Aquaman, Episode 8: The Crimson Monster From The Pink Pool

Aquaman Episode 8: "The Crimson Monster From The Pink Pool" by Oscar Bensol

Tusky is out for a swim, when he spies a mysterious, bubbling pink pool. Emerging out of it is a one-eyed, raging monster!

The creature shoots a lava-like substance out of its arms(?), destroying everything in its path. As Tusky swims off to safety, back at the AquaCave, Aquaman and Aqualad get the news of the trouble:

Aquaman and Aqualad take off and go after the creature, whose enormous size and strength enable it to swat our heroes off like flies. Aquaman decides to take a closer approach, and grabs the creature right by the neck(?).

The creature throws Aquaman off, and is about to immolate him in its lava blast. At the last second, Tusky moves in, chomping down, in probably the most direct piece of violence Filmnation ever animated:

Saved for the moment, Aquaman calls on an octopus pal, which covers the creature in inky blackness. That changes the creature's color to blue(?), rendering its lava blast harmless. But it's still incredibly strong, and still mad, so Aquaman and Aqualad grab some seaweed (which in this world is as strong as razor wire) and lasso it.

Riding a whale, they drag the creature back to its source, the bubbling pit of pink goo. They drop the creature back inside, and the threat is now over. The End!

The plot synopsis for this episode could not be more simple: a monster attacks. That's it. I guess Filmation was so committed to using as little violence as possible in its cartoons that Aquaman never really gets rid of these threats: he just returns them to their place of origin, and calls it a day. As far we know, the pit of pink goo is still there. Maybe Aquaman put up a "Caution" sign or something.

Every single shot of Aquaman's Cribs-like AquaCave makes me wish so bad that DC had done some sort of Aquaman treasury edition, just so they could've done a "Secrets of the Aqua-Cave" feature. It's such a great HQ, but we only ever get to see little glimpses of it.