Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Ripples Through Time - 075

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order. After I read each story I will post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #142 Aquaman Splash Page
Adventure #142 (July 1949) - Undersea Big-Game Hunt!

Two big-game hunters, tired of the same old boring hunts on land, take the hunt to Aquaman's private preserve.

Not one of Aquaman's finer stories. The fantastic fish are fun, but otherwise I'd label this one a miss. The family of fish on the splash page, a group of plesiosaur-like creatures with strange heads and stegosaurus-like plates on their backs, are pretty cool... but don't appear in the regular story.

Aquaman's marine preserve has signs to warn humans away, but of course the hunters ignored them. One of the signs is a bit amusing: "Last Warning/No Man's Water/Danger/Turn Back". I guess it couldn't be "No Man's Land".

Finny Friends Report: A porpoise warns Aquaman that hunters have entered his marine preserve. He protects the first endangered species, a sea serpent with a lion's head and walrus teeth, but putting a piece of glass coral between the creature and the hunters' electric guns. When the giant lobster/rhino attacks the hunters, Aquaman calms it down. Then he has an octopus steal the hunters' guns. A giant turtle with a horned fringe on its head chases them into a giant shell, which is inhabited by an irate giant snail. As a finishing touch, Aquaman has a small fish with very large teeth chase them the rest of the way out of the grotto.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is shot at by the hunters, but they miss and he escapes easily.

Quotefile: Aquaman, "You fools! Is there any sense in killing off rare creatures, for the sheer sake of killing? Get out of this marine preserve - or you'll be sorry!"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

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