Et Tu, Big Bang Theory?

An Open Letter to Doctor Raj Koothrappali:

Dear Doctor–

As a former writer of “Aquaman,” I must take issue with your continued diatribes and dismissal of the King of the Sea in last week’s episode, “The Justice League Recombination.”

I believe now the same thing that I believed during my four years of close association with him. Aquaman is one of the most versatile heroes in the whole of the DC Universe. The vast majority of superheroes are restricted to operating on a mere one quarter of the planet. (Those who fly use that ability primarily as a means of transporting themselves from one point on land to another.) Aquaman, by contrast, can function not only on land, but in the remaining three quarters of the surface that’s covered by water. Drop Aquaman in the middle of Gotham City with nothing but the clothes on his back, and he’ll be fine. Drop Batman in the middle of shark-infested waters or off the Marianas Trench, and you’re not going to hear from him again.

Furthermore, it is absurd to sneer at his ability to command sea life. Do you really want to diss and dismiss someone who, if he felt like it, could put an end to mankind’s access to the oceans? How many ships do you think could stand up to concentrated assault by organized, infuriated blue whales or giant squids? How would seaside resorts fare if no one dared go bounding in the surf because sharks and jellyfish were attacking anyone setting foot in the ocean because someone had instructed them to do so?

Is this really someone you want to pìšš øff? Really? The fact that you would prefer to have dressed as Wonder Woman than the sea king says less about Aquaman than it does about your own gender issues.

Not to mention that at a point in comics history where Clark Kent went to sometimes elaborate efforts to keep Lois at arm’s length, while the only person so-called playboy Bruce Wayne had ever been shown sharing a bed with was Ðìçk Grayson, Arthur Curry was married to a smoking hot red-head. Aquaman wouldn’t have to think he’s drunk in order to chat up Summer Glau, if you get my meaning.

Or, to put it in a way that you might more easily be able to relate:

Aquaman totally does not suck. Anytime you want me to come out there and debate it with you, I’m on the next plane, dude. And by the way, you are totally the sidekick, not the main hero. Because there’s no way that the main hero can’t talk to women. “Quickly, Ratman! This woman knows the villain’s entire scheme! Question her!” (Petrified silence)

Just sayin’.
.
PAD

130 comments on “Et Tu, <i>Big Bang Theory</i>?

  1. Last week episode was great, one of the best, in my opinion! And man, I would really like a Raj vs PAD episode next year! Make it so, producers!

    1. Or better yet, let PAD write an episode where a dream sequence happens, in which Ratman has an adventure. Or at the very least, make him do a Ratman comic. Maybe Ratman vs Aquaman 🙂

    1. Never happen. If they were going to have a comic book writer on (besides Stan, who was already) it would be someone like Neil or Grant or Brian or Geoff.
      .
      PAD

      1. Since they dis B5 so often, I think that JMS would be the next author to drop in, just to see Sheldon do the double-take!

        Charlie

      2. Nope. Other than perhaps Neil, due to his outside of comics name value, I’d bet on one particular comics writer who’s not one of those four making an appearance, since I know he’s a fan of the show, attended a number of tapings, and is friends with the producers.

    1. One must distinguish between having difficulty talking to women in terms of not know what to say, versus being pathologically unable to say *anything*. At his worst, Peter could at least manage to introduce himself….

  2. Cheers, Peter!

    Great to see you stepping up for the Sea King!

    Fans or Superman and Batman are a dime a dozen, but fans of Aquaman are unique in a sea of mediocrity.

    Loved your run on Aquaman and what Geoff Johns is doing with him today.

    1. Agreed. I loved the extra thought you put into Orin’s powers and skills. One sequence on your run that really sticks with me was a fight scene where he was fighting an assassin (on land) and the assassin threw a smoke bomb at Aquaman — who barely notices. This makes the villain realize that anyone who can see well in the murky depths would not have been detered by the smoke.

  3. And THAT my friends is why Peter should write Aquaman

    (mumbles sheepishly) And direct Iron Man 3

  4. Family Guy is always making fun of Aquaman, too. Maybe you should form an Aquaman watchdog group. People need to know that it’s just not okay to defame the King of Atlantis.

