!
I think I had this cheerily goofy Super Friends Car as a kid, but I've never seen it since...not at a con, not on eBay, not anywhere, so this catalog ad will have to do for now.
They look like they're part of some Macy's Day parade or something(at least until the inevitable super-villain attack). Unusual that Aquaman is there instead of Wonder Woman, isn't it? Thank Neptune for small miracles.
My pal and F.O.A.M. member Rick Phillips had this ad up on his Mail It To Team-Up blog, so of course as soon as I saw the Sea King on it I asked him if I could use it, too. Rick is nothing if not generous.
Even though there's no issue number shown, this ad is promoting the new WF line-up of Superman/Batman, Aquaman, Hawkman, Green Arrow, and Shazam! that started with World's Finest #264 and ended...just two issues later, when Aquaman got replaced by Red Tornado (who would then get replaced by Zatanna...until DC finally gave up and stopped with the Dollar Comic format altogether).
I'm not exactly sure who drew it, but it looks very Joe Staton to me, though I'm not sure of the inker. And while the ad itself is just great, I love the Black Canary down there in almost all black...that looks really cool!
This is the wraparound cover to a DC Comics Style Guide, generously sent to me by F.O.A.M. member Ramiro, who also sent those Super Amigos sticker pages that I've been posting occasionally. Thanks Ramiro!
If you click the image to see a larger version, you can see the amazing breadth of characters included here by, of course, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.
You've got some of the Legion of Super-Heroes, The Spectre, The Warlord, Elongated Man, even some of the Super Jrs.! Wow!
This is the Super Powers line that haunts my dreams...
Today I'm putting up pics sent to me by F.O.A.M. members of some tantalyzing Aqua-Stuff that will hopefully be on toy shelves near you soon!
The above photo was sent to me by Mark Campbell, who wandered into a Target one day and found all five figures from the second wave of the new DC Universe toy line, which includes the Sea King and his fearsome foe Black Manta. Bah! At my local Target they rarely have any of the first wave! I must have a lot of eBay Power Sellers living in my area.
...and this pic was sent to me by Tommy of The Bat-Blog, who told me he saw this beauty at the WonderCon.
I don't know when this AquaSub from the DC Super Friends line is planned to come out, but its pretty historic--I think this is the first time since Mego that Aquaman got any kind of accessory item! I know Aquaman doesn't need an AquaSub but I don't care--I'm buying as many of these as I can find.
Tommy also sent this photo, of the super-cute DC Super Friends Plush Doll line! Mattel must be pretty happy with the sales of the initial line for them to produce a spin-off, so that's good news. More mixed is that there doesn't seem to be a plush Aquaman (yet, at least), although there is the addition of Hawkman to the line! Shouldn't he come with a plush mace or something? Thanks guys!
Anyone who ever read a Silver Age DC comic pretty much knows this ad, it ran on the inside back cover of about a million different comics in 1968. I still can't get over the idea there was an era when Aquaman was treated with the same attention and respect as Superman.
I also enjoy the other DC heroes making an appearance, including the Martian Manhunter, who to my knowledge never actually made it into a Filmation cartooon!
I'm not sure if I want to keep going through this run of Aquaman (covers by Alan Davis, written by Will Pfiefer, drawn by Patrick Gleason) for every Comic Friday until its over, but until I decide for sure I thought we'd keep going.
Like he did for the previous issue, Alan Davis delivers an awesome cover, a classic "superhero in jeopardy" situation.
Picking up from last issue, Aquaman is dealing with the ramifications of part of San Diego falling into the ocean. It appears that no one has survived, except for the curious case of a young boy who was found on the beach. He died not from drowning, but from being out of the water! This issue opens with Aquaman at a press conference explaining to the residents of San Diego what has happened regarding the boy, and that he and the local authorities will be on the lookout for others.
Just as he finishes, a young woman bursts out of the water in the throws of panic. Arthur quickly jumps into the water, grabs the girl, and Pfiefer gives us a super-cool, Batman-esuqe moment, where we see Aquaman had a plan in place:
Aquaman and the girl are beamed to the Watchtower, where she is placed in a specialized tank of water. Arthur, reading her mind, calms her by saying her name--Lorena--and she falls asleep underwater.
Aquaman leaves Manhunter to monitor her and heads to his quarters, where he has a nightmare of visiting the disaster site and is overwhelmed by zombie-like survivors.
