Writer: Neil Pozner (mini-series) and Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin (special)Artist: Craig T. Hamilton (mini-series) and George Freeman (special)
Publisher: DC Comics (1986 and 1989)
Includes: Aquaman (mini-series) #1-4, Aquaman Special #1
As a general rule, for The Dork Review, I do not want to have negative attitudes found in our posts. There is enough of that in the blogsphere already. However, from time to time an passionate review, with a mixture of funny, will find it's way to a post.
Even though the review below is not favorable to the story, it doesn't change the fact I want this as a TPB. TPBs are not just about collecting the "good stories" for me, but about collecting moments in time.
Clipped from The Cosmic Treadmill review for the mini-series:
Not only is it a plot that should never have been greenlit, but Pozner had such atrocious dialog skills that each word balloon elevates my blood pressure and makes that blood vessel on my forehead (you know, the one we all have that reacts adversely to poor writing) come that much closer to bursting.Clipped from The Cosmic Treadmill review for the Special:
Now I do admit to feeling bad to trashing the late Pozner’s writing skills because by all accounts he was one of the good guys in the comics business. So don’t take the trashing here as an attack on a good guy’s character-I’m only taking aim at his writing skills employed in this Aquaman mini-series.
In the end, this isn’t a tale about Aquaman’s heroism, but about his stupidity and what a failure he would be if left to his own devices. And, putting aside my numerous other criticisms, that alone is enough to damn this series. A mini-series about a hero that makes the hero look like an incompetent, moronic jerk? In what way was this going to sell more issues of comic books starring Aquaman?
This insult to the word “Special”, a sequel of sorts to the Pozner/Hamilton mini-series, is not just bad. It is wretchedly impenetrable. It has to be the worst Aquaman story ever (tears are welling up in my eyes because I know that as horrendous as the Aquaman Special is, there is probably a worse story to be encountered in the next 20 years worth of Aquatales).Clipped from It's BobRo The Answer Man! by Bob Rozakis:
Skipping ahead to the mid-1980s, Neal Pozner had envisioned his second Aquaman mini-series as one that would spotlight the rest of the Aqua-family. Described in detail in AMAZING HEROES PREVIEW SPECIAL #3 (1986), the story aimed at expanding the roles of Mera (described by Pozner as "more powerful than Aquaman... in her own way") and Aqualad. Filling the void left by the recent death of Aquagirl in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #9 and #10, a new character named Tawna was to have become Aqualad's new girl friend. Other players were to have included Ronal (Lori Lemaris' husband) and Makaira. Makaira was Vulko's wife but the first mini-series failed to explicitly point this out and, unaware of her role, future writers ignored the character.
Promotional poster for the mini-series.
2 comments:
I never read the mini-series and thus have no opinion as to the quality or lack thereof of the story and dialogue, but DAMN that's a beautiful costume.
The costume, as opposed to the reaction from the previous commenter, always left me unimpressed. All the more so when I discovered that it had been based upon a ballet dancer's...! It would have still been fine as an ''alternate'' - from time to time, when the thing fits... If athletes can have such, why not super-heroes.
As for the writing; the mini-series was excellent. Neal Pozner's first and last. (Too bad no one had a clue about the character of Makaira.)
The special is atrocious - the worst thing indeed, but I beg to differ about the next twenty years: nothing has ever been as bad since.
A TPB collecting these better include all the Aqua appearances in Action Comics, Adventure Comics (when it was Dollar-sized and then a digest) featurettes and the like - otherwise, it is simply not enough.
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