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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Animaniacs #42 - Nov. 1998

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This odball Aquaman reference was sent in by F.O.A.M.er Holly Hutchinson--Aquaman's pants--and just his pants--on the cover of Animaniacs #42!

The cover is by Leonardo Batic and Mike DeCarlo, and there's an inside story called "(UN)dressed for Success" which probably ties in to this. I have no idea whether Aquaman (or any of the DCU) appears in the story, but that is definitely the pants the Sea King was rocking in 1998.

Great catch, Holly, thanks!

6 comments:

JD said...

The Animaniacs was such a hilarious show with great pop culture based humor, nice to know it referenced Aquaman too!

Eric said...

Hi, Rob!. Eric Gjovaag, husband of F.O.A.M.er Laura, here. I happen to have that issue of "Animaniacs", and just thumbed through it. Nope, no appearance by Aquaman or any other superheroes in it. And you're right, the story "(Un)dressed for Success" has to do with the futile attempts of local do-gooders to force Wakko to wear pants. It seems whenever he puts some on, something heavy falls from the sky and lands on one whoever is making him wear pants. Go fig.

Wings1295 said...

I just saw this cover somewhere online recently and I totally missed the Aqua-pants! Doh!

David J. Cutler said...

The kind of bizarre and unexpected reference I love to see. I guess at the time, Aquaman did pretty much have the most distinctive pants in the DCU.

rob! said...

Eric--Thanks for the info!

HollyH said...

@Wings: Bully (of "Comics Oughta Be Fun!") posted it as part of a "Ten Things" post a few weeks ago, which is where I saw it, and happened to spot the pants.

@David J. Cutler: I was kind of thinking about that, too. On the one hand: of all DC superhero pants, you put Aquaman's on the cover? On the other hand, I'm thinking about the look of a lot of other DC heroes from the waist down, and am wondering if they aren't a bit too "generic" to know that they are referencing that particular superhero. That got me thinking about the fact that a lot of superheroes actually have their identifying insignia on their chests.

Aquaman doesn't, though -- he has his on his belt-buckle. At the time, of course, Aquaman's costume ONLY consisted of his pants, and some half-armor on his torso (different in style from the pants). I can't easily think of another DC hero who had a pants-only outfit. You would never go running around only wearing the pants/tights/boots portion of, say, Superman's or Batman's or Flash's outfit.

That said, I think if they had gone with either of Aquaman's "classic" outfit bottoms, it would still have worked. (i.e. either with the black "trunks" and green legs, or the all-green) As long as it had a hint of scales and the fins on the back, and the belt with the A buckle, it'd be identifiable. But it makes sense that they used the pants he was wearing in the comics at the time.