] type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Adventures of Aquaman DVD Collection

sgI went and bought these the day they came out(the perfect end to a nice day), and popped them in immediately.

They are every bit as fun as I remember--thirty-six episodes, full of excitement and adventure under the sea. They are a near perfect distillation of the Aquaman comic that had been so popular under the creative direction of Bob Haney and Nick Cardy.

Strangely, only a few of Aquaman's comic book villains show up here--Black Manta of course, as well as The Fisherman and The Terrible Trio(Magneto--guess you can't copyright the name--Torpedo, and Claw), so we have Aquaman taking on a lot aliens who wanna take over Atlantis. But that's pretty meaningless--these cartoons weren't meant for overgrown fanboys to obsess over; they were meant to entertain kids in high style, and that they do.

The set also comes with a neat documentary, "Aquaman: The Sovereign of the Seas" which features people like Mark Waid, Dan Didio, and Michael Uslan waxing philosophic about what makes Aquaman cool, unique, and mythic. It's great to see a segment like this devoted just to Aquaman, with lots of comic panels put on screen in deep, rich color. Yeah, its too short, but I think I still would've felt that way even if it had been three hours long!

Waid posits an interesting theory, that Aquaman appearing in the Super Friends was actually a step back for the character, since he went from being a headliner to a co-star, and when put alongside heavyweights like Superman, he got short-changed.

sgI don't know if I totally buy that, since it wasn't like this show got cancelled and replaced by Super Friends, and to me any TV appearance by Aquaman is better than none at all. Nevertheless, an interesting observation. Not being around when these shows first aired, I can't speak to the impact they had when they debuted--judging from some of the testimonials in the doc, it was quite an impact indeed.

Interesting note: This and the Super Powers DVD set that came out the same day have been advertised on television with thirty-second spots, a wonderfully surprising outlay of cash on Warner Bros.' part. I don't see that many TV boxed sets advertised on TV, so I think it's just awesome Aquaman is getting a little extra attention. It's about time!

9 comments:

Louie Joyce said...

I definitely intend to buy this if/when it's released in Australia (otherwise and american copy on ebay will suffice). And i'm really looking forward to the Sovereign of the Seas feature. Sounds interesting, and like the kind of thing any Aqua fan wants to see.

Rick L. Phillips said...

If anyone ask what I want for Christmas then this is what I will tell them to get.

Anonymous said...

My sister called me last Tuesday at 10 am. My sister never calls me, so I immediately feared the worst. Nope; she told me she was on line at Best Buy to buy this for me, so to not buy it myself! She's saving it to give me for Christmas, and she wants us to watch some of it together. (She's 50!) (sigh) I love my sister. :-)

Anonymous said...

In the words of Comic Book Guy, "Best cartoon ever." From Aquaman's deep commanding voice to his surly-looking sea horse mount(seriously, doesn't Storm look pissed all the time!) to the wall of fish that appear everytime the Sea King summons "the troops." How could any kid not think Aquaman is cool after watching that show?

Diabolu Frank said...

I don't even own J'Onn J'Onzz's appearances on the Justice League cartoon (I flat skipped watching a season and a half of that series,) so don't think ill of me if I rent. Question being: which disc is the documentary on? I can see most of the episodes on YouTube, so that's what I'm really interested in...

rob! said...

its on Disc 2. i have yet to see it on youtube yet, otherwise i wouldve included some screen caps of it here.

Diabolu Frank said...

Muchos Gracias! To the Queue!

De said...

Thanks for the tip, Tadpole!

C'mon Storm!

*seahorse noises*

K.B. said...

Excellent !! A must have.