Action Comics #540 - Feb. 1983

Comics Weekend "Water-War One" by Bob Rozakis, Alex Saviuk, and Joe Giella.

Aquaman ends his run as the back-up in Action Comics with this issue, with he and Mera fighting V'Lana, a woman bent on usurping the throne of Xebel, Mera's home planet:

While Aquaman is unconscious, Mera and V'Lana fight inside her throne room. V'Lana admits that once she had a taste of power, she can't bear to give it up. She assumes Mera has the same feelings, and won't listen when Mera tries to assure her it's because Mera can no longer live on Earth.

V'Lana has an octopus grab Mera and try and subdue her, but suddenly it lets go, seemingly for no reason. Mera then offers to fight V'Lana mano a mano, and creates a hard water ring with just the two of them inside.

Mera and V'Lana engage in hand-to-hand combat, with Mera finally knocking V'Lana's crown right off her head:

...not to be continued!

A rare happy ending for Aquaman, this would be his last solo strip until his 1986 mini-series. In between, he (with Gerry Conway's help) would take control of the JLA and lead that book through its biggest changes ever.

DC must have felt that Action Comics didn't need a back-up strip anymore, for this was not only the last Aquaman feature, but the last back-up in the book entirely.

As I've said before, this was a nice strip, well written by Bob Rozakis and nicely drawn (if inconsistent because of the constantly-changing inkers) by Alex Saviuk. I was fortunate enough to get an Aquaman sketch from Mr. Saviuk a few years ago, and it's one of the nicest ones in my collection. He served the Sea King well!