Happy Aqua-Birthday J.M. DeMatteis!

The Aquaman Shrine wishes writer J.M. DeMatteis a Happy Birthday!

Justice League Dark #26 - Feb. 2014

Comics Weekend "The Haunted Sea" by J.M. DeMatteis, Mikel Janin, Vicente Cifuentes, and more.

Hey again everyone, Shrine Correspondent Andy Luckett here with a one-off review of a recent DC issue; Justice League Dark #26, written by veteran scribe J.M. DeMatteis with art by Mikel Janin, Vicente Cifuentes and Guillermo Ortego. Why review this book, you might say out loud to your computer for some reason? Because it features the (sort of) return of the Crime Syndicate's mirror-universe/evil twin/doppelganger Aquaman, the Sea King. So if he didn't die after teleporting into our universe, what has the Sea King been up to?

The issue opens with the Justice League Dark members (John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Pandora, the Phantom Stranger, and Nightmare Nurse) floating in a supernatural limbo; prisoners of the embodiment of the world's darkness, who calls himself Blight and looks like a cosplayer's last-minute attempt to pull off a Xenomorph/Krampus mashup. Oh, and Constantine's head has been severed.

Blight has killed all of the team during their prior battle with him in Central Park, and he is now monologuing about how his power is growing due to the Crime Syndicate's takeover of Earth, and that soon he will be strong enough to cover the planet in his brand of despair. He picks up Constantine's head in his hand, crushes it, and drops it. But as it falls, it is caught by Deadman suddenly appearing from nowhere. Boston Brand tells Constantine('s head) that he has to rescue both Deadman and the rest of the team, including Zatanna (they are MIA at this time).

After this unexpected event, the team is suddenly pulled out of the darkness and back into our physical reality; specifically the abode of Dr. Thirteen. Nightmare Nurse reveals that she pulled them back after learning Blight's master plan. They were never truly dead; only enchanted to appear that way. Still, even with this new information, the team is at odds as to what to do next. Constantine believes that they should find the rest of the team, but the others suspect he may have been hallucinating talking to Deadman. To check, Nightmare Nurse takes an "astral biopsy" from Constantine and discovers that yes; he indeed did interact with a manifestation of Deadman.

Pandora now knows where Deadman's consciousness is located, so the team prepares to find him; while also noticing that both Dr. Thirteen and the Phantom Stranger have disappeared (to separate Blight from his human host, we learn). Pandora leads the team deep under the Pacific Ocean, riding on the back of a whale-shaped moss creature (aka Swamp Thing). Before they can even fully wonder why Deadman's ghost would be deep in the ocean, Pandora follows the signal by opening a portal to a deeper psychic ocean below the sea floor.

Pandora recognizes their surroundings as the ruins of Nan Madol, an ancient kingdom that died out long before the founding of Atlantis. Swamp Thing reaches out to the Green and sees a vision of the Sea King's body (after being buried at sea by the Crime Syndicate) being drawn to Nan Madol, where it was used as a vessel for the residual psychic energy there. 

Suddenly the Sea King appears and attacks the team, slashing Swamp Thing with his harpoon hand and screaming about the reemergence of Nan Madol. Constantine gets his trident away and stabs the Sea King with it, but he simply swats them away. Then he starts chanting, which summons the spirits of Nan Madol to life, and the Sea King has a monstrous army with which to conquer the surface world.

Constantine tries to send the rest of the team after him while he stays to find Deadman, but Pandora drops a bombshell: the Sea King is Deadman! Somehow his consciousness has been trapped in Sea King's body and is confused by the commands of the Nan Madol spirits. Sea King/Deadman reaches the surface, attacks a ship and sics a Perfect Storm-style wave on the team when they come to the rescue.

Pandora creates a psychic knife that Constantine imbues with a spell and flings it right into the Sea King's forehead. That does the trick; disrupting the Sea King's concentration and banishing the Nan Madol spirits back to their realm. The team tries to determine who is leading the Sea King's body, and Deadman answers. It seems that during the initial battle with the Crime Syndicate, he possessed Sea King's body, but "the after-echoes of Sea King's consciousness were so vile…so twisted…that I didn't know who I was."

Constantine clears out those after-echoes, but also locks Deadman into the body, making him unable to jump to another. Cut to the Phantom Stranger's whereabouts, as he appears to be working with Blight to capture the rest of the team. Blight says he is pleased by the Stranger's defection, to which he replies, "I did…what I had to do."

So this is a very strange issue, and I suspect a very strange comic book as well. I myself am not super keen on the overuse of magic in stories, since to me it feels many times like a Deux ex Machina; i.e., "Oh, we have this problem? Here's a quick spell…problem solved." I noticed some of that here, not to mention the plot was more than a little confusing. So the Sea King's body was pulled down to Nan Madol, where the spirits convinced a confused Deadman that he should lead them in re-conquering the world? O-kay. It seems overly complicated.

