Aqua Force - part 1

All characters used here are, for the most part, TM and copyrighted to DC Comics Inc.





The time is always right to do what is right. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills. - Ambrose Bierce (well - here's one man who allegedly does - hence the name... AQUAMAN!)

AQUAMAN being traditionally a loner -and sort of a fish out of water in the fabled Justice League of America... unless he is the leader figure of the group- I would start my aquatic saga revolving around him and his beauteous queen Mera as a solo series - a seven-parter lead-in that would bring about the birth of... the AQUA FORCE. (Tentatively titled since... 1989! *lol* But that is another story...).

Some old scores to settle, one-on-one, first - before the Sea King leads his own private underwater Justice League (if not his underwater Legion of Super-Heroes! That is what I called it when I submitted this idea to DC in 1996 - a whole bunch of years before they had a one-shot Justice League Atlantis! Not the only such occurrence either - I submitted other ideas - and all were used in one form or another afterwards; by other creators! Oh well... we can't copyright an idea...).

The scores to settle though are NOT with the usual rogues gallery (the Ocean Masters, Black Mantas and Scavengers of this four-color world...) but rather with thinly-veiled metaphors - from the "surface world"! Over the years, AQUAMAN was disrespected by a few loudmouths, see? Time to even the score - in a most humiliating way too! As his saga develops, Aquaman will easily dispose of several allegedly huge threats only the League in full force can handle normally - and all of these are out of his element! Deconstructo (a villain that will look eeriely close to the likeness of... Tim Burton) will be the first to fall flat on his face before the might of the King of the Seven Seas! Following him, petty thief Angle Man (subbing -ha- for Kurt Angle; who else) will go down in seconds... Maxie Zeus (A bonafide Bob Costas clone!) is put back in his place ridiculously easily by the overpowering Sea King next... Supposed hero Loose Cannon (usually DC's cheap version of Hulk; here to be DC's version of Mark Wahlberg - for a day!) loses control - and is quickly set straight by AQ whose path he crosses - unfortunately for him! And I guess if Superman met Richard Pryor (in the painful to watch as to remember Superman III) and is buddy-buddy with Jerry Seinfeld... well, AQUAMAN can run across a Seinfeldesque character who happens to be hanging out with a Chris Rock clone... and bang their heads together as they stand in his way to the washroom! These two would be mere reporters desperate for a scoop from the Sea King - they won't get it!

In addition to all this, AQUAMAN would repeatedly bump into a strange scruffy bearded man - finally, out of pity, AQ would throw him some piece of gold he found at the bottom of the sea... That man would be no beggar though but truly a clod subbing for ALAN MOORE (it sure as heck is not AQUALUNG!) - Moore, whose disrespect for AQUAMAN reaches new lows with his clone of the Amalgam Mariner (Namor with Aquaman's looks) whom HE calls -totally unoriginally- ''Roman'' in the pages of Supreme - himself a Superman clone.

All of these surface world hijinks and antics come about because AQUAMAN is roaming the surface in search of... Thanatos!
The Lady of the Lake has told him that there is ample evidence that his old nemesis - now deceased - is much active still - acting from beyond! And he feels that the millions above the waters are easier prey than the ones below the waves - for Thanatos' thing is to wreak havoc with the minds of his victims; until death does ensue! (Maybe Thanatos should be the substitute for Bob Costas, eh? Thanatos is Greek for "death" after all - Costas could just as well spell out the death of TV - my set anyway! *lol* Again - another story entirely...).

AQUAMAN would finally square off with Thanatos - helped by Mera, Atlan and Nuada... alas, meanwhile, in the shadows of the seven seas evil is assembling to overthrow King Orin as the rightful monarch of Atlantis... or at least of Poseidonis surely... but I will want Atlantis united, as it should be... The ORIGINAL line-up of villains I had assembled comprised... a new revamped Fisherman... Ocean Master... Black Manta... Scavenger... The Shark... Starro... and even one magickal Sea Troll! The latter two would have supplied armies to the villains's forces - Starro via his usual enslaving of humanoid lifeforms with replicas of himself; and Sea Troll would have had resurrected the dead of the sea (and Lord Knows there are many!) and led those zombies in a massive attack (no pun intended) on Atlantis (yes - you can say it; Evil Dead / Army of Darkness Under The Sea!). NOW however... The Thirst, Gammemnae (I prefer to spell it this way - writer's and European's prerogative!), Devilfish (the true Dweller of the Depths...?) or Poseidon himself could replace this poor Sea Troll (who is a DC character indeed - they can have the silliest characters sometimes...). Fisherman and Ocean Master themselves would be arboring dark magical forces - so, we have no true need for Starro... although I would still keep him for the visuals! As these villains would congregate towards Atlantis - AQUAMAN would, fatefully, be reminded that there are a lot of underwater champions around the globe - precious aquatic allies he can rely on, if need be - if the need is great enough and the air-breathing, surface-dwelling Justice League is found to be simply... out of its element to help out and lend a hand! These allies cameo one-by-one;

Tuatara... Arion... Letifos... Lorena... Iqula... S'Ona... Ulla Paske (aka... DC's Little Mermaid! Don't ask...) - Neptune Perkins... Tsunami... Noble... Deep Blue... Among others! When time would come - Aquaman will have an army of resistants to levy as well...

