Sub-Mariner #72 - Sept. 1974

Comics Weekend "From The Void It Came!" by Steve Skeates, Dan Adkins, and Vince Colletta.

For those of you who read the post from earlier today and are here to read Part Two--yes, writer Steve Skeates cheekily decided to follow up his story "The Creature That Devoured Detroit!" from Aquaman #56...in the pages of the Sea King's Marvel Comics counterpart book, The Savage Sub-Mariner!

Of course, there was almost a four-year span between the the two books, making it relatively certain that no one at Marvel caught on. Back in those days, there was much less back-and-forth between the two companies, so continuing a story across two different titles like this would have been verboten. So Skeates had to be a little crafty--even so, we'll see how he pushed the envelope here:

Yep, those last two panels are virtually the exact same panels from the last page of Aquaman #56--that's even the Sea King right there, except his glove is blue, not green. Skeates sidesteps who the Neptune that guy is in the next panel, with a narrator that tells us "Who that man is...and why he wished to destroy the satellite...that need not concern us!"

With that bit of business out of the way, the story takes off on its own unique turn, with the alien glob that has attached itself to the satellite falling to Earth. It lands in the ocean, and starts to work on creating a body for itself, which takes over two years. Now ambulatory, it heads toward land.

Not too far away, two local lunkheads run afoul of the Sub-Mariner, who is watching the water, minding his own business. One of them, the lunkier of the two, decides to challenge Namor to a fight...if you call kicking a guy in the head a "challenge":

This of course enrages Namor, who grabs the guy and hurls him like a rag doll, not noticing the muck-encrusted creature that has shown itself. When the other surface dweller angrily tackles Namor in retaliation, he knocks them all back into the water. The creature then attacks Namor:

The creature uses its powers to stare into Namor's eyes, causing him to go blind! This doesn't stop the Sub-Mariner, who squeezes his foe so hard that it pops the thing's head off, and watches as it hurtles off into space:

Unfortunately, Namor is still rendered sightless, and he gets down on one knee, furious at himself that he rushed to fight the creature instead of trying to understand it. Thankfully, the creature shows mercy, and from thousands of miles away restores it's foe's sight.

Namor decides to head back to Atlantis, where a terrible vision awaits him:

...and with this classic, melodramatic ending, Sub-Mariner as a title ended. Yes, Steve Skeates wrote part one of this story in the final issue of Aquaman, only to do part two in the final issue of Sub-Mariner. What symmetry!

Of course, I can't possibly be objective when comparing these two issues, because I'm always going to pick Aquaman over Sub-Mariner. That said, I really do feel like these two issues reflect each other quite well; "The Creature That Devoured Detroit!" is a very DC-esque story, while "From The Void It Came", with its navel-gazing internal drama, is very Marvel. Its a testament to Skeates' skill as writer that he could write in two different "house styles", not to mention the fact that he was doing it within the same story! (The art, however...well, I think we all can agree who wins that little face-off between the two books)

But regarding the story as a whole: this DC/Marvel "crossover" is wonderfully goofy; having Aquaman unofficially appear in Sub-Mariner, only to tell the reader don't worry about it, let's just move on, is the equivalent of playing a trick on them--but the kind of trick you don't mind being played on you. Nowadays, that gloved character would be given half a book's worth of back story, because a lot modern comics' readers just wouldn't accept not knowing who it was.

Of course, it's a shame that Aquaman and Sub-Marine don't actually meet here; that would have been a bit much to pull off, even for someone as clever as Steve Skeates. For that, fans of the two companies' Sea Kings would have to wait over twenty years!

Undersea Heroes: Sea Ghost

It's been almost two years since the Shrine ran its last Undersea Heroes segment; I always intended to bring it back every so often but other things kept getting in the way.

But no more! We have a new hero to add to the pantheon of underwater heroes, and his name is The Sea Ghost!

