Check out this hot preview page from the upcoming DC Universe #0!!
I freely admit, I'm not quite up on my current artists in the DC stable. Is this Benes? I'm not sure. One way or another, I'm grooving on this image, which was released by DC this weekend, just in time for the NY Comic Con. If it is Benes, then I'm impressed at how everyone's bodies seem well proportioned, especially the women.
But I'm not here to be an art critic, only to drool over this image of what must be, again, retroactively...the original seven members of the JLA, along with the early Silver Age additions to that classic team. Looks like there'll be a history lesson for us in DC Universe #0. About time.
I'm not at the convention, and it'll probably be two years before I get my hands on the trade paperback for this and Final Crisis. But at least I have places to let my imagination run as I head back out to work in the garden.
Happy Earth Day! (Oh, and Happy Earth 2 Day, and Earth 3, and 4 and so on...!)
Today's featured issue comes from 1989, the Legend of Aquaman Special. Here we have Keith Giffen on plot and breakdowns, with Robert Loren Fleming on script, with art by long-time Superman artist Curt Swan with Eric Shanower inking.
The issue is essentially a re-telling of Aquaman's origin story, which had changed slightly in the wake of the Crisis (1985). To be honest, it hadn't changed all that much, but I'm not sure the tale was ever told with as much love and care.
The story begins with the nameless child, who's been abandoned on Mercy Reef by the Atlanteans, who consider his blond hair anomoly enough to leave him to die of exposure to the sun. Of course, he doesn't, and his childhood consists of his exploring the seven seas and honing his ability to communicate with sea creatures.
Eventually, the young man comes to the shore and finds a lonely lighthouse keeper. At first, they are not friends, especially since the only surface speech the young man knows is the CAW of the seagulls. Aquaman (still unnamed) begins filling the keeper's traps with crabs and laying fish on his doorstep, which annoys the lighthouse keeper no end. But when the young man begins to absorb amusing bits of the English language (the terrific scene appears below, and should "embiggen" nicely for your reading pleasure), a friendship blossoms. They become like father and son, teacher and student, friends. The lighthouse keeper teaches the strong ocean dweller English and the ways of the surface world. And then, "because happy years pass like weeks", the young man has grown and the keeper is old and knows that his end is near. When Aquaman returns the next time, the man has died, but left a letter, bequeathing his name to the younger man: Arthur Curry.
Eventually, Arthur returns to Atlantis, but is quickly captured by the government in power, who imprison him with other "freaks" and revolutionaries...and we see the classic green and orange costume for the first time, as it is the one issued to all prisoners.
Arthur sees his mother, recognizes her face amongst the female prisoners, but she dies before he is able to make contact, and in frustration, he breaks free of the prison and escapes...inspiring those he's left behind to rise up against the powers that be. Meanwhile, he goes off to the surface world and becomes a charter member of the Justice League of America and gains reknown for his heroic exploits.
When finally he returns to Atlantis, he discovers that his friend and fellow prisoner, Vulko, has led the toppling of the regime who'd imprisoned them, and Aquaman is welcomed as a hero. He learns that his mother had been the queen of the underwater society...and eventually, Arthur is convinced to ascend to the throne as Atlantis' King.
It's a great story, and a terrific retelling. There's a little coda that covers his marriage to Mera and the death of their son...which is where the story was to pick up in the Aquaman series that shortly followed this special. But more about the rest of Aquaman's story another day.
It's a shame that Aquaman gets so much flack as a hero, although much of the snark written about him can be amusing. Sure, the water thing definitely limits him, but there've been many times over the years when being able to talk to sea creatures was pretty convenient, and two-thirds of the world is ocean, right?
I suppose, though, that the lack of respect may be what's caused his character to be re-written and re-vamped and changed so much in more recent years. I really haven't been exposed to the newest version of the character yet, except in snips here and there found online.
I just read an account of a panel at this weekend's WonderCon in San Francisco that Dan Didio announced they'll be bringing Aquaman back, once they've determined which version of the character people want. So I'll go on record and say we ought to see the original's return. And find Fleming, or someone equally caring, who can capture the details of Aquaman the way this special did.
