Superman #379 - Jan. 1983

Comics Weekend Meet Bizarro Aquaman!

I always found the Bizarro World concept to very creepy and disturbing. Bizarro by himself was a goofy, fun idea, but when it was expanded to a whole planet, it took on a whole nightmarish type of feel, at least to me.

Eventually, the Bizarro World concept kept getting developed, to the point where a Bizarro Justice League was introduced, which leads us to this comic, which featured the first appearance of Bizarro Aquaman!

The story, by Cary Bates, Curt Swan, and Dave Hunt, is titled "The Bizarro-Buster Is Loose!" and opens with Bizarro meeting with his fellow Bizarro Justice Leaguers:

Bizarro Batman talks of reports of things blowing up all over the planet for no good reason. He determines those reports are exaggerated, just as Bizarro Flash explodes immediately to his right.

Then the rest of them follow suit:

See? Horrifying.

Unfortunately, from here on in, Bizarro Aquaman doesn't make any more appearances in the story (why should the Bizarro Aquaman be any different from the original version?), so I'm not going to spend a lot time talking about the rest of the story.

Basically, Bizarro heads back to Earth, to steal Superman's Duplicator Ray so he can start making more Bizarros before they're all gone.

Superman is actually okay with this, but then he sees a bizarre creature made of orange smoke following Bizarro, who seems to suddenly become weak, and collapses into dust.

The creature metamorphoses into a different form:

...I know I've said before, I'm not a big fan of Curt Swan's work, but I gotta give him credit--that is one disgusting creature. *shudder*

Superman follows the creature back to Bizarro World, defeats it, and all the previously exploded Bizarros re-form:

...sadly, Bizarro Aquaman doesn't get an appearance here, even in this group shot. *sigh*

Turns out all of this was an accident, caused by...Bizarro Lex Luthor! Bizarro Luthor, of course, is a good guy:

...I love Superman's bewildered thoughts in the second panel. Let me get the heck out here!

Bizarro Aquaman did make a return appearance, his last, in DC Comics Presents #71. Maybe I'll pick that issue up to see if he gets any more to do that time around.

Years ago, I read that Alan Moore had worked up an idea for mini-series set entirely on the Bizarro World. He wanted to deal with some of the most mundane aspects of living on a square planet--how do you live on the corners?, and such.

Since I find the Bizarro World a creepy concept even under the gentile hands of Cary Bates and Curt Swan, I can't imagine what nightmares would've awaited us if DC had let Moore go ahead with it.

World's Finest #264 - Sept. 1980

Comics Weekend Aquaman's final appearance in World's Finest!

In what was one of the shortest runs of his publishing history, Aquaman wrapped up his run as a co-star in World's Finest Comics with this, his third issue.

I wonder what kind of communication was going on between the various departments at DC at the time, since the book's masthead was changed with this issue to highlight all the new stars (looks like Dick Giordano art to me), including Aquaman as you can see.

Anyway, this issue's story is "What Light Through Underwater Breaks?" by Bob Rozakis (Rozakis' story titles were always a lot of fun), with art by Jose Delbo and Kim De Mulder, featuring a villain who had such a tough time defeating the Justice League that he downgraded to taking them on one at a time, Dr. Light:

Light has learned Aquaman plans to set up shop here in New Venice, and of course he has a new light-based weapon that he thinks will help him defeat the Sea King.

Meanwhile, Mera and Aquaman discuss why they aren't going back to Atlantis. Arthur argues that there, she and Arthur Jr. were constant targets, and he tries to assure his wife that in New Venice they will be a bit more safe.

He then shows his Queen the fabulous new digs he's scoped out for them:

...ok, it's really just a water-filled bottom floor of the police station, but Aquaman figures that its a good way to keep tabs on the city, while remaining relatively hidden from the general populace.

Aqualad, Mera, and Topo help unpack, while Aquaman leaves to go visit Mayor Lyndon.

On the way there, he sees something strangely glowing in the water. As he gets near it, it explodes in his face!

Thinking it would kill him, Dr. Light is disappointed to see it only stuns Aquaman. After Aquaman shakes it off and finishes his meeting with the Mayor, he tries a second attack:

Aquaman manages to fend off Light's attack for a moment, deflecting the first blast with a handy hunk of reflective metal in a junk yard.