And so, as Thanatos vanishes at the conclusion of this epic 7-issue story arc - a far greater menace lurks on the horizon... or should I say, comes with the new tide?

Aqua Force - part 2

All characters used here are, for the most part, TM and copyrighted to DC Comics Inc.




Aquaman and Mera head back to Atlantis - while Nuada and Atlan head for Thierna Na Oge. The Sea King and Queen are met by an army of formidable foes - verily, a formidable invasion force that even Superman would stand NO CHANCE AGAINST... The Atlantean Mage and Sea Enchantress known as Nuada would also have a nasty surprise once back in Thierna Na Oge - the Conclave there, counseled by Arion, has decided to "punish" them for meddling with the surface... and with the darkest forces of all - which now empower Thanatos.

In Atlantis, Aquaman and Mera prolong the battle as much as they can. They keep at bay the armies of the dead launched at them by Gammemnae, mostly with Mera's hard water power - Aquaman's water hand protects the couple from repeated mystical attacks from many of their quarries. Exasperated, the villains try it the physical way - Aquaman breaks the arms of the humanoid Shark and knocks out the would-be Ocean Master. Mera, for her part, gives Black Manta a knuckle sandwich many times over - repeating that it is for her son's memory... The Atlantean populace comes out, mind-controlled by Starro, and overwhelm the royal couple who will simply NOT hurt them. Among the dead of the sea resurrected for the occasion are old foes of Aquaman - Scavenger, Fisherman, Marine Marauder the 1st, among others - and they call for the couple to be made into "one of them." Ocean Master agrees; "we will not take any more chances with you, dear brother! We have you now - there will be no Mercy Reef! Not this time! We will slay you, once and for all! And so ends your REIGN...!"
Mera looks desperately in the direction of her husband - it seems the end is near and she wants to see his eyes one last time. The mob holds them both down - their arms are unable to mount any counter-attack with hard-water powers or water-hand magicks. THIS is one of those extreme situations where AQUAMAN has to use his TELEPATHY at its fullest - he has no choice. The telepathic powers, if abused, come with a terrible price to pay - the curse of Kordax. But he will have to worry about that later. The priority now is to survive this - for Atlantis! For his beloved Mera. For the memory of his only son.

Aquaman starts a double telepathic assault like nothing he has ever attempted before - first, he stuns all marine creatures present amongst his foes with a powerful mental blast that leaves them all unconscious. Alas, it also leaves Aquaman very much drained of any strength; such is the use of his awesome telepathic powers. They are extremely taxing. But it is worth it here - as he knocks out dozens of them all at once! The ones that are left, who were affected by the mental blast, but not rendered unconscious, can still take advantage of his momentary physical weakness and carry out the plans to slay both him and his queen. So, next, with what is left of his strength, he summons every creature of the deep in the immediate vicinity of Atlantis and orders them to attack the city! Hundreds of manta rays, squid, eels, morays, whales and actual sharks answer his summons - and tear into the numbers of his enemies! Mera is freed and takes her presently vulnerable husband to safety - at least she tries to! It becomes clear that they swum in the wrong direction - upwards... and even Mera's hard-water powers cannot break an exit through the Atlantean dome, which is rendered indestructible through magic! Aquaman's water-hand forms a fist and, supported by Mera's hard-water power, he cracks the dome so that they both can escape that way!

Without Aquaman around, the creatures of the deep cease their attack and disperse back to sea - through the same ways they came into the city. That leaves the villains in control of Atlantis however - and Ocean Master proclaims it mightily too; "you have survived this day, Orin - but Atlantis is ours!"

Aquaman seems so weak as though he may be dying... Mera seeks refuge behind some high corals, where she tries to revive him... Her tears quickly merge with the seawater and ascend... and, somehow, they summon the help they both need. The water nymphs of the Lady of the Lake come and take the both of them to the Lady's lair. It is from there that the Sea King and his Queen will mount their counter-attack...

Aqua Force - part 3

All characters used here are, for the most part, TM and copyrighted to DC Comics Inc.




All manners of sea heroes will answer the call to arms of the King of the Seven Seas - they all owe him a favor or two... they all feel like Atlantis is their true native land... they all know they belong there!

