This fourth Aquaman solo series only ran thirteen issues, yet as we've seen over the past few weekends, it had a lot of fine moments. And, in many ways, it was (to date) the last series to feature what I've come to call Classic Aquaman.
An while the previous issue ended as a springboard for the soon-to-come Peter David Aquaman: Time & Tide mini, this series went out on a high note, with a very unusual, memorable issue.
Despite the action-filled cover, this issue's story, "My Hero" (by regular writer Shaun McLaughlin, guest penciler Chris Schenk, and inker Bob Dvorak) is about a young boy who idolizes the King of the Seven Seas:
The story opens in a hospital, as we see two boys, one of whom is clearly deathly ill, discussing their heroes. The sicker one insists Aquaman is no match for Superman or Batman, but the other, our narrator, thinks that is bunk.
After their nurse tells them its time to go to sleep, he sneaks out and hitches a ride with a trucker. He tells the tucker he wants to go the lake, and when he's asked why, he says its because he wants to see Aquaman.
The trucker tells him he saw Aquaman once, at a charity water show where some of the JLA were performing. When a gang of armed kidnappers arrive, the heroes do their thing:
...but he says that he snuck around the back of the heroes tent and saw that it was all faked, they were just actors! The kid doesn't believe it.
He gets out and then gets picked up by a woman in a car, who takes him for a meal at a diner. Aquaman comes up again, and this woman has her own story.
While vacationing in the Hamptons, a whaling ship surfaces, bringing forth the wrath of Aquaman:
The kid doesn't believer her either, since that doesn't sound like the Aquaman he knows. She pays for his meal and leaves, shocked at his rudeness.
Another stranger, overhearing their conversation, offers to take the kid to the lake.
When he asks why the kid wants to see Aquaman so bad, he's evasive, and the stranger surmises the kid is sick. The kid--who we learn is named Tony--won't admit at first, but the stranger's kindness gets him to drop his guard and admit that he is dying.
The stranger then tells him a story, involving the seagoing criminal The Scavenger. The Scavenger is attempting to steal some medical supplies that went down with a sunken ship, when Aquaman stops him.
The Scavenger gets Aquaman caught in his ship's pincers, but he relents when Aquaman tells him the vaccine is for kids with measles. The Scavenger remembers having them himself, and is floored that Aquaman would risk his life for such a cause.
When given the chance, Aquaman refuses to turn The Scavenger in; in fact, he tells the police that this is his partner! How does the stranger know all this? Well...:
While having a meal at the stranger's cabin, there's a knock at the door, and on the other side is...Aquaman!
The kid goes nuts, and The Scavenger, whom Aquaman calls Mort, tells the Sea King he'll explain everything. In the meantime:
...the end.
A very sweet and unusual story, and a fine way to end the series.
Rediscovering this series has been a real treat, and now that I look back on it I'm sorry this particular series didn't get a chance to go on longer. Writer Shaun McLaughlin was getting better and better as the series progressed, and was developing Aquaman away from the mopey grouch he had been for so long.
But we're not completely done talking about this series--be here tomorrow for an interview with the man himself, Shaun McLaughlin!
Comics Weekend Aquaman returns to Poseidonis and learns about his past in "Spoils of War" by Shaun McLaughlin, Ken Hooper, and Bob Dvorak!
Aquaman has been called back to Poseidonis by King Thesily, and and as soon as he arrives there, he sees a gang of three men seemingly looting from some others.
After a few thrown punches, it turns out the fight was over coral, which is a rare and valuable commodity within the confines of the city. Since Poseidonis' dome is still in ruins, and sharks are still circling, King Thesily has told his citizens they cannot venture outside.
And even though Aquaman has been working hard, trying to get the U.N. to recognize Poseidonis, Thesily is less than pleased with Aquaman's, as Thesily sees it, lack of attention on this matter.
Aquaman begins to defend himself, then:
Aquaman heads off, and finds his old friend Vulko, who is planning to leave the city and study another deep sea city, Tritonis. Aquaman asks to accompany him, to try and keep him safe. After a little cajoling, Vulko agrees, and they both leave Poseidonis.
At Tritonis, the warrior Iqula is still embroiled in a battle with that city's leadership for freedom. Aquaman tries to help Iqula out, but insists only citizens of the city can participate.