Then, suddenly, Light's weapon stops working, allowing Aquaman to get close enough to knock him out. "What happened, why do I always fail?" I can image Dr. Light thinking as he drifts off into unconsciousness...

Turns out that Aquaman figured out what was powering Dr. Light's new weapon:

...and with that, Aquaman's run in World's Finest ended. He had been promoted to main feature status. And guess where he ended up? Yes, of course, Adventure Comics--it always takes him back (luckily for us AquaFans, this would turn out to be one of Aquaman's best runs ever).

I love how Dr. Light is such a feeb. His schemes are so unambitious, yet he fails even at those. He tried to take on the whole JLA, and that didn't work. He knew he couldn't beat Superman, Wonder Woman, or some of the other powerhouses of the League, so he "downgraded" to taking on Aquaman and The Atom. And he failed then too.

Who's next? Red Tornado? Elongated Man? Did Dr. Light set his sights on Snapper Carr?

As I mentioned above, this issue's story had art by Jose Delbo and Kim De Mulder, who both had the dubious honor of trying to teach me comic book art back when I attended the Kubert School. Salut!

Tonight @ 8pm on Cartoon Newtork!

Oops, I almost forgot--remember, tonight is the premiere of Brave and the Bold, at 8pm on the Cartoon Network!

You can learn more about the show here--tonight's episode is Batman and Blue Beetle, but Aquaman will showing up in the third episode, premiering November 28!

Teen Titans Go! Aqualad Game Card

This way cool Aqualad game card is part of a Teen Titans Go! card set, generously sent to me by newest F.O.A.M. member (but longtime commenter) Richard Duncan. Thanks Richard!

Richard emailed me to ask if I had it, which I didn't. Little did I know that Richard would send me an entire set of the cards!

Unfortunately, this is the only Aqualad card in a pack of 28; oh well. Considering that Aqualad wasn't a regular member of the team, I guess we should be glad he got included--Speedy, for instance, doesn't show up at all!

Dinosaur Comics - 10/22/08

This is a panel from the 10/22 edition of the online strip Dinosaur Comics, sent to me by F.O.A.M.er Kristen Livingston.

The strip features two very erudite dinosaurs having a conversation, and for some reason Aquaman comes up. I think I agree with the T-Rex, Aquaman does always seem to have "an abiding sorrow." (Click the panel to go to the Dinosaur Comics site and see the whole strip)

I love seeing examples of Aquaman showing up in odd places, and this ranks right up there. Thanks Kristen!
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The newest issue of Toyfare (#137, out this week) features a new article on the upcoming Brave and the Bold line, and features a decent-sized shot of the new Aquaman figure.

Some of these pics hold some surprises--I didn't know that The Atom was going to be in the initial wave (a delightful addition), or super-villains Sportsmaster and Gentleman Ghost, either (interesting note--GG will also be added to the JLU line early next year, which means he's increasing his action figure quotient by 2000% in 2009, from zero to two).

Another highlight of the line is that, out of the initial six heroes to choose from, its Aquaman (along with Blue Beetle) who is getting a separate "Deluxe" figure. Thanks Mattel!
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On last night's installment of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, during the final "pop culture" segment with correspondent Kent Jones, Aquaman got a shout-out during a piece about a real-life town named "Batman."

You can see the clip here. I'm always excited when Aquaman gets mentioned on big-time TV!

Stock Art by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez

One of the last pieces in the massive pile o' stock art I've been putting up here on the Shrine, and one my of my favorites.

The design elements are so nice, so perfectly working as Aquaman's milieu yet not taking away from should be the focus of the piece, the Sea King himself.

I don't recall seeing this on too many pieces of merchandise, though it did show up fairly recently here, and, of course, just yesterday!

Aquaman Flip-Flops - 2007

These are genuine Aquaman flip-flops, sent to me by newest F.O.A.M. member Christopher Rees, who hails all the way from Sydney, Australia--wow! Thanks Chris!

Chris said he found these at his local Target, along with flip-flops bearing the images of Batman, The Joker, and The Flash. Of course, Aquaman flip-flops make the most sense, since they're traditionally beach wear.