My roll-call, originally, was limited to Neptune Perkins, Tsunami, Dolphin, AQUAMAN & MERA (of course), Ronal, Lori Lemaris, Aqualad (yes - he wasn't Tempest yet - or, as I call him, "The Temp-pest" - *lol*) Nuada, Ulla Paske and Tuatara. Now, we can add Noble, Atlan, Deep Blue, Iqula, S'ona, King Shark, that *other* Aquaman (would he replace... Neptune Perkins? Since they apparently allowed The Shark to take a bite out of Ol' NEP in the recent Infinite Crisis... damn you DC!) - heck, I want to include the erstwhile Charybdis aka Piranha Man... since he parted on good terms with Aquaman and all...! (The lone good thing Erik Larsen did during HIS run as Aqua-scribe... but that is another story...). And there would be more... the Sea Devils! Rodunn! Spought! Topo! Tusky! Aquaduck! (Okay - admittedly, I am getting carried away here... but, since DC was inane enough to include Captain Carrot and his erstwhile Zoo Crew into the aforementioned Infinite Crisis... I guess I could say here "why not Aquaduck?" - huh?)

I hesitate to unwrap some of my OWN CHARACTERS here... but they would be appearing here as well! What better time to have them come out into the spotlight (out of the woodwork - or, more appropriately, out of the coral reefs?) than NOW - when the more the merrier to fight for and win back Atlantis?

They would replace one big chunk missing here - and that is entirely attributable to DC's inane retcons! The raw power of (appropriately named enough indeed) Power Girl is denied to Atlantis' cause now... as she has no longer any ties to the fabled continent! She was once Arion's grand-daughter (and kissing cousins with Aquaman!) - but that sure has been changed! She may be back into being Superman's cousin again... or Supergirl's butch clone... lest they really went for gold this time and made her Uber-Bat's long-lost adopted ward-to-be...?!? Frankly, my dear DC, I don't give a damn! She never fit in Atlantis - she is no Mera! *lol*
My own characters (one a "secret descendent" of an Atlantean who lived on the SURFACE WORLD FOR DECADES... long before Aquaman appeared...!) fit in much better in a "return home to the fabled lost continent" scenario... Yup...

While Aquaman is assembling his army, Ocean Master's assemblage is wreaking havoc with all that Atlantis had established as "diplomatic relations" with the surface world... They sink ships, plunder them, make sure to drown any survivors... that sort of sickening thing! They are not just content with Cerdia as an outpost on the surface - they want to conquer more and more of the surface... and sink any opposition! They hire mercenaries - such as the Deep Six and Female Furies - to do some preventive work... by attacking the truly formidable opposition to be expected soon; the Justice League! Yes... Darkseid looks on approvingly of this... and so does somebody else with great power...

Once all assembled, the army Aquaman has raised attacks Atlantis on two different fronts - with the Lady of the Lake herself creating a diversion for them, on top of that! Even Spartacus and Braveheart wouldn't have done any better! Roughly two issues would be devoted to the battle itself - and at the end of it... AQUAMAN HAS REGAINED HIS KINGDOM... and his army, though it suffers some casualties, will remain as a permanent team... the AQUA FORCE!

Aqua Force - part 4

All characters used here are, for the most part, TM and copyrighted to DC Comics Inc.




Aquaman's NEW ATLANTEAN CONFEDERATION is initiated so that NOTHING like this recent (and just neutralized) very hostile takeover of the main city of the fabled continent can EVER take place AGAIN... "It is in the best interest of all undersea colonies as in that of the surface world itself. With a full-time Force, active and on the watch permanently, patrolling the seas - NONE of these tragic sinkings would have taken place!" says Aquaman in an official transmission to all underwater major centres.

Thus, the undersea cities of Thierna Na Oge, Hy-Brasil, Sub Diego, Venturia/Aurania, Tritonis, Poseidonis and MORE (even... New Venice?) - each will send a representative to adhere to this "Force" and represent their city; both as an ambassador and also as a full-time "patroller of the seas" as Aquaman recommended. A new representative is sent for Thierna Na Oge - since they ousted Nuada from their midst. Nuada though is in Atlantis with Aquaman and his group - and is the love interest of Atlan!

The United Nations however - and the outside world in general - gets it all upside down again... and assumes that this "confederation" must be the bad guys still, those who just perpetrated so many atrocious acts... crimes on the High Seas... and that they must be gearing up to do some more! Hence... they call for help! Who are they gonna call, to interfere? No - not the ghostbusters indeed... You've guessed what I'm leading to here... yes...

AQUA FORCE VS JUSTICE LEAGUE!