Manhunter wakes Arthur up, and Aquaman gets worked up over the idea that the JLA decided to build an HQ on the moon, instead of on Earth, where, under the water, they could've been just as separated from the rest of world's population. It's here that we see a bit of the old Aquaman, who can be a bit of a jerk, when Pfeifer cuts the tension:
I like Manhunter's smile in panel one; this is another of the many rants you have to put up with being friends with Aquaman.
Manhunter taps into Lorena's mind to see first-hand what happened in San Diego, and we see the moments leading up to the disaster. Through Manhunter, Aquaman sees that there are, in fact, many survivors, still underwater! To be continued!
I like Pfiefer's Aquaman here--serious, of course, but not without a sense of perspective on himself, and the moment where we see Aquaman had a plan in place to me is priceless. I find moments like these a thousand times cooler in a hero than someone who can just punch the hardest.
Related to how I started this post, I'm thinking of changing things up a bit here at the Shrine. Instead of Comic Fridays, I'm considering devoting weekends to Aquaman comic posts, giving Fridays "back" to merchandise and the other goofy stuff I talk about.
I also thought this might make the comic reviews flow better, since there would be two parts of a continued storyline in a row, instead chapters being a week apart as they are now. What does everyone think? __________________________________________________________ Bonus! Classic Aquaman makes another return appearance on comic shelves this week in the first issue of DC's new DC Super Friends title, of course based on the Mattel toy line.
I am thrilled that Classic Aquaman got included in this toy line, that it seems to be a success, and that DC has now given young comics fans the same Aquaman in print they can find on the toy shelves.
This first issue's story is "Hungry For Power" by Sholly Fisch, and Dario Brizuela, where Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and the Sea King square off against the deadly robot, Amazo!
It's a perfect comic for wee kids, and all the heroes get to participate equally. Heck, it's even Aquaman who comes up with a plan to beat Amazo!:
...there's also some puzzle pages and a nice letter column by Johnny DC!
From what I've seen of future issues solicited in Previews, DC Super Friends will have different art teams on both the insides and covers. May I suggest Ramona Fradon? __________________________________________________________ Extra! I got an email from a nice woman named Lynnette with an Aqua-Problem:
"My five-year old has the DC Super Friends Aquaman and I can't figure out how to get water into the base (the instructions were thrown out during the Christmas morning frenzy).
I understand that the water shoots from the trident when you push down on the base, but how do you get the water inside the base!
Sorry to bother you about this but I'm desperate. My son is quite anxious to defeat Lex Luthor with the water spray."
Having never played with mine(no, really) I wasn't able to give Lynnette a definite answer. Any of you AquaFans know?
I bought the Aquaman patch shown here awhile ago, and it was one of the first things I ever posted on the Shrine. I love how Arthur kinda looks like he's dancing.
But apparently I didn't know the whole story, because F.O.A.M. member Andy Luckett recently sent me this pic, showing the AquaPatch in its plastic sleeve (marked down from 90 cents to 45 cents) and an interesting inclusion--a second patch, featuring a "Baroom" sound effect--you know, the kind of sound Aquaman made all the time.
Why do I get the feeling some manufacturer had barrels and barrels of sound effect patches originally made as part of the Batman TV show merchandising juggernaut, and then got stuck with them when the novelty wore off, so they figured hey why not throw them in with other superheroes?
I'm going to admit this right up front--the connection between Aquaman and Jack Kirby is (newsprint)paper-thin. To my knowledge, Kirby only drew Aquaman on one extended occasion, during the first Super Powers mini-series in 1984, work that even the most die-hard Kirby fans will admit was far from his best(although I absolutely love this Aqua-centric cover).
But Mark Evanier has a new book out, the long-gestating Kirby: King of Comics hardcover, and last night I bought it. I had every intention of reading a few pages from the book before going to bed, but I found myself unable to put it down. Around 3am, bleary-eyed, I had finished Mark's tour of the Life of Kirby, having felt like, as Neil Gaiman puts it in his introduction, that you took a stroll through an imagined Jack Kirby Museum with Mark as your tour guide.
I'm not going to bother going through the details of "King" Kirby's life, since most of you reading this already know them. But Mark regales the reader with lots of backstage details, that help flesh out the story what was going on while Kirby was smashing everything everyone knew about how comics could be done.
In so many ways, Mark is the perfect person to tell this story, because not only was he Kirby's close friend for decades, but his perspective--admiring yet clear-eyed on its subject--is crucial for presenting a balanced view of the man. No one would want to read a book about Jack Kirby by someone who didn't like his work, and at the same time a everything-Kirby-did-was-a-masterpiece-yes-even-Devil-Dinosaur tone would be tedious to read. Mark takes the middle road, and its the perfect route to take when examining the man's staggering artistic achievements.