I have yet to see these at any of my local Target stores. if I had, I'd certainly pick up a pair, but they'd immediately go right into the storage facility that now houses my collection, since I don't wear flip-flops...ever.

DC Comics House Ad - 1962

Ah, to live in an era where DC chose Aquaman, out of the dozens of titles they regularly published, to be one of the characters they spotlighted when running an ad for the whole line. (Notice Wonder Woman didn't even make the cut--wow, what a diss!)

A nifty-looking ad, if a tad awkward from the use of very different pieces of stock art. Batman doesn't even look like the same species as the rest of his fellow Justice Leaguers.

(And yes, every DC comic was approved by the Comics Code Authority...except those two controversial "drug issues" of Sugar 'N Spike, of course)

World's Finest #263 - July 1980

Comics Weekend Aquaman continues his run in World's Finest!

I guess you could count this issue as a bit of a step up for the Sea King. He debuted in the title in the previous issue (which we talked about yesterday), but he didn't even get mentioned on the cover, not even in the list of names at the top of the book (between the DC bullet and the price)! Did DC forget he was in there?

With this issue, at least, he not only got added to the roster at the top, but got a little head shot, as well (drawn by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano, who drew, what, 10,000 covers for DC?). So at least readers knew Aquaman was inside!

This issue's story is "Return to New Venice!" by Bob Rozakis, Jose Delbo, and Frank Chiaramonte:

This story kicks off in a really unusual way (for an Aquaman story, at least), with the Sea King taking a few bows from the grateful citizens of New Venice:

...I wish more Aquaman comics were like this.

Anyway, in the middle of the celebration, Aquaman sees a whole bunch of his finny friends leaping out of the water, all of them seemingly burned. Who did this?, Aquaman asks.

Using his telepathy with the fish, he "sees" a group of men in scuba suits with blowtorches, deep underwater, who fried the fish if they got too close.

Aquaman heads down there, punching one of them out, having his octopus friend Topo grab another, with a swordfish putting out the third's blowtorch. Easy, breezy.

Back on the surface, Aquaman is met by the press, who tell him about...The Aquaman Museum?? Yes, the Aquaman Museum:

It features all kinds of physical representations of important moments in Aquaman's past, plus souvenirs from his many adventures. And you tour through it via boats! How cool is that?

Aquaman gets lost in a reverie about all he's been through, and he is so touched by the town's actions that he asks if he can set up a base of operations in New Venice. The Mayor wholeheartedly agrees:

What a nice ending!

I love this story, because its such a nice change to see the Surface World actually embracing Aquaman, and he responds in kind. Man, if an Aquaman Museum existed, I'd have moved there so I could visit it every day.

The art of Delbo and Chiaramonte has its moments, but its no match for Don Newton (but then, most people weren't)*. Considering how good Newton was at subtle facial expressions, I really would have loved to see him draw this story, since so much of it takes place inside Aquaman's head as he recalls his past.


*And I'm not just saying that because Delbo gave me a really bad grade once on an assignment back when I had him as an instructor at the Kubert School--promise.

World's Finest #262 - May 1980

Comics Weekend Aquaman returns to World's Finest!

Aquaman spent most of the 1970s bopping around from title to title, never settling in one place for very long.

After kicking off the decade with his own title being canceled (right in the middle of arguably its creative peak), Aquaman only appeared in Justice League of America for a short while. Then he got a brief run as a back-up star in Adventure Comics, then got promoted to headlining that title, only to get promoted again into his own book again.

Unfortunately, Aquaman was victim of the DC Implosion, so the Sea King once again only showed up a member in team books--two this time, Justice League and the new book Super Friends.

But Adventure Comics was like an old girlfriend of Aquaman, who keeps taking him back after he strays, and he returned to the title when it became a dollar book in Adventure #460, only for that strip to end a mere six issues later, leaving Aquaman "homeless" yet again!

But changes were afoot at another of DC's longest-running titles, World's Finest Comics, so Aquaman was given a slot there (after having been a sporadic back-up in title from issues 125-147 many years earlier). Ok, got all that?

