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Sunday 20 May 2012

Aquaman 101 sale continued

Following on from my previous post on the Aquaman 101 sale, I bought several issues and now feel able to wax lyrical about why you should buy them.  Read on!

1) As a King, former King, nearly King and then sometime King again, he has a different set of priorities and to your average superhero.  He is driven by different things.  Your average surface dwelling superhero operates outside of the law, but in line with it. Their heroism relies on their strict moral code.  Aquaman is King of Atlantis and as such he is the law.  What he says goes.  That isn't to say he is never held accountable for his actions, but it takes quite a major event for Atlantean citizens to demand he vacate the throne.  This has happened quite a few times.  This makes for interesting storytelling.
2) As a King and ex-King, he is accustomed to giving orders, to being treated with the respect due his station and to being held in awe by others.  When he joins groups like the Justice League, this changes the group dynamics in an interesting way.
3) At the start of the 1994 run Aquaman loses his hand and it gets replaced by a harpoon.  I guess this gives him a disability, but he'd probably stick you with the harpoon if you tried to suggest that to him.
4) The 1994 run includes* a female character called Dolphin, who is great.  Then there's Vulko, male advisor to the King and also very engaging,
5) There's mythological elements in the 1994 and 2003 series.
6) The art is fluid and the storytelling is tight.
7) These issues aren't available in trade, so unless you illegally download them (not recommended) or can find back issues somewhere, this is the only place you'll get them.
8) Issues 63 to 75 (1994 to 2001 series) have the most beautiful covers.  The storyline is Atlantis at war with Cerdia, a land nation who have created living coral monsters.
9) Issues 15 to 20 are the Sub Diego arc.  So good I still swoon over it a year after first having read it.

I bought the following issues:
1994 to 2001 series: 0, 1, 2, 10 to 16, 63 to 75 and the annual.
2003 to 2006 series: 1 to 4, 15 to 20.

Please, go buy!


*Just edited this (03/03/2013) as it turns out Dolphin was actually introduced in the 1980s.

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