Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Re-Reads (Now Reading: Swamp Thing: 1971 through 1985)

I haven't read the blue costume mini-series, and, quite honestly, I have no interest in it. I do, however, know a bit of trivia about it: the original artist was supposed to be Alan Davis, and it was he who designed that costume. I forget the exact reason someone else ended up drawing it instead of Davis.

Review of issue 2 coming tonight.

I want to reread it now with that in mind. Wonder if the story would have been different if he had drawn it.

Will read issue 2 as well for tonight.

Aquaman 2 (September 1994)

Charybdis' power turns out to be leeching other meta-humans' powers, and he's been feeding off Dolphin (up til now a little-seen DC aquatic character, although she did appear in CoIE) for a long time. Now he wants Aquaman's powers, specifically what he assumes is the ability to control sea life. Turns out Aquaman doesn't control sea life, but rather it respects him enough to obey him. This doesn't sit well with Charybdis, who is also a madman and a misogynist to boot, and who is richly deserving of his fate to be shot by Dolphin and to end up as piranha chow.

Garth, meanwhile, has been saved from death by someone he assumes is Tula, the late Aquagirl, come back to life, and with the help of two dolphins and a whale, he breaks into Charybdis' headquarters with the intention of rescuing Aquaman.

There's a hilarious full-page splash of Garth posing with an oh-so-90s big gun, only for his shot to go wild and destroy the headquarters.

And, oh yeah, before Charybdis dies, he immerses Aquaman's hand in the same piranha-infested waters he'll fall into shortly. This traumatizes Aquaman, which is a cue for the next issue, which is numbered not 3 but 0, being a post-Zero Hour jumping-on point for new readers.

I was going to wait until next weekend to review issue zero, but I'm having such a good time I just might do it sooner.

When we last left our heroes, Aquaman was captured by Charybdis and shown that he had also captured the heroine Dolphin. Aquakad had been left for dead for the sharks.

We are introduced to Charybdis’ love Scylla in the opening scenes. Her fate and her role are something that I had forgotten over the years since I last read this. A little unexpected again this time around.

Aquaman eventually gets rid of Charybdis, but not without help from Dolphin and Aqulad…who himself had seen visions of Aquagirl (who died in the original Crisis,) or was it something more than a vision?

Page ten in particular is one of the reasons I love Peter David. The whole page is dedicated to Aqualad trying to get some Dolphins to help him rescue Aqualad. Here, I find his pop culture (albeit an older reference to the television show Lassie) to be perfectly used. Love the frustration Garth has…and in turn the frustration the Dolphins have…trying to communicate.

The ending sets up the next major change in Aquamans appearance…one that I did not really mind, since I guess I never had much attachment to the character overall.

The scene with Scylla is quite shocking, but it has a point and it doesn't feel gratuitous or exploitative, another sign that the writing is good.

Say, Dev, I forgot to ask before, any chance of Seymour stopping by to post in this thread?

Loved that his shot went wild and ended up destroying the headquarters. Also loved his full stop to greet Dolphin.

I did get the sense here that Peter David was doing the Flash Family thing early by introducing another underwater hero in Dolphin. Not a bad thing, but it sure seemed that all of a characters friends all of a sudden starting hanging around.

I'll let him know about it.

Well, I think it does makes sense in the long run, with all the underwater heroes against the alien invaders, but that's more than 20 issues from where we are right now.

Thank you. It would be great if he did.

Aquaman 0 (October 1994)

Zero Hour is here, while other heroes are being aged into dust or rebooted out of existence, Aquaman carries on. This continues from last issue where Aqualad reopened his injuries and Aquaman lost a hand.

Dolphin takes them bacjk to Atlantis with the help of some Dolphins. Once there, the Dolphins refuse to take them to the city and Dolphin takes them herself.

Once there, we are treated to several hallucinations/visions that Aquaman has...while the fish start congregating around him and eventually take him to the Aquacave.

Meanwhile...Aqualad complains as he is put back together until Dolphin goes by. They then travel around and he shows her the sites and admires her "large tracts of land" (I can forgive a MP Holy Grail reference any day of my life.)

They end up following the fish vortex to the Aquacave where Aquaman shows off his new accessory. The Hook hand...a symbol that he feels shows his dual heritage of the sea and land.

Honestly, not much really happens in this issue other than it sets the status for the series. I guess that's what Zero Hour was about...resetting everything for what's to come.

I do like that the change to his costume/appearance kind of happens over a few issues. He looses his hand here, but is still in the Orange and Green.

Mmm. Dolphin. That DC Who's Who entry picture of her probably kickstarted many a puberty.

I didn't know men in diving gear were that popular.

Dude, check out those bold vertical stripes! Hawt!

The fish now what I'm talking about, they are all about dude-in-diving-gear and totally ignoring what's her name!

