Suffocation in air. At least, this is the panel I previously saw (haven't read full story) and it seems to indicate the child breathes only water.
Aquababy1.jpg
Of course, I have no idea if him being able to breathe air was ever shown, or just assumed, of even if was previously specifically stated he couldn't.
I know Atlanteans are vulnerable if too long out of water in the era, but it should take an hour after the water is all gone, as I understand it.
Last edited by Tzigone; 06-25-2019 at 06:03 AM.
They never did. The New 52 happened.
Mera became a non-character, went crazy and went missing. Her perspective never explored and her character more or less tossed aside. Arthur went through his whole 90s hook hand phase. Black Manta, what, became an actual manta ray?
It was a point of no return for all of them, at least in the world of an ongoing superhero narrative. McLaughlin's short run (which I wish continued instead of PAD's) even has Arthur calling into question his "manhood" for not killing Black Manta, something he WOULD have done if not for being tied to an ongoing narrative where Manta can't just be killed off. Aquaman becomes a victim of his own storytelling trapping, which is not a good place for our wonderful seafaring pulp action hero.
Last edited by Flash Gordon; 06-25-2019 at 06:21 AM.
Johns did, totally, but he was already trying to work out now to fix it all at that point. He saw the potential in Mera as a character and really built her back up. She's so much fun in the Silver Age stuff, and she's fantastic in Johns run and Parker's and Abnett's afterwards (though Abnett's run meanders toward the end, the first half is so strong).
Last edited by Flash Gordon; 06-25-2019 at 06:33 AM.
Yeah, after a hard reboot. Brightest Day was going to reboot things anyway, just on a smaller scale.
Johns rebooted the characters. Mera had been pretty much off the board for a decade because of all that noise. Totally erased. Black Manta was gone. Aquaman dead. You're using the guy who got rid of all that grim junk, as an example that the characters were fine all along?
Bunn's run has been pretty much just ignored.
Last edited by Flash Gordon; 06-25-2019 at 07:04 AM.
I'm using the stories that were done before the reboot and didn't erase the histories. Even Johns didn't throw away the death of Arthur and Mera's child.
Plus you're using the New 52 reboot which largely proved to be a failure. A reboot was not needed to make these characters usable again.
But it wouldn't make sense for DC to age the baby at a normally rate. It's totally unrealistic in continuous serial comic book stories.
In a year worth of comic book issues, we see about how much time passing in-story? In twelve issues, we get maybe two-or-three arcs? That's rarely going to cover a full year in-story time. Also, if you are aging a character in the comic book stories at a "regular pace", that normally would mean the parents and those around them are aging at a "normal pace", and comic book companies are loathe to age too many characters too much before they reboot or de-age them again.
(There's too much $'s invested in those properties to put the biggest sellers in a retirement home or a graveyard permanently and hope a legacy/replacement character will generate the same money for the company!)
Last edited by MajorHoy; 06-25-2019 at 07:54 AM.
By "regular page" I meant not speed-aged like Wally's kid. Or introduced as a 10 year old like Jon or Damian. But instead an infant at the beginning, and then aging at the same rate as everyone else in the universe instead of jumping from infant to sidekick-age for some reason. I know the character wouldn't then be really used for themselves (rather than an emotional connection for the parents) until they were old enough to speak and exhibit personality. But that's okay with me. I just want characters to actually be able to raise their children. I think only Roy and Donna really got the chance to have children not jump ages (and even that's iffy), and then they got killed off. Robert was a weirder one - younger after death than before.But it wouldn't make sense for DC to age the baby at a normally rate. It's totally unrealistic in continuous serial comic book stories.
I admit, we'd probably never make it to the kid's 10th birthday due to reboots, but I'd still rather than than speed-aging.
The stories before the reboot were also a reboot. Brightest Day was intended to reset characters like Aquaman and Mera, Hawkman, etc. Characters that had been really struggling.
They just decided to do a larger reboot for all characters (cept Batman), half way through that. So, no Aquaman and his world were pretty much in need of major resuscitation. Mera wasn't even around. Black Manta, too.
Before Johns, Arthur was a supporting character in his own book and unceremoniously killed off before Blackest Night resurrected him. Mera/Arthur was basically dead and buried. Most of the stuff like setting up Manta's hatred for him and having Mera/Arthur was already there in Brightest Day. The only thing they really changed was Ocean Master, but even then in Brightest Day there were hints that he was probably the new leader of Atlantis after Garth had died.