Aquaman (1994) #52
Title: Same As It Never Was
Cover Title: King of the Fire Trolls
Cover Date: Feb 1999
Writer: Erik Larsen
Pencils: Eric Battle
Inks: Ray McCarthy
Flashback Pencils: Jim Aparo
Flashback Inks: Bill Seinkiewicz
Colors: Richard and Tanya Horie
Lettering: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Kevin Dooley
Asst. Editor: Alisande Morales
Cover: Erik Larsen
Cover Price: $1.99
OVERVIEW:
Flashback:
Aquaman is showing Queen Mera around his city. He shows her the gardens, the theatres, the palace... his bedchamber. Embarrassed, she retreats to the open water outside the dome. Once outside, she meets Pakuul the Whale, who introduces Aquaman to his mate, Harleen. Pakuul wants Harleen to stay near Atlantis while his pod goes to the North, where there are more hunters. Harleen is pregnant. Aquaman agrees to watch over Harleen and the unborn child.
Garth, hearing the happy news, gets a little hyper and tries to embarrass Aquaman. As Aquaman apologizes to Mera, the trio is attacked by a very vocal Fire Troll. The troll grabs Mera, and Aquaman and Aqualad give chase, not sure if they can defeat it without the help of Quisp. Harleen overhears them worrying, and follows.
Mera, trapped by the troll, is told that she's going to be dessert in a ritual blood-feast. She doesn't intend to go easily, though, and uses her hard water powers to push the troll out of the cave. While she tries to free her hands enough to make shears to free herself, Aquaman arrives and gets a swordfish to free her. Then Aquaman attacks the Fire Troll, with little effect.
But Harleen can push him, and does push him, into some toxic barrels (that Aquaman tries to warn her away from). The Fire Troll doesn't get up, and the four leave it while Aquaman worries about the effect the toxins might have on Harleen's unborn child.
Current Happenings:
Noble is showing Mera and Aquaman around his city, and Aquaman is less than impressed due to his jealousy. They visit Noble's bedchambers, and Noble shows off his collection of torture devices. When Aquaman expresses shock, Noble explains that he leaves the devices in the room to remind himself of an evil former ruler of his city, and to remind him to be a fair and compassionate ruler. Mera suggests that they might have other uses, and, at that, Aquaman leaves. Noble and Mera follow.
Aquaman, tired of listening to Noble court Mera, asks about some tunnels he sees. He wonders if he might be able to use them to travel quickly. Noble indicates that the tunnels were carved by rock creatures, who occassionally still attack his people. Aquaman wants to explore, but Noble doesn't.
Just then, one of Noble's underlings approaches and tells the trio that the rock creatures have attacked again and kidnapped some people. Aquaman is appalled when he learns that Noble lets the kidnappings happen for fear of a worse fate, based in a myth of his people. While the two argue, a Fire Troll grabs Mera.
Noble doesn't want to help her, but Aquaman goads him into following. Mera battles the trolls quite successfully, until a different one approaches. Aquaman and Noble use Aquaman's telepathy to find Mera, who has been bound by her dress to the cave wall...
In Atlantis, Garth moans about being left out of the grand tour of Noble's city while Vulko spouts wisdom at him.
Blubber suggests to his pals that they visit the surface world.
Noble frees Mera, igniting Aquaman's jealousy again. He doesn't have much time to be jealous, as they are attacked by many Fire Trolls, and one Lava Lord, the Fire Troll that Harleen pushed into toxic waste so long ago...
COMMENTS:
Interesting cover. Aquaman's hair looks a little bizarre, still, and Mera is showing more leg than she ever did in the Silver Age, but the Fire Troll is impressive.
The flashback story is by far the best thing we've seen since the new creative team took over, which only tells me that the main problem with this book is definitely the art. Aparo is one of the masters, and is a classic Aquaman artist to boot. Seeing his work in direct contrast to Eric Battle's only emphasizes how incompetent Battle is as an artist, and how much better this book could be if DC would find someone who knows how to tell a story with art, instead of someone who can only do pathetic pin-ups.
