Comments on: A Truth That Eludes Me

By: Evilbeard

Evilbeard — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:20:54 +0000

I would not say I am a big Aquaman fan but of the old Superman/Batman/Aquaman cartoon, I always liked the Aquaman stories the best. Maybe I am just a sucker for underdogs though.

Perhaps he’s a joke to so many because he’s an easy target; the low hanging fruit if you will.

Personally, I would love to see the character explored by placing him in a new and unfamiliar setting; maybe transport him to an alien water world and leave him there for awhile. Forgive me if this has already been done. I’ve been mostly out of the comics world for a long time now.

By: tad williams

tad williams — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:43:47 +0000

I actually tried my darnedest to bring back the old orange-and-green Aquaman and turn the new version into a supporting character, but it was not allowed by DC management.

I think there’s all kinds of different ways to tell Aquaman stories, but people tend to keep putting him in fish-out-of-water tales because that’s easy. The problem is trying to keep him constantly in the DC universe of characters, because that requires oscillating between Aquaman-on-land and surprise-supervillain-in-water.

What he probably should be is Superman of the Sea, with his own core of characters and challenges, all ocean-based, and then occasional interaction with the rest of the dry world. He’s got lots of friends and he could certainly contact Flash or Lantern when he needs specialty help, just as Superman does, but most of the time he should be solving problems on his own — and they should be BIG problems, because he’s not Batman or the Atom, he’s Aquaman, a guy who flies (at least in his own element) and has super-strength and near-invulnerability.

Anyway, that was where I hoped to go but it didn’t work out. Long story. Frustrating one, too, at least for me.

By: Cole Moore Odell

Cole Moore Odell — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:11:48 +0000

I think Superfriends, the angry king personality patch et al are symptoms, not causes. For most of his first 20 years, Aquaman was a total cipher–nothing more than six pages a month of a costume, a setting, a punch to the jaw. After that, National tried their one-size-fits-all Superman Family graft, then he meandered through the same Silver Age unraveling that many of DC characters got in the 1970s, went missing for much of the 80s and emerged under David as a different character altogether–something that was possible because he never had much of a definable character to begin with. The problem is that no matter how well David constructed *his* Aquaman, it wasn’t *the* Aquaman…and there really never was one. Just a handful of good artists allowing the strip to get over on style, from Fradon to Cardy to Aparo. There’s nothing wrong with being an “artist’s” comic, or being a kids’ comic. But when the distinctive artist isn’t there, and the kid audience has walked, there’s nothing left.

The Brave and the Bold Aquaman is another in the long line of random personality grafts, but at least they’ve re-embraced the character’s appeal to kids, the goofy charm that made the Fradon-era strip a worthy diversion.

By: Dorian

Dorian — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:47:36 +0000

No, Barbara Walters makes me twitch.

By: Jed

Jed — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:03:51 +0000

the royalty thing.

Balls on toast.

derivative of namor.

I’d look at Ultimate Thor for a definitive “this is cool” take on a character saddled with a lot of mythological/royal baggage.

Also, since most of our garbage winds up in the sea, Arthur would know where the bodies were buried.

By: Mister Bile

Mister Bile — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:15:26 +0000

Most people are familiar with Aquaman when he’s part of a team. The trouble is that his powers are fairly specific… being able to kick ass in the water doesn’t mean much when the rest of the team is focusing on space monsters or inner city crime. Sure, the writer could try to work in Aquaman’s unique abilities… but that’s hard to do without seeming silly. (“Good thing the criminals use this lake as their hideout… Again!”) So instead, you get a guy whose abilities are the generic “Hard to hurt, hits like a truck,” except when he’s doing his own thing, in his own book.

Also, we tend to judge superheroes by their villains… and the only one most people remember is Black Manta, who has a great character design, and not much else.

By: Bill D.

Bill D. — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:55:04 +0000

B:BatB’s Aquaman may seem a little more like Marvel’s Hercules than what I traditionally think of as Aquaman, but it’s a brilliant spin on the character that I’ve really been enjoying, and maybe it’s just what the character needs. It’s fairly safe to say that most people’s knowledge of Aquaman comes from Superfriends, where “talking to fish” and riding shotgun in Wonder Woman’s plane was pretty much all he ever did. And worse still, his characterization on the show was fairly bland, even by Superfriends standards, so all that’s a lot for a public image to recover from.

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:28:09 +0000

People think Aquaman is lame because his primary “power” is to talk to fish. When you tell people, “I talk to fish” it’s not a power people say, “I wish I could talk to fish.” Even the Brave and the Bold people realized that talking to fish is a relatively lame power because they’ve given their Aquaman the ability to form a water sword.

By: Andy D. Acelister

Andy D. Acelister — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:15:49 +0000

I think Aquaman is great! Didn’t really like the Brave And Bold version because the dinner in the first episode featuring him, was full of air not water. Other than that, the character is great. He’s the only one who’s not simply returned to a status-quo and forgotten everything. Unlike Superman, Batman (soon to return to normal as we all know), Wonder Woman… He’s also a more compelling character, I feel, than most others in DC’s catalogue. And more interesting than Namor…

By: Kelberon

Kelberon — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:07:00 +0000

You know, people talk about how Superfriends made Aquaman seem stupid, but there was an earlier experience that laid the groundwork for that. Specifically, the original Justice League books.

Go read the first issues of Justice League. All Aquaman seems to do is either be trapped in a way that focuses on the fact that he would DIE without being in water once an hour, or how he summons fish (and aquatic mammals) to solve his problems. Were the writers on JLA specifically trying to make Aquaman seem useless? No, but it made him stand out in a bad way-in comparison to the other characters, his power seemed goofy and far too specific. Of course, it seems equally silly in hindsight that in every issue, something yellow would appear to foil Green Lantern, while something made of kryptonite or using magic would fell Superman. So in those books, Aquaman doesn’t come off too badly. But when you combine that with the Superfriends…well, Aquaman does not look very good.