The League's membership is in constant evolution (lest it is turmoil!) - so it is truly hard to guess who would be around and in active duty with the League at any given time when THIS story would be possible... but one can always script the most-desired match-ups one would want to see played out...
Not to humiliate Uber-Bat too much, but it is "old man of the sea" Neptune Perkins that gets the honor to square off against Batman. Nep tells things to Bats right like they are - "you are no Flying Fox! HE had powers - I do NOT fear YOU!" So much for thy wondrous costume doing half the work for you, eh Bats? Other probable match-ups would have been:

Mera versus Faith
Tuatara versus The Flash
Ulla Paske versus Wonder Woman
Nuada versus Manitou Raven
Piranha Man versus Green Lantern (it could be Tempest too - but the match-up I want would be much more interesting... the Temp-pest is just boh-ring... if you get what I'm screaming!)
Dolphin The Enchantress versus The Huntress
Hy-Brasilian Guardian versus Martian Manhunter
And if Tempest absolutely must be around; then he would face Metamorpho!
(More match-ups, if necessary, later! Really though... The League would not think -in its usually condescending ways- that MORE effectives would be required... Leaving them outnumbered as my Force could have them all tagged 2 or even 3 to 1...! Plus, the League is completely out of its element - truly "out of its league"! *LOL* Sorry - couldn't resist!)

And the main event, of course - Aquaman versus Superman!
The dialogue between these two would be simply fascinating to script - it would go something like this...
Superman: "We have come to ask you to explain what has happened and what is happening - the League and I personally respect you Aquaman... we know we can talk this out..."
Aquaman: "You sure have a warped sense of respect... your "super buddies" invade my kingdom and attack my people and allies - and that will NOT be tolerated!"
Superman: "Why do you mock the League, Aquaman? You are one of us...!"
Aquaman: "I WAS one of you - I am king first and foremost; and I now have a League of my own! Or can't you see that? Where has the vaunted super-vision gone to?"
Superman: "I do not like your tone, old friend..."
Aquaman: "You are INVADING MY KINGDOM. The last bunch that did just that did not like my tone either... and they were disposed of accordingly too! You will NOT threaten me or any of my people, Kryptonian - I am an Atlantean! Every bit as good as you are - and even better! If I unleash the magicks within this kingdom on you, you will no longer be the Last Man from Krypton... you will no longer be anything! And this time, I'd wager you would NOT find your way back to the land of the living..."
Superman: "YOU are threatening ME...?"
Aquaman: "You have trespassed - and your fellow League members are assaulting my allies... I just told you that the LAST BUNCH THAT DID THAT WAS DEALT WITH... And I dealt with them as I shall deal with you now - with NO MERCY!"
Superman: "You cannot stop me - and you know it!"
Aquaman: "That is what YOU THINK - reality is a little different outside of your Fortress of Solitude..." (awaiting to see Supes make the first move - or baiting him to do so, more precisely... when he does not, AQ adds...) "What are you waiting for? You expect me to be foolish enough to make the first move... to attack you head on? I am king... it is beneath me to do so!"
Superman: "We don't have to do this... this way!"
Aquaman: "You didn't have to come here either - didn't you ever hear of calling first? You had a question to ask - you could have asked me using the old JLA communications device! But no - you and that insufferable dark knight detective and the rest of you had to show off again! Well - it is time you all be taught a lesson - FOR THE AGES!"
A mental blast temporarily stuns Superman - long enough so that he cannot use his super-speed, super-this and super-that... and, especially, his heat vision! Aquaman then picks up his seldom-used trident (which he won from Poseidon himself - did he not) and blasts Superman with the full firepower of it - sending the Son of Krypton flying, only not the way he's used to...!
And when Supesy snaps out of it and flies by for more - Atlan casts a spell on him that Aquaman promises NOT to take off the super oaf with his water-hand nullifier of all magic spells - UNLESS THE LEAGUE HIGH-TAILS IT OUT OF THERE - "NOW!"
Call it a draw - and nobody got hurt... too much.
Except some uber-prides... ;)

Aqua Force - part 5

All characters used here are, for the most part, TM and copyrighted to DC Comics Inc.




For the coming months - and that would make up a whole lot of monthly issues too; just not sure how much "DCU TIME" that would be... Hypertime NOT factored in! *lol* - the Aqua Force would embark several epic storylines all superposed and interconnected... One threat would not be dealt with completely yet that ANOTHER would rear its unsightly head! Those events would force (no pun intended) the team to split up into two or three in order to handle it all! Solo adventures for Aquaman, Tuatara and several other *key* members of the team would still be possible hence - further more, it would eventually lead to something significant, structure-wise (around issue number fifty - one always has to do something nifty for fifty!) - for now there would be an Aqua Force Atlantic and an Aqua Force Pacific! Sorry for the other three oceans and the Sargasso Sea...! Maybe at the NEXT expansion... eh? ;)
(The Dead Sea though holds no hope to ever get one of its own - nothing ever happens there! *lol* Yeah - another funny I just HAD to make... I know! I plead guilty!)

Aquaman would stay in the Atlantic - while his father would be the logical choice to lead the Pacific team (originally, I had selected Tuatara, of course - him hailing from New Zealand and all...! But that conflicted with OTHER PLANS I HAD FOR HIM... so, it is good to have Atlan around! Tuatara can always commute! He's a world class hero - IN MY BOOK, he is! DC just forgot that he used to be a bonafide/genuine "Global Guardian", that's all... :(
Digressing again - sorry!)

