Ripples Through Time - 200

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order. After I read each story I will post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #277 (Oct 1960) - The Underwater Olympics!

Aquaman and Aqualad arrange an Olympic games pitting the creatures of the Atlantic Ocean against the creatures of the Pacific Ocean.

Regular Supporting Cast: Aqualad, Topo

Aqua-Exclamations: "Suffering Sea Lions!"

Quotefile: Aquaman, "The nations of the world will soon hold their Olympic Games! Why don't we arrange a series of contests where our sea creatures can compete as friendly rivals in an Underwater Olympics?" Aqualad, "Swell, Aquaman! Let's organize it now!"

Finny Friends Report: The idea for the Olympics are inspired by a Pacific Humpback whale racing an Atlantic Sperm whale. Topo is used to pick the location of the games in the baseball bat style. There is a parade of fish starting the games. The first event is a fencing match between swordfish. Then there are flying fish jumping hurdles. There is a boxing match between a walrus and octopus. Whales put out a flaming ship. Seals play a water polo game. Eels and crabs form grappling hooks for the salvage contest. A whale upsets a powerboat in the "stopping smugglers" event. Aquaman's luminous fish fail to stop smugglers. Various fish participate in an underwater tug of war. Dolphins participate in a relay race. Aquaman addresses his losing team at the end to congratulate them for their self-sacrifice.

The games are reported as the "1960 Underwater Olympics". There are thirty events and a point system would be used to decide the winner. The games are held in the Atlantic, 500 miles north of Puerto Rico. There is a very very good reason that Aquaman's Atlantic team loses to Aqualad's Pacific team.

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Shipping This Week

What does Previews have to tell us about Aquaman related comics coming out this week? Here you go:

• JUL100110 BRIGHTEST DAY #9 $2.99
• JUN100232 TINY TITANS TP VOL 04 THE FIRST RULE OF PET CLUB $12.99

Check your local shop to get yours starting Wednesday.

This is the variant cover of Brightest Day #9:

DC Nation at Fan Expo

There's a tiny bit of Aquaman content in this report from the DC Nation panel at Fan Expo:

DiDio talked about how once, after a panel, fourteen different creators pitched him on Aquaman and "the way to fix him," including Brian Azzarello. Azzarello mentions that it was actually approved, which DiDio follows with "oh yeah." DiDio then talked about how Aquaman and also Wonder Woman don't have "really great rogues galleries," which prompted Ethan Van Sciver to offer "Green Lantern" villain the Shark to Aquaman.

Happy Aquasitions!

I've been telling you to keep an eye on HappyMeal.com for the Batman: Brave and the Bold toys. Well, I finally got 'em for myself. Hubby and I went down to our local McDonald's and asked if I could just get the Manta Ship and Aquaman toy. The manager nicely found one of each for me, and we were done. Couldn't have been any easier.


As I really can't eat any McDonald's foodstuff anymore, I just got the toys. Hence the receipt saying "2 HAPPY TOY NO FOOD". I would have liked to get a second set of the two toys to keep in package, but we can't really swing it right now. So after photographing the two for this post, I unwrapped them and played around a little. Then posed them for another photo.


As you can see, the toys are number 3 (Aquaman) and number 6 (Black Manta Sub Launcher). The Mantaship is not to scale with Aquaman, but is still really cool. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it is recalled due to the danger of the launching spear. It flies a nice distance! The Aquaman figure has a switch in back: you hold the switch down, put the water ball on his hands, then let go and he throws it. Not nearly as satisfying as the sub launcher, but if you say, "OUTRAGEOUS!" as you have him throw, it helps a little.

I kind of wish I got a full Happy Meal so I could get the box as well... but that's for another attempt I guess.

Some Links

Because all of you are reading the Aquaman Shrine, you've already seen this great artwork for an Animated Aquaman series created as a labor of love by Allan Arevalo. But just in case you missed it, I'm linking to it directly.

Geoff Johns on Aquaman.

Mera Fan Art on the Chicas de Rojo blog.

Everyone else linked to it: LBFA Presents: The History of Aquaman Explained.

Lots of words for an Aquaman magnet.

Er, AquaRex.

