The Art Of Celebrating An Anniversary

 ... or the lack thereof. Alas. 

I wish that the occasion was truly a joyous one here; 

and, hey, it still is - in spite of so many wrongs... 

This is, after all, my childhood favorite superhero ~ 

and that was so intuitive on my part, as I was barely 

conscious of the HEROIS DO MAR that my ancestors were; 

of the attraction that the sea, legends of Atlantis and 

naval excursions ~veritable year-long campaigns~ and 

battles fought on the open seas would operate on me... 

The myths and legends of the sea, also: 

mermaids, sea creatures, ghost ships... 

The murkier, darker ones, too; 

Davy Jones' Locker... the Flying Dutchman... 

the devil and the deep blue sea. 

All very fascinating ~ frightening...! 

It never detracted from my liking the superhero 

who could breathe underwater 

and "summon and command all the 

creatures of the deep...!" 

That 2018 movie, being so epic ~ breaking all kinds of 

records at the box-office and silencing (most) of the nay-sayers 

and numerous detractors over the decades ~ man, that was neat. 

It wasn't exactly the Aquaman that should have been 

(Paul Walker should have had the role; had he lived) 

and it wasn't quite the Mera that should've been either 

(Bryce Dallas Howard, a real redhead, should have been cast) 

but, overall, the James Wan movie was just perfect ~ 

the best genre film of its kind, marrying fantasy 

to this newfangled thing called superheroics 

(it is new, for live action anyways - for Marvel especially!) 

in the utmost manner ~ there is no doubt whatsoever. 

And this was vindication - for years of saying it: 

Aquaman and his world are the BEST adventure setting 

there ever was - not Gotham, not Metropolis 

and certainly not anywhere in the damnable Marvel universe! 

YEARS of championing this: 

maybe close to two decades...? 

I am aging myself here! LOL 

However, the character had battled it out, 

on his own and through many other fans, 

for six decades prior to that... 

And here we have reached eight decades then; 

for him along with a host of other characters 

that saw the light of day in those fertile days 

(for the imaginations of ambitious publishers, surely) 

that were the early 1940s - the war years. 

AQUAMAN came forth among a bunch of those 

heroic figures that battled Nazi Germany on 

all fronts: via air, land and, yes, sea! 

Other notables from 1941 include 

Green Arrow, Catwoman... Wonder Woman! 

But let us stick with my childhood hero here... 

They invited back noted and acclaimed 

comic-book artist Ramona Fradon 

~ one of the very few women who drew comics 

back in the 1950s... all the way through the 1970s ~ 

to draw one of the eight covers -one per decade- 

(the word variant is not popular these days) 

for this commemorative 100-page "spectacular" 

~ pardon, it is a "super spectacular" - yes! 

For the decade/cover representing the pivotal 1970s, 

Jim Aparo being unavailable (like Paul Walker...) 

it was the veteran prized talent of Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez 

that was brought in, once again, to draw this... 

He always drew these characters well, Jose; always! 

The 70s: the decade in which Aquaman had, ironically, 

some of his very best action-packed adventures 

in the comic-books... but was soon labeled 

all sorts of negative things by a misguided fanbase 

for his apparent ineffectiveness outside of the sea; 

he was being used less and less on the cartoon shows 

and that tainted the perception... Not helping matters 

were the lack of imagination and outright talent 

on the writing and editing side of things - 

they were misusing the Sea King whom they saw 

as nothing more than the "ocean guy" so... 

And guess what: most of the "Super Friends" 

adventures didn't take place n the oceans... 

The 80s were a turbulent time for AQUAMAN; 

the death of his son (thanks to writer David Michelinie) 

and the subsequent temporary madness of his wife 

(direct correlation there; thanks to writer Keith Giffen) 

made of my hero a man without a family... throne... 

heck, he was even off the Justice League for a while! 

They left him nothing - nothing! 

Amazing they would not try to kill him off then; 

no, that would be done (repeatedly) in the next 

two decades... 

Of course, in the 90s, they gave him a big push: 

via mercenary scribe (hired away from Marvel; though 

he continued to write for Marvel as he wrote for DC!) 

Peter David... The result is what has, at least 

in esthetic terms, greatly inspired the Aquaman 

portrayed nowadays by Jason Momoa... 

...which brings us to the last two decades now; 

after having been killed off on, at least, a couple of occasions 

writer Geoff Johns (a wordsmith vastly more imaginative 

than the guys at the helm of things, say, back in the 70s 

for example...) brought Aquaman back to life 

(he had done the same thing for Green Lantern) 

better than ever! And this was the "classic" 

Aquaman, too - the one, say, from the 1960s - 

when he had been dubbed "King of the Sea 

and of TV" as he had his own cartoon show 

narrated by Ted Knight...! 

Superman used to "leap tall buildings" 

before he was given the ability to fly... 

Now, Aquaman was leaping over tall buildings 

whenever he found himself on land ~ at last! 

He was allowed to be much more 

than a mere water-logged character 

who would collapse from dehydration 

within an hour or so...!? 

He was finally developed logically 

~ to his full potential. 

And his rep improved to (most) everyone 

calling him "cool" now - all of a sudden! 

