Sweeney has now realized this new friend of hers isn't some crazy liar, he's actually Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas--or at least, he was:
Tempest catches Arthur up on all that's been happening, and is turning to his old friend to come back to Atlantis and straighten everything out.
Much to Garth's dismay, Arthur refuses, saying he's simply "lost my taste for political intrigue." Garth won't accept that for an answer, and uses his powers to transfer both he and Arthur out of their bodies into some willing undersea hosts:
They head to Atlantis, and Arthur is shocked at what he sees: Atlantis is pretty much a mess. Its under the thumb of a band of sorcerers, who also control the military, keeping anyone else from gaining political power.
They make their way to the imperial throne room, where Aquaman sees his beloved queen, Mera, residing in some sort of zombie-like state, kept doped up and pliant. Aquaman, even in fish form, can't help but try and defend his wife, so he nips at the hand of one of Mera's handlers.
This tips off Hagen, the sorcerer who seems to be in charge. He demands the two fish--who he senses are not who they seem--be captured, so Arthur and Garth have to high-tail it out of there. They are chased by a pack of barracuda--hungry ones!
Meanwhile, two of the former Atlantean royal guard, sick of Rodunn's change of heart regarding Arthur, head up to the surface world to hunt him down. They find the prostrate bodies of Arthur and Garth, and are about to smash them into a pulp, when Sweeney, seeing all this, intervenes:
Arthur and Garth are caught by one of the barracuda, and swallowed! As the barracuda's stomach acids slowly eat away at their fish host bodies, Aquaman telepathically contacts the Lady of the Lake via his water hand on shore.
Sweeney watches in amazement as the hand separates itself from the rest of Aquaman's body, walks over to Tempest's trident, canceling the spell, bringing them back to their original bodies. It takes them a moment to gather themselves, but when they do, Garth resumes his "we've got to reclaim Atlantis" speech.
This time, though, now that Aquaman has seen what he's seen, he feels a little differently:
...to be continued!
Boy, Atlantis is one unstable place! How many times now has it been conquered, reconquered, and re-reconquered? Steve Skeates was covering this ground in the late 1960s--and while there's absolutely nothing wrong with another Aquaman writer trying it again, it does make Atlantis seem like a kind of insane place. If I was Aquaman, I would have, er, washed my hands of the whole thing a while back.
Be back here in two weeks when he pick up the story with Aquaman #s 5 and 6!
Much to Garth's dismay, Arthur refuses, saying he's simply "lost my taste for political intrigue." Garth won't accept that for an answer, and uses his powers to transfer both he and Arthur out of their bodies into some willing undersea hosts:
They make their way to the imperial throne room, where Aquaman sees his beloved queen, Mera, residing in some sort of zombie-like state, kept doped up and pliant. Aquaman, even in fish form, can't help but try and defend his wife, so he nips at the hand of one of Mera's handlers.
This tips off Hagen, the sorcerer who seems to be in charge. He demands the two fish--who he senses are not who they seem--be captured, so Arthur and Garth have to high-tail it out of there. They are chased by a pack of barracuda--hungry ones!
Meanwhile, two of the former Atlantean royal guard, sick of Rodunn's change of heart regarding Arthur, head up to the surface world to hunt him down. They find the prostrate bodies of Arthur and Garth, and are about to smash them into a pulp, when Sweeney, seeing all this, intervenes:
Sweeney watches in amazement as the hand separates itself from the rest of Aquaman's body, walks over to Tempest's trident, canceling the spell, bringing them back to their original bodies. It takes them a moment to gather themselves, but when they do, Garth resumes his "we've got to reclaim Atlantis" speech.
This time, though, now that Aquaman has seen what he's seen, he feels a little differently:
Boy, Atlantis is one unstable place! How many times now has it been conquered, reconquered, and re-reconquered? Steve Skeates was covering this ground in the late 1960s--and while there's absolutely nothing wrong with another Aquaman writer trying it again, it does make Atlantis seem like a kind of insane place. If I was Aquaman, I would have, er, washed my hands of the whole thing a while back.
Be back here in two weeks when he pick up the story with Aquaman #s 5 and 6!
2 comments:
Really funny to see a Beck album referenced on the cover blurb there.
One of my favorite comic book covers ever--both of our Marine Marvels looking majestic.
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