Jimmy Kimmel YouTubes: Aquaman on fish dying (Jan 6th 2010). Aquaman on the BP Spill (May 19th 2010).

Animated Young Justice and Aqualad

CBR's Spinoff Online reports on the new Young Justice series.

Aqualad - Jackson Hyde, who's introduced in DC's Brightest Day #10 - is the leader of the team. Like his comic-book counterpart, the animated Aqualad will be revealed as the son of Black Manta, archenemy of Aquaman. Fans of the previous Aqualad, Garth (aka Tempest), should take heart: He, too, will appear in Young Justice.

Previous reports indicate that Aquaman will also appear in the show, and as a major supporting character along with other members of the Justice League.

Ripples Through Time - 199

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order. After I read each story I will post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #276 (Sep 1960) - The Aqua-Thief of the Seven Seas!

When Aquaman's attempt to salvage lost diamonds comes up with an empty box, he's accused of stealing the gems.

Regular Supporting Cast: Aqualad

Quotefile: Prime Minister Vuda, "I have another theory, sire! How do we know Aquaman's telling the truth? Maybe he's pulling a trick! Maybe he intends to keep the gems for himself!"

Finny Friends Report: On the splash page, Aquaman's finny friends console him him through fish-telepathy. Aqualad, while riding a porpoise, uses electric eels to short-circuit a pirate submarine's electrical system. Whales push the sub to the mainland. Aquaman uses an octopus to help dig the chest out of the mud. A shark and two swordfish go with Aquaman to an iceberg to make fake diamonds.

The whole adventure starts with the celebration of the prince of Timtu's second birthday, at which the child will receive his weight in diamonds. We get to see the ceremony, then see the chest that contained the diamonds sinking overboard. The King tells his PM to call Aquaman.

Aqualad shows his stuff in this one by taking on a pirate submarine single-handedly as Aquaman rushes off to help the Timtu folks. The prince's nurse points seemingly randomly at the water to show Aquaman "exactly where the chest fell". Without Aqualad to back him up, Aquaman is accused of thievery when he fails to find the gems.

The speech balloons by the fish on the splash page are a little shocking. Aquaman's thought balloon indicates they are speaking to him in fish-telepathy. The scene on the splash page never happens. Aquaman's reputation is never in any real danger, and his quick thinking preserves it from whatver minor damage it might have sustained.

Have you read this story? What do you think?

UPDATE: Rob at the Aquaman Shrine spotted an audio adaptation of this story over at League of Ordinary Gentlemen Comics.

Shipping This Week

Here is the Aquaman related book shipping this week according to Previews:

• JUN100196 TEEN TITANS #86 $3.99

Check your local shop to get yours starting Wednesday.

This is the variant cover done by Mike Allred:

Alternate Covers of Brightest Day...

Some of the alternate covers of Brightest Day books reveal an interesting image.

Aquasitions! part III

The last of my August Aquasitions has a little bit of a story behind it. See, I went to this Wizard of Oz convention with my husband this summer. One of the events was a contest for decorating green glasses. I won a prize unexpectedly, and the prize was a $15 gift certificate to Toys'R'Us. I used that prize to purchase my next Aquasition online.

I originally intended to get an Aquaman action figure. But then I spotted Batman: The Brave and The Bold Wall Stickers and realized I just had to get them.


The full set contains some very cool Batman images from Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Like Colorforms, these are vinyl cut-outs that stick to smooth surfaces, including most walls, doors, and some foreheads.


Who better than Plastic Man to protect the doorknob?


Blue Beetle protects the closet from marauding ... um, closet monsters?


Batman protects the router from viruses and other nasties.

Of course, there are five stickers in the set that are Aquaman related. There's these four awesome stickers, shown here protecting my bedside:


Aquaman gets his own sticker, and Black Manta is one of only two villains in the set. There's also a circle sticker of Aquaman and an Aquaman logo. The other Aquaman appearance in the set is a tad more subtle.


He's also on this Batman sticker, along with Green Arrow and Plastic Man. I decided to have this one guard another door in the house.

The best fun is that these can be pulled off and moved around, allowing me to constantly redecorate the house (much to my husband's annoyance). I really feel like I got my money's worth out of this, especially since I only really had to pay shipping costs.