An Aquaman Wager

 March 26th, 2011

As fast as the Shrine was to rejoice and spread word of writer Geoff Johns' confirmation of Aquaman way back in the spring of 2011,  Richard Bruton, a writer for the British site Forbidden Planet International, was almost as quick to post a wager predicting the series' demise. The gist of his now infamous piece "Ten quid on cancelled by Christmas 2012; Aquaman and the problem of third tier heroes" was that a new Aquaman title's swim towards cancellation would be as inevitable as the tide since "third tier" heroes just can't sustain ongoing titles successfully; no way, no how. Here's an excerpt from Richard's piece:

"In truth, there are three tiers of comic characters with the big two companies when it comes to selling comics with their name on the cover: 

Top tier: Big legacy characters, the ever popular, the iconic – your Batmans, Supermans, Spider-Mans, Flashs and Green Lanterns. They will continue to be popular, a long standing brand with success in the past pointing to success in the future.

Second tier: Radical reinventions, that sometimes work and sometimes don’t, basically third tier characters pushed up to this tier by writers. Think Grant Morrison reinventing Animal Man, Alan Moore reinventing Swamp Thing.

Which brings us to the final, bottom, third tier – the failures, the bit parts, the supporting cast, the perennial team members, the never manage to support a continuing series. Ever.

Guess which category Aquaman fits into?"

Woah Richard, really???

Flash-forward to the present and still going strong, 2012 has been an outstanding year for the New 52's biggest break-out hit. Aquaman has been acclaimed by fans and critics alike, was nominated for four Eagle Awards, outsold every single Marvel comic not once, but twice, reached #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List, and is the #1-selling solo book in DC's Justice League title group--outselling the Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Hawkman, and Firestorm on a regular basis. Admittedly, even we did not expect this kind of unprecedented success for the new series!

 

And while some argue that it is Johns' name that sells Aquaman, we vehemently counter that it is not. Aquaman is a comics and a pop-culture icon. All joking aside, the Sea King has achieved a place in the pantheon of intellectual properties that most others never will. Namor, who? We hazard to guess that if Geoff Johns wrote Mister Miracle or Martian Manhunter or Black Lightning sales wouldn't even come close to where Aquaman has leveled out. A telling stat was recently reported by the Beat in that "The 10 [DC New 52] books that held on to the highest percentages of their debut sales over the last year, as of September 2012, are Animal Man (83.2%), Batman (83.1%), Aquaman and Nightwing (76.2% each)..." which certainly counters the "flash-in-the-pan" theory that Bruton insinuated.

So we waited patiently for over a year, not wanting to jinx anything, before reaching out to Richard earlier this month to discuss his impending "departure of financial assets." When we did he graciously responded to the Shrine, informing us that he planned to make a donation to a local library fund and referred us to his  "Ten Quid" follow-up post, aptly titled:  "I LOST." We quote: 

"I was wrong. Absolutely and completely wrong. Heck, I read [Aquaman] to see what it would be like, and surprised the life out of myself by really enjoying it.

Dear God, I like Aquaman." 

Vindication at last! 

So Merry Christmas 2012 everyone and here's to many more lost bets against Aquaman in the years to come!



Before we sign off with the post, I feel like I should just add a word or two about this post. Thanks to Shrine Correspondent Joe Slab for doing the legwork on this piece, and extra special thanks to Richard Bruton for being a good sport. We are, of course, happy that Richard was so wrong. 2012 has been an *amazing* year for Aquaman, thanks to the work of the aforementioned Geoff Johns, and of course Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Rod Reis, and everyone else who contributed to the Sea King, both in and out of the pages of the comic. Happy Holidays to all you Aqua-Fans! -rob!