The Sea Ghost is the creation of Jay Piscopo, a friend of the Shrine whose work has appeared here before--he's done three(!) different pin-ups featuring Aquaman and The Sea Ghost, an Aquaman costume re-design, and a sketch from my Aqua-Sketchbook.

The man is a fountain of creativity--I've lost count of how many characters he's created, and he's always posting something new on his Facebook page. Many people have remarked how prolific I am; Jay makes me look like Fran Lebowitz.

Anyway, last week Jay's undersea character The Sea Ghost got his own title, so I thought this was a perfect time to bring back the Undersea Heroes feature. Here's how the book opens:

The Sea Ghost receives a message from Commander X, telling him of a "temporal displacement" (those are the worst kind!) in an area near The Sea Ghost, who offers to investigate. His two young kids, Coral and Triton, want to come along, but he thinks its too dangerous and has them stay behind in their cool undersea headquarters.

The Sea Ghost finds the mysterious spot, and finds some sort of computer orb. Before you can say "temporal displacement", it transports The Sea Ghost across the galaxy to another world, where within moments he is assaulted by some armed guards riding sharks!

They throw a net on him, something SG could easily escape from, but he decides to play possum so he can learn what the holy halibut is going on. He is brought before this kingdom's queen where he learns of an endless war that's been raging between two races of people, The Phlan and the Simas.

The Sea Ghost finds the concept of endless war less than reasonable:

There's more--a lot more--crammed into this first issue. If there's another comic or cartoon I could compare this to as I read it, it would be Jack Kirby's New Gods stuff or Space Ghost (indeed, Jay namechecks both Kirby and Toth in an editorial at the end of the book): the ideas and concepts are flying at the reader at a breakneck pace, and there's no winking at the camera--this is no post-modern ironic superhero: The Sea Ghost would have fit in perfectly in the back of DC comic from the 1950s, albeit with more eye-popping color:

Not wanting to spoil the story for those of who haven't read this but might want to, let's just say the story wraps up, as it should, with a smile, and promise of more undersea adventure!

This first issue also features some cool pin-ups, some by Jay, and including one by Ms. Aquaman herself, Ramona Fradon, making for quite a debut!


As I said above, The Sea Ghost is an unironic, straightforward superhero/sci-fi/adventure story, and while it could come off maybe a little square, so did Space Ghost. It was refreshing reading a superhero comic that wasn't, er, drowning in irony and self-conscious detachment.

The Sea Ghost is an ideal comic for kids who are past, say, the Johnny DC stuff but not quite ready to tackle the darker world that most DC and Marvel heroes now inhabit. I have a pile of comics I keep after I read them that I give away to various kids I know; The Sea Ghost is right on top!

If you want to learn more about The Sea Ghost and Jay's other characters (five more have been created since I started this post), check out The Undersea Adventures of Capt'N Eli site. And tell 'em The Aquaman Shrine sent ya!


And don't worry, Undersea Heroes fans, it won't be two years before this feature returns! Stay tuned!

Undersea Heroes: DC vs. Filmation

This is the theme week that just won't die!

As a postscript to our Undersea Heroes Week, I talked about the Filmation character Manta, who briefly had his own show as part of the Tarzan and the Super 7 series.

DC Comics thought Manta was a little too close to Aquaman for comfort, so they actually filed a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement (the suit also involved Filmation's character Superstretch, who DC claimed was a lot like Plastic Man). I found a website that listed the suit and gave a few details about it. And that, I thought, was that.

But! Just a few days later, my pal and F.O.A.M. member Brian Dixon told me his girlfriend, who is a law student, and being such she has access to all sorts of legal databases. So he had her dig up the entire court decision, and send it to me! Wow!

