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Friday, February 22, 2008

Action Comics #518 - April 1981

sgFor this and the next two Comic Fridays, we're going to finish our examination of the all-too-brief run by writer J.M. DeMatteis on the King of the Seven Seas.

Starting out in Adventure Comics, with art by Dick Giordano, the series moved to the back of Action Comics, this time with art by Don Heck.

This is the second chapter(or sixth, depending on how you look at it), picking up right after last issue, with Aquaman and Mera having discovered that Ocean Master was the one behind the bizarre Black Manta robot duplicate that attacked Aquaman and tried to take over Atlantis with a mob of disenfranchised surface dwellers.

As we find them, the Sea King and his Queen are talking to the local police and explaining to them what just happened
:
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Inside the building, they find a secret room with a robot duplicate Scavenger(who attacked Aquaman in Adventure #475). What the heck is going on around here?

We find Ocean Master talking to a mysterious woman. While Orm is busy beating himself up for failing her, she sends another one of her minions, Posiedon(who attacked Aquaman in Adventure #476), to again try and kill Aquaman!

Meanwhile,
Aquaman, Mera, and Cal Durham figure out that part of Orm's plan must involve wanting to keep Atlana--the lone survivor of the original Atlantis--trapped in her other-worldly limbo. As they talk, Poseidon arrives(by knocking on the door, no less) and collapses the building on them. That's that, thinks Poseidon, but not so fast:
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Poseidon uses his powers to make the denizens of the city attack the three of them, burying Aquaman in a pile of angry sea-life. Cal begs Poseidon to let up, that Aquaman is a good man, a man who took Cal in and made him part of his family.

The word "family" sparks something in Poseidon, who calls off the fish and saves Aquaman, saying how he could he let Aquaman die, since he's...his son! To be continued!


I already said my piece about the change in art style--Don Heck compared to Dick Giordano--last week, so I won't get into it again here. DeMatteis still finds time for another nice Aquaman moment, something he clearly set out to do with each story.

Next week: "Family Plot!"
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sgThere's other exciting Aqua-Comic News this week, as Aquaman, Mera, and Aqualad all appear in this week's issue of DC's super-fun Brave and the Bold book.

The story takes place in the past(just as Arthur and Mera are about to wed), so we don't have a "current" classic Aquaman sighting, but Waid and Perez do such a nice job it was still a blast to read. I suggest any AquaFan pick it up!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a good one, Rob. I really wish they'd put out an Aquaman collection on DVD. It could collect all of his appearances from his own title to Adventure and Action. That would pretty much be the only way I'd be able to read all of these.

Anonymous said...

There was another Aquaman sighting last week. He appeared in the back of TINY TITANS in his DC SUPER FRIENDS guise. It was basically a preview of the upcoming comic based on the toy line.