I'll post my thoughts on Aquaman zero tomorrow, but in the meantime, I've gone off on a slight re-reading tangent, influenced by Emily Sivana's post in the Comic Book Stories You Remember thread, where she praised the Riot At Xavier's arc from Grant Morrison's X-Men run. So I've been re-reading Morrison's run from the beginning (thank you, local library). Right now, I'm up to the issue where Cassandra Nova is finally defeated. Some of it is much better than I remember, especially the issues drawn by Frank Quitely (the silent issue is a creative tour-de-force), but some of it is still just as cringe-inducing as I remember -- the whole John Sublime/U-Men thing still comes across to me as thinly veiled transphobia (yes, Morrison is gay-friendly, but gay-friendly does not necessarily mean trans-friendly). Anyhow, I'll definitely read up to Riot At Xavier's, and see what I think of it now. Whether or not I proceed further from there is still in flux.

I've read 3 and 4 as well. Will post those tomorrow probably.

Great. I'll most likely have gotten to those by tomorrow as well.

I'm enjoying your reviews, guys. I know by the shark / GL story, the series has emerged as one of my very favorites at the time.

Dave Stevens art...faboo.

I am honored that you are rereading "Riot at Xavier's". I have read the story so many times I can picture the panels in my head. It's reach is more relevant than ever as some characters created in the Morrison era have pivotal roles in today's X-Men comics. And at least one of them involved in ways he never could imagined.

Quentin IMO is the single greatest contribution Morrison made to Marvel. "Riot..." is a killer story, and Morrison is able to do what he sometimes does, by making character trump plot in a way that makes you think and feel a lot of different emotions.

Thank you, Cobie. For me, it's as early as the Superboy issue where it really gets good.



It's my pleasure, Emily. One of my favorite things about these forums is how our posts help each other to reconsider things about pop culture that we tend to take for granted.

Aquaman 0 (October 1994)

This issue is about reaffirming PAD's new direction for Aquaman, throwing out the tired old tropes like Mera and Black Manta, and embracing fresh concepts like Aquaman's father, the long-lived wizard Atlan, underwater myths like Nuliajuk, and, of course, the delightful Dolphin. The nightmare sequences are powerful because the horror imagery has relevance to the story and to the direction of the book, they're not just there to shock us into numbness. That's something that DC forgot about ten years ago. Similarly, the cover might seem like a 90s cliche, all gritted teeth and badass pose, but when you stir in the pain and frustration that Aquaman is going through in the stories, it makes perfect sense.

Aquaman 3 (November 1994)

"HEY, PUNK! IMPRESSED YET?"

With those words, Aquaman establishes himself as a force to be reckoned with and leaves the issue's guest-star, Connor "Superboy" Kent, with egg on his face (and a lot of water, too.) That is one of my all-time favorite scenes in a superhero comic.

And the rest of the issue is great, too -- Vulko's skepticism about Aquaman's harpoon hand probably standing in for a lot of stick-in-the-mud Aquaman fans who want the tried and true; Connor's delicious arrogance shows what a great handle PAD already had on the character years before Young Justice; and an excellent cliffhanger.

Aquaman 4 (December 1994)

By PAD's own admission, Lobo was a character he despised, but he reluctantly used him in this issue, because back then, a Lobo appearance guaranteed a sales spike. What I find amazing, as someone who tends to run hot and cold with Lobo, is how amazingly well PAD writes him here, despite his misgivings.

But it's not all fighting and fragging. Dr. Shinobi, the Japanese scientist who sympathizes with the plight of dolphins, is a wonderful character, and I almost wish he hadn't died, even though his death scene and his underwater funeral with the dolphins are beautifully done by PAD.

Meanwhile, the confrontation with Admiral Strom, the guy who set up Aquaman and Aqualad to be captured by Charybdis, leads to more questions than answers, and unlike in modern comics, they will be answered in a timely and satisfying fashion.

On Morrison's X-Men:
I've read it a couple of times. The first few issues against Cassandra Nova were excellent, as you could see Morrison had really got under the skin of the characters.

It was the little things. The Professor uses different tones with each of his X-Men. He can order Scott, but not Jean; Jean and Beast yakking away; The cool new upgrades; Logan "smoking"; Evolution and the purpose of the group; "Slim"; the cool art.

I agree that there were a lot of nice little touches, but I think the run self-destructed near the end with the "Xorn is Magneto" thing. I've heard defenses of that move along the lines of, "Morrison was using meta-commentary to admit that, in the end, all his efforts were for naught and Marvel would go back to the status quo." True enough, but shouldn't that have motivated Morrison to do something cosmic and universe-shattering, regardless of whether it would last? Xorn had great potential before the reveal, and deserved better than to just end up being a disposable mask.

I take it for granted that the majority of Morrison's stuff will fall away sharply at the end. If it gets that far.

I agree that the Xorn reveal wasn't particularly enjoyable. His Fantomas rip off continues to annoy too.

Fanfic Lady:



He also did a good job with "Li'l Lobo" in Young Justice.

Did Lobo ever guest in PAD's Supergirl?