I won't show the whole thing, since for a few pages it deals with rules of copyright law, but here are the parts directly concerning Aquaman:

I find the line on the top right of page 1280 of particular interest: "The only reasonable inference is the 1967 [Aquaman] series failed to gain network exposure in 1978 and 1979 not because of any wrongdoing by defendant, but because the show was obsolete and hence undesirable to a network, or because plaintiff, recognizing this, had voluntarily withdrawn the show from the network market, or because ABC's decision to exhibit Aquaman segments nationally as part of Super Friends had saturated that market." As if!

It's also interesting that, as part of the suit, DC alleged that Aquaman's comic book sales fell because of Filmation's Manta and Moray show. You don't have to be Matt Murdock to know that's a real stretch.

Despite this, the court basically agreed with DC, saying that Manta and Superstretch were a little too close to Aquaman and Plastic Man, in turn leading to those characters being pulled from the air, and, as of this writing, never to be seen again in any sort of official way.


You know, occasionally I do worry that at some point I am going to run out of Aquaman stuff to talk about, and the Shrine will have to stop, or reduce my daily schedule at the very least. I mean, we're not talking about Superman or Batman here.

Then I get stuff like this, an item so weird and unexpected, that it puts a stupid grin on my face and makes me think the Shrine will run forever.

Thanks Brian, and thank your girlfriend too for her intrepid research!

Undersea Heroes: Postscript

Last Friday, we wrapped up our Undersea Heroes Week with Harvey Comics' anemic underwater hero Pirana. At the end of the post, I mentioned a half-dozen other water-based heroes I hadn't gotten to, like Amphibian, Abe Sapien, Marina, and some others.

In the comments, F.O.A.M. member Brian Heiler added "Don't forget Filmation's Manta."

When I read that, I thought, "What the heck is Brian talking about? Who's 'Filmation's Manta'?"

So I did some research, and found that Manta--and his female partner Moray--was part of the Filmation Saturday Morning show Tarzan and the Super 7:

...now, I remember watching that show, but I have absolutely no memory of Manta, Moray, or the show. Maybe my opinion of the show at the time mirrored most of America's--apathy. Manta and Moray only lasted seven episodes, before disappearing forever.

While I love having (re?)learned of this character, since he definitely should've been added to last week's Undersea Heroes Addendum list, he really doesn't rate a whole special post all to himself like this, so what makes him so special?

Well, I learned in my research that Manta was a wee-bit too similar to Aquaman for DC's tastes, causing DC to actually sue Filmation for trademark infringement!

The suit was DC Comics, Inc. v. Filmation Assoc., 486 F. Supp 1273 (S.D.N.Y. 1980), and here's what the jury found:

"Protectable 'ingredients' recognized in this circuit include the names and nicknames of entertainment characters, as well as their physical appearances and costumes, but not their physical abilities or personality traits. The failure of any court so far to grant Lanham Act protection for character traits or abilities makes sense since it is difficult to see how such intangible qualities, having an infinite number of possible visible and audible manifestations, can achieve that fixture or consistency of representation that would seem necessary to constitute a symbol in the public mind."

Which basically meant Filmation did infringe on DC's trademark of Aquaman. According to a quote from Andy Mangels on the show's Wiki page, "Due to lawsuits from Marvel Comics and DC Comics, Superstretch and MicroWoman, Manta & Moray and Web Woman have been withdrawn from distribution, and probably do not exist in the ER library at all. I don't think Hallmark ever transferred them. Very sad."

Indeed, when episodes of the series were released it on DVD, only the Freedom Force, Batman, and Jason of Star Command segments were included.

But fear not, Manta and Moray fans! Thanks (again!) to Brian and his blog Plaid Stallions, here's a few minutes of Manta and Moray:

Hmm...Manta can only be out the water a short time, has a walrus sidekick, and spends a lot of the adventure captured by the bad guy? Seems like Aquaman to me!


The reason I'm spending so much time on this very obscure character is the lawsuit was probably the most energy and care DC put towards Aquaman, ever--I mean, think about it: they cared about Aquaman* enough to file a lawsuit to stop the production of a pretty silly knockoff. I thought only Superman and Batman got that kind of respect!

