Friday, August 24, 2007

Ripples Through Time - 148

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 #225 Aquaman Splash Page
Adventure #225 (June 1956) - The Undersea School

Aquaman runs a school for his finny friends, but a pair of seals are upset when only one of them can be in the class.

Aqua-Exclamations: "Great Catfish"

Glove Color: Green.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is held at gunpoint for a moment before being rescued.

Quotefile: Aquaman, on splash page, "Well, I see the seal has brought an apple for the teacher -- I mean, an oyster with a pearl in it!"

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman puts the fish through a whole bunch of tests and training. Eels spell out "catfish". An octopus thwacks a sea-otter and has to write "I am a bad fish" out 100 times. The octopus later supplies ink for a written test.

A swordfish, octopus, and seal are all shown taking a marksmanship test. The seal fails. A swordfish, giant sponge, and the seal are shown taking an accuracy test. The seal fails. A panel shows the seal failing every other test as well.

During the graduation ceremony, a signal fish alerts Aquaman to a pirate attack on the surface. A whale helps Aquaman reach the pirates. The failing seal rescues Aquaman by taking the gun from the thug and knocking out other thugs. The octopus tells Aquaman why the seal was intentionally failing all the tests.

A cute sort of filler story. I wonder if readers were writing and asking how Aquaman's finny friends always knew exactly what to do? There's the added plot twist of the failing seal and the pirate attack to add some action, but it's a fairly weak tale.

Have you read this story? What do you think?

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