Random Happenstance

The back-up feature this issue just infuriated me, but we'll get to that in a second: from 1977, Aquaman #59, "Prey Perilous!" Written by (an uncredited here!) David Michelinie, art by Jim Aparo.

Near the Marianas Trench, a NATO boat tries to shoo Aquaman away with some warning shots; but he's too pissed off for that: his son was dead, his wife was gone, and he'd been trailing old foe the Fisherman for two days. The Fisherman was trying to salvage something from the sunken ship Bellerophon, on the orders of the mysterious, unseen "King-1." (It's somebody who was getting the big push around then! Which maybe didn't quite take...) In their fight, the Bellerophon nearly falls deeper into the trench, but is grabbed by another old Aquaman villain, the Scavenger! (One of the few Aquaman bad guys to make appearances elsewhere: he had a brief stint in Warlord, of all places.)

Aquaman tries to get Fisherman to team-up with him, to get whatever everyone was trying to get off that ship; but the Fisherman blows him and "King-1" off, trying to backstab Aquaman with a sonic drill. Doesn't work: Aquaman has the tied-up Fisherman delivered to NATO by dolphins, but now had to race after Scavenger's rather striking scorpion-ship...to be continued!

Ah, now the backup, "The Kingdom of Doom!" featuring Mera! She had returned to her dimension, to try and get a machine to heal her son, but has to fight an usurper. Mera beats him, shattering his mind, but he was the one who knew where the machine was...to be continued, except we know Aquababy was already dead, so this just feels mean and pointless and mean. (Written by Paul Kupperberg, pencils by Juan Ortiz, inks by Vince Colletta.) 

I'm a fairly casual Aqua-fan, except I did read all of the brief '91-92 series: there's an issue that maybe hints at Black Manta being abused as a kid, but that still didn't stop me from rooting for Aquaman to drown his ass, and another where Mera and Aquababy are maybe alive in another dimension, or Arthur's hallucinating. Poor Aquababy is one of the few comics characters to die and largely stay dead...Also, the Scavenger, who we really didn't scan here, has a somewhat cool mask design to go with his scorpion-ship, but even in Warlord where he was turned into a soul-draining monster, I don't think he's ever had characterization beyond "some jerk." Still, that puts him a step above the Fisherman, since I don't get his look at all: he maybe needed one of those hats with the lures and hooks on it.