Aquaman (Vol.7) #12 - Jan. 2004

Comics Weekend "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Rick Veitch, Yvel Guichet, and Mark Propst.

Rick Veitch's final issue on Aquaman starts with the the Sea King's old JLA pals meeting up to discuss the trouble that's been brewing all over the world's coast lines:

...thanks Apache Chief!

Before we catch up with Aquaman, we take a stop at Mizen head, where McCaffrey and Sweeney's boat is being overrun by a horde of nasty-looking sea creatures. As Sweeney fights them off, McCaffrey collapses and dies, still holding onto his ship's wheel (that's how they should have killed Capt. Kirk, but I digress).

Back at the Fountainhead, Aquaman's healing powers have worn off Black Manta, and now he's reduced to crawling on the ground, bleeding profusely. He finds himself face-to-face with the Aquaman/Thirst hybrid being...which is in a tug-of-war over which one of them is at the controls!

The Thirst side wins out long enough to jump into the wall of water, which ony increases his hold over Aquaman. Meanwhile, back in New Atlantis, the evil Hagen boasts of the evil he has helped unleash: a horde of creatures determined to scrub the Earth of every surface-dwelling being!

Back inside the Heavenspan:

The Thirst/Aquaman hybrid creature is under Aquaman's control long enough for it to not drink from The Lady of the Lake, but to place gentle kiss upon her lips. Thsi awakens her, while simultaneously weakening The Thirst.

Back on the surface, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman prepare for battle when, suddenly, all the mutated creatures they've been watching begin to wither and die. The crisis ends, just like that--but how? And who?

We know who:

The end...for now!

Overall, I thought Rick Veitch did a decent job on Aquaman, and I would have liked to see where he went if he had stayed on the book (I have no idea whether it was his or DC's idea he stop at twelve issues).

Sure, I think The Thirst storyline went on a bit too long and the whole water-hand thing got a bit too convoluted, but I don't think there was anything that couldn't have been streamlined over time. Veitch helped reset Aquaman back into a more recognizably classic form, and so I'll always be grateful for that!

My only tiny complaint is the last page with Sweeney. She's clearly pretty upset--McCaffrey is dead, and she has feelings for Arthur and doesn't want him to go. But he dismisses her with a kind of flippant response, which...I dunno, seemed kinda cruel to me. And while, yeah, Aquaman is of a different species, at least partially, that's a taboo that simply has to have been shattered long ago in the DCU. Didn't Aquaman read Alan Moore's Swamp Thing?


After this first year, there were two fill-ins by John Ostrander (which I really loved, #s 13 and 14), followed by a very well-regarded run by Will Pfeifer (with those awesome Alan Davis covers!). So, as Aquaman series, go, this seventh volume started off fairly well, and then got even better...

Aquaman (Vol.7) #11 - Dec. 2003

Comics Weekend "By The Rivers of Babylon" by Rick Veitch, Yvel Guichet, and Mark Propst.

Yet another superhero shows up at Mizen Head looking for the Sea King:

Aquaman and Black Manta find their way to a temple of the ancient Babylonian River Goddess, and it looks as though The Thirst has beaten them there. They sneak inside, only to find the place mostly deserted and demolished, as if a great battle had been waged.

They discover The Thirst calling forth what he calls "The Fountainhead" (no, not that one), which is the source of the Secret Sea. The Thirst's zombie-fied captives drink from it, and take their place on their thrones of water, the next-to-last-step of his diabolical plan:

...oh, of course.

Aquaman demands to know why Manta has betrayed him, and Manta's simple explanation is: "In my most secret heart of hearts, I'm still a totally depraved sonofabitch whose main goal in life is to watch you die."

Manta assists The Thirst in reclaiming his cup, and he then drinks greedily from it. Aquaman staggers to his feet, enraged. He changes his water hand into a mace of sorts, and whoops Manta upside the head with it.

The Thirst then places his cup in Aquaman's hand, turning The Thirst into so much dust. But The Thirst isn't gone--no, he and Aquaman are closer than ever:

To be concluded!

See? Black Manta cannot be trusted, ever. And if Aquaman doesn't want to do the deed himself, there's always Lobo, Hitman, etc. Someone should start a Kickstarter campaign or something.

Be back in a few hours to see the final Rick Veitch issue of Aquaman!

Aquaman (Vol.7) #1 - Feb. 2003

Comics Weekend "Castaway!" by Rick Veitch, Yvel Guichet, and Mark Propst.
After a couple years without a solo book, Aquaman made a big splash (sorry) under the direction of Rick Veitch, in a series sold by DC as a sort of return to form for the Sea King:

Some of Aquaman's former loyal subjects drag him ashore, and under the direction of Vulko(!), chain him to a jagged piece of rock. He is then read the charges: for his part in sinking Atlantis, he is condemned to death by dessication!

Aquaman tries to explain to his old friend that his drastic move was the only way to save Atlantis from a witch's spell (events that transpired in the big "Obsidian Age" crossover), but Vulko isn't having any of it.

Left behind on the reef, Aquaman struggles to free himself. His JLA signal device is broken, so he tries to use telepathy, but that doesn't work. He finally grows so furious over being left to die he rips himself free, staggering towards the water.

But some of the Atlantean soldiers who put him there were waiting for just such an event, so they attack Aquaman, hitting him with some of their high-powered lasers, keeping Aquaman from immersing himself in the rejuvenating water. They promise if he gets closer, they will slice him to pieces.

That leaves Aquaman to wander inland:

Mere steps before reaching the lake, Aquaman collapses into a heap. Aquaman tries to use his cybernetic hand to winch himself to the water, only to find it, too, is broken.

Finding it grimly funny, Aquaman yanks his hook hand off his arm, tossing it into the water with "Well, if I'm going to die here...I'll not be strapped to this piece of flotsam!"

But before the hook hits the water, a female hand reaches out from the lake, catching the "piece of flotsam" before it lands. As if that wasn't enough, it is followed by something even more surprising:

The hand snatched the hook is the proverbial Lady of the Lake, and she instructs Aquaman to let the lake's water restore him. She talks of Arthur's "great destiny" and something called "The Age of the Waterbearer", none of which Aquaman takes very seriously. Nevertheless, she takes him by the hand and sink beneath the surface of the water.

Meanwhile, the Martian Manhunter is on a frantic search for his old friend, telepathically communicating with his fellow JLAers. After not finding any clues, he spots Arthur's former hook hand impaled on a rock. He then sees his friend:

...to be continued!


I remember being so excited when this series debuted: DC was really pushing this new Aquaman book as a return of Classic Aquaman, news I was more than ready to hear. Getting rid of the hook hand in the very first issue was a welcome, giant first step, and Veitch seemed to have a good grasp on the Sea King's tricky personality--serious but not stiff, stoic but also able to crack a joke. A solid start.


Like I've done before, in the interest of making it easier to keep track of continued stories like this, I'm going to put up two posts today--so be back in a few hours for issue #2!