And on top of the writing, the book is equally pitch-perfect in its presentation. Anyone who has spent even a few minutes perusing my approximately fifty-seven comic-book related blogs, you know that Presentation is an all-important part of the appeal of comics to me.
The book is a whopping 9 1/2 x 12 1/2", and many of Kirby's covers and inside pages are reproduced at that full page size, which of course suits his work perfectly (even the paper stock is nicely chosen--clean and white, but not that eye-gouging shiny that I find makes a lot of Marvel's TPBs nearly unreadable). There's tons of covers, sketches, pages, and more. For a book conveying so much information via text, it's still manages to be a visual fiesta.
Seeing the entire universes Jack Kirby created for his characters to exist in(like in the "Fourth World" books, Kamandi, The Demon, OMAC, Machine Man, The Eternals...), all by himself in a tiny little windowless studio sitting in a stiff hardbacked chair, I can only imagine what an Aquaman comic--with his attendant built-in fantasy world setting of Atlantis--written and drawn by Kirby might have looked like. My guess is that we'd have a few volumes of Jack Kirby's Aquaman Omnibus out by now.
The book can be bought here, and I strongly suggest anyone interested in the history of comics, Jack Kirby, or just comics art pick up a copy. It's a fascinating read, and a fitting tribute to a man who simply was comics.
(I knew that I wanted to write a piece about this book for one of my blogs, but couldn't really decide which one to put it up on. I finally decided to put it here, to give it the widest possible audience. And since all my blogs are comics-centric, and we're talking Jack Kirby, it really could've gone up on any of them)
This is yet another Who's Who entry I missed the first time around, of Aquaman's dreaded foe Fisherman (odd, shouldn't it be The Fisherman?).
Anyway, it's drawn by then-JLA penciler Luke McDonnell and inked by Bill Wray, and it looks quite spiffy. I'm not familiar with this different costume he's wearing, but I have to say it is a tad less goofy than the one he normally wears.
These are some super-fun and super-cheery Super Powers puffy stickers, complete with album to paste 'em in to!
I bought these MIP, and I couldn't quite bring myself to tear it open, so I don't know what the sticker album looks like on the inside(any of you out there have it?). Consequently, I don't know what stickers lie beneath, althought I can make out Brainiac peeking out next to Superman's elbow.
As you can see, the Aquaman sticker is one his classic poses, and they bothered to include something you didn't see much, a Green Arrow puffy sticker!
This bit of exciting news (hat tip: F.O.A.M. member Erik Brunbauer--thanks Eric!) is from a piece on Newsarama.com about the future of Aquaman, at least according to Dan Didio:
Will we see the original Aquaman again? DiDio: "Aquaman. This year." DiDio said they want to make sure that the next time readers see Aquaman, it'll be the "best" version of the character.
As we talked about yesterday, this weekend we're showing off the USPS "Collector Panels" they released on the occasion of the DC Superhero stamps back in 2006.
F.O.A.M. member Vince Bartilucci sent them along, and as goofy as they are, I'm glad I got a chance to see them.
So click here to see the Curt Swan Aquaman Collector Panel, more Aqua History, and the second appearance of that hideous Aquaman logo.
When the U.S. Post Office released their DC Superhero stamps(official Aquaman postage! Yaaaay!), they of course knew to release all kinds of limited edition doo-dads to appeal to comics fans, since stamp collectors and comic collectors are easy marks for that kind of stuff.
I go after ready-made "collector's items" on a case by case basis, so I passed on these USPS Collector Panels when they came out.
But luckily F.O.A.M. member Vince Bartilucci didn't, and he generously sent me scans of the two panels to show off here on the Shrine. Thanks Vince!
So click here to see the Jim Aparo Aquaman Collector Panel, a brief history of the character, and the maddening inclusion of a hideous Aquaman logo.
A few Comic Fridays ago I talked about a solid issue of this, the most recent Aquaman series, written by John Ostrander as a fill-in between the end of the previous writer's (Rick Veitch) run and the beginning of a new one by Will Pfeifer, which started with this issue.
One of the nicest treats DC gave to us AquaFans also starting with this issue were some really kick-ass covers by none other than Alan Davis!
Davis, of course, was the original artist chosen for the 1986 mini-series until Dick Giordano handed him Batman and the Outsiders instead. Davis was (and, as far as I know, remains) an Aquaman fan, so I wonder if doing these were his request. Whatever the case, Davis gave us(IMO) the coolest looking Aquaman in years. This is the first chapter in the "American Tidal" storyline, written by Pfeifer and drawn by Patrick Gleason and Christian Alamy. Aquaman is surveying the damage done to San Diego after a chunk of it has been submerged underwater. As he swims through the wreckage, he finds no one left alive.
