The Aquaman Revenge Squad

Well.

Isn't THIS interesting?

From Emperor Aquaman #19

As previously discussed, writer Jeremy Adams is doing some strong stuff in "Emperor Aquaman", first with putting Aquaman's powers on a new level and now with putting a wide selection of Aquaman villains "back on the board" and in collaboration.  

Sure, we have seen "all the hero's villains gang up on the hero" before.

"Their minimum objective MUST BE...
the entire world."

But this is different.  For one thing, I can't recall this ever having been done for Aquaman before.  

Well, there was that time The Brain teamed up with Black Manta and Queen Vassa in January 1968.

But this is not 3 or 4 villains; it's 13 (the Crimson Queen and Black Manta are not labelled and Scavenger is off-panel).  It's not just the quantity of villains, it's their qualities.

For example, even in their short appearance here, an effort is made to help distinguish them from one another.  Lolanna, the Crimson Queen, is the Planner/Organization.  She's a ruler and is accustomed to leading a large group of disparate people.  The heavily armed Scavenger is a Bruiser who stays on the move.  The Sea Witch, as an occult, automatically knows the limits of the powers of Vivienne, the Lady of the Lake.  Kordax is eager; Ocean Master is polite but wary.  Siren is impulsive; Black Manta is calculating.  This is not an assemblage of interchangeable characters differentiated only by their powers; it's a collection of individuals with their own motivations and personalities.

The real outstanding feature of this coterie of aqua-villains is just how diversely SOURCED they are.  Black Manta, Ocean Master, the Fisherman, and the Scavenger are "classic" villains from Aquaman's late Silver Age (1960s). These are arguably Aquaman's Iconic Foes; they are always fair game and often in play.

The Underwater Underworld, as it were.

Siren is also from that time period, but her mother Lolanna is a fresh addition to the seascape of evil.  

Trok is one of the "Deep Six", a Jack Kirby creation from 1971.  

Kordax is an "anti-Aquaman", who was created by Peter David in 1990, as was Tiamat, who comes from an alien reptilian race.

Kind of like the Rampaging Reptile-Man, but less original.

The "Sea Witch"is, I believe, Gememnae from the crazy JLA Obsidian Age arc (2002).

The Eel is, of course, from the (in)famous Sub Diego arc of 2004. I adore The Eel.

Legend, the haunted suit of armor, is from 2014's Aquaman and The Others miniseries (and is not to be confused with The Dress Suit). 

Corum Rath is, like Ocean Master, a (rather colorless) throne-usurper and comes from Aquaman Rebirth in 2016.  

It's not merely that these characters are from different eras. It's that, except for the Classic Four, they come from storylines that have been largely BURIED by currently continuity.  For the most part, they could safely have been presumed to "no longer exist".  But Jeremy Adams knows that, although crappy storylines are forgotten, good villains should not go to waste because of it.

Honestly, I'm not saying I think all these are "good villains" by any means.  Trok and Tiamat are mostly just sea monsters, Kordax is goofy and heavy-handed (like much of David's work), and Corum Rath painfully bland.  

Kordax is just the kind of dumb-ass who says things like "I, Kordax" and "long have I dreamed" of "laying someone low".

I would have replaced them with, say, Chimera the Creature King, original anti-Aquaman Pomoxis, the amusingly eloquent robot The Torpedo, and, unquestionably, the awesome Human Flying Fish, who god knows is game for ANYTHING.

Okay, maybe not Chimera. He's not really what you'd call a team player.

But Adams has clearly picked some villains who need not merely salvaged but some revamping, which he's doing in process of advancing the plot.

In this small excerpt from one panel, he revamps The Fisherman's look while reaffirming the theory that the Fisherman has some sort of symbiotic relationship with his headgear.

I supposed this should come as no surprise since it's pretty much what he's being doing with the AquaHEROES.  He's de-emphasized Aquaman's traditional coterie (Mera, the Aqualads, and the Atlanteans) and reorganized a group of secondary water-related characters (Zan, the Lady of the Lake, Nemo, Lori Lemaris, et al.) around Aquaman to expand his mythos.  