Anyway, this issue's story opens up like this:

...after receiving the distress call from the JLA, Aquaman heads out to search for this missing senator, last seen going overboard.

When he gets the area where the senator should be, he sees a ghost-like woman who leads him into a sort of whirlpool. He follows her all the way, until he arrives in a very strange place:

Aquaman is told this is the Sargasso Sea, the legendary graveyard of ships. The mysterious woman is Atlena, who lived in an Atlantis from many eons ago, and now resides in an alternate dimension, with the help of a machine that she invented.

The machine is now malfunctioning, opening up portals to "our" dimension randomly, grabbing anyone who happens to be going by at the time. Atlena has been trying to communicate with the other side, to get someone to turn off the machine so everyone trapped here can escape.

Aquaman uses his tremendous strength to escape the whirpool, and is met by Aqualad and Mera. He calls the JLA for assistance, but they are no help:

Aquaman then gets a pod of whales together, and has them grab a massive chain which he then connects to a battleship inside the vortex.

It starts to work, but the opening of the vortex is too small for the ship to pass through, so he has the trapped people start to climb the chain, one by one. Unfortunately, the people waste time fighting over who gets to leave first:

Despite the "I will fight on" ending, I found this story creepy as a kid--all those people trapped, and they blow their one chance to escape because they couldn't work together. Very Twilight Zone, and I still find it works really well.

And of course, if Jim Aparo wasn't available to draw Aquaman anymore, DC could have hardly done better than to replace him with Don Newton, whose work I always thought was superb. He gave Aquaman a grace of movement, making him look truly underwater.

This was Newton's last Aquaman story, and the end of Aquaman's run in World's Finest was already in sight, as soon as it started. Be here tomorrow to see what happened next.

World's Finest Banner Ad - 1980

This little space filler ad promoted the new(est) line-up in World's Finest Comics, debuting in issue #262 of the title.

DC did a fair amount of promotion of this line-up, only to have Aquaman get bumped from the book a mere three issues later (and be replaced by Red Tornado, for Neptune's sake)!

We've never covered that (very) brief run of Aquaman in World's Finest, so come back tomorrow and we'll see what it was all about!
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A couple of eagle-eyed F.O.A.M.ers sent me this picture--apparently there's yet another line of DC Direct figures planned for 2009, called History of the DC Universe.

As you can see, Classic Aquaman is in the first assortment, and I have to say it looks like a terrific figure--as does the rest of the line. They look pretty much like the leapt right out the comics.

As usual, nice job, DC Direct!

Aquaman Vs. Painting by Diego Latorre

A few months ago I posted a Vs. game card featuring this painting by Diego Latorre. As I said at the time, I thought it was a great piece.

Well, just this week Mr. Latorre emailed me and sent me this scan of the painting in its full glory!

As we've seen before, the paintings made for these cards frequently are real humdingers, and we only get to see a tiny, cropped representation of it, so its great to see an original like this.

I told Diego I think its a beautiful illustration--Aquaman looks mysterious yet majestic, and I love the near-blinding light above the surface of the water. It really gives Aquaman an other-worldly feel, an aspect to the character rarely touched upon.

Thanks Diego, and keep up the good work!

Congratulations Are In Order

El Juego De Los Superheroes - 1977

Amazing.

As I have said many times before, the one piece of childhoodus nostalgiacalus that has eluded me over the years is the Super Heroes Checker Set, featuring Aquaman (and, admittedly, some others) as the game pieces. All I've ever been able to find of it is a catalog ad of the item.

And yet, here's a foreign edition, in pictures as big and clear as could be!

These photos were sent to me by F.O.A.M. member Ramiro, who has sent me all kinds of wonderful AquaStuff over the past year or so.

As you can see, various members of the DCU got their own game pieces--Aquaman (using an image cribbed from Dick Giordano), plus the usual suspects--Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern.

But since there were a lot of pieces to spread the love over, the makers of the game went deep into the DC bench, and used very off-brand choices like Dr. Light, Captain Boomerang, Cheetah, and Black Canary! Cool-o!

This version, which hales from Argentina, differs from the American version in the use of a different piece of stock art on the cover--in this case, Kurt Schaffenberger's fun Super Friends montage.

