AQUAMAN, DOLPHIN & TULA versus MERA & TEMPEST

Blackest Night (DC)
Where: Blackest Night #2 When: October 2009
Why: Geoff Johns How: Ivan Reis

The Story So Far...
In the forbidden zone of Space Sector 666: the landing sight of the defeated Anti-Monitor has given rise to a mysterious black battery. This was the dawning of a War of Light prophesized by the Guardians of Oa!

The first sacrifice was William Hand: the death-obsessed villain known as Black Hand who willingly becomes the avatar of the coming Black Lantern Corps! Across the galaxy - the dead will join him as undead ranks consuming the living to charge their black battery!

Every hero who discovers this cosmic conspiracy risks being claimed! On the beach of Amnesty Bay, the new King of Atlantis follows Mera to seek the remains of his former mentor and king. Garth aims to strengthen his rule by returning Aquaman's remains to the tombs of Atlantis, but will soon find the dweller of the deep now walks the earth as an undead Black Lantern!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Aquaman 4 (Enhanced)
Intelligence: Aquaman 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Tempest 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Aquaman 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Tula 2 (Average)
Fighting: Aquaman 4 (Trained)
Energy: Tempest 6 (Mass Destruction)
Total: Tempest 28 (Metahuman)

The dead are rising across the galaxy like a tidal wave of terror, but the Black Lantern Corps aren't your average zombies! They're an endlessly regenerating super-powered horde: cosmically charged by Black Lantern rings that're drawn to the emotional spectrum their shambling corpses inspire in the living!

Aquaman is recently deceased and perfectly poised to inspire intense emotions in his former wife Mera, and the new King of Atlantis: Tempest!

Emotional provocation adds an unexpected dimension to the battle, but Mera & Tempest are masters of hydrokinesis: techniques for manipulating water in a variety of states for offensive and defensive capabilities.

We saw Mera generate a hard water bubble to contain Ocean Master's explosive weaponry in Adventure Comics #444. The power of the pounding surf is one way they could keep their resurrected king at bay. Tempest also wields a vast array of magic powers. Things aren't necessarily as simple as that, though...

With every heart consumed, the Black Lantern Corps share an increased charge. Their rings allow them to regenerate from any injury, fly, and manifest solid structures similar to a Green Lantern. Aquaman arrives with the Black Lantern at a low charge, but can theoretically match any hydrokinetic creations with constructs of his own.

Aquaman can also still telepathically command marine life, albeit in the form of the ocean's dead! We saw him beat Sub-Mariner with the aid of a whale in the controversial crossover clash of Marvel versus DC #2. Imagine what he could do with an army of everything John West rejects! [They sell tinned fish, kids.]

Mera & Tempest will also have Dolphin and one-time Aquagirl Tula to contend with! Both had romantic ties to Tempest before they met their untimely demise, and both are making their Comic Book Fight Club debuts.

This early in the Blackest Night game nobody really knows what they're dealing with. Mera & Tempest are caught completely by surprise and their best bet may just be to use hard water to cut and run! Let's see how it went...

The Tape: Black Lantern Corps Ranking: Aquaman (#40)

What Went Down...
Arriving at the land grave of their former King: Atlantean soldiers are shocked to find his grave already disturbed! Through the thick fog emerges the greyed vision of Black Lantern Aquaman - his face twisted by decay and bitterness!

The former King drowns his subjects in vitriol and dark energy, claiming one of their fear-filled hearts to bring the Black Lantern charge to 2.63%!

Tempest reacts - sending the fresh bodies scattering as he rejects the former king as a fake. Molten red energy blasts Aquaman's body with accusation, magically igniting the air around him as his undead body refuses to burn!

The undead body's stubbornness is matched in voice as he questions Tempest's legitimacy as new King of Atlantis. Former Queen Mera intervenes - thrusting the points of her trident into her former lover's chest!

The unaffected corpse looms over his former wife and alludes to a romantic affair with the late heroine Dolphin. He stares blankly, offering mock apology for making Mera jealous as the Black Lantern Dolphin makes her presence known!

She reminds them all she found romance with Tempest after their fling, raking her fingers across his chest to draw blood! The young King finds himself caught between two former loves, as the Black Lantern Aquagirl claims him as well!

Tula clutches the shocked Tempest by the fabric of his uniform and hurls him towards the glass top of a nearby lighthouse! She chides him for her ill-fated career as Aquagirl and his promise of true love as he crashes uncontrollably!

