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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Adventure Comics #205 - Oct. 1954

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Comics Weekend "The Emperor of the Sea!" by Jack Miller(?) and Ramona Fradon.

It's Adventure Sunday!

Aquaman vs. King Neptune?!? Okay, now we're getting somewhere:

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Aquaman is flummoxed by this self-appointed protector the seas, with some bystanders going so far as to suggest the Sea King can take it easy from now on!

Aquaman checks into Mr. Neptune, first by checking out the bullets fired at him by those crooks, and seeing if they're duds--but they're not. Weeks pass, and Aquaman is upstaged again by Mr. Neptune when he takes over the job of protecting millions of gold being transferred from the country of Marovia to the United States. A local authority thanks Aquaman for his time, as he is left to watch helplessly as Mr. Neptune stands guard.

But, once the gold bullion is set out on the high seas:
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...and with that, so ends another adventure for Aquaman!


Kind of an abrupt ending to the story, and the career of Mr. Neptune (he was, of course, never seen again). On top of being a crook, he seemed taking real delight in humiliating Aquaman, which naturally only set the Sea King further on his trail. Like Black Jack, had he just operated on some other part of the seven seas, he might have gotten away with it!


I love Mr. Neptune's crazy-ass look in panel two of page four. Ramona Fradon, bringing the goods yet again.


7 comments:

Joseph Brian Scott said...

That trident gizmo is actually pretty impressive. Many a Silver Age rogue launched decades-long careers with lesser gimmicks than that. Ocean Master

Joseph Brian Scott said...

^I wasn't trying to imply that the above comment was made by Ocean Master; I typed it as " Ocean Master " but for some reason the "coughs" were excised. Hygiene, I guess.

Joseph Brian Scott said...

^Ok, one more time, and last explanatory comment I promise: I wrote it as "cough cough Ocean Master cough", and naively enclosed the "coughs" in greater than-less than symbols to denote non-verbiage, but that's apparently a no-no, and now I'm hating my life.

Unknown said...

Viva Adventure Sunday!

Hey what Ocean Master may have lacked in tridents, he more than made up for with helmets. And capes. Yeah, I'll rule the ocean with...a cape. Because capes are even more useful in the water than they are on land.

This Mr. Neptune is pretty amazing. On page 2, panel 3-4 he's walking on water. Aquaman never explained how he pulled of that trick, never mind the whole rising from nowhere-out-of-the-ocean trick. Too bad Neptune disappeared. He could've been a great arch-foe. Especially as rendered by Fradon.

James Chatterton

Anthony said...

Hey, Ocean Master was Arthur's half-brother! That, uh, gave him a clear advantage... erm, along with the capes. And helmets. And, uh, being from Earth-1. Yeah, that's it---'cause "EARTH-1 RULES, EARTH-2 DROOLS!" (*cue Earth-2's Aquaman glaring*).

:-p

Re: Superboy: This issue's story sees tyrannical natives of Titan plot to conquer the Earth via sending the kid on the cover there to secretly judge Earth's prospects for conquest. Said boy changes his mind after seeing how kind the Kents are, and creates a counter-plan with Superboy.

rob! said...

JBS--This post seems to have stressed you out. The Aquaman Shrine officially apologizes; that was never my intention.

@JC--Yes, Neptune does manage to pull some stuff off that he shouldn't be able to do. Magic?

@Anthony--WOW, all it took to stave off an alien invasion was a set of kind elderly people? It seems like Titan wasn't really that into it.

Russell said...

@Rob
LOL! Thanks for making me day! :-)