OVERVIEW:

Weisbogg, a scientist, creates a robotic duplicate of Aquaman that could attend state functions and such, leaving Aquaman free to handle real emergencies. When the Bugala attacks the city, Aquaman puts the robot to use and goes after the monster. After one hit, though, Aquaman realizes that the monster is a robot also, and figures out that the control device must be in his duplicate. Confronting Weisbogg, he asks who wanted to destroy the dome, but Weisbogg won't talk. At a distance, Black Manta and his troops realize the dome isn't going down, and Manta swears to rule Atlantis someday.

COMMENTS:

Mike Grell's artwork is beautiful and fluid, but I really don't like the look of his men, particularly Aqualad. I'm not sure what bothers me most about his Aqualad, but I just don't like the look of the character at all. Grell seems to want to draw everyone as if they were wearing too much make-up or something. And whoever did the coloring didn't flatter the art.

The plot cooked up by Weisbogg is simple enough: send a robot Bugala that Aquaman can't defeat out to destroy the dome, and hide the controller in a fake Aquaman. But why have a fake Aquaman at all? Why not just create a few robots and send them at the dome? The controllers could be hidden anywhere in the city. Perhaps part of the plan was to discredit Aquaman by having him standing around in a ceremony while the city is attacked?

Aquaman figures the whole thing out very, very fast. All he needs is to be hit once, and he's got the monster's number.

CONCLUSION:

Another odd short story.