ADVENTURE COMICS #450
(Cover by Jim Aparo)
Published and © by DC, Mar.-Apr. 1977
[Buy from Mile High]
“The Watery War of the Weather Wizard”
Synopsis: The Weather Wizard steals an experimental “vibrojector” to use against the Flash, but ends up battling Aquaman instead.
Writer: David Michelinie
Penciler: Jim Aparo
Inker: Aparo
Review: Another issue, another lame villain, and another round of medical supplies hijacked off some ship. David Michelinie did some fine work during the Bronze Age, but this issue isn’t one such example. Once again, the saving grace is Jim Aparo, whose fluid style is a nice fit for Aquaman.
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“Return to Destiny”
Synopsis: Convinced that a Justice Leaguer murdered his friend, J’onn J’onzz returns Earth for some big punching — beginning with Supergirl.
Writer: Denny O’Neil
Penciler: Mike Nasser
Inker: Terry Austin
Review: J’onn J’onzz’s blind rage is out of character and makes little story sense. The stylish art makes it enjoyable, though.
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Grade (for the whole issue): B
Second opinions: “Another fine issue …” — Rob!, The Aquaman Shrine. … “If you are trying to sell a character (J’onn J’onzz) as a viable lead for a feature, it is counterproductive if you have him in an irrational rage throughout the story.” — H, The Comic Treadmill. … “To be honest, the sub-plot with Aqualad is much more interesting than yet another run-in with yet another villain …” — Laura Gjovaag, The Unofficial Aquaman Website.
Cool factor: Terry Austin over Mike Nasser is pretty cool. (But, then, Terry Austin over just about anyone was pretty cool during the Bronze Age.)
Not-so-cool factor: Spellchecker didn’t know what a “vibrojector” was. That’s probably not a bad thing.
Character quotable: “Eat cold ice, Fish-Man!” — The Weather Wizard. (Umm … what other kind of ice is there?)
Andrew –
As I make a more concerted effort to check out more Bronze Age DC’s for the BAB blog, I — like you on this book — find that even when Marvel writers shifted over to DC the stories were still dumb. Not to say that Marvel never published any clunkers, but hey — most of DC’s output in the 1970′s was a little off. Improving, but not on par with Marvel until into the 1980′s.
Doug
Bringing Jim Aparo and Don Newton over to DC from Charlton was the best think Dick Giordano ever did and putting him on Aquaman was inspirational.
Great art, poor story.
Doug:
When it comes to ’70s comics, I must admit to having a Marvel bias. DC certainly had some decent stuff, but Marvel had a higher batting average in regards to stories. DC pulled even in the early ’80s, then blew Marvel out of the water as the Bronze Age gave way to Copper, and DC moved into their fantastic, post-Crisis period.
Cheers,
Andrew
Dale:
Yeah, Giordano deserves props for that. He brought Ditko with, too; even though Ditko didn’t stick around as long, he did some cool stuff at DC.
I do think Aparo is great on Aquaman, but I still love him best on Batman!
Cheers,
Andrew
Heh heh. dont get me started on Aparo and Batman, you already know that Aparo is my favourite Batman artist – BAR NONE !!!