There's a impromptu press conference on the beach, and its up to Aquaman to deliver the grim news:
As the mayor tries to reassure the citizenry with a promise of moving on, a young man, gasping for air, crawls out of the water and lands on the beach, where he is discovered by the police and rushed to the hospital.
He unfortunately dies on the way there, and later on two doctors discuss that an autopsy must be performed. And one of the doctors has called in an expert:
In a fairly gruesome sequence, the two doctors and Aquaman perform the grim task, and they find digested whole fish inside the young man. Aquaman has a hunch and they check the neck, where they find...gills.
Aquaman announces that this kid didn't die in the ocean...he died because he was out of it. To be continued!
One of overall beefs with this series--and superhero comics now in general--is that they're so grim. There's very little sense of fun and/or adventure. This issue starts with a major disaster with thousands dead and ends with an autopsy, and Aquaman's biggest moment in the book is the announcement of no survivors. Sheesh!
But...Pfeifer was picking up the pieces from previous storylines, so there's a certain amount of grim built in, and he definitely tried his best to ligthen it up a bit with later issues. As far as characterization (something a lot of Aqua Writers have had trouble with) goes, Pfeifer's Aquaman is serious here, but not a jerk, and he's in turn treated with the appropriate respect by the surface dwellers.
Art-wise, Gleason and Alamy's work is solid; their Aquaman has a truly heroic visage and the storytelling is direct and well-paced. So overall a decent start. And I like mentioned above, nothing beats an Alan Davis cover!
I'm still hungry, even after yesterday's Hostess run, so let's talk about something F.O.A.M. member Ilke Hincer sent me: these photos of a box of Supergirl brand cookies, something I had no idea existed! Thanks Ilke!
On the back of the boxes were stills from the movie, so I guess it only makes sense to try and market some solo Supergirl merchandise. But having looked at this kind of stuff for so many years, it looks so odd to see Supergirl placed in front of Superman, on anything.
Surprisingly, Aquaman made it onto the front panel of the Supergirl cookies, something he couldn't quite pull-off on the regular Superheroes brand from 1982:
We haven't run a Hostess ad in a long while, and right now I've got hankerin' for Hostess' golden delicious treat, so now's a good time.
Like the rest of the Aquaman Hostess ads, they were drawn by Curt Swan and most likely inked by Vince Colletta(Marvel experimented a bit more, artist-wise, with their Hostess ads).
Being able to tell any kind of story(even one where Aquaman and Aqualad don't really do anything) in just one page is amazing, and I would love to see DC or Marvel do stuff like this again...but maybe for something a little healthier.
Continuing the tradition of absolutely hideous Total Justice merchandise comes the cover and one inside page of the Total Justice Storybook from newest F.O.A.M. member Joe Huber.
The cover is done in that lifeless 3D computer modeling style, and you can just feel the excitement!
Aquaman didn't make it onto the cover, but he is there on the inside page, taking on the new, uglier Despero, along with Hawkman and his Atomic-Powered Corn Chips.
This tres cool piece was pointed out to me on eBay from my pal and F.O.A.M. member Damian Maffei, who instructed me to "get out my wallet."
He was right, this piece is so funky and cool and unusual, and I couldn't believe that I ended up getting it for a measly five bucks. Someone had to really love Aquaman to spend the amount of time it took to craft something like this, because they are obviously weren't trying to make a lot of money.
I had no frame of reference to its size from the photo, so I was even more pleasantly surprised to find that the piece is about a foot and a half high, and made of very thick paper, so the doll is surprisingly sturdy. I love it.
The only downside to the piece at all is that, face-wise, its vaguely reminiscient of the creepy "Otto the Autopilot" from Airplane! __________________________________________________________
Just a reminder to all you AquaFans: The next issue of TwoMorrows' excellent magazine Back Issue! ships on March 12 (and the online PDF version is available here right now).
It features this beaut of a cover by Nick Cardy, plus an eleven-page article (by Aquaman Chronicles editor John Schwirian) on the King of the Seven Seas that is decorated with sketches from the Shrine's very own collection!
Not only that, but editor Michael Eury also generously included my faux Aquaman treasury comic cover, and a plug for the site(what a pal!). I implore every Aquaman fan to pick up a copy of the issue, either from your local shop or ordering directly from TwoMorrows.
