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Sunday, November 03, 2013

Adventure Comics #259 - Apr. 1959

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Comics Weekend "The Octopus Man" by Jack Miller(?) and Ramona Fradon.

It's Adventure Sunday!

The Golden Age Aquaman bids us an unknowing adieu in this month's adventure. To celebrate, we're running the whole dang story, so enjoy:
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...and so ends another adventure with Aquaman!

As the tag for next month's story shows us, next month the Sea King would be bestowed a brand-new origin, which many (including the Shrine) feel as though is the true first appearance of the Silver Age Aquaman. This version of our hero would not be seen again in a DC comic until All-Star Squadron #31 in 1984, and not in a story until #59 of the same title, twenty-seven years later!

I'm happy to see that the Golden Age Aquaman went out on a winner; The Octopus Man is a classic goofy mad scientist, brought to life with real panache by Ramona Fradon. I find it almost touching how the last time we get to see Aquaman, he's winking at us.

So what now? Is this the end of Adventure Sundays? The answer is a big fat no. Even though the Silver Age Aquaman takes over as of next issue, the tone of these adventures remained the same, and would continue to do so for at least a couple more years. And since the Shrine has not covered those stories the way we've been doing here for the last couple of years, rest assured Adventure Sundays will continue next Sunday, same Aqua-Time, Same Aqua-Channel!


3 comments:

Anthony said...

This month's Adventure stories both involve physically-incapacitated-in-some-manner heroes, interestingly.

Also of interest is that there's an actual next-issue tag promoting a specific Aquaman story. Apparently DC thought Aquaman's new origin story was important enough to specifically promote (and guess they were right!).

Wonder whatever became of Earth-2's Aquaman after the 50s... did he ever marry? Turn over the role of the seas' protector to a younger person? Have one last tussle with an aged Black Jack?!

Re: Superboy: when a kryptonite meteor is destroyed by a lightning strike in Clark's presence, he gains "diamond vision," turning everything he looks at into diamond. He thus operates blind (with Krypto as a "seeing-eye dog") until a cure is found. This story was somewhat-adapted into an episode of the 60s Filmation Superboy series.

Joseph Brian Scott said...

What a treat, getting the entire story! So glad to know that this feature will be continuing, I really treasure it.

Unknown said...

Viva Adventure Sunday!

And Viva for it's continuation!

It's too bad the Earth-2 Aquaman wasn't covered in the "Whatever Happened To...' series that DC Presents used to run. It would have been an ideal opportunity to imagine how Aquaman could end up.

James Chatterton