Aquaman #44: Good stand-alone story by PAD and Bill Mumy. Recommended. $1.95/$2.75Cn

"Of Really Big Scaly Monsters And Men" Award to Aquaman #44

Aquaman "Depths of Perception": Co-written with Bill Mumy (Lost in Space, Comet Man, Lennier, Fish Heads, etc.), Aquaman's almost a peripheral character in this story at first, although the important moment in the plot is all his.

A sea monster has come ashore at a resort where the Garricks and Scotts are staying, and before Flash and Sentinel can kill it, Aquaman intervenes. Turns out the monster is an old friend of his, and he convinces it to head back out to sea and not come on land again. Or so he thinks.

But after the old JSAer couples have had sime quiet time to reminisce and celebrate, the critter's back, being too dim to either recognize that it's doing wrong or remember that it was told not to come back (sharks are geniuses compared to this critter). Flash and Sentinel point out what Aquaman already knows but was trying to deny...it's the sea monster or the people. And so Aquaman has to make the hardest of choices. He has to be like George, and kill Lenny mercifully before someone else does it cruelly. To Timmorn (our Jurassic Lenny), stomping on humans is just a fun game, one he's not likely to give up on. But he bounces the humans too hard. So Aquaman kills him, both to save the humans and to make sure the death is quick and painless.

Of course, it's painless for Timmorn, not for Aquaman. And the JSAers can sympathize, they've been there before.

And Typhon, opportunist that he is, uses the tragedy to recruit Timmorn's son as another ally against Aquaman.

That scene aside, this is basically a "non-arc" story, but it serves a very important purpose. It knocks Aquaman down a peg or two in a way that fighting the Millenium Giants couldn't. It reminds him that with great responsibility comes little comfort.