The two teams would continue to have adventures that would span not only the seas but the cosmos... Guest appearances by the far future's own Aquaman ("AQUAMAN ONE MILLION" - he who always feels like a million bucks, always...! Right...) via the presence of WAVERIDER... A confrontation with Vandal Savage via a guest-appearance of the Sea Devils, the Forgotten Heroes and Animal Man (who all belonged together at one point - along with Dolphin - as Forgotten Heroes indeed! Some are really "untapped potential heroes" though...!) and the heralded return of... Captain Compass! (Please, don't ask who...!) It's really not so bad - I also wanted to bring back Cal Durham as well! And now, the idea that Captain Compass would provide maritime transport for the mysterious mystics comprising the Sentinels of Magic... especially Madame Xanadu, Doctor Occult and Alan Scott the original Green Lantern! That would make THAT luminous team-up possible. ;)
(And if I may find a way to work in an improbable series of impossible crossovers... with Seaguy, Sea Dragon, Roman, Atalon, Namorita, The Inhumans' Triton, Splash (no, not Daryl Hannah), Fathom I, Fathom II, Full Fathom Five (getting carried away here I think... *lol*) - heck, even the LXG's Captain Nemo, Popeye, Sinbad and Ulysses if I can! Hmm... I think I forgot somebody here - but who? Hmm... some subaltern, surely... ;)


A Starman / Aquaman meeting (clash - they always clash first, super-heroes...!) would be great at this conjoncture too...
The epic involving Darkseid and Poseidon would go here, of course - the Aqua Force would square off more efficiently with the various criminal sub-groups from Apokolips than even Orion and the so-called "New Gods" ever did! Deep Six... Female Furies... Mantis, Kalibak & Steppenwolf... DeSaad and the Parademons... and the Demolition Crew! (D.C. - right? The Wrecking Crew are on the other side - the competitor, Marvel! I always wanted to concoct a nod to the late, lamentable AND lamented Defenders they used to have there... but not the first rag-tag line-up of characters hastily put together - no! The team that matched the brawn of the W.C. in the Wreckers vs Defenders mélée... and only did so by buying the services of one "hero for hire"! No such humiliating resortments here - any four of my Force can tango with the D.C. any day of the week! Yessir...!)

The Deep Six (Slig, Gole, Pyron, Shaligo, Jaffar, Trok) would be consistent and persistent quarries for Tuatara, my new version of Seaquake, my new Liquidator and a couple more of my own characters... Oh - and since DC has no respect for some characters it views as expendable and kills them off senselessly, just for drama's sake (this while resurrecting their favorites after a mere few years in limbo...) I would bring back Hydrik, Seagrin and the original Forager as well as the Forever People (makes sense - they are "Forever"!) from the grips of death! When in the "Fourth World", you know...! (Follow the same logic as in the expression "when in Rome"...!)

On a parallel with all that - some political relevancy as, back on Earth but on the surface, the fictional country of Quraq would invade Cerdia - which is still "property of Atlantis"... And, on another front, civil unrest in various cities of the Atlantean Alliance... mainly in the seldom used (make that "never used except once in a flashback only!") Tlapallan... All things to keep the Sea King busy and help him to "delegate" responsability... The new direction DC is about to give the AQUAMAN series will have the main character relegated to mere recurring cameo status IN HIS OWN BOOK... At least I had planned a TEAM BOOK with many stars - of which he would always be the most important one!

Aqua Force - part 6

All characters used here are, for the most part, TM and copyrighted to DC Comics Inc.




It would be about time, around issue #75, to start a two-year long saga that would lead to the "senses-shattering climax of the greatest aquatic epic of all time"! A 24-issue lead-in into the "seven last days of the Aqua Force" (as you know it, anyway! Why? Because... all good things have to come to an end...! Also because this entire Aqua Force business spun out of an idea I had in mind to affect the entire DCU by focusing on my childhood favorite, Aquaman... This was not to be through an "underwater legion of super-heroes" but actually via another crisis... Yeah, I know - "another Crisis" you'll say... Not "another Crisis" nor an "umpteenth crisis"...! For this one was not going to be an Identity Crisis (...) nor was it going to be a so-called Infinite Crisis... (What's the next one on your agenda, DC? "Mid-life Crisis" - for the Uber-Bat? *LOL* That one will sell, DC... yes!) - I had decided to merely call it "THE ULTIMATE CRISIS". (Yes, as Ric Flair once said - Lord, it is hard to be humble!)
Ultimate - for that too has to end! Ultimate - way before Marvel came up with its own Ultimates too! But that is another story... Truth to tell, the word crisis has been over-used by DC (as "ultimate" is now, by their competitor)... And they ripped it off, of course, from classic literature! Thomas Paine's The American Crisis, Supernumerary Crisis and The Crisis Extraordinary had already made extensive commercial use of the appealing (for alarming and thus exciting) word! DC, one could say, never invented anything - not even the super-hero! Heroes that accomplish amazing feats go as far back as Gilgamesh... (What DC and Marvel might have invented is the bizarre urban-dwelling do-gooder who is half-menace to society's order (because of his vigilantism) and half-gay "icon" for his tights-wearing...! And THAT is NOTHING to be proud about, quite frankly! But that is, admittedly, another story entirely and I should not be caught digressing at this time...)