Secondly, I have to say I'm disappointed about the handling of the Sea King character since his creation. He drops dead during his introduction, then he is possessed by an insane Deadman? Wouldn't it have been more interesting to have him marauding alongside his other Syndicators, so we could see what he can do? How about a battle against Aquaman and Mera? What would Orm or Black Manta think of his presence on Earth? But instead, he is basically a dead body that gets belched up into the fray and then used by others. We'll see in the future if anyone decides to try something else with him. After all, his design is clever, combining elements of the Peter David era, Ocean Master's latest costume, and even a tiny bit of Dan Jurgen's old run. It seems strange after all of that thoughtful designing that this is how the character is used.

As for this issue, I'd give it a pass. The Sea King isn't really the Sea King and his actions have no bearing on the events of Forever Evil or Aquaman's sphere of influence. It feels like a missed opportunity.

Creation Point by J.M. DeMatteis

Here at the Shrine we always like to point out when one of Aquaman's writers has a presence on the web, so I thought I should mention that J.M. DeMatteis, who wrote one of Aquaman's best runs ever (in Adventure Comics) and has been a friend to the Shrine now has a blog!

Its called Creation Point, and you should check it out. And tell J.M. The Aquaman Shrine sent you!

Justice League America #33 - Dec. 1989

Comics Weekend When I talked about Aquaman's excellent two-part guest-starring role in Justice League America #s 33 and 34, I was reminded in the comments section that Aquaman actually shows up in the end of this issue!

I used to own a copy of this issue; I have no idea what happened to it and I'm a little surprised I didn't remember Aquaman's appearance myself.

Anyway, after the issue's main plot concerning Guy Gardner and Kilowog, it moves onto the sub-plot of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle ending up in possession of the remote island KooeyKooeyKooey.

They ask Kilowog if he can put together a whole resort for them, and after he promises it'll take "around six hours", the Blue and the Gold do a happy dance, as they are sure they're about to become rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Of course, there is someone else not quite so thrilled about this:

...leading to this fine, heroic pin-up of the King of the Seven Seas, courtesy artists Adam Hughes and Art Nichols:

That little notation on the right hand side is someone's edict "Colorist: do not color sky" which obviously didn't get erased by the time the book went to the printers. I love stuff like that.

Justice League America #35 - Feb. 1990

Comics Weekend The gripping--yet goofy--conclusion to the "Club JLI" story started yesterday, by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Adam Hughes, and the triad inking team of Art Nichols, Jose Marzan, and the legendary Josef Rubinstein.

The last issue ended with the island coming alive and sending itself further out to sea, leaving the heroes and the casino's residents stranded with no way off.

Meanwhile, Maxwell Lord, Ice, the Huntress, and Oberon find themselves in the middle of the ocean, having transported to what they thought were the island's coordinates.

Ice is stung by a jellyfish, but manages to create a life raft made of frozen water, which buys them a little time. But their JL communicators don't work, and sharks are circling...

Meanwhile, on the island, the casino's guests are a wee bit ticked off at Beetle and Booster, while Aquaman is trying to find a way to stop the island from moving further and further out to sea.

Aquaman learns of a volcano nearby, and figures if it can be set off, the island might "anchor" itself to it. But he can't do it himself, so he asks Major Disaster for help.

They head underwater, leading to a nifty, cool-looking sequence of Aquaman in his element:

...I love Major Disaster's oh-so-slightly mocking "finny friends?"

Anyway, the plan works, and the island stops moving and shaking. Major Disaster is treated as a hero to the people on the island, while Beetle and Booster decide what to do next.

Our four ice-stranded heroes are also saved, when Aquaman, astride a shark, finds them and takes them to the island. Martian Manhunter and Guy Gardner also arrive, and Maxwell Lord has the chutzpah to try and ask Aquaman if he'd be interested in signing up. Aquaman gives Lord what's known as a "firm no":

...I thoroughly enjoyed these issues, and even though Beetle and Booster sometimes got way, way goofier, here they retain a charming "what the hell" insouciance that perfectly contrasts with the very serious Sea King.

Hughes' work is, of course, excellent (I have got to get an Aquaman sketch from him some time, costs be damned!)--I love his furrowed brow and he stalks out of the panel, and out of the book.

These issues can be found for a pittance on eBay, so I recommend them to anyone looking for a fun superhero adventure tale, well executed.

Plus Aquaman is way, way cool in it.


Update: I had the chance to ask Aquaman Shrine pal J.M. DeMatteis, co-writer of this story, about this fine two-part adventure:

Aquaman Shrine: How did this story come about? Did you want to write a guest-spot for Aquaman and built this water-based story around it, or as you were writing it you realized, hey, we could work Aquaman into this?

J.M. DeMatteis: You have to understand that the way [Keith] Giffen and I worked back then, I often had no idea what the story was going to be until the plot showed up at my door.

So I didn't know Aquaman was going to be in the story till I read Keith's outline! My job was to take Keith's brilliant basics and flesh them out with jokes, character interplay, and more jokes. I was pretty much free to script the stories any way I wanted to. That was the fun of it.