It seems to be working.  I have a feeling that, regardless of the outcomes of any particular plots, his legacy will be a grand and "permanent" expansion of the Aquaman mythos, of the kind that previous writers have tried and failed at some frequently. I wish him luck!

Safe and Unsafe States

 States That Have Superhero Cities

Here's a game for fun. Can you guess which cities I based this map on?

Disclaimer: locating where cities are in the DCU is, at best, an inexact science.

The Black Dragon versus Johnny Thunder

Last and least sensible, Johnny Thunder.

Unlike the other JSAers, Johnny Thunder was never meant to be a serious character. He's just a much less intelligent (and less amusing) version of Maj. Anthony Nelson, with his troublesome wish-granting genie.

Larry Hagman was a brilliant comedian; despite all the pratfalls and absurdity, he made you believe that Tony Nelson was essentially an intelligent, serious, dignified, even boring military guy, who, without his genie, would have a completely hijinx-free life.  Exactly unlike Johnny Thunder.

When you are a comical character, having an all-powerful genie isn't a problem, it's a bootstrap for hijinx.  But when you are suddenly thrown among strong-jawed spandex types, it's a problem.  No matter how powerful Starman, Dr. Fate, or the Spectre may be, Johnny's Thunderbolt can drag them around like a mom taking an child across a busy street.

Thus Johnny (or his Thunderbolt) is often sidelined or used as a framing device.  He will idly wish the JSA could be present at the start or finish of some adventure and, thanks to his wish-granting Thunderbolt, that happens. It is an extremely useful gimmick to the writers. It's absurd, but the limits of Johnny's intelligence and morality (and the strict rules the Thunderbolt must follow) keep him as the comic relief rather than an all-powerful god-king.

The Black Dragon is very much one of those stories, as these panels I omitted earlier show:

"Hurry, Jim, the light's about to change!"

"Here, let me carry you like a one-year old, Doctor."

"Because I'm your mother, that's why!"

"Mom! I can fly by myself!"

"Bath time for you, little man, and no arguments!"

"I think someone needs his nap..."

"I've had with you, mister, we are going home right NOW."

As the final story opens, Johnny is hiding in a garbage can to read his secret assignment.

Even Johnny's embarrassed about being Johnny.

What would possess him to hide in a garbage can?

Johnny must be a Speed Sanders fan.

Anyway, Johnny discovers to his chagrin that his orders are to STAND DOWN because the Black Dragon problem is too important and he's an idiot who would only mess things up.

I would really like to have read how cruelly that message was worded.
Ah, well.

Johnny casually wishes he could prove himself by getting to "the bottom of this business". Naturally, the Thunderbolt simply takes Johnny to Black Dragon's secret headquarters, because the Thunderbolt can do anything he is asked to.

Johnny is, as always, completely unprepared for the ramifications of making a wish, even though this sort of thing happens to him every day.  

Johnny and Thunderbolt's relationship is hampered by serious communication issues.

I will skip most of Johnny's hijinx; just because I had to suffer through them doesn't mean you have to.

Okay, here is one hijink; 
the eighth stolen invention disintegrates Johnn's suspenders, making his pants fall down.
You're welcome.

Then Johnny shows once again that, despite being an idiot, he is staggeringly heroic. When he learns that the Black Dragon is currently threatening death and danger elsewhere, he orders the Thunderbolt to go STOP them, rather than save him.

Johnny is not normal, but in some ways that is to his credit.

Another errant wish, however, results in another hijink, one with disturbing philosophical implications.

Uh-oh...

The Thunderbolt must always grant Johnny's wishes and so...

HE CREATES EXTRA JOHNNY THUNDERS.