The idea of an underwater Justice League grew on me though - quite obviously! And the mere prelude to the "Ultimate Crisis" became the bigger saga of the two... Amazing how the creative process gains a life of its own sometimes... hmm? Anyway... DC did a mockery of my concept with their one-shot Justice League of Atlantis... NOT EVEN CLOSE to my saga! How could it be - since it was but one chapter of a misguided tale that had each of the Big Seven "nearly mythological" members of the original JLA creating their own version of the League... THIS project of mine was clearly more than just that! It has scope - it has vision! It has an actual story to tell!

And at this point of the saga, the story is this: Tuatara starts experiencing disturbing visions of an apocalyptic end for Atlantis as it is now - he does have a third eye (an actual third eye -for those not familiar with the character!) that sees into the fourth dimension - time! He can actually see the future, usually not too far ahead of time though. That ability is what makes him so interesting to me! His costume is also that of a true mystery man - a concealing mask that makes him a true enigma within the group. An interesting character all-around - if you're a writer! Thus, he sees into the future but with limitations... Once he visits a certain island and a certain beach house though, all that changes! He begins seeing the doomsday future scenario play out before his eyes... And it could be for two weeks from now - as it could be for eventual "fruition" years from now! He cannot tell! And that will nearly drive him mad...

I had planned to kill off the insufferable tadpole then too. (And even a few of my own creations - but that is another story - again!) Yes - the ingrate named Garth aka Aqualad aka the Temp-pest! I would have had him go through a name-change first... But no costume change for him! Nah! Why bother? It was going to be a question of mocking the cloning of Aquaman by Marvel - into the Squadron Supreme's Amphibion! Aqualad was going to side with Ocean Master (!) and choose to say that his "A" belt buckle would stand for "Amphibian" henceforth! And then, after the betrayal, would come repentance and some mild form of redemption as he would die in battle trying to turn the tide for the good side again...! Not such bad treatment for a character that I don't even like! Hmm?

I have better still - but it involves my own characters; the tragic fate of Ulla Paske as well; sacrifice and revolting developments (as Ben Grimm would say) AND... The Vril! Remember the Vril? *lol* No, I'd wager... Think of something akin to The Force... From Star Wars that is! It sort of created Neptune Perkins (great success there - a freak with a sodium deficiency that condemns him to stay in salt water! And I say that despite the fact that THIS character I LIKE! But I had a tough time making him up to snuff, so to speak!) and the Vril also created... well, quite a few others! The great Roy Thomas introduced this into the DCU - and it went immediately into limbo as he did! Not fair at all - and I wanted to change that! Oh well... maybe someday, eh?

All this to lead into... The Final Battle For Atlantis!
See you in thirty (as classic comic-book captions would read, on the bottom of the very last page - usually the letters page! Of course it meant thirty days, as most books were monthlies. Here it must mean thirty seconds - you may make it a LONGER break still before reading "part 7" - but read it you will! You've come so far... Right? Gotta know how it ends! Or will you? *lol*)

Aqua Force - part 7

All characters used here are, for the most part, TM and copyrighted to DC Comics Inc.




The saga is nearing its epic climax - every saga needs its resolution! Or a sense of resolution... The image that best exemplifies what I had and still have -obviously- in mind for the climax to the Aqua Force saga is this...

And, quite frankly, I am tempted to not say any more here! *LOL*
Aren't comic-books (aka sequential art) a visual medium... hmm? One where an image (Image...?) speaks volumes and is almost literally worth a thousand words... hmm?!?









All right then - here's this much: the final showdown would center on the thematic of "two brothers must always fight for Atlantis" - AQUAMAN would be present but fighting another adversary (none of the usual suspects - no - one of my own, tailor-made for this moment...!) while the two brothers would have to be his sons: the other-dimensional Arthur and the northern-exposed Koryak! Corona would intervene on her son's behalf - so would Naiad and the other elementals. Mera would have the Lady of the Lake by her side (sort of a female version of Arthur & Merlin, merged together) along with what is left of the Force and, surprisingly, Thanatos! He was Arthur's step-dad after all - wasn't he? No reunion atmosphere for that unholy union though; Mera loathes Thanatos - THANK GOD. (She's not a necrophilitic queen, no - your drowned loved ones lost at sea are safe with my favorites here! And so are mine.)
Atlan would choose then which grandson he prefers... Indigo (aka Deep Blue) which nephew she prefers... And Rodunn, which "little master" he prefers?
You get the picture... ;)
AQUAMAN though would have the fight of his life with the murderer of several members of his team - and no, it ain't Quisp (Qwsp?)...!!!
Piranha Man is not, ah, available for comment either...!
As Stan Lee -this time- would say... "nuff said"!