Life is odd--even odder than usual--in Tritonis, where bloody pitched battles are fought within a very specific set of rules. When the battle is called to be over, it ends, with both sides retreating peacefully, until the next one.
Aquaman is trying to understand this odd way of warfare, until word comes that Vulko and Iqula's wife, Lady S'Ona, are captured! This leads Iqula to break the enforced truce and go on an all-out attack:
Aquaman can only stand by helplessly and watch, even as Iqula is stabbed.
But he changes his mind when Iqula is shot by a gun of some sort, one that Arthur recognizes is from Poseidonis. He knocks out a few of the royal guards, helps rescue Lady S'Ona, and then heads into the royal chambers to find Vulko.
Inside, Tritonis' king, Firtf, tries to use Vulko as a shield, only to find the weathered old man not quite as helpless as he thought--Vulko kicks the king in the chin, giving Aquaman the chance to land him on his butt with a one punch.
In the meantime, the battle has ended, with both sides laying down their arms. Iqula and S'Ona are installed as the new rulers, and all Aquaman asks of them is they look after Vulko.
As Aquaman prepares to leave Poseidonis, Vulko hands him several volumes, which he calls The Atlantis Chronicles. He tells Arthur they will answer questions he has always had about his origins. Aquaman takes them and departs:
...definitely an unusual issue, and it reminds me a lot of the last few issues of Justice League of America, where all the storylines are wrapped up and pointed toward the new series.
Unlike that series, though, this fourth Aquaman book got the chance to end its brief run on an up note, free from the other goings-on in the DC Universe, which we'll see here tomorrow!
Comics Weekend A new story starts with this issue, as it opens with a large dinosaur-like creature cruising the ocean depths.
Meanwhile, Aquaman is getting examined at S.T.A.R. Labs, where one of their doctors tells them that since he has been going for days and days without sleep, barely eating and under tremendous stress, he desperately needs rest.
After much cajoling from the doctors and Arthur's U.N. contact, he reluctantly agrees to put himself in a sort of water-filled sleep chamber to get some enforced downtime. Of course, that's not gonna last...
Meanwhile, the sea creature finds its way to the New York Harbor, where it runs afoul of a tour boat, and is met with typical New York hospitality:
...good move, Andy!
The creature attacks the boat, of course, tipping it over. But it doesn't attack the people who have fallen into the water, instead it seems to be going out of its way to help the people out of the water.
They wake Aquaman up from his rest, and he recalls having met these creatures before (in Superman #63, apparently), and agrees to try and warn it off.
Suddenly, the creature thrashes and roars, and a group of police start to shoot at it, both from the land and from a police helicopter. Aquaman stops them and pulls off this nice move:
He then has the chopper lead the creature out to sea, then jumps back into the water. The creature slaps him with its head, then takes off. What the...?
Aquaman tries to communicate with it telepathically, but can't get through. The only sense he gets from it is that its hungry, but then why didn't it eat the people from the boat?
It then attacks Aquaman, and tries to eat him! With Aquaman in his exhausted, sedated, groggy state, he finds himself nearly becoming lunch, in a nice page by artist Ken Hoover:
As he struggles to keep its mouth from closing on him, he hears a telepathic command, "Open!", and suddenly the creature backs off.
He sees it came from a woman, armed with a spear, who speaks only telepathically. She explains she is Dera, of Mertu. The creature--named Peli--is her friend, and it felt that it was only defending itself from the boat:
...the final, trash can-shaped panel is a little much, but otherwise a cool page.
Aquaman barely has time to figure out what exactly happened, what this woman's mysterious warnings mean, when he is told there is trouble again in Poseidonis. We see that the citizens of the city are trying to rebuild, only to be attacked by violent looters. To be continued!
I tend to enjoy single-issue stories in between longer arcs, and after all the psychological hugger-mugger, its nice to see Aquaman take on a giant sea creature. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.
Comics Weekend Part 2 of the "Eco-Wars" story, by Shaun McLaughlin and Vince Garriano!
Picking from the previous issue, Aquaman was caught in between the Sea Devils, who are going after the Merrevale Oil Company, who has simultaneously set the Sea Devils up (to make them look like eco-terrorists) and dumped a series of chemicals into the Icana River, which unknowingly kills all the wildlife it touches.
Aquaman had jumped into the water to save the life of an egret which had been felled by the chemicals, only to find that he now is having trouble breathing underwater!