For a prime example of the difference, just look at the first page. Compare the two Meras. The top one is nicely drawn and looks almost like she could actually exist. The bottom one is a cheesecake shot that isn't quite proportional and looks rather painful, actually. While reading the bottom story, I couldn't stop thinking about the recent Robotman comic strip in which Robotman asks about the motivation of male artists who draw "elaborately rendered women in skimpy outfits" and if such artists get some kind of "unsavory erotic pleasure from drawing them". If so, Eric Battle needs to get out more. (Just to make the comparison more amusing, the panel of Mera tied up on pages 16 and 18 are very similar to the panel Robotman is commenting on in the comic strip, except more fleshy).
The main problem I had with the flashback was Garth's behavior. Yes, he's a teen, but it still seemed a bit out of character of him to charge in claiming that he'd have someone to bully once Pakuul's baby was born. The language in the flashback was also a little forced, I think it might have been more effective if Erik hadn't shoehorned in so many silly Silver Age expressions like "great guppies" and "jumping catfish". Yes, the Silver Age was like that, but this issue had a bit too much.
The other problem with the flashback was the inking. I've read a lot of Aparo's Aquaman work, if not all of it, and it's never looked so rough. It could be that Seinkiewicz's style doesn't mesh well with Aparo's work, or it could be that Aparo isn't as good as he used to be. In any case, the delight I got from seeing Aparo doing Aquaman again was lessened (a little) by how rough it looked.
The bit with Harleen and the toxins leads into why Blubber (only his mother calls him Ishmael) is such a smart whale. Save this book in pristine condition, you collectors! Should Blubber become famous and get his own book someday, this will be listed as his first origin story.
I'm picking apart Eric Battle's art again, so if you're tired of these rants, just skip on to the next paragraph. On the first page, Mera looks like she's been starving herself: just look at those ribs! It's also unclear how much of her dress remains, as every panel has a different amount of material (snot). The color is still murky, and added to the very busy art, makes the story unclear. I already mentioned the unsavory erotic pleasure panels on pages 16 and 18, but the number of naked Mera shots in this book made me wonder if I was reading a comic book, or Playboy. A clue-by-four for DC: Women generally don't like reading this kind of book. If you want to hold on to Aquaman's traditional female audience, this artwork has to go.
The story itself wasn't as bad. The characterizations were again off, but not nearly as much as last issue. There were only two pages that weren't related to the touring plot, and although I suspect a scholar like Vulko would know very well what a banana is, there wasn't enough there to complain about.
This time the weak characterizations were in Mera and Aquaman. Mera mainly for the outfit. Sorry, I just cannot buy her wearing such a stupid thing. But I've said that before, time to drop it. She also teased Aquaman about the torture devices, while reminding him quite nastily that they are no longer married, which seemed unusually cruel for her.
Aquaman seemed wrong when he got jealous, and when he criticized Noble for having torture devices. His comments didn't seem like the sort of thing a King who is familiar with many other cultures would say. He would've commented on them, but I see him saying something more along the lines of "Interesting decor you have." Suave and snide, but not outright shocked.
When Mera was kidnapped, things got very interesting. Aquaman fights Noble, briefly, to go help Mera, then the two team up. The team up, especially the bit where Noble saves Aquaman, is quite good. If the art were only better, I'd say this part of the story was excellent. As it is, Noble lighting the way while Aquaman used his telepathy to find Mera was a very neat piece of work.
Other thoughts: The Landlover page indicates that the trio of adventuresome water beings plan on hitting the surface. Lagoon Boy says he's been there before, and names off some of his favorite things. Ishmael, Blubber to his friends, uses the remains of the Lurker's tanks to build himself an exoskeleton. There's no sign of the unrest and prejudice from last issue: I guess the Poseidonians listened to Aquaman.
Kevin Dooley needs to go back to school. A "Silver Anniversary" is 25 years, not 50, and Aquaman first appeared in 1941, not '51. His 50 year anniversary was 1991.
CONCLUSION:
The Flashback gets an A for art and story, but the regular story is still badly drawn and ruins much of the enjoyment it might give. Still, the best issue from this creative team so far.