Time to take a bow, dream aqua cast of characters ~ please!


Tuatara, Mera, Aquaman, Tsunami, Lagoon Boy (!) and Dolphin are but a few of the many characters that I wanted to depict here as the legends of the sea that they could have always been, since day one (within the confines of the sequential art medium, granted - there are no Cousteaus and no Venuses of Botticelli here!) - a Chanson de Roland for the comic-book aficionados... a Lusiadas for the super-hero genre! The Odyssey, The Iliad, The Argonauts... ALL rolled into ONE!

Ahh... If only I could've worked into this ABSOLUTELY ALL OF THE MARINE CHARACTERS THAT I HAVE AFFECTIONATED THROUGHOUT THE YEARS... *lol* But THAT would've been excessive I suppose...! Popeye can always crossover with Gilligan somewhere else, on the internet seas... Sinbad will probably meet up with Odysseus there too... (Hey, if Samson met Hercules and Machiste, surely the former is possible too - in the seas of time!)
No Seaguy needs apply though - sorry, Grant Morrison! ;)
We've had our curtain call ~ roll the credits now! ;) It's a wrap!

Would the Queen say "no" to her King on some days...? Do Atlanteans get headaches too...? What's on their aqua minds? ;) Hint, Hint... *lol*

Rhonda Fleming is even more regal on THIS black & white shot. A true redhead, a true classic beauty, and a true classy lady! She could have portrayed Mera... circa 1950? Oops... there was NO MERA to portray yet back then! *LOL*

Rhonda Fleming in living color! Though it is not so apparent here, she was a redhead indeed... a stunning one at that!

Now this is a natural redhead - for sure! *LOL*

AQUAMAN: DISPOSABLE PROP OF ATLANTIS?!?

The most convoluted twist in serialized popular fiction history had to occur in AQUA-country... yes... as the Powers That Be at DC felt like making a distasteful substitution in the AQUAMAN book - replace the title-character by, of all highly improbable things, a lookalike harboring a SWORD... underwater! Short daggers such as a dirk would be more malleable underwater - anyone knows that! Anyone except DC it seems...
The newbie, who bears an artificial resemblance to the genuine article, is flanked by two less-than-trustworthy shady characters as his cohorts and traveling companions - the villainous "King Shark" (at right) and the mysterious "Dweller of the Depths" (at left) whom I suspect to be Poseidon himself...
Of course, I had to protest this latest infamy perpetrated against my childhood hero who sees himself ousted from his own book now in favor of a clone... following are excerpts of what I posted on the DC MESSAGE BOARDS themselves - and what the new author of AQUAMAN: SWORD OF ATLANTIS had to say to me (not much, as you'll see... WARNING: tis not the best writing that either me nor Kurt Busiek ever came up with - his typos are really perplexing too - but then, this is "debate writing" not creative writing! Join it, "in progress"...)

"I do not "assume" - I resume! And what I have resumed here, after a lengthy break, is denouncing the company policy here at DC!

And to be absolutely fair - the problem is not just DC per say - but at the Warner Bros. level...

A tale of a son of Atlantis who "wins everything he ever wanted" would have long been the perfect plot for a MOVIE version of Aquaman... but it seems that, despite the Titanics and the Abysses on one hand... and despite the Star Wars and the Mortal Kombats on the other... WB still does not think an AQUAMAN SWORD OF ATLANTIS-type of MOVIE would find an audience... Instead, they try an umpteenth return of Batman, of Superman, a lame Catwoman and a substitute (i.e. cheaper) JLA - the LXG!
(Not to mention Constantine...)

That attitude is substantiated by the comic-book performance of AQUAMAN... or is it? If AQUAMAN has been a disappointment, it is simply because, in his very own book, he is not allowed to make a big splash! All he has gotten are the scraps from the DCU - the only "big-time" villain that I recall being "lent" to him was Dr. Light! Batman's Rogues Gallery is off-limits to him - even though AQUAMAN could wipe them all out in less time than it takes Bats to out-think the Ventriloquist!

Batman is allowed to look good - up against weaklings such as the Penguin and Scarecrow - but not Aquaman... noooo! Killer Croc is a better match for AQ - but Bats wants to keep him, because it makes him look good to CHEAT in order to win against a big scaly guy... instead of matching muscle with him! Of course, if Bats tried, he would be on the D.L. again - like that time he tried with Bane, eh? But they made Bane pay a terrible price for that too - he was relegated to mere henchman status in the lamest Batman film in years... Hmm... Bats on the D.L. again - maybe we would then get Azrael Begins on the silver screen... and Azrael, Sword of Gotham the monthly series... All-Star, of course

From THIS perspective - I don't "assume" nothing will change... I KNOW nothing will change! DC will never treat AQUAMAN, any one of the Charlton or Fawcett heroes of equal stature or anybody else THE SAME AS THEY DO BATMAN.

