Aquaman (3) #9
Title: Dreaded Deadline Doom
Cover Title: Hanging By A Deadline!
Cover Date: June 1995
Writer: Peter David
Pencils: Joe St. Pierre
Inks: Howard Shum and Rodney Ramos
Colors: Tom McCraw
Lettering: Dan Nakrosis
Asst. Editor: Eddie Berganza
Editor: Kevin Dooley
Cover: Joe St. Pierre and Howard Shum
Cover Price: $1.75
Continuity: IN
OVERVIEW:
An assasin named Deadline has been hired, by a person paying in thousand year old gold coins, to kill Aquaman. Aquaman, Dolphin, and Koryak approach Poseidonis and see that it's now on a tilt. They are welcomed by Vulko and King Thesily, who ask if Arthur intends to stay. He says he has a matter to attend to first, his hook has been melted in the fighting he's done, he's going to S.T.A.R. labs to get a replacement.
Letifos, meanwhile, is mourning Garth at his skeleton...
Aquaman gets his new hook, and as he's testing it at S.T.A.R. labs, Deadline finds him and attacks.
Koryak shows his powers to the citizens of Atlantis.
Deadline gasses Aquaman and thinks he's won, but Aquaman isn't finished and surprises Deadline. In response, Deadline takes off into the air with Aquaman and lets him go.
Koryak is discussing the Poseidonians' fear of him with Vulko when an Earthquake starts. He saves a child's life.
Aquaman shows off some of what his new hook can do, including shoot a line into Deadline's flying disc, and reel it in, as well as spin the hook to destroy the disc. Deadline and Aquaman plunge into the sewer, and Aquaman can't find Deadline.
Garth washes up on a strange shore, alive somehow.
In Poseidonis, King Thesily shows his true colors in private, as he muses that he may have to have Koryak killed... muses while he holds a thousand year old gold coin...
COMMENTS:
The person hiring the assasin has a ring that looks amazingly similar to the crown of King Thesily of Poseidonis. Hmmmm...
Letifos is mourning at Garth's skeleton. For a time I really thought he was dead.
Aquaman wears a new shirt in this issue. I notice that throughout this series, Aquaman's wardrobe changes like a normal person's.
Some things to note about Aquaman's new hook: It's linked to him cybernetically. He can retract it completely into its housing (I presume he had it retracted in Midsummer's Nightmare), he can fire it like a harpoon trailing a line behind it attacked to his hand, and he can make it spin like a drill. I tend to recommend this issue to people wanting to know about the new Aquaman, with others, because it explains the hook better than any issue since.
Koryak wins the hearts of the people by saving a child.
Garth washes up onto a strange shore, just to let us know that he isn't dead.
Oh. And Deadline is a twit.
CONCLUSION:
Two reasons to get this issue: Koryak's growth as a leader in Poseidonis, and the exploration of Aquaman's new gadget. Despite those two crucial pieces, however, this issue fails to fully gel. It disappoints in a subtle way. Get it for the information it contains, but I can't promise you'll enjoy it.