I Think Peter David's Aquaman Run Is Overrated

[Captain Nostalgia]

The 90's definitely weren't perfect. You can point towards events like Bloodlines, Zero Hour, Emerald Twilight, and Judgment Day and make a pretty solid argument that the 90's were a rough period for DC. However there were so many good comics coming out at the time that I can happily ignore Extreme Justice or Jim Balent's Catwoman. I mean you can spend years reading all the great comics published under Vertigo and Paradox/Piranaha Press. I could safely that from 1990 to 1999 you could count on there being half a dozen great titles every month if you knew where to look.

I won't argue with you on Vertigo, that was a DC gem, Sandman, and early 90's were definitely peak Hellblazer.

As for the variety of titles....I think that was just a result of the Era back then. Post internet free streaming and bittorents, I imagine the industry had more financial capital back then to take lots of risks on obscure titles than they do today.

I miss the days when you had a lot of b and c lister heroes sitting on the shelves.

[Frontier]

I liked the DeConnick run and the silver age run (it's aged very poorly, but there are some gems in there and the art is wonderful), but these are honestly pretty great.

I thought DeConnick was solid but some of the story choices just kind of soured me on it.

There are quite a few Aquaman runs that have been successful.

Peter David's run I believe lasted the longest (even after he left) but I've never crunched the sales numbers on it in comparison to other runs.

I just find that Peter David's run is the one that always gets touted as being critically acclaimed by comic media sights.

I guess I see the Johns Aquaman touted more because it helped restore and re-work classic Aquaman into the modern day. And it had more Mera.

[CaptCleghorn]

I really haven't been a big Aquaman follower since the Levitz/Micheline run in the 70s and the Pozner/Hamilton mini. I started and tried both the David and Johns runs but they didn't click for me. In each case, it wasn't a case of "this is bad", but rather I didn't care for it. I find it difficult to gauge/critique books I don't like.

[Captain Nostalgia]

I guess I see the Johns Aquaman touted more because it helped restore and re-work classic Aquaman into the modern day. And it had more Mera.

I can see that. For true Aquaheads he restored the classic superfriends look if I recall correctly, or at least re-established it more firmly?

I'm a happy go lucky Aquaman fan, I'll buy the odd run, but don't go out and get everyone, but I understand wanting to have your favorite hero keep their classic look.

I quit comics between 2010 and 2016, so I still haven't gotten around to reading the Geoff Johns run, I'll have to give it a go sometime.

[HsssH]

I think that at this point it is irrelevant.

[Frontier]

I can see that. For true Aquaheads he restored the classic superfriends look if I recall correctly, or at least re-established it more firmly?

I'm a happy go lucky Aquaman fan, I'll buy the odd run, but don't go out and get everyone, but I understand wanting to have your favorite hero keep their classic look.

I quit comics between 2010 and 2016, so I still haven't gotten around to reading the Geoff Johns run, I'll have to give it a go sometime.

I prefer "classic look" to "Superfriends look" because he was decidedly not Superfriends Aquaman in it .

[Comic Lore]

For me the biggest negative to Peter Davids run was the missing hand. I would be fonder of it without that sillyness.

[Zero Hunter]

For me that run was what made Aquaman turn the corner from dorky superfriends version to a respectable hero again after so many years. This was an Aquaman who had been beaten down by life. His son was murdered and his wife had a total breakdown and left him. He was angry and dealing with severe emotional trauma but like most men instead of getting help he hid himself away and tried to deal with it himself only making it worse. Losing his hand was just the last straw. He had had enough and in his mind set he was not going to take anyones **** anymore be it friend of foe. He was tired of being seen as a joke and in his bitter mindset he decided it was time to show everyone what being the king of Atlantis and lord of the oceans really meant.

His whole run was really Aquaman working though his anger and trauma and learning to live again.

[caj]

For me that run was what made Aquaman turn the corner from dorky superfriends version to a respectable hero again after so many years. This was an Aquaman who had been beaten down by life. His son was murdered and his wife had a total breakdown and left him. He was angry and dealing with severe emotional trauma but like most men instead of getting help he hid himself away and tried to deal with it himself only making it worse. Losing his hand was just the last straw. He had had enough and in his mind set he was not going to take anyones **** anymore be it friend of foe. He was tired of being seen as a joke and in his bitter mindset he decided it was time to show everyone what being the king of Atlantis and lord of the oceans really meant.

His whole run was really Aquaman working though his anger and trauma and learning to live again.

Great way to put it. I loved this version of Aquaman.

[Captain Nostalgia]

For me that run was what made Aquaman turn the corner from dorky superfriends version to a respectable hero again after so many years. This was an Aquaman who had been beaten down by life. His son was murdered and his wife had a total breakdown and left him. He was angry and dealing with severe emotional trauma but like most men instead of getting help he hid himself away and tried to deal with it himself only making it worse. Losing his hand was just the last straw. He had had enough and in his mind set he was not going to take anyones **** anymore be it friend of foe. He was tired of being seen as a joke and in his bitter mindset he decided it was time to show everyone what being the king of Atlantis and lord of the oceans really meant.