This issue picks up at that moment, with a nice splash page by Giarrano:
One of the Sea Devils, Biff, jumps in and drags Aquaman out. He explains to Arthur that he thinks Merrevale sabotaged its own oil rig, knowing the Sea Devils would hit it. Then when it spilled all of its oil into the water, Merrvale can do the clean-up, looking good to the world and turning public opinion against the Devils (the name "Sea Devils" probably doesn't help).
But the chemicals dumped into the water go awry, the head of Merrevale, a man named Wylie, then sends a phalanx of shock troops to go after the Devils and Aquaman.
While Biff goes to get the proof he needs to implicate Wylie, Aquaman takes matters into his own hands:
...that's cool, Aquaman tipping over the entire oil rig all by himself.
Arthur then notices these shock troops are dressed just like the ones the country of Oumland used when they attacked Poseidonis (in Aquaman #'s 1 & 2), and realizes Oumland and Merrevale might be in on this together.
After taking out a few of them on his own, he calls on his finny friends to help the Sea Devils:
...another nice panel; I like how spooky Aquaman looks, the absence of any sound effects and whatnot.
One of the Sea Devils commandeers a local TV news chopper, showing the world the wreckage Merrevale has caused: hundreds of dead sea creatures floating in the river. Wylie panics and tries to cut his losses, and flips a switch causing tiny explosions inside the helmets of the shock troops, killing them all instantly. Yuck!
Aquaman and the Sea Devils talk it over, and they realize that, while they thought they were doing the right thing, Merrevale ended up using them as part of his plot. Aquaman then takes off for the U.N. just in time to see Poseidonis accepted into the organization.
He then heads for Wylie's office:
...take that, jerkface!
While the press slams Merrevale, a secret group called The Exchange decides what to do with Wylie. The Oumland U.N. rep offers to have him moved on to another nefarious project, while Wylie swears revenge on Aquaman...
Vince Giarrano did a nice job on the art for this two-parter, and I like Aquaman screwing over Wylie at the end. Nice to see him win one, once in a while.
Comics Weekend Aquaman fights a battle perfectly suited to his talents...Eco Wars!
We open on an oil rig, drilling in the Icana River. It is suddenly attacked by three people flying some sort of ship! They blast away, setting off an explosion. Are these people...the Sea Devils?
Meanwhile, Aquaman is on a plane, headed to the U.N. in New York. His once-hourly need to get water is met when a buxom stewardess "accidentally" spills a glass of ice water on him. Dear Penthouse Forum...
Anyway, after taking some heat from King Thesily for not letting the police handle Nicodemus (last issue), he is asked to meet with the U.N.'s Secretary General.
He is told about the Sea Devils' attack, and that they have plans for another one. Since they are U.S. citizens, they don't want to use American troops, but perhaps Aquaman could "talk" to them...? In return, they promise to think favorably towards Poseidonis, and its upcoming vote in the U.N.
Aquaman agrees, and he makes a classic superhero exit/entrance, courtesy guest artist Vince Giarrano:
Meanwhile, we find the Sea Devils arguing with one of their own--Biff, who left them to work for "the other side."
Aquaman discovers all the massive ecological damage the spilled oil has caused--fish and birds choked in the goopy mess. Aquaman is less than pleased.
Aquaman finds the Sea Devils, still fighting amongst themselves, and shows them what has happened. The Devils' leader, Dane Dorrance, swears they never intended to blow up the rig, a bomb was set to frame them.
Aquaman thinks this is paranoid nonsense, and he tends to more important business: warning all the animals and sea life out there to stay away from this ecological disaster. When he does, he is met with overwhelming waves of fear, something he's keen to share with Dorrance:
Aquaman, Biff, and the Sea Devils then look into capping the still-spilling oil well, which Aquaman accomplishes. Biff notices something that looks like sabotage, and thinks Dorrance might be telling the truth.
Turns out this was a plot by the Merrevale Oil Company, who did this to frame the Sea Devils in the eyes of the public, turning them from Environmentalists to Eco-Terrorists. Unfortunately, they didn't realize Aquaman would get involved.
But luckily for them, the second part of their plan can still move forward: under the guise of putting in a series of microbes called The Eaters that will supposedly eat up all the spilled oil, Merrevale has put a death sentence out on all the sea life. Aquaman, at the moment, knows nothing about this:
...but when Aquaman sees some of the pelicans writhing in pain while in the water, he dives in to save them. Then the same thing starts happening to him! To be continued!
