OVERVIEW:

Story One: The Traders' Trap!

Still under attack by the savages after the girl's attack on them, Aquaman and the girl are "saved" by telepathic slave traders. Aquaman escapes, but leaves the girl with the slavers. He goes back to the savages, feeling a pull from there, and suddenly starts growing... and shows up in Atlantis.

Story Two: Never Underestimate a Deadman

Deadman takes over Orm again after arriving back in his own dimension, and finds out the aliens' plans. He destroys their amplifiers, but needs to destroy their machine, and for that he needs Aquaman. So he takes over Vulko and subtly suggests that she will Aquaman home, which she does. But it's too late... but the machine didn't work. He finds out that Tat ripped out the wires of the machine.

Epilogue

Aquaman and Mera discuss the world in Mera's ring, then discuss Manta's presence outside the dome of the city.

COMMENTS:

A bland cover in some ways, but at least the scene it depicts actually occurs in the book for once.

The telepathic alien slave traders still have the girl at the end of the story. Aquaman left her because he wasn't absolutely sure they were slavers, and because if he took her with him, the savages were bound to kill her. Aquaman had no problem beating up the aliens, but didn't want to have to fight them again.

The letter column, all of one-half page, asks how the linked Aquaman and Deadman stories were written. After the Deadman story is a one-page text article by Steve Skeates that explains how the story was written, and why.

This story is reprinted in Adventure Comics #503 (Sep 1983).

CONCLUSION:

Rating: 6

A fairly good wrap-up.