If you look closely at this shot of the American version:

...you can see some different characters not seen above in the foreign version. So either this Argentinian edition uses some different characters (unlikely) or the photo up top is missing some pieces.

In any case, thanks so much Ramiro!

Alex aka "Aquaman" - Halloween 2008

I was hoping some Shrine fan out there would tell me they had their kid go as Aquaman this Halloween!

This is Alex, who is two years old, sporting a very sharp, homemade Aquaman costume, made by his parents Rob and Jennifer. I'll let Rob tell the story:

"A month or so ago, my wife and I were figuring out who Alex should dress up as for Hallloween.

I say 'who' and not 'what' because I knew it would be a superhero. Thankfully my wife indulges me a lot on the superhero thing, and loves to sew costumes so it's a win-win for me.

Last year he was an adorable Captain Marvel, and this year we wanted to do another no-mask costume (masks would last about ten seconds before being torn off--ditto for gloves). Alex is blond and blue-eyed, so we thought Aquaman would be a good choice.

I'd always liked Aquaman as a kid, but didn't really know very about about his recent incarnations/continuity, etc.

So we did some costume research, with much of it coming from your site, and decided on a variation of a recent costume--more or less classic Aquaman but without shorts or gloves. Jennifer sewed the bodysuit, and did a great job, while I did the belt and drew on the scales (with a black Sharpie, no less). We wanted to add gold bands at the neck and cuffs, but ran out of time (I was still drawing scales fifteen minutes before trick-or-treat began)."

That's a great costume, and Alex is a lucky kid, having such cool and diligent parents such as Rob and Jennifer. I'm proud that the Shrine could help convert little Alex into a really cool Li'l Aquaman. I bet the costume generated a mountain of candy.

Since it was a team effort, we're inducting Rob, Jennifer, and Alex as our newest members of F.O.A.M.!

Aquaman (Vol. 1) #46 - Aug. 1969

Comics Weekend A (nearly) solo Mera adventure in this issue of Aquaman!

Yesterday, we talked about Aquaman #36, which was in the last year of writer Bob Haney and artist Nick Cardy's long run on the book.

With Aquaman #40, new editor Dick Giordano had taken over, and brought with him two of his people from his Charlton days--Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo. They hit the ground running (swimming?), treating (in my opinion) the Sea King to some of the best stories he's ever been a part of.

This issue's story is titled "The Explanation":

We open in the back of an ambulance, and we see inside is Aquaman and Mera. Aquaman is dazed and barely conscious, and asks Mera how they got here.

We then flashback to Aquaman, Mera, Aqualad, and Arthur Jr. caught in the middle of an undersea whirlpool. The force of it is so strong it separates Mera from the rest of them, and she is then grabbed two men aiming to kidnap her!

One of them punches out Aquaman when he sees what's going on, and we get to see where Mera is going:

Mera is taken from the sub and thrown into a prison cell. Editor Giordano steps in(!) to explain that, "through the power of our imaginations", we now get to see who these bad guys are and what they're planning.

Turns out this is a group of crooks who want to use Mera's hard water powers to help them become modern day pirates. Mera refuses, but they tell her that if she doesn't help them, Aquaman dies!

Thinking that, if she doesn't help them, they will keep Aquaman away from water for over an hour, she agrees. They keep Mera for days, and then suddenly an entire wall of her cell slides down, allowing Mera to...escape?

(Giordano steps in again to remind us that it was last issue that we saw how Aquaman was inadvertently responsible for Mera's escape)

She heads for the light at the end of a tunnel, but two goons are there to stop her. But Mera knows how to kick some surface dweller butt:

Mera heads out, but then realizes Aquaman is still in the clutches of the pirates (or so she thinks). Then an explosion (which also happened last issue) blasts an unconscious Aquaman out into the sea. At the same time, the pirates' artificial whirlpool machine has kicked on, keeping Mera from grasping her husband with her hard-water powers.

Then, the giant underwater fortress of the pirates' explodes, nearly killing them both. Mera then manages to grab her husband, and drags him onto the beach.

Meanwhile, back in Atlantis, its new ruler, Narkran, is quickly turning into a tyrant. He talks of revenge with the surface world with Vulko, who is disturbed at what he hears.