While the Merrevale Oil characters a drawn a bit broadly (they practically twirl their mustaches in evil glee), Aquaman getting involved in ecological concerns makes total sense. (Remind me to explain my Al Gore/Aquaman idea some time) Aquaman being Champion of the Animal Kingdom is also something I think works for him as a character, and I always like panels like the one above, where he's being kind to them.
By the way, I don't think I've seen this Sea Devils logo before:
Comics Weekend A nice, moody cover, this by regular artist Ken Hooper...and who's that up there on the roof?
After opening on an assassin pledging himself to kill Aquaman, we find Arthur squabbling with his former sidekick, Aqualad, who has since been healed by his fellow Idylists.
Soon, though, Arthur and he reconcile, and Aquaman heads back to the U.N. to address the Surface World. He tells them Poseidonis has been wracked by war, and he and the city only want to make peace.
As the assassin (who has also made his way to the U.N.) gets himself in place to pull off the hit, Aquaman finishes his speech and then addresses the press:
...ah, good to see the Press is as silly in the DCU as it is in our world.
Anyway, while outside, a shot rings out, but misses. Aquaman helps his U.N. envoy get to safety and then finds his would-be assassin.
Aquaman smashes his way in to where this guys is, and takes a bullet to the chest, but between his dense molecular structure and a bullet-proof vest, he is only startled.
The bad guy is about to get off a head shot, when someone else shows up...Batman!
Batman gets a few shots in, and the assassin takes his cue and splits, while Batman sees how Aquaman is doing:
Batman tells Arthur this guy's name is Nicodemus, and after another shot, Aquaman gets close again, close enough to break Nicodemus' rifle in two, leading to a more hand-to-hand fight.
Aquaman wonders why, if this guy is just a normal human, why he can't simply knock him out.
Nicodemus jumps off the roof they're fighting on, but Arthur drops a fire escape on him, caging him long enough to shed himself of his human clothes:
After a few more punches, Aquaman finally slams him in the head with a manhole cover (ouch), knocking him out.
The Police arrive, and Aquaman is tended to by our guest-star, in a classic Batman move:
...I like the highlighting of the differences between these two sourpusses. Aquaman can, at times, enjoy himself.
While Aquaman looks into the hows and whys of the assassination attempt, Nicodemus is given the Lee Harvey Oswald treatment in jail, his letter of apology for failing left to burn to ashes.
I've said before I wasn't a fan of penciler Ken Hooper's artwork--I found too much dead space in the early issues, too many chances for a dramatic impact lost.
But with this issue, he made marked improvement--figures fill the space when they need to, and the storytelling is clearer and more exciting. I think nearly every superhero comic needs one of those "Taa-da!" moments; Aquaman gets a few here.
Also, usually when you've got Batman guest-starring in your book, you plaster his name and picture all over. They show restraint here (in fact, I missed that Batman was even on the cover the first two or three times I looked at it), and I was glad to see that they let Aquaman be the hero of his own book, and not have Batman come in and save his skin.
Comics Weekend Another excellently rendered Aquaman cover by Kevin Maguire (his last, sadly) fronts an issue featuring two blasts from Aquaman's past!
Picking up from last issue, we find Aquaman in battle with some sort of giant, mutated version of himself, dressed in his blue, "camouflage" no less!
Aquaman has no idea who this deformed doppleganger is, and he finds that in this weird place, what he knows as Reality doesn't apply: when he punches his adversary, he simply splits into pieces and continues to taunt him.
He closes his eyes for a moment and then finds himself fighting the Justice League itself--Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary, and...a past version of himself!
He finally realizes none of this is real:
...I dunno, I'd still prefer this all-singing, all-dancing JLA to the one in Identity Crisis.
Anyway, Aquaman wakes up--partly--and we see he's in the care of an Atlantean physician. They go to fetch Lord Vulko, and we follow Aquaman back into his subconscious.
Here he meets a giant version of his dead son Arthur Jr., and then he squabbles with Mera over all that has happened to them.
All this is being watched by an old, old foe:
...yes, its the creepy, hulking Thanatos, first introduced way back in Aquaman (Vol.1) #54! Great Neptune!