On the rocky shores, Aquaman swats Mera away from her trident and demands she tell him if she misses their deceased son. She holds firm to the memory of the man he was, believing the real Arthur never demanded anything of her.

Surviving soldiers emerge from the chopping sea with weapons drawn. They race to Mera's aid in the name of Atlantis, but their bravery is short-lived. Aquaman declares he is still King - summon undead sharks to the slaughter!

Aquaman reaches for his Queen's heart, but she rejects him with the fury of the sea! His body is washed from her presence with great crashing waves!

Tempest struggles to rally his own counter-strike, magically unleashing the cold of the arctic sea in a focused blast! It freezes the lurching Dolphin at the head and shoulders for Mera to shatter with her reclaimed trident!

Triumph is short-lived as Tempest contends with Tula smashing him through more lighthouse glass -- and Mera finds the headless Dolphin reconstituting as its headless body continues to grapple with her weapon!

King Tempest radiates with hope that Tula can fight the darkness gripping her, but hope is his undoing. The intense emotion allows Aquagirl to plunge her hand deep into his chest and remove his heart. Garth of Earth is welcomed to the darkness with the darting arrival of a Black Lantern power ring.

Black energy engulfs Tempest's body and sends a shockwave that throws Mera helplessly flying inland! She crashes into a car in a parking lot as the undead Aquaman Family calls to her! Masked by fog, Mera has no choice but to run.

The Hammer...
Wow! The significance of Blackest Night warranted frequent reference in the years that followed, but I don't think I've seriously looked at Blackest Night #2 since it was released in 2009! I forgot just how dramatic the early issues were!

The Black Lantern return of Aquaman occupies a majority of this issue, but was easily overlooked, given the massive scale and mystery surrounding the DC-wide event, and the bitter state of the Aquaman property in the late 2000s.

The original Aquaman was finally killed off in 2007's Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #50, but not before he was mutated beyond recognition as the squid-faced "Orin, Dweller of the Depths". If you're picturing that guy from the Sega video game ComixZone - it wasn't anywhere near that fun.

It was some kind of misguided effort to clean the slate, and lean-in to a new era of sword & sorcery in the vein of Pirates of the Caribbean and World of Warcraft. Not a bad idea in and of itself, but riddled with unattractive propositions, not the least of which was a different almost identical Arthur Curry assuming the mantle of Aquaman. An utterly pointless and unnecessary move.

If this treatment of Aquaman all sounds pretty stupid in hindsight - it was. In fact, it was pretty stupid at the time! A handful of short-lived revamps, and hangover from the nineties hook-handed beardy era, had started to feed into a sense that there actually wasn't a place of relevance for Aquaman in the modern comics landscape. Which is ridiculous on a lot of levels.

Fortunately, Blackest Night #2 restores Aquaman to his classic self, with a lot of emphasis on calling him Arthur Curry. It was the first step in a restoration process begun by the great Geoff Johns, continued with a bona fide resurrection in Brightest Day. A needlessly circuitous route back to basics, but welcomed.

I don't have a lot of love for the New 52 or DCEU, but both efforts have kept the Aquaman ball in the air. The days of self-loathing jabs seem to be a thing of the past. We're going to get an Aquaman movie next month, and we're living in an age when even Mera is a starring character in her own right. Not bad! I'm still looking at mid-seventies Adventure Comics as the evergreen example of quality Aquaman comics, but it's all relative.

I don't have strong feelings about Dolphin and Tula, but I will be sure to make some time in the future to take a closer look at Tula's death. She was one of the less significant victims of Crisis on Infinite Earths, poisoned by Chemo in issue #9. One of many deepcuts found throughout Blackest Night, which managed to revive a lot of continuity, despite being all about death.

Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of Blackest Night. I'm sure we'll be talking more about that. If you can't wait until then, you can always pick yourself up a collected edition via the embedded Amazon link provided! Doing so will keep Secret Wars on Infinite Earths among the living at no extra cost to you!

You can also find plenty more Blackest Night, Aquaman, and Halloween horrors by diving into the Secret Archive! Resurrect your favourite battles of the past by referencing links indexed by publisher, series, and issue number.

Follow Secret Wars on Infinite Earths on Twitter and Facebook to get more daily links to fights inspired by the topics of the day! A like, follow, share, or retweet are great ways to support out combat corner of the web!