Thanks, Manta and Moray--we hardly knew ye.



(*oh, okay, and Plastic Man, since he was part of the suit, too)

Undersea Heroes Part 4: Pirana

The fourth and final installment of our "Undersea Heroes" theme week, where we take a look at Harvey Comics' Pirana, and his two sidekicks, Bara and Cuda. No, I'm not kidding!

The pool for water-based superheroes was really shallow by the time Harvey Comics, desperate to cash in on some of that superhero heat thanks to the Batman TV show, created their own line of superheroes.

Sadly, all of their heroes, few were as silly as their own version of Aquaman, the heroic adventurer known as Pirana!

First Appearance: Thrill-O-Rama #2 (1966)

Created by: Otto Binder and Jack Sparling

Powers: Can live underwater, can communicate with this two "Piranapets", Bara and Cuda.

Group Affiliation: None, though I'm sure he tried

Likes: Alone time with his Piranapets

Dislikes: Third-World dictators, rich kids who can buy and sell him

Fun Facts: Acquired his two sidekicks from a text story, in this issue, called "Meet Bara and Cuda, The Piranapets."

Sadly(?), unlike our other underwater heroes, never got his own title.

Sample panel from the above issue of Thrill-O-Rama:

...ouch--smashed in the face with a hammer! No one laughs at Generalissimo Brainstorm!

Current status: Waiting for DC Comics to buy the whole Harvey heroes line so Grant Morrison can work him into a story.

Could he beat Aquaman?: Are you kidding? This guy couldn't beat Arthur Jr.!


...and that ends our Undersea Heroes week. Like I said, this week doesn't represent every underwater superhero out there. Maybe if we do an Undersea Heroes Week 2, we'll get to other water-based characters like:

Abe Sapien

Mermaid Man

Sea Guy

Namorita

Marina

Amphibian

...plus this guy, my favorite obscure superhero, Timely's 1940s-era character The Fin:

I don't know anything about The Fin other than, judging from this cover, he looks like a lot of fun!

Undersea Heroes Part 3: Shark-Man

Part 3 of our "Undersea Heroes" theme week, where we take a look at...Shark-Man!

First Appearance: Shark-Man #1 (2006)

Created by: Michael Town, Ronald Shusett, and David Elliott

Powers: No powers, but wears a super-suit that gives the wearer the power of flight, super-strength, invulnerability, etc.

Group Affiliation: None

Likes: Making a profit, saving lives

Dislikes: Red ink

Fun Facts: In this very first issue, the man in the Shark-Man suit, Alan Gaskill, is murdered by an enemy!

Sample panel from the above issue of Shark-Man:

Even though he's clearly a hero, I find Shark-Man's choice of costume to be utterly terrifying. I'm not sure I'd want to be saved by him, if it came to that.

But...I gotta give him credit. His look is really bad-ass, and I think maybe a touch of Shark-Man in Aquaman might be a good thing, and make him less of a punchline to comics fans. (Although Shark-Man does kill his opponents, something I definitely don't want to see Arthur do)

Current status: Had two brief solo series, then returned for a third under the Image Comics imprint. I don't see the book on their current schedule, so I don't know whether it's continuing.*

Could he beat Aquaman?: That's a tough one. Even though Aquaman has superior powers, you get the feeling Sharkman would fight dirty--and mean. I see biting, you know what I mean?


Tomorrow: Pirana!



*Update: I got an email from one of Shark-Man's creators, Michael Town (who is also a member of F.O.A.M.!), telling me that he is working on some new Shark-Man material, which is good news!

He also pointed out that the super-villain She-Witch's costume is an "Aquaman-inspired wetsuit." I completely missed that, but here's Exhibit A, also courtesy Mr. Town:

...awesome! (How the heck did I miss the orange and green?) Thanks Michael!

