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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Adventure Comics #116 - May 1947

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Comics Weekend "Peril of Pearl Valley!" by Don Cameron(?) and Louis Cazeneuve.

It's Adventure Sunday!

Aquaman faces a possible real-live sea monster while dealing with some crooked treasure hunters:
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Woe is the crook who explains his plan out loud!

While pearl diving, Menckin spies Aquaman following him. He heads back to the surface, while the "monster" attacks Aquaman. The Sea King sees that its not real, its a mechanical doppelganger remotely controlled by Menckin:
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...and so ends another adventure with Aquaman!


Its a little troubling to me that Aquaman planned to kill the real octopus that grabbed Menckin. Sure, as a superhero he was obliged to at least try and save the bad guy, but why would he have to kill the octopus to do it? I'd say give it your best shot, but otherwise just sarcastically wave at Menckin and say "Good luck, pal--I'm pulling for you!" Then take off for more adventures.

I couldn't find any definite info as to who wrote this story, but since the previous Aquaman installment in Adventure Comics was the debut of writer Don Cameron to the strip, I'm going to assume it was him as well.

3 comments:

Anthony said...

Yeah, the scene of him killing that octopus left me going "huh?!" All part of the nature of Golden Age comics, I guess... that and more affirmation Topo's definitely an Earth-One-only character... ;-)

Which brings me to my question: when did Aquaman first demonstrate he actually has telepathic powers (versus the vaguely-defined "somehow communicates with sea creatures")? Apparently not the case yet here, otherwise he'd tell the killer ock to back off...

Re: Superboy on the cover: The story this issue is about Superboy helping test a toy maker's toys to save his company (and stopping a pair of crooked rival toy makers). The story's closing caption-blurb refers to Superboy as "the mighty mite," a term I usually figured referred to the Golden Age Atom. (Don Cameron, Superboy's co-creator, wrote this story as well, per Google...).

JD said...

Aquaman killing sea life rather than reasoning with or outright controlling it? This is really poor understanding of the character on the writer's part. Continuity wasn't such a big deal in the Golden Age I guess... :(

Joseph Brian Scott said...

"Remnants of pain ..." Ha HA! And we're off to a fun start. I bet jewelery stores aren't using that phrase in their advertising.

Yeah, A-man's priorities were a little different on Earth-2; killing sea life and then telling the surface dwellers "Now you're safe to exploit the ocean's riches! Dive! Dive and strip it clean, boys!"
(You can also tell how times have changed by the Superboy cover: How many little kids today would get dressed up in their best shirts, sweaters, and green-checked pants to play with their toys?)

What's even more kooky about these Aquaman stories is how they almost bend over backwards to avoid any kind of fantasy elements, spitting in the face of the central premise: Sure, the main character's a guy who can breathe underwater and talk to fish, but real mermaids or sea monsters?! That's crazy talk.