Given to me by a source I can only refer to as "Curveball", this figure of Aqualad in his current, adult role as Tempest is bigger and meaner looking, like Garth himself.
It's also a bit pointy, so please be careful handling it when you take it out of the bag.
Bursting from the world of Heroclix, it's the King of the Seven Seas' teenaged sidekick, Aqualad!
Given to me by a source I can only refer to as "Deep Throat", this is an extremely well done figure--I like Garth's big head o' teenage hair, making the rest of him look proportionately smaller and younger. And the water effect is nice, too.
My source tells me the Aqualad figure comes with a lot of cool powers within the Heroclix game, and I take them at their word, since I still have no idea how the hell you play it.
This week's Comic Friday features the last Aquaman installment written (plotted, really) by J.M. DeMatteis, which started in Adventure Comics drawn by Dick Giordano and moved to the back of Action Comics and then drawn by Don Heck.
Over the course of this series, DeMatteis hit nearly every major theme in the Aquaman universe, and made time for stuff involving Mera, Atlantis, Aquaman's origin, and most of Aquaman's rogues gallery. Aqualad was the only major part of the team that never made an appearance. (Before we get to the story at hand, one aside...wow, that is one revealing dress Lois is wearing there on the cover by Ross Andru. Why are you in such a hurry, Superman?)
Anyway, the Aquaman installment is titled, fittingly, "The End!", featuring a dynamic splash page by Heck:
Aquaman and Poseidon(who was revealed to be Aquaman's father--sort of--last issue) find their way to Atlanna and Ocean Master, and Poseidon is blasted by a bolt of energy as they get close. Poseidon is temporarily stunned, but they press on.
When they get there, they find them both surrounded by Aquaman's worst nightmare...all his enemies there, together(or robot duplicates of, at least):
(from left to right: Marine Marauder, Fisherman, Black Manta, Seaquake, Scavenger, Starro, Captain Demo, and the Shark)
Aquaman manages to fight some of them off(luckily they, being robots, are not quite as menacing as the real deals), but he gets sucker-punched by Ocean Master. Just as he's about to blast Aquaman, Atlanna's sister, Atlena appears!
She reveals to her sister that Aquaman is not, in fact, the ultimate savior of Atlantis and that all this hatred is pointless! She begs Atlanna to stop, who is heartbroken over feeling that she has hurt her sister.
Atlanna asks Aquaman and Orm to mend their rift as their parents dying wish. She grabs Poseidon's hand and, touching the inter-dimensional transporter machine everyone was searching for, explodes it, destroying themselves. Orm is heartbroken but Aquaman tries to tell him that "they were gone a long time ago, Orm...a long, long time ago!" The end.
Like I said about the previous issue, this one felt a little rushed to me, as if DC wanted to hand off the feature ASAP to someone else so they crammed a lot in just eight pages. Bringing back Aquaman's parents is a huge, game-changing idea, and it needed more than a few pages to be fully explored. (Bob Rozakis would do a good job on Aquaman following this, but of course the tone of the series became very different under his tenure)
But, in total, DeMatteis' run on Aquaman was top-notch, and since its basically one long story, would make for an excellent collected edition. It'll be fun to see it all together if/when they get around to doing it in the Showcase books. __________________________________________________________
Classic Aquaman makes another appearance in this week's Teen Titans: Year One mini-series. As drawn by Karl Kerschl, Serge Lapointe, and Steph Peru, I think he looks pretty nifty. __________________________________________________________
On a completely unrelated note, I've done my first "Guest Blogger" piece over at my pal Pierre's excellent Frankensteinia blog.
So if you just can't get enough of my thoughts on obscure bits of comic book arcana(and who can?), go check it out here. Thanks!
Coming Tomorrow: Our first-ever AquaShrine Contest! The contest will involve identifying the artist whose work is shown, and the first person to submit the correct answer will receive any one of the Super-Hero Stand-Ups shown today. (I presume you'd want Aquaman, but you can pick any of 'em!)
And on top of the writing, the book is equally pitch-perfect in its presentation. Anyone who has spent even a few minutes perusing my approximately fifty-seven comic-book related blogs, you know that Presentation is an all-important part of the appeal of comics to me.
(I knew that I wanted to write a piece about this book for one of my blogs, but couldn't really decide which one to put it up on. I finally decided to put it here, to give it the widest possible audience. And since all my blogs are comics-centric, and we're talking Jack Kirby, it really could've gone up on any of them)
The only downside to the piece at all is that, face-wise, its vaguely reminiscient of the creepy "Otto the Autopilot" from 