Keith would surprise me and then I'd take the story, twist things around in the dialogue and bounce it back to him. Then he'd twist it again and toss it back to me.

AMS: Was there any consideration to him joining the team, or was his terse "Don't...even...ask!" response in the story from the beginning?

JMD: I don't recall there ever being any talk about Aquaman joining, although, looking back, he would've been a great straight man for Beetle and Booster.

AMS: One comment element in this story and the ones you wrote for Adventure Comics is a focus on Aquaman's deep bond with the creatures of the sea--even though Aquaman is only guest-starring in these two issues, there's one whole page devoted to that part of his character here. Is that an element you made an effort to highlight whenever you would be writing the character?

JMD: I had to look that sequence over again to refresh my memory: it's been a while!

That said, I'm guessing that I saw elements in Keith's plot that would underscore the "deep bond" aspect of Aquaman's personality, and ran with it. To me that bond with the sea is one of the absolute keys to the character. He has a profound, almost mystical, connection to his "finny friends."


As usual, J.M. was a total blast to talk to, and I thank him for again for taking time to answer my nerdy questions. Thanks J.M.!

P.S.: Dear DC: If/when you bring back Classic Aquaman, any chance you could hire J.M. DeMatteis to write it?

Justice League America #34 - Jan. 1990

Comics Weekend Since talking about the Golden Age Aquaman's brief appearances in All-Star Squadron last weekend, I've been on a real Aquamanus Obscurus kick, so I found another set of issues that feature the Sea King in guest appearances.

By this point (1990) DC's JLA reboot, first called Justice League International and now called Justice League America was on its second peak, creatively--the loss of original artist Kevin Maguire was keenly felt, but now the book has discovered its second superstar in the making--Adam Hughes.

And as you can see from the cover, the, er, things Adam is most famous for drawing well were right there from the beginning. (I mean facial expressions--just look how perfectly disgusted Fire looks and how goofily self-satisfied Beetle and Booster look. Get your minds out of the gutter!)

Anyway, this issue's story, "Club JLI", is by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Hughes, and Art Nichols, and opens with the supervillain Major Disaster, now depressed and dejected, opening up a newspaper and seeing an ad for a vacation spot called...guess what.

Turns out the opening of this island getaway was a surprise to even Blue Beetle and Booster Gold's teammates, and JL benefactor Max Lord is furious with the boys, and heads out for the island. Major Disaster and his dimwitted supervillain pal, the Flash villain Big Sir, also decide to head there.

Meanwhile, the sleazy chief of the indigenous people of the island, flush with women and cash from allowing the Blue and the Gold to set up shop, is told his presence is requested for a meeting with "The Sea-God":

...I love Aquaman knowing the language of these people already.

Anyway, after Major Disaster and Big Sir break the casino's bank at cards (Sir can count cards, Rain Man-style), Beetle and Booster find themselves broke with not a lot of options. Of course, it only gets worse:

Turns out money--or lack thereof--is the least of their problems, when the island starts rumbling as if its being hit by an enormous earthquake!

But its not an earthquake, the island is actually...alive! Aquaman, Beetle, and Booster make sure no one is hurt, and I love how damn heroic Arthur looks here:

...Aquaman tells them that since the JLA transporter tubes have been destroyed, no one can get off the island quite yet--not even him, since the island is capable of a great many things, more of which are to come. To be continued!

Needless to say, this is a fun story, breezily told, and I love the old school/new school conflict built in to this story. Aquaman is so serious, Beetle and Booster so goofy, that they're bound to bring out the worst in each other.

Hughes' Aquaman is sharply rendered, sleek and dynamic, and displays enormous strength and solidity, even just by his posture. This is about as an obvious statement as I'm ever likely to make, but an Adam Hughes-drawn Aquaman series would be a wonder to behold.

Action Comics #520 - June 1981

This week's Comic Friday features the last Aquaman installment written (plotted, really) by J.M. DeMatteis, which started in Adventure Comics drawn by Dick Giordano and moved to the back of Action Comics and then drawn by Don Heck.

Over the course of this series, DeMatteis hit nearly every major theme in the Aquaman universe, and made time for stuff involving Mera, Atlantis, Aquaman's origin, and most of Aquaman's rogues gallery. Aqualad was the only major part of the team that never made an appearance.

(Before we get to the story at hand, one aside...wow, that is one revealing dress Lois is wearing there on the cover by Ross Andru. Why are you in such a hurry, Superman?)

Anyway, the Aquaman installment is titled, fittingly, "The End!", featuring a dynamic splash page by Heck:

Aquaman and Poseidon(who was revealed to be Aquaman's father--sort of--last issue) find their way to Atlanna and Ocean Master, and Poseidon is blasted by a bolt of energy as they get close. Poseidon is temporarily stunned, but they press on.

When they get there, they find them both surrounded by Aquaman's worst nightmare...all his enemies there, together(or robot duplicates of, at least):

(from left to right: Marine Marauder, Fisherman, Black Manta, Seaquake, Scavenger, Starro, Captain Demo, and the Shark)

Aquaman manages to fight some of them off(luckily they, being robots, are not quite as menacing as the real deals), but he gets sucker-punched by Ocean Master. Just as he's about to blast Aquaman, Atlanna's sister, Atlena appears!