Winners: Aquaman, Tula & Dolphin
#32 (+8) Aquaman [+4 kills]
#194 (new) Tula [+1 kill]
#316 (new) Dolphin
#549 (-10) Mera
#861 (new) Tempest (Garth)

AQUAMAN versus OCEAN MASTER

And Death Before Dishonor (DC)
Where: Adventure Comics #444 When: March-April 1976 Why: Paul Levitz & Gerry Conway How: Jim Aparo

The Story So Far...
When a fleet of unfamiliar Atlantean warships appears off the coast Monaco - Aquaman springs into action to discover a blackmailing plot hatched by his half-brother Orm!

The Ocean Master demands of Monaco their treasury in gold and silver bullion -- while from Aquaman he wants the substance known as Serum X! Capable of turning air-breathing humans into sub-aquatic amphibians; the closely guarded formula would be easy for the King of Atlantis to acquire -- had he not be deposed while away on the surface!

Fresh from battle with "The Shark" King Karshon, Aquaman abandons his effort to steal Serum X, instead opting to turn his frontal assault on Ocean Master's deep sea headquarters!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Aquaman 4 (Enhanced)
Intelligence: Ocean Master 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Aquaman 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Aquaman 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Aquaman 2 (Average)
Fighting: Aquaman 4 (Training)
Energy: Ocean Master 5 (Lasers)
Total: Aquaman 24 (Champion)

It's high time we had a little high sea smackdown - and who better to take on the King of Atlantis than his own flesh & blood?! It's a royal family affair as half-brothers bring bad blood to bear beneath the crashing waves!

Aquaman is a stronger than average Atlantean, possessing the power and durability necessary to endure the pressures associated with deep ocean waters! The degree of that power has fluctuated over the years - growing with modern examples. We saw him wield his might offensively with a kayo uppercut to the powerhouse Olympian in JLA: Classified #3!

With breathing under water presumed; Aquaman's most recognized super-power has long been his ability to mentally commune with marine life. When he lost control of his body fighting the Mercury Monster, he was able to summon a school of fish in Secret Origins #32. A killer whale helped finish Sub-Mariner in their infamously controversial Marvel versus DC #2 showdown!

Telepathically summoning sea life doesn't always guarantee success. Sharks weren't able to secure a win when Aquaman went head-to-head with Despero in JLA #118. The alien's vast mental powers outclassed Aquaman's, which have sometimes extended to humans. Fortunate, then, Ocean Master is a long way from developing his own potent psychic powers at this time!

The man sometimes known as Orm Marius has undergone even more radical reinventions than Aquaman. His status as the hero's brother has cast his heritage as both resentfully human, but also equally Atlantean.

Whatever his status: Ocean Master always wields a powerful arsenal of malice against his enemies! Hi-tech solutions, such as his unique helmet, have allowed him to exist beneath the airless oceans. A combination of conventional weaponry, and mystic Atlantean artefacts, have ensured he can weaponized the water itself, and threaten opponents above and below the surface!

Despite the danger he poses, Aquaman has at times shown reluctance to harm his pirate brother. Familial psychology played a part in our only past example of Ocean Master's villainy when Martian Manhunter briefly exploited it in a psychic vision. Orm saw his own trident turned against him by his brother, before baring witness to the Martian's eventual murder, in Final Crisis: Requiem #1.

At the time of this fight, Aquaman has the edge of natural underwater dwelling -- but also the distraction of having just lost his kingdom! He's fighting alone, while Ocean Master commands an army of kamikaze troops!

The Tape: Aquaman Ranking: Aquaman (#63)

What Went Down...
Fifteen miles off the coast of Monaco, Ocean Master anticipates the arrival of Aquaman with Serum X. He presumes his brother to be a hapless slave -- until aide Jurgin spots him coming in hot with a company of electric eels!

Ocean Master scrambles to activate his kamikaze army, but the eels' charge disrupts the signal! Attack crafts are still within reach, but quickly destroyed when whales answer Aquaman's call -- ramming them to destruction!

Before the self-proclaimed Ocean Master can enact threats of total humiliation upon his brother - Aquaman enters the deep sea fortress!

Ocean Master trembles with rage at the sight of his brother - lunging to meet him with arms stretched! This is no greeting of brotherly affection, but rather the insane grasp of a villain who means to choke the life from his nemesis!

With the strength of a madman, Ocean Master wraps his hands around Aquaman's throat! The force of his momentum slams the hero to the ground, but Aquaman's resolve is strong as he stares defiantly into his brother's eyes!