(COOL - and, yes, BEFORE MOMOA!) 

He was, finally, back on top indeed - even greater 

than his best decade ever... the 1960s. 

Above is the cover for the sixties indeed: 

to fill in for the most prominent artist identified 

with the character back then ~the legendary Nick Cardy~ 

DC summoned the equally legendary 

Walter Simonson - straight out of... semi-retirement? 

And his imitation of the Nick Cardy era style 

is absolutely perfect! 

I wished he had included The Liquidator on the cover, 

though... (I must be the only one who remembers 

the damnable Liquidator...!!!) 

In the beginning... in the 1940s... 

it was an editor, eager to give its publisher a sea hero 

as there was none there yet... a sea hero clearly based off 

various sources - Superman himself, sure 

(a Superman of the Seas) but also 

Sinbad, Flash Gordon, Tarzan, Odysseus, Jason (he of the 50 

Argonauts; not any other) and even Captain Nemo... 

All of those ~ but not the competition's carbon copy 

(in reverse) of Superman - no, never! 

Editor Mort Weisinger wouldn't have stooped so low; 

especially since he didn't need to! 

Brought in to give a fitting visualization of all this, was the 

original artist... Paul Norris. 

And the character was born - first as an underwater 

adventurer and explorer, much akin to what 

the European characters of "bande dessinee" 

used to be - and still are, to this day! 

It is touching to see that, though their character 

has "evolved" to become another super-hero 

with a whole set of super powers as it is required 

in order to *compete* in today's comic-booky world, 

Mort and Paul were paid homage to 

in the movie James Wan made in 2018. 

Yes - they are packaging all of these - and more! 

And although they proved to be able to find 

creative ways to celebrate this and other anniversaries 

-notably by pairing up the two characters who were born 

on the same day, in the same book, back in 1941: 

More Fun Comics saw both Green Arrow and Aquaman debut 

in that very same single issue (#73) 

and there were more in that fun anthology book- 

so, now, a mini-series (seven issues - for the seven seas?) 

featuring these two birthday boys together is just... 

well, actually, it's not enough. 

Simultaneously, they have a mini-series setting up 

the NEXT AQUAMAN - "The Becoming" 

(..and it only sounds like a horror story...) 

This would be "Karr'l Durr'ham" or something 

to that effect ~ the gay sidekick meant to 

take over from the mantle, in the future... 

The near-future, it would seem, too! 

Back in the 90s, the wee lad that I was 

discovered that there's a character named 

Cal Durham - who had been implanted gills 

so that he could breathe underwater... 

This had been done on him against his will; 

a whole decade before Cyborg Vic Stone 

got similar treatment with way-different 

shall we say improvements... 

A tragic figure, if there ever was one... 

I had plans for this Cal Durham; 

but they were nothing like... this. 

These plans are set in motion NOW ~ 

as Jason Momoa has yet to begin filming 

the second film of what I see as an Aquaman trilogy; 

the new Aquaman is already set ~ only has to be cast... 

Plenty of actors who can audition for this; 

plenty of fish in the sea... for now. 

It is all part of an event (another) that DC has got brewing; 

culminating in new versions of ALL of their time-honored 

super-hero characters... 

There is already a new Wonder Woman. 

There will be a new Superman. 

There are numerous new Batmen. 

It appears as though there are two possible 

Aquamen ~ and Meras/Aquawomen, too! 

However, all this time, with all this sea folk 

swimming about ~ zero mention of the sad state of our oceans, 

sad state of our planet... eco-environment... coral reefs...

Back in the mid-1980s, when the Aquaman action figure 

seen below came out - by Kenner, cooler successor of Mego - 

accompanied by the great art of Garcia-Lopez (again) 

I saw this great heroic figure as a champion 

of the seas - of the environment! 

YEARS before any "Captain Planet" showed up...! 

Is it possible that DC still hasn't seen so much...? 

After eight decades...? 

In spite of the name... AQUAMAN? 

NO ~ this is not the appropriate way to celebrate 

an 80th anniversary ~ not this one ~ it cannot be! 

This is a hero for ecology ~ which should be 

the number one topic in this day and age! 

Ecology, the environment, the oceans... 

not gay rights, modern-day piracy countering 

or the prevention of drowning 101. 

Those are petty man-made concerns compared to 

the planetary survival stakes at hand in 2021... 

Stakes that should at the heart of the saga 

involving an AQUAMAN - and company. 

AQUAMAN -the real one- has got no ongoing series, 

in the meantime... This "Future State" dystopia 

takes all the allotted pages, digital or not, for the time being... 

With the lone exception of the 100-page 

"super-spectacular" 

which makes zero attempt to address this urgency 

but makes damn sure to even include 

a seldom-seen version of Aquaman: 

the one who came along with Bombshells Mera 

~ hence they call him... Bombshell Aquaman. 

This... fluff (at least not LGBTQ+ this time) 

instead of a most pressing, urgent message 

about the urgency of saving the planet 

which is 71% water... aqua... "AQUAMAN" 

(not that any of the competitors are doing better; 

submarines, deep sea or abysmal...) 

No... This isn't right.