She reveals to her sister that Aquaman is not, in fact, the ultimate savior of Atlantis and that all this hatred is pointless! She begs Atlanna to stop, who is heartbroken over feeling that she has hurt her sister.

Atlanna asks Aquaman and Orm to mend their rift as their parents dying wish. She grabs Poseidon's hand and, touching the inter-dimensional transporter machine everyone was searching for, explodes it, destroying themselves. Orm is heartbroken but Aquaman tries to tell him that "they were gone a long time ago, Orm...a long, long time ago!" The end.


Like I said about the previous issue, this one felt a little rushed to me, as if DC wanted to hand off the feature ASAP to someone else so they crammed a lot in just eight pages. Bringing back Aquaman's parents is a huge, game-changing idea, and it needed more than a few pages to be fully explored. (Bob Rozakis would do a good job on Aquaman following this, but of course the tone of the series became very different under his tenure)

But, in total, DeMatteis' run on Aquaman was top-notch, and since its basically one long story, would make for an excellent collected edition. It'll be fun to see it all together if/when they get around to doing it in the Showcase books.
__________________________________________________________

Classic Aquaman makes another appearance in this week's Teen Titans: Year One mini-series. As drawn by Karl Kerschl, Serge Lapointe, and Steph Peru, I think he looks pretty nifty.
__________________________________________________________

On a completely unrelated note, I've done my first "Guest Blogger" piece over at my pal Pierre's excellent Frankensteinia blog.

So if you just can't get enough of my thoughts on obscure bits of comic book arcana(and who can?), go check it out here. Thanks!

Action Comics #519 - May 1981

This issue of Action Comics features the penultimate installment of J.M. DeMatteis' too-brief run on Aquaman.

As J.M. mentioned in our interview, during this time he was offered an exclusive contract with Marvel, so he left the Aquaman strip, but not before handing in the plots for several issues, with his former editor Len Wein taking over the scripting.

Don Heck continued doing the art, after taking over from Dick Giordano who drew the run when it started in Adventure Comics.

Picking up from last issue, the villainous Poseidon (or a facsimile thereof) had just revealed to Aquaman, Mal, and Mera that he is...Aquaman's father!:

Poseidon explains how all this came to be, and relates the story of the original Atlantis, which existed thousands of years ago. The two royal sisters, Atlanna and Atlena, don't see eye to eye on what the Oracle told them is Atlantis' future: an upcoming holocaust!

Atlena believes that the disaster is a necessary evil, and ultimately redound to the city's benefit. Atlanna, though, is busy trying to create a serum that will help the Atlanteans survive it(the scene with Atlanna talking to the Atlantean elders reminds me a lot of another doomed scientist from the DCU who ended up siring a member of the Justice League).

Even though the disaster does it Atlantis, Atlanna took her own serum, which transformed her into a water-breather. She was banished to the Surface World, and it's here that she met the lonely lighthouse keeper Tom Curry, and I think you all know the rest:

...it's interesting to me that the big heroes of the DCU have origin stories that can be told basically in just five or six iconic panels. With Aquaman, you have Tom Curry saving Atlanna, then these two panels, then Atlanna dies, and then...bang! You've got Aquaman!

Turns out, though, that Atlanna didn't die, she was just in a catatonic state, and when she awoke years later she had turned quite mad.

Meanwhile her sister Atlena, trapped in an other-worldly limbo, continued to wait for the Oracle's prediction of an ultimate savior for Atlantis, who they now believe to be Aquaman! Mal and Mera are aghast that Aquaman is buying all this, but he seems to be doing just that.

Meanwhile, Atlena and Ocean Master are watching this from afar, and while she is made Poseidon betrayed her by revealing the "truth", no matter...Aquaman will die anyway, To be continued!


This is the first installment of the DeMatteis run that I felt suffered from the brief page count--there's so many new ideas being thrown around here in just eight pages that it's a bit overwhelming.

Fun Fact: According the Statement of Ownership, Action Comics was selling around 300,000 copies per month at this time. I'm sure most of that was because of Aquaman.

Action Comics #518 - April 1981

For this and the next two Comic Fridays, we're going to finish our examination of the all-too-brief run by writer J.M. DeMatteis on the King of the Seven Seas.

Starting out in Adventure Comics, with art by Dick Giordano, the series moved to the back of Action Comics, this time with art by Don Heck.

This is the second chapter(or sixth, depending on how you look at it), picking up right after last issue, with Aquaman and Mera having discovered that Ocean Master was the one behind the bizarre Black Manta robot duplicate that attacked Aquaman and tried to take over Atlantis with a mob of disenfranchised surface dwellers.

As we find them, the Sea King and his Queen are talking to the local police and explaining to them what just happened:

Inside the building, they find a secret room with a robot duplicate Scavenger(who attacked Aquaman in Adventure #475). What the heck is going on around here?