Green gloves wrap around Ocean Master's wrists and squeeze - loosening his grip on Aquaman's neck! The deposed King takes his opportunity, swatting Orm with a left cross to the chin!

The blow sends Ocean Master recoiling, but Aquaman only makes it to his knees before Orm manages to drive his knee into the hero's heart!

Aquaman may be able to breathe beneath the sea, but even he must clutch his chest after such a vicious impact! The pain is not exclusive! Ocean Master rubs his jaw, still reeling from the King's blow, even as he staggers across the control room with finger outstretched -- seeking annihilation!

In desperation Aquaman dives across the room, tackling his brother's legs out from under him -- but it's too late! Even in the fall, Ocean Master managed to hit the button that launches three missiles heading for Monaco!

Death and destruction seems certain for the principality -- until a bubble of hard water suddenly forms around the weapons! Queen Mera successfully detonates the warheads harmlessly inside the hard water shell!

The Hammer...
We never actually get to see the finishing blows, but the abrupt wrap-up implies Aquaman dealt with his brother off-panel, while Mera saves the day for Monaco with her last minute hard-water heroics!

The ending reminds me of a Dennis O'Neil quote: "Occasionally -- just occasionally -- a penciller will become so involved in making wonderful pictures, or drawing what he likes, that he'll forget about parts that may be quiet, but have to be present if the story is to make sense. When you see a story loaded with captions that explain the motives of the characters or describes events that aren't in the story, this is probably what happened."

Some of the finer details get lost at the end, and a few panels wind up a tad sparse, but for the most part it's all smiles as the frenetic action sweeps Aquaman along a current of intense combat!

The "novel-length thriller" of Adventure Comics #444 super-sizes the Aquaman action to fill an entire issue - dispensing with the usual back-up shorts. The ol' novel-length sales pitch feels a little bit cheeky at seventeen pages of comic, but I do wonder if a last minute decision by the editor contributed to some of the looseness.

When I think of Jim Aparo, my go-to reference is usually sharper, more angular and stern figures in his late eighties Batman work. Here, his lines crash and flow like the churning surf! I figured we're overdue a classic showdown with Ocean Master -- but it's actually the least spectacular fight in the issue!

The full length issue delivers the intriguing Karshon to the throne of Atlantis, pitting the former ruler against some of his once-loyal subjects. There are a couple of determined Atlantean Guardsmen that get treated to a particularly brutal impact! Just one of the many skirmishes littering the issue!

I started the year with Flash Gordon on the brain, and I can't help but think of Alex Raymond as I'm whipped through the exotic undersea kingdom by Aparo's blonde adventurer.

The light shadows implying realistic faces, and loose action lines really evoke Raymond. As does the light political intrigue of key figures maneuvering within vividly picture cultures. Even Queen Mera and "Aquababy" feel fitting, with loyalist Vulko a stand-in for Dr. Zarkhov, and Karshon a double for any of the varied rulers of Flash Gordon's intergalactic kingdoms.

It became popular to go sword & sorcery with Aquaman and Atlantis, when he wasn't doubting himself, or subject to outright ridicule. There's some good stuff in a lot of those interpretations, but this might be a peak for me.

This is the kind of Aquaman that really makes you wonder how the character ever fell out of popular favour! Fortunately, this decade has seen him firmly restored to a place of respect amongst the DC pantheon!

Aquaman's aesthetic ascension on film could be the difference maker Warner Brothers has been looking for their DC Extended Universe series! Jason Mamoa will be swimming back to cinemas in December, taking on Patrick Wilson as Ocean Master, with Amber Heard as Mera! Exciting times that will almost certainly give us the perfect excuse to return to more classic comics action!

Want to get ahead of the swell to surf the ultimate wave of Aquaman excitement? Do yourself a favour and cast a net to catch some of Aquaman's most exciting stories in history!

Adventure Comics #444 is included with a cavalcade of classics in trade paperback and digital collected editions! Shopping via the Amazon links provided not only gets you great stories, but also helps support the Secret Wars on Infinite Earths at no extra cost!

Find more classic battles with these characters and more by following links throughout this post or label tags below! You can also find every featured fight catalogued by publisher, series, and issue by diving into the Secret Index. Or follow on Twitter and Facebook for daily links to battles inspired by the popular topics of the day! Say ahoy with a like & share!

Winner: Aquaman (w/ Mera)
#40 (+23) Aquaman
#538 (new) Mera
#545 (-46) Ocean Master