As has already been noted elsewhere on this board, today's "Aquaman" DC Finest edition completely comprises the contents of 2003's Aquaman Archives Vol. 1 (and only). I have read that volume twice in the the last 20 years and have no desire to read those particular issues again anytime soon. Frankly, I'm much more interested in the "Supergirl" edition (shipping next week), but this may work to my favor anyway. The "King of Atlantis" edition also collects stories on both sides of the archive issues, and I plan to read the pre-"Silver Age" (Adventure Comics #260) stories to kill the time. I put this topic up just in case I (or anyone else) have something to say about any of the stories in this edition. As a sort of prelude, last night I read the two Golden Age Aquaman stories I have in my collection: More Fun Comics #73 & #101 (both reprinted in "Millennium Editions" nearly a quarter of a century ago). #73 is Aquaman's first appearance and is a pretty standard origin story; #101 was actually reprinted for Superboy's first appearance, and the Aquaman story is nothing special.
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I completed my objective of reading Adventure Comics #229-259 before the DC Finest edition of Supergirl shipped, but now that I've read that volume (or as much of it as I plan to read at this time), I've come back to Aquaman. The majority of the stories in this volume are by Robert Bernstein and Ramona Fradon. Captain Comics recently said (about the stories in the Supergirl volume): "The bottom line is that these stories were written with a LOT of heart ... but for children. So looking back at them as an adult and tut-tutting seems, to me, to miss the point of the exercise. I try to enjoy the story for what the writer intended." I have tried to approach these stories from that angle, but the early ones are of a kind that test my newfound resolve.
"How Aquaman Got His Powers!" (Adventure Comics #260) turns a corner. The stories become slightly more... I hesitate to use the word "sophisticated"... at that point, although they are still mostly written by Bernstein and drawn by Fradon. The volume includes certain guest apearances by Aquaman in other titles during this timeframe, such as Lois Lane #12 and Action Comics #272. (It was particularly difficult for me to refrain from "tut-tutting" the Lois Lane story.) It is obvious that DC was making a push to make Aquaman appeal to a wider audience at this point. At first it seemed they were going to follow the "Superman" model (with "Aquagirl" in #266 and Aquaman's boyhood adventures as "Aquaboy" in #268), until they settled on the "Batman" model in #269 by giving him a kid sidekick, "Aqualad," in #269.
The real change (as I see it) came in Aquaman's four "try-out" issues in Showcase, #30-33. Jack Miller began writing with #30, and Nick Cardy joined him with #31. The change is difficult ti pinpoint because these issues of Showcase were interspersed with Bernstein/Fradon stories, which contineued to appear in Adventure. Shortly after that, Aquaman's solo stories moved from Adventure to Detective. Those stories were by Miller & Cardy, and when Aquaman was launched in a solo title, they were the creative team as well. I am now very much looking forward to a second volume of DC Finest featuring Aquaman. In the meantime, finding myself still in an "Aquaman" mood, I have moved on to the "Death of a Prince" collection (Adventure Comics #435-455, Aquaman #57-63), and I have just ordered The Adventures of Aquaman: The Complete Collection on DVD.
DC Finest - Aquaman ends with the first three issues of his solo series. I'll get to those in a moment, but I found the back-up stories leading up to the solo series to be so simplistic and so formulaic that it is possible to read just the first page and last page (of six pages each) in order to get the gist of the story. (I didn't do that, but it's possible.) I keep coming back to what Captain Comics said: "The bottom line is that these stories were written with a LOT of heart ... but for children." Not that writing comics for children is easy by any means, but I personally prefer stories written to appeal to older readers as well, what I call "all-ages comics." Perhaps if I had read more comics edited by Julius Schwartz (such as Green Lantern and Flash) when I was a kid and fewer comics such as these, I would have gravitated more to DC than Marvel. Speaking of Julius Schwartz, Aquaman had been around for nearly 20 years before Julius Schwartz put him on a cover for the first time.
The first issue of Aquaman's solo series got off to a rather lame start, featuring as it did the character "Quisp" (alternately referred to as a "water gnome" amd a "water sprite"). I first read the first Mr. Myxyzptlk story, reprinted in a treasury edition, when I was about ten years old, and I thought he was a stupid character then. I never liked Mr. Mxyzptlk or Bat-Mite... not then, not now... and Quisp is just another version of a character aimed, not at all ages, but at children specifically. The first issue of Aquaman was published with the "smart kid"* in mind; in other words, without an issue number on the cover.