In this world, though, Thanatos is married to his own version of Mera, and she doesn't understand who this "other" Aquaman is that she "dreamt" of.
Thanatos tries to mess with Aquaman's mind more, but it doesn't work, and when Aquaman lays down his arms, refusing to fight his wife and son, admitting his mistakes as a father and a husband, but ultimately, finally, forgiving himself, it helps him escape from this subconscious world, and he wakes up.
As Aquaman rests soundly, Thanatos realizes his plan has not worked. Worse yet, his wife Mera "no longer looks at me in the same way."
I'm glad an attempt was made to get Aquaman past all the psychological hand-wringing I think he got bogged down in after a while, considering all the tragedy that had befallen him.
In the end, I don't think it totally stuck, but writer Shaun McLaughlin gives it the old college try here. And bringing back Thanatos was a neat idea.
Comics Weekend Hasn't every Aqua Fan always wanted to see this cover? Another winner by Kevin Maguire.
Picking up from last weekend, Aquaman (Vol.4) #5 left off with Black Manta having destroyed Mercy Reef, a spot of great significance to Aquaman, most recently the spot where he buried his son. Manta is on a single-minded mission to destroy everything Arthur holds dear.
Aquaman decides to end this once and for all, and kill Black Manta.
He finds Manta outside the city of Poseidonis, still in rubble from its battle with the surface world country of Oumland. Manta then shoots "a little something" he stole from S.T.A.R. Labs, a headband of some sort that attaches itself to Aquaman's skull and takes control of his body.
Manta then shoots a toxin over the city (borrowed from a "Dr. Crane", a nice touch), causing the citizens to fight each other, one group thinking Aquaman is a hero, the other a menace.
One of them is immune to the toxin, and grabs a giant decorative "A" out of the Aqua Cave, showing it to the crowd, rallying them to his side, reminding them that its Black Manta who is their enemy, not Aquaman. They come out of their fog, and fight Manta's army of warriors. Manta is a tad surprised:
Aquaman manages to get the device off his head (taking some scalp along with it) and dive-bombs Manta's ship, telling himself he won't let anything stop him from, once and for all, killing Black Manta. I like this segment, highlighting a superpower Aquaman has that isn't played up all that much: his super-fast reflexes:
Aquaman does what's shown on the cover, and grips his hands around Manta's throat. Unfortunately, Manta is still able to talk and mess with his mind, and when he suggests its Aquaman's fault that Mera left him, it startles Arthur long enough for Manta to stick a shiv in him.
As Black Manta scapes, he reminds everyone what an A-1 jerk he is:
Manta does escape his ship, but Aquaman commands a school of Surgeon Fish to attack his pressurized suit, tearing it, causing Manta to sink to the bottom of the ocean...
Meanwhile, Aquaman is met by his dolphin friend Porm, and Aquaman is paralyzed with sadness, realizing he couldn't even do what he set out to--kill Black Manta. A strange, wild-eyed face fills the final panel, exclaiming "Now you're mine!" To be continued!
You know, considering how much they have in common, its amazing that Aquaman and Batman aren't better friends. They each have a supervillain who killed their son, one who they've shown mercy to but keeps coming back, again and again. You'd think they'd do some sort of Strangers On A Train thing and wrap up each other's problem for good.
One of the nicest things about doing this blog is that its given me the opportunity to go back and read comics that I didn't necessarily like all that much the first time. Reading these again, I find these stories by writer Shaun McLaughlin work a lot better than I remember.
I mean, of course, we all know Aquaman isn't going to kill Black Manta--like the Joker, he's just too good a baddie to get rid of (and unlike Batman, Aquaman can't afford to thin his Rogues Gallery out), but this story works well anyway.
Comics Weekend Continuing our examination of the briefly-running fourth Aquaman solo series!
The fifth cover in a row by Kevin Maguire, and another winner. Aquaman is pissed, and headed at you at tremendous speed. Nicely done.
Picking up from last issue, we have the goofy (yet dangerous) pro-whaling fanatic Queequeg, who has managed to get a hold of a huge cache of missiles, and fires them at our hero!
Aquaman does the old "have the missile follow me into a cave, get stuck there, and blow up harmlessly" bit ("This hasn't worked since 1975", Arthur thinks), which goes off exactly like he had hoped.
He then heads for the surface, looking to rip Queequeg a new one. While Queequeg is celebrating an early victory:
...yep, that's it. Queequeg is defeated.