We find Ocean Master talking to a mysterious woman. While Orm is busy beating himself up for failing her, she sends another one of her minions, Posiedon(who attacked Aquaman in Adventure #476), to again try and kill Aquaman!

Meanwhile, Aquaman, Mera, and Cal Durham figure out that part of Orm's plan must involve wanting to keep Atlana--the lone survivor of the original Atlantis--trapped in her other-worldly limbo. As they talk, Poseidon arrives(by knocking on the door, no less) and collapses the building on them. That's that, thinks Poseidon, but not so fast:

Poseidon uses his powers to make the denizens of the city attack the three of them, burying Aquaman in a pile of angry sea-life. Cal begs Poseidon to let up, that Aquaman is a good man, a man who took Cal in and made him part of his family.

The word "family" sparks something in Poseidon, who calls off the fish and saves Aquaman, saying how he could he let Aquaman die, since he's...his son! To be continued!


I already said my piece about the change in art style--Don Heck compared to Dick Giordano--last week, so I won't get into it again here. DeMatteis still finds time for another nice Aquaman moment, something he clearly set out to do with each story.

Next week: "Family Plot!"
___________________________________________________________

There's other exciting Aqua-Comic News this week, as Aquaman, Mera, and Aqualad all appear in this week's issue of DC's super-fun Brave and the Bold book.

The story takes place in the past(just as Arthur and Mera are about to wed), so we don't have a "current" classic Aquaman sighting, but Waid and Perez do such a nice job it was still a blast to read. I suggest any AquaFan pick it up!

Action Comics #517 - March 1981

Since we talked with J.M. DeMatteis earlier in the week, I thought for this week's Comic Friday we'd focus on the issues of his run that ran in the back of Action Comics immediately following the four issues in Adventure.
The cover is by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano, and of course Superman is main focus--duh. But it was nice to have a little corner of it highlighting the Sea King's debut in the book.

The story is titled "Brother Rat!", written by DeMatteis and replacing Dick Giordano on art is Don Heck. This picks up directly after Adventure Comics #478, where Aquaman and Cal Durham find that the Black Manta they've been facing was in fact a decoy, and an exploding one at that(the worst kind!):

As if he didn't have enough problems, Vulko tells Aquaman that the mysterious malady affecting Mera is slowly killing her, with the only way to save her is to have her return to her home dimension.

Aquaman and Mera ride off, and talk about how they've faced enormous difficulties before, and Mera tries to reassure her husband they'll somehow find their way out of this.

But in the meantime, Aquaman and Mera head to New York City, on the trail of the financial backers Black Manta used to corral the army he used to try and take over Atlantis. New York in 1981 was a rougher town than it is now, an example of which is seen here, where within minutes of coming ashore, Aquaman and Mera are accosted by some toughs. With the limited page count, Heck decides to use this scene more for comedy than for, er, action:

Anyway, they find the building, home of The Kingdom of Hope organization, and Aquaman barges his way in, only to find the guy in charge is...Ocean Master!

This of course means a fight, and the two brothers knock each other around for a page or two, ending up on the roof of the building. Orm then gives up--saying he didn't just fail himself, but he also failed his mother!

This startles Aquaman for a moment, long enough for Orm to jump off the roof, seemingly in act of suicide! But when Aquaman and Mera look for him...he has disappeared. To be continued!


As J.M. mentioned on Monday, he feels that Dick Giordano and Don Heck did a superb job illustrating his stories. And while Heck was a fine artist, I personally could never quite embrace his Aquaman, whose face always seemed to be contorted into a scowl, so I feel this part of DeMatteis' Aquaman run is maybe a half-step behind the one by Giordano.

But the story is still solid, and, again, DeMatteis gave Aquaman a little cool moment--the scene with the would-be muggers--that underscores how impressive Aquaman could be, even if this time it was played more for laughs. After all the tough moments in Adventure, it's a nice change to lighten things up a touch.

I have the other Aquaman issues of Action written by DeMatteis in this run(#'s 517-520), so if you want to see how this all wrapped up, let me know!

Aquaman Shrine Interview with J.M. DeMatteis - 2008

Wow, was this a thrill!

I've been a fan of J.M. DeMatteis' work for a long time, having read his work on, among others, Superman, Spider-Man, The Defenders, Moonshadow, and the Justice League.

But, as I've mentioned many times before, he was also the writer on one of my all-time favorite Aquaman runs, one that started off with a bang in Adventure Comics #475, featuring art by Dick Giordano, and gave Aquaman some of his most dynamic and exciting adventures, filled with slam-bang superhero action but also tender moments that exemplified what made Aquaman so special.

But after a mere four issues, the series was yanked out of Adventure and then put in the back of Action Comics, where DeMatteis continued to write it(this time with Don Heck doing the art) for a few more issues.

I've been wanting to talk to J.M. for a long time, and thanks to mutual friend(and Back Issue! editor) Michael Eury, I got the chance to do just that:

Aquaman Shrine: Did you read lots of comics growing up? Did you set out to write them?

