Extra Sequential #4

Page 36

ES: Why does Aquaman tend to languish in the perpetually cancelled series domain when KLV '& FRQWHPSRUDULHV Ă€RXULVK" BILL REED: A combination of circumstances is to blame. The Super Friends stigma Aquaman VXIIHUV DV WKH ÂłXVHOHVV JX\ ZKR WDONV WR ÂżVK´ LV one, which has turned Aquaman into a paragon of lameness in the cultural consciousness. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman will continue to exist in comics even after we’ve cut down all the world’s trees and a new comic book issue costs 50 dollars, because they’ve SHUPHDWHG JOREDO FXOWXUH WKH\ÂśUH P\WKLF ÂżJXUHV Your average person on the street can identify them at a glance and explain their concepts in a sentence or two. Aquaman doesn’t have that; yes, he’s more recognizable than, say, Firestorm the Nuclear Man, but he’s remembered at the butt of superhero jokes. No one’s ever quite got a handle on him, because he has no conceptual stability. Superman and Batman and the like have undergone many permutations, but they always snap back to their classic portrayals, how we know them best. Aquaman’s been a stoic family man, an angsty loner, a king, a superhero, a

guy with a harpoon for a hand, a wizard, etc. He’s accrued massive supporting casts who all disappear with the next writer’s revamp. Each successive attempt to “reviveâ€? the character leads to ever-diminishing returns. DC’s currently trying to “return him to form,â€? but how long will that last if VDOHV GZLQGOH RU IDQV RI WKH V HUD $TXDPDQ take over writing duties? 52% .(//< 'XULQJ WKH V $TXDPDQ ZDV just as much a “starâ€? as Flash, Green Lantern, etc. If you look the advertising DC did at the time, Aquaman was pictured just as much as any other '& FKDUDFWHU +LV VROR ERRN UDQ IURP and he was appearing in JLA plus various teamups, back-up strips, etc. He had his own cartoon series, as well. %XW LQ $TXDPDQÂśV ERRN ZDV FDQFHOHG HYHQ WKRXJK LW VROG ZHOO SDUWO\ GXH WR LQWHU RIÂżFH squabbling between DC and the people that worked on it. I’ve always felt that that break was probably the single biggest negative moment in the FKDUDFWHUÂśV KLVWRU\ $ QHZ JHQHUDWLRQ RI IDQV ÂżUVW discovered the character via the Super Friends cartoon, and while that was great for Aquaman’s overall visibility, I think this general “also ranâ€? status on that show sort of doomed him as a

B-lister. With no solo book where he could really ÀH[ KLV PXVFOHV WKHUH ZDV OLWWOH WLPH DQG VSDFH to really grow and develop the character’s history, like DC did with Flash and Green Lantern. Following that, he’s been the victim of constant rebooting, to the point where he has multiple RULJLQV ¿QG DQ\ WZR SLHFHV RI PHUFKDQGLVH WKDW feature him, and there’s a good chance they’ll list different histories to the character) and I think that gives potential readers the feeling that following WKLV FKDUDFWHU LV JRLQJ WR EH ZRUN MXVW WR ¿JXUH out who he is. Another thing that would help would be if DC didn’t seem to go out of its way to bash its own character. I can’t tell you how many quotes Aqua-Fans have sent me where Dan Didio said this nasty thing about Aquaman, that nasty thing DERXW $TXDPDQ HWF ,WV FRPSOHWHO\ EDIÀLQJ WR PH from a business perspective--why run down one of your own properties? Over at Marvel, Stan Lee had the attitude that every character the company ever produced was nothing less than The Greatest Hero of Our Time, whether it was Spider-Man, Thor, The Inhumans, She-Hulk, Kid Colt Outlaw, or Machine Man. Sure, that was mostly total b.s., but I think that sense of potential has been in the

DNA of the company from the beginning. Contrast that to some of the statements coming from Aquaman’s corporate owners, and you think “Why would you say this about one your own children?â€? Not to overdo this comparison, but imagine a parent saying of one of their kids, “He has limited potential.â€? You’d look at them like they were nuts. So Aquaman’s rep as a sort of a loser character isn’t helped when DC itself spreads it. ES: If you were given the task of writing a new Aquaman series what would you do? BR: Oh boy. I would forgo any attempts to make Aquaman cool, and just write him as though he was always cool-- which, of course, he always KDV EHHQ 7KLV LV D PDQ ZKR UXOHV RI WKH (DUWK DQ XQGHUVHD $GRQLV ZLWK ELOOLRQV RI ÂżQQHG friends. He’d be the Brad Pitt of the DC Universe, an ambassador to the surface world, a champion of animal rights, a defender of the seven seas and all the world’s shores (BP’s oil spill? Capped!). I’d give him an almost zen attitude, aiming more towards the stoic version of the character from his best era. The undersea environment would be a vast, bizarre, magical world, his Atlantis a hybrid of Arthurian legend, ancient magic, and Jack

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