The character (AQ) has "won everything" in the past in a context that NOBODY CARES ABOUT - oh, he defeated the Thirst... who (or what) is the Thirst? That's not the Joker - the Joker is cool! Not the Thirst! (That is the layman's thinking here - NOT my personal opinion!)

AQUAMAN winning the throne of Atlantis, Mera and the whole shebang would be great - as a MOVIE... in the same vein as Kull, LOTR, Gladiator, Clash of the Titans, Jason And The Argonauts... The Golden Voyage of Sinbad!!! In serial four-color fiction, he should have NEVER won it all - and be ever on his quest to retrieve his rightful position. That way, he could be an active member of the JLA - which he should have led more than once, by the way... If DC was too dumb to know that, they deserve to be "disappointed"...

And yet, the true reason that makes their disappointment well-deserved, is another one entirely... They still have not understood (and neither have many aqua-fans) that it isn't who writes and who draws AQUAMAN that matters - it is the magnitude of the stories that really captivate an audience. The tales PAD weaved had scope - take away the PAD faithful, and the readership would have still been sizeable. AQUAMAN was a big-time player - PAD portrayed him as CAPABLE of tackling almost ANYTHING. What have we seen since that time...? Second-rate threats... no wonder people at large view AQ himself as second-rate himself! DC has treated AQUAMAN as a two-bit loser unable to tango with the big boys - how can they possibly complain and show "disappointment" when the alleged King of the Seven Seas - monarch of 3/4 of the planet - is portrayed as weaker than a guy in a bat-suit who has no powers to speak of, hmm?!? Powers of persuasion do not count!

Thus, although the creative process is what I value entirely, it is the publisher's perspective that I am almost always talking about here - and that's what truly is the source of major annoyance for me.

As a fan
(I used to be one anyway)
As a creative mind
(it is most insufferable to see such lack of creativity - or, to be fair, creativity hampered by company policy! Thank YOU - DC P.T.B.s!)
And as an industry observer...

I am glad you are not planning to "off" the true Aquaman, Kurt...

Send my regards to Lurene"
(Lurene being Lurene Haines, author of A WRITER'S GUIDE TO THE BUSINESS OF COMICS, that the new Aqua-Scribe had to mention on a previous post, in response to someone else's question about the sorry state of affairs in the business...)

To which the new Aquaman scribe replied:
> Hmm... speaking of foreigners, have you ever heard of a certain New Zealander aquatic hero, much neglected too... God Knows why... hmm?

Too allusive for me, sorry.

> For a scribe who hops from one dimension to another with the greatest of ease, while juggling three dozen characters in the process, your lamentation at my leaping between perspectives leaves one... perplexed!?

It shouldn't. Switching from dimension to dimension is a matter of fiction, changing the context of a stement and expecting it to still mean the same thing just doesn't work.

But ultimately, Luce, it seems that you're amused by your own wordplay more than you like to communicate. If that's all you want to do, that's fine -- I'll stop trying to figure out what your various allusions and hints and unclar references mean, and let you at it.

If you want answers to questions, though, I can only recommend that you ask them more clearly. I'm going to skip any further posts if I can't understand what you're getting at.

As for a classic-arc Aquaman movie, I'd like to see one too, but I don't see much reason to rage at DC for not having made one a reality so far.

> Send my regards to Lurene

I don't think I've ever spoken to Lurene.

kdb

To which I had to reply:
Hmm... my allusion to another DC character goes by you (all you need is a an old copy of DC's Who's Who - stick to the groups entries and look for a green guy) but you claim that "changing the context of a stement" is a problem?

The thing is I never meant for "it to still mean the same thing" - DC spin doctors can say what they will, these drastic changes of direction for AQ (and the revolving door for creative teams) is a result of company policy and not giving it their all if the character is neither Batty nor Soupesy.

So - the "he's a winner but we have to start over with a guy who hasn't won anything yet" explanation doesn't wash with me... sorry...

Oh - and forget about the MOVIE - or the unofficial Smallville spin-off that isn't a spin-off... GET HIM RIGHT IN THE COMIC-BOOKIES FIRST! Aquaman's potential has never been fully tapped - I think NO ONE AT DC, past or present, can deny that fact...

I was not asking questions, Kurt (save for the cryptic reference to a member of the Global Guardians there, if it needs to be any more clarified - what am I supposed to be here, a Clarica agent? *lol*).

I was just being my most obstreperous (in luminous fashion though - wordplay is key, yes) on the message boards of a company that has it coming - and deserves it all... and more! But I will leave it to someone else to continue to deliver the punishment here...

No further questions - after all, this thread's title is not Questions For Kurt ...

Good luck with the new series, Kurt

Kurt Busiek would leave the series mid-way through his very first story arc, as it was...