J.M. DeMatteis: As I've often said, I don't remember a time when I didn't read comics. They've been a part of my life since I was very, very young. I was hooked on that heady mixture of words and pictures from the first time I saw one.

Did I set out to write comics? Actually, when I was a kid art was my passion, soon followed by rock and roll (both as a musician and a professional reviewer); but writing was always part of my life, as well. From the time I was a teenager, I was pretty passionate about wanting to write comics.

But I have to add I never saw myself as "just" a comic book writer: over the years, I've written for comics, TV, film, journalism and the book world. And, even within comics, I've tried to keep things diverse, writing superheroes, children's comics like Abadazad and Stardust Kid, the funny stuff with Keith Giffen, and more personal projects like Moonshadow and Brooklyn Dreams.

AMS: How did you end up with the Aquaman assignment?

JMD: As I recall, Len Wein, a wonderful editor who was my mentor in my early days in the business, just called me up one day and said, "You're the new writer of Aquaman."

To which I said: "Great!" That early in a career, you don't say, "Let me think about it." Someone offers you a gig, you scream "Yes!" at the top of your lungs and start writing.

AMS: How familiar were you with the character before you started writing him? The stories--as short as they are--reveal depths to the character would have seem to have come only from being pretty familiar with him.

JMD: I was certainly familiar with Aquaman from his own series and, even moreso, from Justice League. But I wasn't really immersed in his background and mythology. As soon as I got the assignment I went out and bought a stack of back issues--stories by Steve Skeates and David Micheline, as I recall--and wolfed them down. I enjoyed them all but felt a real connection to Micheline's work. He had a great run and I found it very inspiring.

AMS: You mentioned that the Aquaman run was the first superhero feature you wrote. Did working with an old pro like Dick Giordano make it easier to, er, get your feet wet with the process?

JMD: I was honored to have Dick do the art for those stories. There I was, a newbie, and this amazing artist was illustrating my stories? He did such a wonderful job. (As did Don Heck, who drew the stories in Action Comics.) Dick's major contribution was making the stories look so darn good. If someone else had drawn that run, you might not be talking to me about the stories now.

AMS: Any idea why it ran so briefly? It ran just four issues as the lead in Adventure Comics and then it got moved to the back of Action Comics.

JMD: As I recall they were just changing formats--and so the feature was booted over to Action. For some reason, Dick couldn't continue with the series, so Don Heck stepped in. I think I full-scripted the first couple of Heck stories, then I was offered an exclusive contract at Marvel and left DC--but not before I wrote the final plots, which Len Wein dialogued.

AMS: Was it a fun assignment?

JMD: Hey, I was just starting out in the business, I was working with an iconic character, Len Wein was my editor, Dick Giordano and Don Heck were drawing the stories: it was Heaven!

AMS: Were you overall happy with the results? It's always been one of my all-time favorite Aquaman runs, and when I talked about them on the Shrine it became clear I wasn't the only one who felt that way!

JMD: What's so funny to me is that I really haven't thought about those stories much over the years. Looking back, though, I think they were pretty solid, especially considering what a neophyte I was. (Having an inspirational editor like Len no doubt contributed to that.) Those Aquaman stories were probably better than some of the stuff I wrote in my first year or two at Marvel.

AMS: Any interest in writing Aquaman again?

JMD: Well, I did get to use Aquaman a little bit when I was writing for the Justice League Unlimited animated series a couple of years back. As for the comics--I don't really know what the character's about these days, so I can't really say!

AMS: What projects are you working on now?

JMD: I've got a bunch of projects--books, comics, TV, film--in the works right now, most of which I can't talk about on the record. But I'm busy and happy!


I was absolutely thrilled to get to talk to J.M. DeMatteis. Not only did he write some of my favorite Aquamans, but he was enormously friendly and a total pleasure to interview, and it's way cool of him to give us some of the back story behind Aquaman's all-too-brief final run in Adventure Comics. Thanks J.M.!

Adventure Comics #478 - Dec. 1980

The final chapter in Aquaman's excellent, last run in Adventure Comics, courtesy J.M. DeMatteis, Dick Giordano, and Steve Mitchell, with a cover by Rich Buckler and Giordano.

As Black Manta prepares to attack Atlantis with his newly-formed army, Aquaman and Cal Durham are trapped in an electrified cage. Aquaman quickly summons a whale to break them out, and Aquaman leaves Cal to chase after Manta. Cal is trying to tell Aquaman something, but he is just too weak to get it out in time.

First, he heads for the missiles Manta fired at New Venice, and commands a school of porpoises to use soundwaves to throw off the missiles' trajectory, so that they explode away from the city.

We cut back to Mera, who reappeared last issue just as mysteriously as she disappeared in issue #476. As she comes to, a silhouetted figure enters her room...

Meanwhile, Vulko prepares to send his troops out to confront Manta. But Aquaman arrives, but surprises everyone by not fighting Manta, in fact swimming right past them into the city:
...Giordano managed at least one dynamic, memorable sequence in each installment of this series, most of them completely silent. I love Aquaman's look of determination in panel five especially.