I know this joke has been done before, but I think it almost always works. Writer Shaun McLaughlin was building this subplot over three issues, and its all over in two panels.
Aquaman then makes it on land, but before he can even introduce himself, he collapses!
He wakes up at--where else?--S.T.A.R. Labs. His body simply gave out from all the physical damage it took in the last few days. Suddenly, an old friend shows up to see him: Troia, formerly Wonder Girl!
Turns out that Arthur's old sidekick, Garth (aka Aqualad) was grievously injured in a battle with the supervillain the Wildebeest (in New Titans #72), and is in some sort of stasis tube, barely alive. The Titans wonder if Aquaman can help.
He agrees to try, and takes Garth to his people, a separatist sect of Atlanteans called The Idylists. Even though Garth is an outcast, they agree to try and care for him.
Aquaman heads back to the U.N., where he is met by his old friend, The Martian Manhunter. They go to lunch with a U.N. ambassador, and Arthur and J'onn squabble over Arthur's seeming lack of control. While he was unconscious, a massive school of fish "went crazy" in the East River, and the U.N. wants to know why.
While Aquaman is addressing the U.N. and reporters, the proverbial bad penny shows up:
Manhunter takes on the members of Lord Iqula's men who Manta has conned into helping him, and Aquaman chases after Manta himself. Manta waits for Aquaman to get close, before firing missiles at...To be continued!
This issue features the first letters page of the series, and the reaction is very positive. There's also this mention of a future member of F.O.A.M., Chuck "D.C." Dill:
Comics Weekend Last weekend's posts on the briefly-running fourth Aquaman series were well-received, so I thought we'd keep going!
This fourth issue sports another fine cover by Kevin Maguire, a classic superhero battle!
Picking up from last issue, we have Lord Iqula and his army of warriors marching---er, swimming--- towards the now-unprotected city of Poseidonis, which has had its protective dome shattered by an attack by surface dwellers.
And now a massive school of sharks are making their way towards the city, and for some reason Aquaman is not able to deter them from their mission.
Aquaman fights his way towards Iqula, who wants to take control of the city in the name of protecting it. When Aquaman tries to argue, Iqula dismisses him, saying he spends far too much time above the water, and not enough with his own people.
Iqula claims he is the rightful ruler of the seas, but Aquaman has a counter-argument:
...I like Arthur's line, "Now, about this 'at one with the seas' business." I love it when Aquaman gets to be funny!
Aquaman and Iqula engage in battle, after Iqula's men attack Poseidonis' army, again all in the name of protection. He manages to defeat Iqula, who calls his army back. But just as he does, a mysterious, ominous, manta-shaped ship appears...
Meanwhile, Aquaman heads back into the city to check on his old friend Vulko, who was injured in the earlier attack. At the moment Vulko is confused, and doesn't remember anything of the recent past:
Also meanwhile, a raving zealot (who we briefly saw last issue) pilots a whaling ship, searching for "the false prophet of environmentalism: Aquaman." Oh boy.
Aquaman is asked to speak for Poseidonis at the U.N., to resolve the conflicy between it and the country of Oumland. He agrees, but when he surfaces he is attacked by our fanatic, who calls himself "Queequeg, Master of the Techno-Sonar Militarism!"
Aquaman's first response? "Oh, great...a fanatic." To be continued!
I like how Aquaman gets a few brief moments to be funny here. He's usually so serious, so dour, that when he makes a joke it makes a real impact.
Also, this Queequeg guy is goofy, so its neat to have writer Shaun McLaughlin have Aquaman admit that right up front.
F.O.A.M. member Shag Matthews owns a page of original art from this book, and he generously sent me a scan so we can compare the original page by Ken Hooper and Bob Dvorak:
...to the final printed version:
...sometimes, you can get a real idea just how much work goes into a single comic book page. No wonder I gave up on the whole idea while I was at the Kubert School!
Comics Weekend Picking up from yesterday's post, we continue examining the short-lived Aquaman solo series from 1992.
Before we go into the issue, I want to take a moment to compliment the awesome cover by Kevin Maguire--this is one of my favorite Aquaman covers of all time, the gaping maw of the shark practically filling the frame. You really don't need any type or description when you've got such a compelling image.
