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Saturday, April 16, 2011

Aquaman (Vol.7) #11 - Dec. 2003

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Comics Weekend "By The Rivers of Babylon" by Rick Veitch, Yvel Guichet, and Mark Propst.

Yet another superhero shows up at Mizen Head looking for the Sea King:
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Aquaman and Black Manta find their way to a temple of the ancient Babylonian River Goddess, and it looks as though The Thirst has beaten them there. They sneak inside, only to find the place mostly deserted and demolished, as if a great battle had been waged.

They discover The Thirst calling forth what he calls "The Fountainhead" (no, not that one), which is the source of the Secret Sea. The Thirst's zombie-fied captives drink from it, and take their place on their thrones of water, the next-to-last-step of his diabolical plan:
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...oh, of course.

Aquaman demands to know why Manta has betrayed him, and Manta's simple explanation is: "In my most secret heart of hearts, I'm still a totally depraved sonofabitch whose main goal in life is to watch you die."

Manta assists The Thirst in reclaiming his cup, and he then drinks greedily from it. Aquaman staggers to his feet, enraged. He changes his water hand into a mace of sorts, and whoops Manta upside the head with it.

The Thirst then places his cup in Aquaman's hand, turning The Thirst into so much dust. But The Thirst isn't gone--no, he and Aquaman are closer than ever:
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To be concluded!


See? Black Manta cannot be trusted, ever. And if Aquaman doesn't want to do the deed himself, there's always Lobo, Hitman, etc. Someone should start a Kickstarter campaign or something.

Be back in a few hours to see the final Rick Veitch issue of Aquaman!

2 comments:

David J. Cutler said...

While I love the main villain who's obsessed with destroying the hero above all else (Lex Luthor, Joker, Green Goblin) it works best when there's a secondary motivation that drives it. Still looking for someone to come up with one for Manta I can buy into.

JD said...

In the Silver Age it's basically that Manta is totally insane when it comes to Aquaman as he's fed up with his schemes being foiled and wants to be a sea king. I know, it's not deep seeded or meaningful motivation, but it's simple and works for me. ;) Manta's more recent origins (yes there are 2 post-crisis!)don't really explain much besides maintaining that he's simply crazy and\or has an abnormal brain. He's still a great nemesis regardless, but hopefully Geoff Johns can iron out his origins and motivations in the upcoming series.