*["If you go to a newsstand, you see hundreds of titles on display. If you are looking at two of them side-by-side and one said number one, and one said number one hunred and four, which is a kid goingto spend his hard-earned dime on? If the kid is smart, it will obviously be number one hundred and four and not an unknown number one because any comic that has gone that long must be worth reading." - Irwin Donenfeld]
The volume ends on a high note: the re-introduction of the undersea city of Atlantis in Aquaman #3 ("The Aquaman from Atlantis"). Atlantis had been mentioned a time or two in passing before this (most noteably in Showcase #30, but also in Adventure Comics #260 ("How Aquaman Got His Powers"), #266 ("Aquaman Meets Aquagirl") and #269 ("The Kid from Atlantis"). Also in #3, Aquaman is shunted 2500 years into the past where he finds himself caught up in the conflict between the Greeks and the Persians. (It's an interesting twist, but don't expect Frank Miller's 300.) The two best stories in this volume are the origin in Showcase #30 (which I prefer to the origin in Adventure #260) and Aquaman #3. (I might also be tempted to throw the origin of Aqualad from Adventure #269 in there.)
Summarizing the results of Captain Comics' list of Aquaman's chronological appearances from the end of this DCF volume through crisis, he continued to appear in Aquaman and World's Finest from 1962-1964, his own title from 1964-1971, and Adventure Comics and Action Comics (as well as brief revivals of his solo series and in World's Finest) from 1974-1983. Prior to "The Search for Mera" (#40-48), I have only two issues of Aquaman in my collection: #18 (the wedding) and #29 (Ocean Master), so I would very much like to see furture DCF volumes of this series going forward.
Also, since I last posted to this thread, I have watched all 36 episodes of the 1967 Filmation cartoon series (which is 36 more than I had seen previously). As I continued to read the rest of the stories in the DCF version, I definitely "heard" the voices from the cartoon series in my mind's ear, particularly that of Ted Knight when I read the captions. Noteable closing line... AQUALAD: "Amen, A-man." Someone must have thought that was pretty clever, because they used it twice. At least he didn't say, "Amen, a-hole."
I'm not very far into this volume yet -- around 70 or 80 pages or so -- but I find myself absolutely delighted by the kid-story nature of the Aquaman series. Sure, they're gimmicky, and they're absolutely not designed to be read all at once, but I like that they usually present a puzzle for the reader to figure out ("Why is Aquaman acting like a bad guy?" or "Why is everything going wrong with this sophisticated rescue ship?") and then offer a playful solution at the end. A little of this goes a long way, but so far I'm really enjoying it.
I find myself absolutely delighted by the kid-story nature of the Aquaman series.
It is what it is, they are what they are. As simplistic as these stories are, I imagine they're not as easy to craft (month after month) as they appear. I wouldn't've liked them when I was a kid, but I find them charming now. They get better toward the end of the volume (when Jack Miller was given more pages to play with), and I am looking forward to additional volumes.
I'm now at story #10, "The Floating Doom!" -- Adventure Comics #238 -- and "Unknown" has referred to a whale as a mammal for the first time (in this collection). Unfortunately, in the previous issue, Aquaman ties a whale to the bottom of the sea for reasons. But being an air-breathing mammal, it would drown! The writer of that story apparently didn't know that, because it didn't.
But the way these stories have been described is spot on. There's usually a puzzle (usually "Why is Aquaman acting such-a-way?") and you get an answer at the end. It's light-hearted fun, and I don't overthink it. The Ramona Fradon art is delightful. But I also can't read more than a few at a time.
Also, I am keeping one eye peeled for a second reference to Topo's name, but it has yet to surface. There's still at least one octopus in every story, but it's not necessarily Topo -- it's like giant clams in Robert Kanigher stories.
I kept reading until I found a second use of the name Topo: "The Alphabet Book of the Sea" in Adventure Comics #240. Interestingly, it's the first mention (in this collection) of Atlantis! It's just a sunken island with ruins on it. Hmmm.
Poor Topo! He tried to do the right thing, but was misunderstood! Boy, could kids understand that one, then and now.
That's a good point.
I'm still not through with this book -- the stories are so short, but you really can't read more than two at a time! -- but I've gotten to the longer stories in the Showcase issues. And I have to say... I prefer the short kiddie stuff. For one thing, I simply prefer Fradon's art to Cardy's (who's also very good, and will get better, but probably couldn't devote the time to a 25-page story that Fradon did to a 6- or 7-pager). I also prefer Robert Bernstein to Jack Miller -- Bernstein plays it very fast and loose with what fish are capable of, but Miller seems willing to ignore them altogether. And in the first two Showcase books, we're basically seeing mutated prehistoric and future fish, and aliens, and... they just haven't done anything for me. They seem to be shoe-horning Aquaman into standard Silver Age sci-fi stories, when he doesn't really fit there yet. (He will, eventually, but IMO he's off to a weak start.)
My favorite story in the volume is "Aquaman's Undersea Hospital," where he sets up an emergency room for injured sea creatures -- sometimes employing other sea creatures to help (like getting a lobster to help extract a tooth with its claws, or getting lanternfish to provide light for a procedure). Then, on patrol, Aquaman confronts some criminals and gets riddled with machine-gun fire! And the fish drag him down to the hospital and use surgery to nurse him back to health!
The story is silly as hell, with funny images of fish in bandages, and goofy aqua-hospital scenes... and then gets deadly serious (but somehow still hilarious), as the fish team up to save Aquaman's life. This is Peak Aquaman for me.
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