This is deeply unsettling.  Do these Johnnys immediately die at the hands of the Black Dragon?  Do they escape and if so, don't they, of necessity, persist until they can sacrfice they lives for the country?  Can they also command the Thunderbolt?  Could Johnny not simply wish multiple JSAs into existence to solve any problem?  The implications are staggering and remain completely unexplored since they are never seen again outside of these two panels.  I am sure Roy Thomas had a script stashed away somewhere about the Johnny Extras, but fortunately it has never seen the light of day.

During this diversion, Thunderbolt goes off to magically stop the Black Dragons (who are going to blow up a factory or some such).

Proof that Thunderbolt could have taken each of the JSAers to their targets immediately.

Meanwhile, the Extra Johnnys are, of course, just as useless as Original Johnny.  So, the original Johnny, captured and about to die a martyr, makes one last wish: that the JSAers could see his heroic sacrifice to know he's not a complete loser.

I mean, Johnny IS a complete loser. But that's not a flaw, it's a feature.
Being a "stupid but heroic loser" is why Johnny didn't simply use the Thunderbolt to rule the world (which, you will remember, was the original plan of the Bahdnisian bandits who captured him at age 7 to gain control of the Thunderbolt).

This wish results in the seven scenes we saw earlier of the Thunderbolt dragging the other JSAers to save Johnny.

Which they do.

Several dragon-beatings later...

"I forget I have an all-powerful genie at my beck and call.
Again!"

The U.S. military rounds up the vanquished Black Dragon members.

In Golden Age comics, they usually made sure to show Regular Joe Authority Figures finalizing the defeat of the enemy. It was important to show that the superheroes were ASSISTING the common man, not REPLACING him.

Everyone files his report with Wonder Woman (because it's not a JSA story without REPORTS) and we learn, again, just how stupid Johnny Thunder is.

It's a metaphor, Johnny; look that up while you're at it.

Well, THAT was a long, torturous and fairly typical Golden Age JSA story.  Although it took us NINE DAYS to slog through it, I still have to give Golden Age writers their due: this was ALL IN ONE COMIC BOOK.  If this tale had been told under modern-style decompressed storytelling, it would have take longer than World War II itself.

Still, if this prompted you to reassess the "classic" nature of Golden Age Justice Society stories, it was worth the effort. Remember, don't believe everything you are told about any piece of literature until you have read it for yourself.

The Black Dragon versus The Spectre.

Is there a point to reading this part? Or ANY story with the Spectre?  It's always the same; the Spectre simply WILLS his way into finding the targets, punches a few of them, then once he has defeated them the old-fashioned way, grows giant and lifts up whatever hideout they are in and takes the whole kaboodle to jail (OR sends them to another planet). It's the Only Spectre Plot.

But we are committed to this project! And we wouldn't want to make the Spectre sad by omitting him.

The Spectre is morose and it disgusts Starman.

It begins with the Specte seeming uncharacteristically chipper.

What could have the Spectre smiling so?

Ah; it must be the torture of a notable American inventor.  Torture is, after all, Spectre's hobby.

Beaten into submission, Inventor Reagan explains how his magnetic rocket invention works:

Thank goodness Earth's magnetic poles are immobile.

Mr. Reagan may be guilt-racked, but not so the Black Dragons who decide to use his invention to destroy, hm, um, let's see... how about... Chicago? Yeah; Chicago!

At least it's art-deco enough to fit in with Chicago architecture.

Meanwhile, back at Mr. Reagan's lab, the Spectre wrestles with a sense of abandonment.  

"I get no sense from these documents that Mr. Reagan cares about me, The Spectre, and did not consider how his disappearance might affect me emotionally."

He tries to find Mr. Reagan by YEARNING for him, but to no avail. Then... a ray of hope!

"My Spectre-sense is tingling...!"

The invention must be a sadness-seeking rocket because it can't resist honing in on the Spectre.

"What I have been longing for! Is my emptiness now to end?"

Like a psychic sensitive in an occult film, the Spectre clings to the rocket, feeling the Vibrations of the Black Dragons and the Agony of its inventor, Mr. Reagan.