Undersea Heroes Part 2: Undersea Agent

Part 2 of our "Undersea Heroes" theme week, where we take a look at Tower Comics' Undersea Agent!

First Appearance: Undersea Agent #1 (1966)

Created by: Samm Schwartz & Ray Bailey

Powers: Has some minor powers, mostly amplified strength, vision, endurance, etc. Has access to lots of high-tech weapons.

Group Affiliation: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents

Likes: Hanging around with trained dolphins, lots of air in his oxygen tanks

Dislikes: People that waste valuable time (see below)

Fun Facts: "Undersea" was actually an acronym: "United Nations Department of Experiment and Research Systems Established at Atlantis."

Sample panel from the above issue of Undersea Agent:

As you can see, the Undersea Agent (real name: Davy Jones--no, really) didn't bother with niceties when the chips were really down.

Some of his stories were drawn by Gil Kane (who drew the cover), who brought his trademark dynamism to the strip. The one story in this issue drawn by Kane, "To Save A Monster", is a rip-roaring adventure featuring the Undersea Agent fighting a giant sea creature, and is fast-moving fun.

Current status: Was part of the the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents revival by Deluxe Comics in 1984. Sadly, he, with the rest of the Agents, are now mired in a quagmire of copyright problems, where no one seems to be sure who owns the rights to the characters.*

Could he beat Aquaman?: No way. It might take Aquaman a minute or two to learn and adapt to all of Undersea Agent's Batman-like accessories, but eventually he'd just crack UA's helmet like a coconut and that'd be it.


Tomorrow: Sharkman!



*Update: In between writing this and posting it, DC announced at this year's SDCC that they have bought the rights to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents! So who knows, maybe we'll get to see an Aquaman/Undersea Agent team-up!

Undersea Heroes Part 1: The Sub-Mariner

Today's Part 1 of our "Undersea Heroes" theme week, where we'll take a look at The Sub-Mariner.

Picking the week's subjects was relatively arbitrary; I simply thought of the most famous of the water-based superheroes (it was a thin list, let me tell you) and gave each of them a slot. This is not intended to be a complete list of all the undersea superheroes that have ever existed; but these will be the ones most fun to talk about.

I decided to pick a random comic starring each of the heroes, and take a look at what one of their adventures read like. So, like I said, let's start with Marvel's answer to Aquaman--Namor, The Sub-Mariner!:

First Appearance: Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 (1939)

Created by: Bill Everett

Powers: Flight, super-strength, communicate underwater

Group Affiliation: The Invaders, The Defenders

Likes: Being left alone, brawls, Sue Storm

Dislikes: Surface dwellers, pollution, the Hulk

Fun Facts: His first solo title, at 72 issues, ran longer than Aquaman's (63). Plus his final issue was also written by Steve Skeates!

Sample panel from the above issue of Sub-Mariner:

Since he debuted a full two years before Aquaman, one could argue Aquaman was DC's answer to the Sub-Mariner, not the other way around. Those people would be wrong.

In the Marvel Universe, Sub-Mariner is much more near the top-tier of characters, in terms of sheer power. While Aquaman is very, very strong, Namor has fought people like the Hulk, Thor, and Hercules--Aquaman's simply not in that class (which is why he had to cheat in the DC vs. Marvel mini-series).

Current status: Got a solo mini-series in 2007, is currently appearing (in flashback form) in various Marvel mini-series and issues of Captain America as a member of The Invaders.

Could he beat Aquaman?: Possibly. As I've said above, Aquaman's strength is simply no match for Namor's, but since Aquaman has taken some hits in his life (pretty much every day since around 1977), he has learned to use all his wits and abilities. Namor, used to getting his own way and being very sure of himself, can get way too cocky.

After all, in their first--and so far only--encounter, in DC vs. Marvel, Arthur actually beat Namor, thanks to his finny friends.


Tomorrow: Undersea Agent!