Aquaman Episode 6: "War of the Water Worlds" by Bob Haney
Mera and Tusky are out for a leisurely stroll around the ocean, when she spots a mysterious yet beautiful flower. Mera stops to smell it, and is suddenly grabbed by seemingly-innocent plant and dragged kicking and screaming into a small pit in the ocean floor!
Mera and Tusky are out for a leisurely stroll around the ocean, when she spots a mysterious yet beautiful flower. Mera stops to smell it, and is suddenly grabbed by seemingly-innocent plant and dragged kicking and screaming into a small pit in the ocean floor!
Tusky makes his way back to the Aqua-Cave and alerts Aquaman and Aqualad. They head into the pit to rescue Mera, and discover a heretofore unknown other world! Our heroes soon learn that it's quite a dangerous place, with creatures of all sorts around, just ready to reach out and attack. A line of plants reach out and grab Aqualad, and it's up to Aquaman to save him!
Aqualad is knocked out and put on the slab next to Mera, where they will be transformed for some nefarious purpose. Aquaman is thrown into a dungeon, where a hydra attacks him. Feeling outclassed, Aquaman calls on some finny friends to help him defeat the hydra and escape. Aquaman grabs Mera and Slag gives chase, but he and Aqualad get away.
Having returned to their world, Aquaman commands a giant, razor-toothed clam to sit atop the dimensional portal, that way Slag "will think twice" about invading their world again. The End!
Nice to see Mera back after several episodes away, even if she is relegated to Rescued Female role--she gets in trouble by sniffing a flower, a very girly thing to do. She never wakes up during the course of the episode, so after her intro she's just a prop. Still, Slag's dimension is a lot of creepy fun, with its nightmarish creatures and hellish color scheme.
I kinda feel bad for that clam, who basically can never leave that spot, lest Slag and his creatures escape and wreak havoc on the world again. That's dedication.
5 comments:
Man, Haney was Haney no matter what medium he worked in. I think this post helped me figure out one of the reasons he was so cavalier with continuity. Haney was a world-builder, and pretty much created a new universe with every story.
James Chatterton
This one sounds like a good reason to pull the DVD set out and give it a watch again.
Chris
Ah, the 60s, when men were men and women were...um, damsels-in-distress who did "girly things." Of course, this is the same show that forgot Wonder Woman (and Batman) was a JLA member (in the JLA shorts), but oddly remembered Wonder *Girl* in the Titans shorts.
Guessing comic-book Mera would've easily done more to fight the creatures (with her powers and all)...
And yeah, Haney wrote this. So I guess we're lucky it's *only* this insane. :-p
As for the clam, aren't clams stationary creatures anyway? May as well sit on a more useful spot...plus, it's doing the Sea King a favor!
^In Filmation's defense, I do believe they were developing a separate DC show with Wonder Woman as a lead feature (along with Metamorpho and the Blackhawks as I recall). But yeah, Wonder Girl showing up on TV before WW is just kind of wrong.
Chris
There were only three super-heroines included in the Filmation DC character adaptations: Batgirl, Wonder Girl, and Mera. And as much it pains me to say so, calling Mera a super-heroine in the Aquaman episodes is fudging a little bit.
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