Anyway, last issue ended with Aquaman having to play catch up, following an attack on the city of Poseidonis by some surface dwellers. He was able to end the fight, but now the citizens of the city are in danger from a throng of sharks headed towards them. For some reason, these sharks don't obey Aquaman's commands.
Aquaman puts himself between some kids and a shark, and leads them to a spot he's familiar with:
...I thought that was a nice touch, linking this Aquaman with the one from the 1960s. Post-Crisis, I was never sure what stories were part of a character's history anymore. And I like the two kids having varying opinions on the coolness of something called "The Aqua Cave."
Aquaman gets closer to one of the sharks, to see if direct contact will help him understand what's going on. Unfortunately, all he can read is the word "Feed" over and over and over, leading one of the sharks to chomp down on the Sea King's leg!
Aquaman is forced to kill the shark or lose his leg, something it pains him to do. He then figures out a way to get rid of the sharks--by commanding a school of fish called Moses Sole, who secrete a fluid that is a natural shark repellent. They surround the city, and it does the trick.
As if this wasn't enough trouble, a legion of Poseidonis citizens, led by the tough-as-nails Lord Iquala are heading there to "save Poseidonis from itself", by force if necessary. To be continued!
I mentioned yesterday I was never a big fan of Atlantis-centric stories for Aquaman--I think it makes the character too distant, too removed from the reader identification Aquaman has always had trouble with.
But one of the ideas I think does work well that is explored here by writer Shaun McLaughlin is the idea of a power vacuum. Aquaman may be King of the Seven Seas, leader of Atlantis, but if he's going to be gone a lot cavorting with the Justice League and other surface dwellers, his fellow citizens might start finding that unpalatable.
Also like I've said before, I'm not that big a fan of penciler Ken Hooper's work--it's just too spare for my tastes, but he got better issue to issue, and I can only imagine how tiring it must have been having to draw page after page of fantastical cities, destroyed buildings (since Atlantis was always being destroyed). Sometimes he would drop the realism angle and go for a more design-y look, like this:
...which I think looks quite nice. I'm going to move on to the fourth and fifth issues of this series, and I hope I see more of this!
Comics Weekend I've only talked about this fourth Aquaman series once before, so it's long past due to look it over again and see what we find!
Aquaman ran from Dec. 1991 to Dec. 1992 with almost the exact same creative team-- writer Shaun McLaughlin, and artists Ken Hooper and Bob Dvorak-- on the entire run, a rare event at the time (and even more rare now).
Frequently, the covers (like this one) were by Kevin Maguire, who gave us some of Aquaman's finest, in my opinion.
This issue is continued from the previous one, with Aquaman trapped under a pile of rubble, the result of the country known an Oumland having attacked Poseidonis with nuclear missiles and shock troops.
As a missile heads towards an unconscious Aquaman, an Atlantean citizen rockets toward him, taking the brunt of the explosion herself, freeing and saving her hero in the process.
After Aquaman wakes up, he sees his old friend Vulko has been hurt in the attacks, and uses his finny friends (in this case a school of giant squid) to grab the subs and keep them from moving.
Aquaman then learns from some Poseidonis citizens that it was they who attacked a surface ship, starting the war in the first place. Aquaman then heads to the surface to find out exactly how all this got started, though it doesn't go well:
...this leads to a funny sequence, where we have a nice microcosm of Aquaman's main problem in dealing with the Surface World:
...nothing says "I came to talk!" more than throwing punches. Aquaman then gets shot in the leg, slowing the fight down long enough for an Oumland government official to tell his people to cease the attack.
Later, we have the two of them discussing what happened, and Aquaman is less than pleased that, even though his people fired off nothing more than a warning shot, Oumland retaliated with an all-out attack.
Aquaman returns to Poseidonis, feeling guilt over being away from his people, unable to help them while they were under attack.
He gets there only to find another problem: a massive group of sharks are heading their way towards the city, and it citizens...and they are no longer listening to Aquaman. To be continued!
I remember not being much of a fan of this series when it first debuted, partly because of the art, partly because I've always found Atlantis-centric stories the least interesting facet to Aquaman's back story.
But at the time, I took for granted that Aquaman would always have some sort of solo book, so I didn't feel too guilty about not supporting whatever series he had at the time. I now know better.
Like I said about the Peter David run, I have a greater appreciation for these issues now then I did at the time, so be here tomorrow for the next chapter!