His sweet, sweet Agony of Spirit.  
It is like catnip to the Spectre.

It is unclear, but then the Spectre throws the rocket away from Chicago to either Japan or The Sun Itself.

It sounds like Japan but... I really think that would be noticed. I mean, at least by the Japanese.

Then the Spectre, having locked on to Mr. Reagan as his soulmate, finds him through pure YEARNING.

"How much do I love you?
I'll tell you no lie;
how deep is the ocean?
how high is the sky?"

The Black Dragons try to report in to Japan on their success, but this will prove their undoing, since it allows the Spectre to find them through one of his most profound powers: SUPERSENSITIVITY.

I CAN FEEL IT.

Being the Spectre, he intercepts the radio transmission by... grabbing it. Like, in his hands.

"My supersonic sonar radar will help me!"

Wait, why is this so familiar? Oh, yes, that's right:

LITTLE MISS MARCHY-BOOTS.

Never thought I'd see the sad and sorry Spectre as a Drum Majorette.  But I guess it's true that inside every emo kid is an underconfident cheerleader.

The Spectre phases into the Black Dragon's submarine, intent on saving his soul-mate, who cries out in joyful relief at his arrival.

I will kindly pretend that "yellow" here refers to cowardice.

Find yourself someone who says your name the way Mr. Reagan says "The Spectre".  

"I called him with something you wouldn't understand:
MY SOUL."

The Spectre's priority-- Mr. Reagan --is clear, and he phases him out of the submarine (and I presume magically shields him from the difficulties of, you know, being under water).

"Maybe we can do it, too!!"
Oh. I do not want to see where this is headed.

*sigh*

Again: fiendish but not intelligent.

"Still, the Army High Command doesn't love as much as I do."

The Spectre gently places the treasured Mr. Reagan with the authorities before returning to deal with the Black Dragon.

Do you think the Spectre ever forgets to phase someone he's carrying? 
*BONK*!;
"AAAAAUGH!";
"... Oops."

How weird is the Spectre? So weird that he thinks of sharks and humans as cousins.

Weird, lonely guy.
I mean; not even AQUAMAN stops to apologize to sharks.

But the Spectre (in his "spirit form") is even MORE incorporeal than Dr. "My body is composed of pure energy" Fate; the Spectre doesn't need to BREATHE.  Being dead helps with that.

Now that Mr. Reagan is safe, the Spectre doesn't need to hold back. He does his usual schtick of GROWING GIGANTIC, picking up the submarine IN HIS HAND.

How can a submarine be a space ship? Oh.
Oh, no...

Ah, here's the classic Spectre; he simply HURLS the submarine (and its occupants) into space.

I jibe at the Spectre but "Give my regards to the planets!" is an awesome line.

Okay, I am little disappointed in the Golden Age Spectre.  The Bronze Age Spectre would have thrown the submarine into space AND removed their need for air and food, just to prolong their horrible fate.  But the emo Golden Age Spectre is too desperate to be liked for that; so he joins the Black Dragons on their tour of the universe to give them a chance to give up.

"That was no static, boys, that was me!"
Am I right? See how fast I can run, Daddy?
DO YOU LOVE ME NOW?!

Mr. Reagan's heart nearly bursts with joy when he sees the Spectre again.

< heart-eyes emoji>

Then the Spectre helpfully dumps the submarine on the roof, which surely will have no difficulty supporting the additional, hm, let's say roughly 40,000 tons.

"Sorry, boys, I only do the Grow Giant And Pick Things Up bit once a story, so from here on you're on your own."

So ends the Spectre's tale, although it may simply omit the weeklong trip to Cabo that he and Mr. Reagan took to "decompress" and reconnect.

Colonel Frank Nelson approves: "eeeeYEHHHssss!"

This is the end of all the standard subplots and now it's time for the wrap-up.  

Tomorrow: *sigh* 

Johnny Thunder.