Golden Age Aquaman

[MajorHoy]

from More Fun Comics #74 (December 1941):

[MajorHoy]

from More Fun Comics #75 (January 1942):

[MajorHoy]

from The New Golden Age one-shot (2022)

[MajorHoy]

Golden Age Aquaman once again clashes with Black Jack in More Fun Comics #77 (March 1942):

[Lee Stone]

Mike's Amazing Comics uses Topo's first appearance in Adventure Comics #229 as the starting point for the Earth-1 Aquaman, and notes the reason as there doesn't appear to have been an Earth-2 version of Topo.

[Jim Kelly]

Mike's Amazing Comics uses Topo's first appearance in Adventure Comics #229 as the starting point for the Earth-1 Aquaman, and notes the reason as there doesn't appear to have been an Earth-2 version of Topo.

I likes Mike's, but his division of characters into Earth-One and Earth-Two is not something I would do. I guess if that floats his boat, more power to him. I think Aquaman becomes the "New Look" Aquaman when Ramona Fradon is shifted over to doing the art on his feature in ADVENTURE COMICS (having briefly worked on the Shining Knight just before that). Ramona's will always be my favourite Sea King.

[MajorHoy]

We've had a couple of questions about Geoff Johns' recently introduced "Golden Age Aquaman", so I thought I'd bump this thread up.

Now that we have a Golden Age Aquaman again.
What are the odds that he had a child (children) that survived to the present day?

It currently seems that both Arthur Jr and Koryak are retconned out.
Could they be retconned to “Adam Waterman’s” kids? Or just have new descendants?

[MajorHoy]

Mentions of Aquaman in All-Star Squadron:
from All-Star Squadron #31 (March 1984)


from All-Star Squadron #53 (January 1986)

He'd actually appear in a story with other members of the All-Star Squadron in issue #59 (July 1986).

[Stanlos]

We picked up a bunch of Adventure and Aquaman comics of yore through eBay. I like the inventiveness of the stories from that time. Even PAD's run didn't feature such creative use of Aquaman's kit, and with none of Try Hard Wannabe Namor antics of Johns nor the Pirate/Old Man of the Sea tropes deployed by PAD. I liked the purity and the JOY!
I think the BRAVE AND THE BOLD cartoon ironically is the closesr to that kind of celebratory vibe

[lalalei2001]

I just binged the entire Golden Age Aquaman run and most of it holds up pretty well! I really enjoyed how he was intensely protective of marine life and would grow furious if it was endangered wantonly. In addition to teaching humans the error of their ways, he also worked to help them understand sea life by giving educational lectures and working to ensure that fish were harvested sustainably for food, and was often found donating any rewards for stopping crooks to marine-focused charities.

I also have a headcanon that Black Manta and similar villains were inspired in their careers by Black Jack, Aquaman's recurring Golden Age foe.

[j9ac9k]

I just love that his finishing move was to throw polar bears at people.

[lalalei2001]

I just love that his finishing move was to throw polar bears at people.

That only happened in one issue but boy was it memorable!

[j9ac9k]

That only happened in one issue but boy was it memorable!

In my head-canon he did it all the time!

[jertz666]

In my head-canon he did it all the time!

In my head-canon, Aquaman and that polar bear invented the fastball special ... not Colossus and Wolverine. : )

[lalalei2001]

"More Fun Comics #85" had Golden Age Aquaman left for dead on a desert island when something unexpected happened: it rained. (This didn't solve the problem entirely, but it helped him figure out a way to escape.)

Also, I think that's the first instance of his weakness of being outside of water; most cite "Adventure Comics 256" but that was for Arthur Curry's Aquaman so I dunno if that counts or not.