Saturday, September 27, 2008

Gonna Actually write about something different today...

Okay, the title is Aquaman and the Kingdom of Atlantis. I actually thought that since I am a comic book nerd that by putting my favorite fictional character's name in the title, I'd write about the stories that I get the chance to read. I thought that by relaying information, that possible someone would go out and read an Aquaman comic book. It wasn't a huge leap, just one problem.
Aquaman is a King, a husband, and a father who has lost sons in the comics. He is ruler of 3/4 of the earth in the comics. The character is a powerful hero in DC Comics that people either love or hate. There aren't a lot of middle of the road Aqua-fans out there. The people who think that Aquaman is lame grew up with the Super Friends TV show. He was lame in the show, I'll admit that. But, in the comics...Aquaman has enjoyed a much different portrayal. He has been shown as powerful, stubborn, caring, and more. These are reasons that some enjoy the character. My reasons for liking and identifying with him are much different. Aquaman is an outcast. The character is misunderstood. Not only by fans, but as written in the comics, by other characters as well. He is a hot head, who believes in duty. Duty to others, duty to responsibility, and most of all, duty to family. I know it is dumb to identify with a comic character for reasons such as these. But, I do. When I was a kid, I was the outcast. I was different, I didn't care what others thought of me. I never tried to get other people to like me, they could take me or leave me for who I was. I didn't care and would tell people that. In my career field, I've never known when to keep quiet and "play the game." I'm not built that way. Growing up, my family was my priority. My mother, father and brothers were my world then. I would do anything that my parents are even my brothers would ask when I was younger. Heck, today it still holds true. My family priority has changed somewhat. My wife and children are my world now. My father and brothers are still very important to me, mom will always be as well.
Since I started doing this, Aquaman has only appeared in a handful of issues from DC Comics. It hasn't even been the Aquaman that I like. It has been a replacement character that DC came up with. Yeah, kinda like when the NFL went on strike in the 80's. They brought in replacement players...it worked out about like that. So, I haven't been able to let you know of any new stories involving Aquaman in a while. If you are interested, the only two appearances that I have found in the last 6 months have been in Superman/Batman #45, and Final Crisis #3. The Final Crisis issue was just a cameo, so that doesn't really count.
My favorite Aquaman images are those of Alex Ross:
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I have started to try to find the Silver Age issues I'm missing. I am down to needing only 18 issues at this point. Not a lot of course, but these books were made between 35 and 45 years ago. They are not readily available. As I pick these up, I'll start letting you know. Thanks for reading this, and I promise more Aqua stuff will start appearing here. Let's just hope DC has some coming out as well.

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