Just Imagine Stan Lee with Scott McDaniel Creating Aquaman

Apr 2002

This is almost "The Amazing Aquaman". I mean, the guy even has fishy senses to warn him of danger. Instead of being bitten by a radioactive fish, though, he injects himself with sea-life DNA then is engulfed in a strange green cloud. A radioactive fish might have been more interesting.

Seriously, though, this project by Stan Lee to recreate all of DC's greatest heroes is very impressive, but suffers from "set-up" syndrome. There is no time for character development AND a real story, so in every issue we lose one or the other, usually the story. While this Aquaman is quite cool, without seeing him in action for a few issues he's not much of anything. Which is why he fits so well on this page.

By Stan Lee with Scott McDaniel.



Legends of the Dead Earth

1996

Legendary Aquaman

Earth is dead. Those who once might have called it home are long scattered to the endless stars. But in that scattering, on a thousand different worlds, by a thousand different ways... Earth's greatest legends live on.

Two new else-Aquamen make their appearance in this Annual.

The first is a good king, an honest man who lives on a desert planet and doles out water to those in need. He tries to be a fair ruler, but learns that not all his subjects believe he is, and learns that they may be right.

Another Legendary Aquaman

The second is a marauding pirate who terrorizes a planet in his floating city, Poseidonis. The heroes of Earth cannot stop his mastery over land and air, but there is someone who can.

The most interesting thing about this annual is the framing story that implies something important to the careful reader. Two storytellers are trying to tell the true legend of Aquaman, both claim to be descended from him, and yet the two tell stories that are very different. How will the future remember today's heroes? Can it be that Aquaman is on a path that leads him into the middle, hero to some, pirate and villain to others? Perhaps, in some way, we are being warned that this is not the Aquaman whose golden chainmail graced the Hall of Justice. This is a real person, who's motives will be questioned, whose reality will be the debate of future historians.

Like Atlan in the Atlantis Chronicles, Orin has developed into a truly frightening character, with many dimensions. The question for Aquaman fans is simple. Is this a good thing?

By Peter David, Ed Hannigan, and Steve Mitchell.



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