I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.
Wow. I'm done with my first month. I didn't intend to do one every single day, but I managed it somehow anyway. In future, I may take short breaks depending on how busy I am, and to keep myself from burnout.
When the aquarium is closed, Old Pete takes over the care of the larger fish near his seaside home, causing problems for a couple of crooks.
This isn't one of the best stories. In fact, it's pretty low on my list of Golden Age tales. Touching and cute that Old Pete would still want to feed the fish, and it's not a poorly constructed story. It just doesn't have any highly distinguishing features.
Have you noticed the dearth of war stories? By the time this story was written in late 1944, the War had changed course. Most of Aquaman's WWII tales came during the darkest days of the War, when people needed reassurance. Once the days weren't so dark, Aquaman switched back to standard battles against average thugs. At least, that's my theory. It's hard to read the minds of writers and editors from 60 years ago.
Finny Friends Report: Aquaman gets Octy from the Aquarium to deflate the pufferfish. Later, he flings the flatfish at the thugs. At the end of the story, he gets other finny friends to train the fish from the aquarium on how to survive in the wild.
Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is never captured or knocked out in this story.
Quotefile: Thug, "You slugged him just right! There's not a mark on him!" Bingley, "Yeah, all we gotta do is dump him into the ocean, and he'll drown! Aquaman'll think it was an accident!" Aquaman, "Sure of that, rats?"
Have you read this story? What do you think?