Aquagirl overhears a clandestine meeting between some sneaky-looking conspirators, and is grabbed right off the street. Luckily, like Mera, Aquagirl don't take no guff:

...sisters are doin' it for themselves!

Back on land, Aquaman has recovered, and he and Mera leave the hospital. They compare notes over their respective adventures, since they haven't seen each other in weeks.

After some gentle kidding by Mera, they decided to head back to Atlantis:

...I absolutely love that top panel--the movement, the angle, its so dynamic. Jim Aparo, The Man.


A really innovative issue, telling the "flip-side" of the story that took place last issue. Aparo here is inked by Frank Giacoia, giving the art a slightly different look (check out the odd credit on the splash page, where it says the story was "Inked by an inker.") It looks just fine, since Aparo's superb layouts are still all here.

Interesting note: nothing like what's depicted on the cover happens in this issue. And the bad guys are crooks in three-piece suits...I don't know what's up with the viking-looking guy in the foreground.

Aquaman (Vol.1) #36 - Dec. 1967

Comics Weekend Aquaman vs...The Awesome Threesome!

For this week's Comic Weekend, we're heading all the way back to the late 60s, when Aquaman was arguably as popular as he ever has been.

Just look at the cover (a beauty, by Nick Cardy)--"The King of the Sea is now King of TV!" (Too bad the Aquaman pilot didn't sell, otherwise DC could've used that blurb again for Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis)

This issue's story is "What Seeks the Awesome Threesome" by Bob Haney and Nick Cardy, starting off with your standard very-exciting, poster-like splash page (with the old-school Aquaman logo, oddly enough):

At the "Expo 21st Century", a sort of DC Comics-style World's Fair, throngs of people line up to see one particular exhibit: the Atlantean Pavilion, the stars of which are Aquaman and his AquaFamily:

Aquaman and the rest perform some tricks involving the King of the Sea's finny friends, to much amazement and applause. Afterwards, they all decide to check out the rest of the Expo (including ice cream and a local rock band).

Meanwhile, three bizarre beings are headed towards the Pavilion, and they're clearly up to no good:

The three beings--Torpedo Man, Claw, and Magneto(!), attack the pavilion, smashing it. They then convert into more human-like beings and walk right onto land and start attacking the people!

Aquaman and Aqualad show up, and start to bust some metallic heads. This sequence features this particularly exciting page:

After knocking out Aquaman and Aqualad, they finish destroying another exhibit at the Expo, a "Gyro-Moleculizer". But why would they want to destroy that and then vanish?

Aquaman learns the answer when, after waking up and reuniting with Mera, he hears a loud rumble inside the exhibit. They all run inside, and see something even more surprising:

The alien starts to attack and smash the Gyro-Monorail, almost killing some innocent people in the process.

After the combined efforts of Aquaman, Aqualad, and Mera temporarily stop the alien, it heads for the water. Once underwater, it hops aboard a giant squid, and heads for Atlantis.

As Aquaman and Aqualad chase it, they are stopped by the Awesome Threesome (self-named, clearly). But this time, Aquaman is ready for them, and he calls in a huge group of his finny friends, who attack the trio, while Aquaman and Aqualad continue to give chase.

They see the alien lift its arm, holding some sort of gadget. A beam of light shines down from a flying saucer, picking the alien up and inside it. What's going on here?

Aquaman and Aqualad return to find a smashed up Torpedo Man, floating helplessly in the water. Turns out this alien was a convict, serving a prison sentence on Earth. His sentence was up, and the aliens sent mental commands to the Threesome to help free the alien.

As Torpedo Man drifts further and further into the ocean depths, our heroes return to the expo, where they are adored by the surface dwellers:

...the ever-lovin' end!


As usual, Bob Haney crams in enough plot in this one story for three or four modern comics. The man must have had ideas come to him so fast he could barely get them all down.

Its interesting to see how much DC tried to put almost all its big time heroes into the same basic format--the hero, surrounded by a team of super-powered associates and partners, a base of operations, with a rotating rogues gallery. The Awesome Threesome reminds me a lot of Batman's Terrible Trio, even if one of them stole his name from The X-Men.