Jack Miller (1)

Showcase 32

First Thoughts:

The Showcase series originally was a try-out issue of a new DC character who, if successful, got his own mag. All in color for a dime! Early Aquaman fought monsters and had his sidekick Aqualad along in their undersea adventures.

Story and Plot:

Aquaman and Aqualad discover a diver in trouble. The diver is rescued and gives a tale about a wizard and deep-sea treasure. Through a series of situations and traps, Aquaman, helped by his ability to tell fish what to do – recovers the treasure. Two vials! One turns you into a monster, the other back to human again.

This is typical Silver Age, with Aquaman trying to fend off the diver/monster (talk about an ingrate!) and try to prevent the monster from stealing a cargo of gold bricks from a cargo ship that is in the ocean.

It looks like the end for Aquaman.

What’s interesting about the story is how Aquaman does not give up. He even commands seagulls which I didn’t know he could do. All the stories about Atlantis, his half-brother or other enemies are in future mags.

Nick Cardy art is fun to look at, the scripts were hilarious, and these comics at the time also gave educational articles. This one was about Captain Jacque Cousteau who invented the aqualung. Coolness!

Final Thoughts:

Worth a read. This is Aquaman’s fourth appearance in Showcase before he got his own book. He was never really considered a top character like Superman/Batman and was usually played second fiddle to them.

Check it out!
… (plus d'informations)

Someone should write a book about all the 4-member hero teams of the '60s, the template consisting of the brilliant team leader, his musclehead friend, the cheesecake girlfriend, and the girlfriend's kid brother. While Marvel's Fantastic Four is perhaps best known, it was hardly the first. Among the many others were Rip Hunter and the Sea Devils.
Rip was my favorite, providing an interesting time travel concept with adventures historical and futuristic, and a combination of the two. The nice thing here is the musclehead friend isn't quite as dumb as most, the girlfriend besides being cute also proves useful, and the kid brother although annoying at times is nowhere near as obnoxious as others.
I've seen occasional comparisons to Dr Who. I've never been able to get through many Who episodes, but what I've seen, Rip is must more active and involved than the Doctor, who tends to stand back and let others do the work.
If you're a fan of '60s comics then you may already be familiar with Rip Hunter. If you're not a fan you may be difficult to win over. But readers should give it a try. It's a really good series with likable characters, decent art, and good storytelling.
… (plus d'informations)

To be honest, this book is a bit rough. A large part is due to the nature of the stories: occuring in '60s anthologies books, there was no guarantee that the readers had read the previous instalment, so the early stories each begin with a multi-page, and to the reader encountering them in this volume, tedious recap of the character's origin.

The best comes towards the end, where Neal Adams really lets free on the artwork. On the other hand, the worst is the second story: not only is there the tedious recap, the art has also been re-inked and re-coloured. By Adams himself, admittedly, but the use of modern digital colour techniques feels out of place in this volume.… (plus d'informations)