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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Aquaboy & Lagoon Man #1 - May 2000

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Comics Weekend "Turning Back The Tides of Time" by Ben Raab, Sunny Lee, Larry Stucker, and Norm Rapmund.

Not having read the Sins of Youth storyline, I'm not exactly sure what's going on here, except for the fact that Aquaman (and other heroes) have been changed back into teenagers.

And here, we see the young Aquaman ("Aquaboy") enjoying some of the attention he's getting now that he looks like a cast member of Gossip Girl:
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After fighting off the beach bully, Aquaboy and Lagoon Man are called to help from a mermaid named Letifos. She brings "Dire tidings from Thierna Na Oge."

Apparently the city is under siege from Black Manta (of course it is), as he searches for Ronal's Staff--a magical relic with fantastic powers of transformation.

Aquaboy thinks, hey, maybe the staff can be used on them, and he, Lagoon Man, and Letifos head back into the sea:
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Aquaboy says they need to find Nuada, who is somewhere inside the city. Meanwhile, Lagoon Man is enticed by the various mermaid babes flocking to him, but Letifos warns they are not what they seem!

Turns out she's right--the mermaids turn into horrible demons and begin to attack. Aquaboy tries to help out, but Letifos says he must continue with his mission as they stay behind and fight.

Aquaboy makes it inside, and...
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Using Ronal's Staff, Black Manta has transformed Nuada into an octopus, and an angry one, at that. It attacks Aquaboy, but he uses his telepathic powers to communicate with Nuada inside, and uses her powers to transform back.

Black Manta attacks Aquaboy directly, figuring now that his old foe is just a boy, it'll be easy. Of course, Aquaboy may look like a boy, but he's still the King of the Seven Seas inside, and he wrests the staff from Manta, which causes him to revert back to his more animalistic form.

With Nuada's help, Aquaboy uses the staff to undo all the damage Manta causes to Na Oge and its people.

They are successful, but the strain nearly knocks them both out. Before Lagoon Man catches the falling Aquaboy, he makes sure the staff cannot be used for evil ever again:
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...there's an epilogue, where we see Klarion The Witch Boy free Black Manta from his prison, promising "To be concluded in Young Justice: Sins of Youth #2!"


Not a bad story at all, and it works fairly well for someone like me, who has not read all the ancillary tie-ins. Aquaman may be Aquaboy, but he's still Aquaman, if you catch my drift.

The cover--funky design and all--is by the late, great Mike Wieringo and Terry Austin. Makes me sad all over again that we never got to see his version of Aquaman.

4 comments:

Vincent Paul Bartilucci said...

I thought Sins of Youth was a cut above most company-wide crossovers.

Young Justice were the focus of much of the story and, despite never being partial to Peter David's run on Aquaman, I really dug his YJ stuff. Ben Raab was the writer of this particular special however, and he did a great job stressing Aquaboy's joy at being freed of the responsibilities of adulthood.

I also love how Aquaboy's costume is essentially Aqualad's uniform with the orange and green substituting for red and blue. And the black bands on Garth's gloves and boots? They're white on Aquaboy, of course!

Scurvy said...

How in the heck did I miss this one??? I really liked Letifos as a supporting character. I have a pretty big tattoo of her actually. Goes from my elbow to my shoulder.

Oscar Olalde said...

Just bought the Sins of Youth (the original Young Justice) from a local store ~ it's amazingly well put together and loved Arthur's solo, and made me miss Lagoon Boy, hope this New 52 brings it back before the inevitable "reality fix"

Anonymous said...

Aquaboy is what I think, Arthur Jr. to be like if he was let to grow. Love the scans and the usage of Lagoon Boy who could use a reimagining if added to the New 52.