It's Adventure Sunday!
As Superboy mocks our armed servicemen (why does Kal hate the troops?), Aquaman once again spends six pages fending off the feeble attacks of...Black Jack!
Aquaman sneaks aboard, pastes one of Black Jack's men back into the 1940s, and finds the young hostage. He has Jerry jump into the water, where a friendly porpoise is waiting to take him to safety.
Black Jack discovers his henchman out cold, and "Jerry" having undergone a bizarre transformation:
Black Jack discovers his henchman out cold, and "Jerry" having undergone a bizarre transformation:
...and with that, so ends another adventure with Aquaman!
I really am running out ways to describe how pathetic Black Jack is. To be fair, in this story he tries none of his usual hare-brained "Let's dump Aquaman into the ocean and then turn our backs, that will kill him" schemes, but it really does seem he goes out of his way to get in Aquaman's face. He claims to really hate Aquaman, but can't help constantly re-engaging him, only to fail even more, which is just sad. Black Jack is kinda like Frank Miller that way.
Anyway, young Jerry (who, despite being a boy, seems to own his own home or have no parents) was never seen again, so we'll never know if he pursued his dream of a life on the sea. Considering his complete lack of street smarts, I'd say a life mostly away from people is probably the right call.
I really am running out ways to describe how pathetic Black Jack is. To be fair, in this story he tries none of his usual hare-brained "Let's dump Aquaman into the ocean and then turn our backs, that will kill him" schemes, but it really does seem he goes out of his way to get in Aquaman's face. He claims to really hate Aquaman, but can't help constantly re-engaging him, only to fail even more, which is just sad. Black Jack is kinda like Frank Miller that way.
Anyway, young Jerry (who, despite being a boy, seems to own his own home or have no parents) was never seen again, so we'll never know if he pursued his dream of a life on the sea. Considering his complete lack of street smarts, I'd say a life mostly away from people is probably the right call.
2 comments:
Viva Adventure Sunday!
Black Jack, move to Kansas. It's safer there. Far fewer plainclothes seals to harass you. If you still can't get the sea out of your mind, take up loan-sharking.
Wonder if jerry even knows how to swim?
That's the second biggest starfish with a mop I've seen this month.
James Chatterton
Another week, another Black Jack saga. Yeah, no words here, either.
And yes, that's one gigantic starfish-with-a-mop. (Versus a plain old gigantic starfish *without* janitorial skills...).
Re: Superboy: Besides the joke cover, one note of interest is the March of Dimes badge in the corner encouraging readers to help "fight infantile paralysis" (aka polio, still a scourge in 1950, though the vaccine would be invented/introduced several years later...). The plot: when a Smallville High fraternity snubs a friend of Clark's, Superboy pledges the fraternity to teach the members a lesson on snobbery. (Yeah, I know... a *high school* fraternity?! A Google search suggests they existed in the earlier decades of the 20th century. Though the story is recycled for 1962's "Superboy" #94, where it's Clark himself who's snubbed...)
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