Anyway, Manta assumes Aquaman is too chicken to fight--yeah right. Instead, he makes an offer to Manta's army of angry outcasts: that they are all welcome in Atlantis, and there is no need for violence!

Manta's gang drops their weapons, infuriating him(of course). Just as Aquaman turns to face him, he sees Manta trapped in a hard-water bubble, courtesy of Mera!

Turns out it was Cal who found Mera, and told her the thing Aquaman was too busy to listen to--that the man he's been battling is not Black Manta, but is in fact an imposter! Just as Cal starts to explain more, the faux-Manta explodes! To be continued, but in Action Comics #517!

The abruptness of this story's conclusion leads me to think there was some last-minute changes ascribed to Adventure Comics; indeed, with the next issue all three features--Aquaman, Starman, and Plastic Man--would be gone, replaced by a new version of Dial "H" For Hero. Why is anyone's guess.

But after looking up this book on the GCBD, I see that J.M. DeMatteis did indeed write Aquaman's strip in Action Comics--for a few issues at least, which means I've gotta pick them up, since I thoroughly enjoyed his run here on the character.

Even though I felt this issue was the least of the four--it feels rushed--DeMatteis still finds a way to tweak the character, and for the better. Instead of Aquaman trying to bust Manta's head again, he outthinks him and steals his whole army out from under him. That's my hero!

The whole "rushed" feeling extends to the art, too, since we have someone else inking Giordano. And while I mean no disrespect to Steve Mitchell, pretty much no one inked better than Giordano, so his lack of inks here is another minus.

But overall, its still another fine issue, and this brief series remains for me one of my favorite Aquaman runs ever(plus you still get Starman and Plastic Man!).
__________________________________________________________

DC Comics.com just posted the covers for their February '08 books, and a certain Sea King(and his junior partner!) guest-star in the tenth issue of Mark Waid and George Perez's superbly fun The Brave and the Bold!

I already regularly buy B&B, but maybe that month I'll need to buy two copies!

Adventure Comics #477 - Nov. 1980

The third and penultimate chapter in Aquaman's excellent, final run in Adventure Comics, courtesy J.M. DeMatteis and Dick Giordano, with a cover by Ross Andru and Giordano.

Last time, Aquaman had been forced by a faux Posiedon to attack the citizens of New Venice, to protect his finny friends from harm. Of course, this didn't sit well with the citizens of the town, and as this issue opens, Aquaman is on his way to the Mayor's office to explain and to report that his wife Mera is missing. As he walks through the town, he is jeered at and various members of the town throw things at him.

As he heads up the steps into the Town Hall, it's here we get the "brick sequence" that F.O.A.M. member Vincent Bartilucci counts as one of his all-time favorite Aquaman moments:

...I gotta admit, that is pretty cool.

As Aquaman tries to talk to the Mayor, the Mayor yells at him, still mad at Aquaman for not rescuing his brother, gone missing in an earlier issue of World's Finest(where Aquaman had appeared before this run). The Mayor gets in Aquaman's face, and Aquaman almost loses it, but reins himself in at the last moment.

As he walks home, a small girl befriends him, who is the cousin of Cal Durham, a pawn of a scheme by Black Manta and has now seen the error of his ways, and she leads him to Cal.

Cal then takes Aquaman to see an underwater base being constructed, and just as it seems the Black Manta is behind it, they are attacked by a giant octopus!

Turns out the octopus is a robot, built by Manta! Aquaman and Durham wake up imprisoned by him, and before Durham has a chance to tell Aquaman something, Manta shoots him with a stun-gun, knocking him out.

He then explains to Aquaman that Manta has been amassing an army, made from the "rejects" of the surface world, promising them a better life in Atlantis! As Manta leaves, he informs Aquaman that some missiles he has are aimed at New Venice. Some sort of master plan by Manta? No, Manta is doing it "completely out of spite." Now that's a bad guy!

Meanwhile, back in Atlantis, Mera, who had disappeared earlier, has now just as mysteriously re-appeared! To be continued!
Like the previous installments, this is fun, fast-moving, and exciting. I think the general lack of depth in Aquaman's Rogues Gallery ends up with Black Manta being used a little too much, but that's a minor quibble. The idea of Aquaman's newly-adopted town being blown up just as an act of pique is a classic bad guy plan, and pretty much only Manta(ok, maybe Ocean Master, too) has that kind of anger at Aquaman. Considering that Aquaman's son was murdered by Manta, I'd say he is really pushing his luck with our hero, don't you?

Also like the previous issues, this book also has Starman by Paul Levitz and Steve Ditko, and Plastic Man by Martin Pasko and Joe Staton, making for another fine issue of Adventure Comics!

Adventure Comics #476 - Oct. 1980

Since Aquaman's 1980 Adventure Comics run was so good and (sadly)so short, I've decided to talk about the rest of them in order for next three Comics Fridays!

First off, I love this cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano--I've always liked the slightly bifarcated look, with the co-stars on the side. It takes a lot of skill to put this much on a cover and not make it look crowded.