His whole run was really Aquaman working though his anger and trauma and learning to live again.

Good point. I agree with this. Peter David made Aquaman cool, which brought in a whole new generation of Aquaman fans that were previously turned off by the Superfriends look & feel.

I respect the hardcore Aquaheads for adhering to the original look (as most of us due with our favourite characters, but....

It's no small wonder that WB's Aquaman appearance leans closer to Peter David's version (and the artist who crafted it of course)

[bat39]

I've never actually read Peter David's Aquaman run, but my first exposure to Aquaman as a character was this version (in the pages of Grant Morrison's JLA, and in the JL cartoon which was more or less based off this version). So I have a soft corner for it. I think there was a time when Aquaman was defined as being ''the guy who talks to fish'' from Superfriends. But today, Jason Momoa is the face of Aquaman, and that more aggressive take on the character really began with Peter David's run.

[Jekyll]

I guess PAD just isn't for me because I have tried many of his "celebrated" runs and I just could not get into them. Aquaman, Hulk, etc

[JackDaw]

I guess PAD just isn't for me because I have tried many of his "celebrated" runs and I just could not get into them. Aquaman, Hulk, etc

Yet to read the Aquaman run (I will do at some point) but have read a lot of his other stuff…and enjoyed his Young Justice and Fallen Angels runs much more than some of his more celebrated stuff such as Hulk.

[hareluyafan1]

First off I'll start off with the positives. The miniseries that capped off Peter David's Aquaman, Time and Tide was really fun. You get some nice early interactions between Arthur and Barry. Issue two of Time and Tide is one of my favorite single issue stories ever. I still prefer Aquaman's Silver Age origins, but the retcons this miniseries make work. I like Aquaman being raised by Dolphins and Ocean Master being half Inuit. Personally I'm not a fan of character reboots, but the stories being told with these changes are quite good. I also quite like the Legends of the Dead Earth & Year One annuals.

Peter David was known as one of the main critics of Image Comics during the 1990s. He even debated Todd McFarlane about Image at the fan convention. However, I would argue that David's Aquaman revels in the the worst tropes of the 90s to a degree that it is just as guilty in that regard as a book like Spawn or Youngblood.

Gratuitous violence? Check. Aquaman gets his hand bit off by Piranahas in the first issue.

Extreme 90's artwork? Check. Egeland and Calafiore feel like DC's attempt to duplicate Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld.

Heroes Fighting Heroes For No Good Reason? Check. In issue 16 Aquaman beats the Justice League half to death, including old friends of his such as Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter.

One of the major problems of this run is characterization. Aquaman and all of his supporting cast are all portrayed as uncharacteristicly selfish, petty, and cruel. Aquaman is a grumpy recluse who hates humanity and is abusive to his friends. Vulko is a machiavellian schemer hellbent on usurping Aquaman and replacing him with his son Koryak. Garth is overrun with petty jealously towards his partner and surrogate father Aquaman. Dolphin is a ditzy airhead who cheats on Aquaman with his ward, Garth.

I love flawed characters but the issue for me with how unlikable the "heroes" are written as, is that their reasons for acting the way they are feels so contrived. Why after all these years would Vulko want to hoist Arthur out of power? Why after all these years would Arthur be so cruel to Garth and Mera? It doesn't feel like a natural progression of the stories that came before.

I thought the portrayal of the two main female characters, Mera and Dolphin was really sexist even for the 90s. Dolphin was treated as little more than a object of desire for Aquaman and Garth, and Mera was your archetypal spiteful ex wife. Supergirl, She Hulk, and Fallen Angel prove that Peter David can write women really well, but I found the gender politics in his Aquaman to be gross.

Peter David is known for his humor, and I must say he is far more successful at comedy here than most superhero comics with a humorous bent. There are as many misses as hits, but I recognize how hard it is to be funny in comics, and David here does it better than most.

My biggest problem with the comedy isn't that it's not funny, but that it feels so out of place in such a mean-spirited book. Martin Egeland's McFarlane-esque, expressive artstyle adapts well to the humor, but Jim Calafiore stiff, x-treme artwork makes any attempt at levity fall flat.

Those are all valid points and as a big Dolphin fan I agree entirely with what you're saying.

But... At the same time the Peter David run also brought Dolphin out of obscurity and made her a part of the Aquaman mythos. Without it she probably wouldn't have been re-introduced in Dan Abnett's glorious run. I know hindsight is 20/20 but even so I have to give the Peter David run credit for that.

[Timothy Hunter]

Those are all valid points and as a big Dolphin fan I agree entirely with what you're saying.

But... At the same time the Peter David run also brought Dolphin out of obscurity and made her a part of the Aquaman mythos. Without it she probably wouldn't have been re-introduced in Dan Abnett's glorious run. I know hindsight is 20/20 but even so I have to give the Peter David run credit for that.

There are many things I respect about Peter David's run that I think were not executed well. I appreciate how he tried to insert as many of DC's other ocean-based characters such as Neptune Perkins, Tsunami, the Sea Devils, and Dolphin into his Aquaman run. The problem I have is that none of them I think were written very well.