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Sunday, December 22, 2013

Adventure Comics #266 - Nov. 1959

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Comics Weekend "Aquaman Meets Aquagirl!" by Robert Bernstein and Ramona Fradon.

It's Adventure Sunday!

Aquaman meets his match with the swingest, grooviest undersea chick there ever was!
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Lisa's Dad is at a loss to explain how his daughter has suddenly gained such amazing powers. They ask Aquaman how did he get his powers, and the Sea King helpfully recaps his origin story for them. He also mentions that his mother left a diary about life in Atlantis, which he'll read to Lisa some day.

That still doesn't explain how Lisa got her powers, so for the moment Aquaman takes off and heads back into the sea. He finds Lisa the next day:
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...and so ends another adventure for Aquaman!

I absolutely loved this story, for multiple reasons, but let me get one small criticism out of the way: it ends way, way too quickly. The final page features a huge reveal, and yet it's all dealt with in just a couple of panels. At this time, the Aquaman feature's page count was expanding or contracting with each issue, so it's a real shame this one couldn't have been given eight pages--it needed the space.

That said, I still love the heck out of this adventure. Ramona Fradon's visualization of Aquagirl is so drop-dead perfect, so gorgeously magnetic, that I couldn't take my eyes off her; it's a damn shame she was never brought back. Of course, one element of this story was used again: Lisa's purple eyes, signifying her outcast status in Atlantis. That would be used again, to a much longer lasting effect, with Aqualad, who will be showing up in just a couple of issues.

Little Bonus: Aquaman gets mentioned on the cover, again! Obviously his popularity was gaining, and DC decided to push him a little more than they usually did (read: never).


5 comments:

Joe Slab said...

Lisa Morel / Lorena Marquez

Comic book coincidence or?

BlUsKrEEm said...

"Help Aquaman! Our party is bombing!"

Anthony said...

Quite the adventure indeed... plus (like the Superman stories of the time) adding a new element to Aquaman's mythos...

Re: Superboy: A space hunter named Kosmon (presumably no relation to Spider-Man foe Kraven) captures Krypto and uses a shapeshifter to lure Superboy into a trap.

Joseph Brian Scott said...

I love this story too, never tire of reading it. Fradon outdoes herself, just wish she hadn't chosen to make Lisa's costume an exact replica of Aquaman's.

Unknown said...

Viva Adventure Sunday!

We are in the thick of the Aqua-era that was heavily reprinted in the 70's. I'm pretty sure I saw this in one of those 25 cent giants. I always had a soft spot for it.

This looks like a clear case of Weisinger world building. Did Boltinoff take Aquaman over when he got his own book? That would explain how A-Girl got lost in the shuffle. Aqualad's lucky he didn't go missing too.

James Chatterton