The story is called "The Poseidon Adventure", written by J.M. DeMatteis with pencils and inks by Giordano. Aquaman has returned home, to find Mera gone! As he is wondering what to do, he is met by none other than Poseidon, God of the Oceans!

Aquaman doesn't believe for a second this is the real Poseidon, yet he has the ability to force Aquaman to follow him to his army of sea creatures, who he plans to use to declare war on the Surface World.

As they begin to attack the coastal town of New Venice, Aquaman--who is still under Poseidon's control--does his best, which is protect his finny friends from the human's retaliation. Since they are being forced to attack, he doesn't want them getting killed in the melee.

Aquaman concentrates and decides to focus his mental powers on just one sea creature--a porpoise, who attacks Poseidon and grabs the trident that Aquaman thinks is the true source of his power. The porpoise succeeds, and Aquaman takes out this faux-Poseidon.

But he sees that in the attempt, his friend has been killed, and there's a nice, touching moment where we are reminded how much Aquaman cares for his fellow sea-goers:

...as a sensitive and painfully shy kid, I think it was moments like these that helped me bond to the character in ways I couldn't understand at the time.

Sure, I wanted to be tough and cool and unflappable like Batman, but I knew I was so far from that I couldn't relate. But Aquaman, being a tough-guy superhero yet still having it in him to mourn for the loss of one his friends, left a deep impression on me.

It turns out that the porpoise died from mental and physical stress, trying to serve both its masters. Aquaman sits on a rock, alone, realizing he's as much to blame as Poseidon.

He also realizes what it felt like to be under someone's control and feel helpless, and wonders is that what he's been doing to his finny friends all these years?

Just then, a parade of sea creatures--sharks, octopi, eels, fish, hundreds of them--swim by, in silent testament to their friend. Its at this moment that Aquaman learns that he has not been "controlling" them at all--they follow him out of respect, loyalty, and love:

Its a truly transcendant moment, one of my favorite Aquaman sequences of all time. And again, the fact that all this could be crammed into eight pages is astonishing.
DeMatteis continues the previous issue's story, adds a villain with an evil plot, wraps it up, leaves a thread which he'll pick up in the next issue, and gives Aquaman two fantastic moments. Not to sound like your typical crusty, fusty comics blogger, but how much story do you get in eight pages nowadays? A couple of sentences, maybe the heroes finally leave their headquarters?

And Giordano's art is, as always, clean, simple, and effective. Another excellent installment, plus you get Levitz and Ditko's Starman, Pasko and Staton's Plastic Man, a letters page, and a Hawkman Hostess ad! Great Neptune, this might be the best comic ever!*
*I'm only barely kidding here.

Adventure Comics #475 - Sept. 1980

We've talked about this cover(by Brian Bolland) before(back when I did a "Favorite Covers" week), but have yet to talk about the insides, so for Comic Friday it's time to discuss one of Aquaman's best, and briefest, runs in Adventure Comics.

You know, Aquaman and Adventure's relationship is like a country song; Aquaman occasionally goes off to chase something better(say, his own title, or as a back-up somewhere else), but it's always good old Adventure Comics that takes him back. This was like his fifth or sixth run as the "star" of the title; and except for a run of reprints when the book became a digest, his last.

Fortunately, as I said, it was one of his best. The opening story, "Scavenger Hunt!", is by J.M. DeMatteis and Dick Giordano(doing pencils and inks!), and starts with Mera feeling sick and Aquaman waking from sleep to get Dr.Vulko to help her.

As he heads there, he is grabbed his old friend Topo, the giant squid. Topo shows him some mysterious machinery, hidden away, with Aquaman immediately recognizes as a piece of ancient Atlantean machinery that could be used to create a dimensional portal between his world and the world of a woman named Atlena, the last survivor of the original Atlantis(this was all part of a storyline that Aquaman was in during his run in World's Finest).

While Aquaman is looking over the find, he discovers the other reason Topo was so concerned--the Scavenger, an old foe of Arthur's, was about to discover the machine, as well!

The Scavenger uses his giant ship, with its death rays and armored pincers, to try and kill Aquaman, and for a moment it looks like it's worked! But then:

...as a kid, I just loved this page. Sure, Aquaman is bragging a little bit, but so what? It was cool to watch the Sea King kick a little butt and remind people he's The King of the Seven Seas! (In fact, I loved this page so much that when it came time to make my wraparound collage cover for my sketchbook, this was front and center.)

Anyway, the Scavenger uses his ship to destory the machine, just to be a jerk. Aquaman, remembering why he was out in the first place, returns home, to find Mera...gone! To be continued!

Giordano's art is, of course, top-notch, and I really liked DeMatteis' ability to cram a lot of story--yet still have time for cool moments like the above--in just eight pages.

The book also featured Starman by Paul Levitz, Steve Ditko, and Romeo Tanghal, and Plastic Man by Martin Pasko, our pal Joe Staton, and Bob Smith, an underrated feature.

Helluva value for a measly fifty cents!