COMICS: Dave's DC Rant: Aquaman,YHiLove

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's DC Rant:

Aquaman #46 "4 out of 5 Aquamen Choose Trident"
Young Heroes In Love #14 "A Little Help From My Friends"

Spoilers....

Aquaman "Fish Tartarus": Pretty much as I expected (so sue me, I'm due
the occasional gloat) Arthur ends up in the Greek afterlife after being
killed by Triton. Why the dozens of sea creatures Triton also killed last
issue didn't accompany him, I dunno. Anyway, that's not PAD's mess to clean
up, since this is his last issue on this title. Among his reasons for
leaving is that The Powers That Be at some level were dissatisfied with his
long arcs and wanted him to write one and two-parters instead.
So it's not too surprising that this story wraps up rather abruptly, as
Aquaman practically waltzes through the Underworld (maybe the powers there
have less ability to affect him because he doesn't worship the Greek gods,
but this isn't really explained). Okay, so he ends up battered and bloodied,
but we don't *see* him have trouble, what we see is him swatting Charon
aside, ripping off one of Cerberus's heads with ease and throwing it through
the iron gates of Tartarus, etc. Then he arrives in the presence of Hades
looking battle-worn. I suspect that if this arc hadn't lost two-thirds of
its length, we'd have seen more of this struggle.
Mind you, if I didn't know the background behind the story, I wouldn't
have found it quite so abrupt, and I suspect that unless entire subplots were
cut it would have felt padded (no pun intended) at the greater length. Half
an issue more would have done nicely, though, with the rest of that issue
dealing with Atlan and fleshing out the scenes in Atlantis.
In the end, Arthur rescues Poseidon, ends up owing Hades a favor, and
Triton is dispatched by his father, who leaves his trident behind. Poseidon
has learned a lesson, but isn't exactly pals with Arthur.
Oh, and an "Aquaman Classic" shows up on the last page, but since I
have no interest in seeing where Abnett and Lanning take this plot thread,
I'll just sign off now.

Young Heroes in Love "Revenge of the Lame-O Plot Device": Well, Madan
makes a valiant effort, but he doesn't really have a good chibi ("child body"
or "superdeformed") style. It's closer to the old Mighty Mites comic,
really.
Still, the Young Heroes manga is only a catalyst for the main plot of
this issue, which is that Junior's feelings of inadequacy come to a head.
He's not in the comic. He's ignored when mission assignments are doled out.
And Zip-Kid's accepted the proposal by her jerk boyfriend. Makes a guy feel
mighty small.
So Junior spends a page wallowing in self-pity and general angst before
resolving to pick himself up by his bootstraps and involve himself if others
aren't going to involve him. Acting on the suspicion that a crazed kidnapper
in the area (who the rest of the team have gone to help their adopted school
deal with the threat of) is going to "take a name" soon and become the
province of the meta branch, he heads to the copshop and gets his buddy the
cop appointed a liason to the Young Heroes. Without loud and boisterous
goings on to drown him out, Junior finally manages to put his detective
skills to full use and correctly picks the next target of "Birthday Boy," as
the psycho ends up calling himself. Lucky him.
Meanwhile, our friendly little psychopath Ricky has been stuck in
P.S. 75 (it might be coincidence, or it might be that someone was clueful
enough to know that the Young Heroes were associated with that school and
it'd be a safer place to stick the little rotter), and even he's unnerved by
the kidnappings.
Over in Offramp's subplot, he meets up with a fellow traveler, one who
uses a boat rather than a car to make his jumps. It's not clear if the old
man is Offramp's father, his mentor, or just someone with the same powers who
he ran into while popping about. Their conversation also hints at another
side to the teleportation power, one which may imply that they can go
interstellar as well. Maybe Rita's not the (only) alien in the group?
And a dog has traveled cross-country to find the Young Heroes. Maybe he
wants to hire them? Maybe it's Rita's brother? }->
Hopefully Junior left a message for the team, since it's night by the
time his stakeout starts, and they're bound to be back from P.S. 75. And why
can't I shake the feeling that Ricky's going to be joining the team at some
point? Maybe I'm watching too much Dexter's Laboratory.

Dave Van Domelen, "At first it was simple, honest lust, y'know? Like
you couldn't imagine, believe me." "No, I got a pretty good imagination when
it comes to lust." - Junior and Thunderhead