My first exposure to Aquaman was the Saturday morning cartoons of the late sixties. Here's a teaser commercial for the "Superman-Aquaman Hour", which featured these two heroes, with occasional guest stars from the rest of the JLA.
I was only two-going-on-three in 1967, but I was probably watching these just the same. I remember them better from later viewing, after the show was re-named the "Superman-Batman Hour", which featured cartoons of Superman, Batman and Aquaman (with Aqualad!)
To be honest, I didn't remember that other members of the JLA had been featured on television prior to the much-later "Super Friends" until I found this clip on YouTube, so perhaps I hadn't seen those earlier cartoons...but odds are good I saw them in reruns and was simply too young then to be remembering that now.
Well, you should never rely too heavily on what you think is the truth. For example, I thought that I had thoroughly sorted through all of the comic collection and gotten then sorted into long boxes, well-before our recent move was to begin.
And yet, to my (sort of...it is a big collection)surprise, on one of the last days of Moving, I discovered three smaller boxes containing an assortment of titles which I had overlooked during the earlier project. So, as I sort through these, to place them with their proper titles, I thought I'd share a few here. The first box I opened seems to be an assortment of titles from different years, but in a range that seems to stay within 1986 to 1989. These two consecutive issues are from that first year, October's JLA #255 and November's JLA #256.
These were interesting times in the DC Universe. The Crisis on Infinite Earths had just drawn to a close, and in its wake, things were briefly a little dull, before reboots and other interesting things began to happen.
Mostly we fans were catching our breath and reviewing just what all happened in that series. The letter columns are full of people asking questions of clarification: which Wonder Woman no longer existed, and which one was ascended to Olympus with her husband Steve Trevor (it was the E2 version who was brought to Olympus, tho Diana on E1 had also married her Steve [thrice incarnated at that point]in the Crisis' final days.)? Wasn't the JLA satellite destroyed? And so on...
Since actual comic shops were only just beginning to appear here and there on the horizon, one of the most exciting things was actually finding places where you could buy comics. Excitement certainly doesn't describe how I felt as I re-read these two issues, despite two of my favorite characters--Zatanna and the Martian Manhunter--being featured on the covers.
Prior to the Crisis, the League had sort of spun apart. I can't recall the actual circumstances that caused most of the traditional members to opt out (*I promise when I file these two, I'll revisit that particular part of the run and share what I find...), but suddenly we had a version of the Justice League led by Aquaman...who's first move, oddly enough, was to move the JLA headquarters away from the coastline to the lakeshore of Detroit.
By these issues, the new League was a blend of new and old characters, with Aquaman, Batman, J'onn J'onzz, Elongated Man (and Sue!)and Zatanna providing the Experience, while newbies Vixen, Vibe, Gypsy and Steel (late of the All-Star Squadron, but thrown through time by the Crisis, if I recall correctly...)made up the Next Generation. These two issues comprise the center of an apparently-four-issue story, so perhaps not having re-read from the beginning or reaching some satisfying conclusion colored my enjoyment. Also, I note that Gerry Conway and Michael Ellis are credited for plot and script respectively for #255, while J.M. DeMatteis (who would soon be having way more fun with a fresher version of the League) gets the writing credits for #256.
As we find our heroes, Zatanna is in bondage and has recently been operated on by a whack-job named Adam, who has stolen some of her homo magi genes to graft onto his own...which then essentially transforms him into a sort of mad god. Although she sends out an emergency alert to the rest of the Leaguers, Adam creates an illusion of Zee to send them away, claiming a false alarm.
The image of Zatanna (even a fake one) convincing Batman that there's no need for the rest of the League there took on an interesting turn in the re-read, with the more recent context of Identity Crisis: by the Detroit era, the "mind-wipe" was already a thing of the past...and you kind of get the idea of Batman as Zatanna's puppet on a string.
But meanwhile, Adam has overpowered the Manhunter and Gypsy as well, who've stumbled into Zee's situation while trying to learn who framed John Jones for murder, and that's where this bit of the story wraps with a cliffhanger.
It's sort of tepid stuff, though being the JLA, still fun. But without this dim period in League history, we wouldn't appreciate the other teams and eras properly!
