Sunday, March 25, 2007

Ripples Through Time - 107

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 #183 Aquaman Splash Page
Adventure #183 (December 1952) - The First Undersea Jail!

Aquaman puts a number of his fish friends in jail for various acts of mischief, but a pirate decides to engineer a prison-break.

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman starts the story riding his usual sea cow. Jumbo the whale likes to tip boats over, but he'd been warned the first two times, so when he does it again Aquaman makes him right the boat then takes him along to go to jail. Spying a ship going in circles, Aquaman finds another culprit: an octopus who likes to remove one propeller from a ship. Aquaman makes him fix the ship then takes him to jail. A third ship is suffering from a power outage. Aquaman discovers a swordfish and electric eel team that like to short-circuit power systems on ships. They also end up in jail. Aquaman is stunned when he sees them free, but they get up to their usual antics on the pirate's ship, stopping him cold. A very smart sea eagle spots Aquaman and frees him.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is captured by the pirates and tied up so he cannot communicate with the fish.

Lots of fun in this one. First off, the fish are just wonderful. The whale looks genuinely contrite as he's going to jail. The eyes of all the sea creatures are expressive. But the whale is just the best.

Captain Fleet, the pirate, has Aquaman gagged so he can't communicate with sea life. And it apparently works. No telepathy here. Aquaman is lucky that a sea eagle spots him bound and gagged and frees him.

Quotefile: Captain Fleet, "When we sprung those ''convicts'' of yours, I figured you'd be too busy rounding them up to notice what went on here! But it's just as well! Tape up his mouth, so he can't communicate with his finny friends!"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

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