  5. The problem with Aquaman has always been that he shouldn’t be on dry land. All his abilities (other than the strength that every superhero has) are like a guy carrying around an great weapon and no ammo.
    .
    Soldier: “I have a bazooka!”
    .
    Captain: “Can you fire it?”
    .
    Soldier: “No.”
    .
    Captain: “Go clean the latrine.”
    .
    In the 40s and 50s when other super heroes lost their comics, Aquaman survived. Why? Because he was in the ocean. He’s a badass in the ocean. There are great stories to be told there.
    .
    Then DC made the Justice League and put every character they were publishing in it. Suddenly Aquaman seemed a little out of place. He’s able to hold his own, but he should obviously be somewhere else.
    .
    The cartoons were even worse. When it was the Superman/Aquaman show, Aquaman was a badass. He had his own adventures underwater and he ruled in every situation. Then they created Superfriends. A generation of us grew up thinking of Aquaman as the guy who rides flying fish on leashes (it looked stupider than it sounds) and never really had anything to do. All the heroes suffered in that show at times, but nobody more than Aquaman.
    .
    I’m pretty sure that the writers of Big Bang Theory are trading off that version from the Superfriends, just like everyone else who makes fun of Aquaman. At this point people are really just repeating jokes they heard years ago in *other* shows that made fun of Aquaman. There’s a good possibility that the writers have never read an Aquaman comic or even seen him in more recent cartoons.

  6. Nice to see you are still stepping up for the Sea King, Peter!

    Your run on Aquaman introduced him to a whole new generation of fans and remains a legendary interpretation of the hero that he is.

    Aquaman rocks!

  7. Brilliant! I’m stealing this for the next time one of my non-geek friends disses King Arthur!

  8. My soon-to-be seven-year-old clearly considers Aquaman to be his favorite character. Apparently, character personality is secondary, because he specifically asks for the Aquaman episodes of Justice League and Brave and the Bold, even though the Aquamen in both shows couldn’t be more dissimilar. (And the Aquaman in BnB is bizarre, but enjoyable in a weird way. Kinda like having the personality of Marvel’s Hercules put in Aquaman. “OUTRAGEOUS!” I’m guessing he’s never acted like that in the comic, but I could be wrong, of course.)

    By the way, folks, have any of you seen Brave and the Bold? If so, what do you think of it? Very kid-friendly and entertaining, though character puritans might be horrified.

    1. I find the Brave and the Bold entertaining. It’s better than The Batman. That show suffered from trying too hard to be different from Batman: The Animated Series. Especially in the first season. TB&TB manages to be different in a way that doesn’t feel so forced.
      .
      Part of what I like about TB&TB is the variety of characters they bring in. I don’t like all of their characterizations, more than a few end up feeling like jerks, but it’s still nice to see such a variety of characters. It’s not often we get to see a Bronze Tiger story on TV. That was part of what I liked about Justice League Unlimited, too.

      1. Just can’t take B&B. We DVR’ed it at first, and I’d sit in the room with our son while he watched it. One day, I went to the computer room, and left it running for him. Came back and…the show was still going, but he wasn’t in the room. Found him in his room playing. Asked him if he was going to watch the rest of it, and that 6-year-old who loves super-hero shows & movies looked up at me and said, “No. It’s too much of a little kid show for me. I don’t like it.”
        .
        I figured that, since they weren’t grabbing my attention, nor someone who was right in their target audience, there was no point using DVR space on it anymore.
        .
        The episodes I did see all had one thing in common: the brief cold open was consistently more entertaining than the rest of the episode.
        .
        The Batman did indeed try way too hard to not be BTAS in the first season. I revisited it a season or two later, though, and it seemed to have found a nice groove.
        .
        –Daryl

    2. My friend and I both enjoy the version of Aquaman on B&tB, but loved it once I realized character is basically Brian Blessed playing Aquaman.

      Now I shout “I’M AQUAMAN!” a la Dead Ringers every time he shows up.

    3. I like Brave and the Bold and their version of Aquaman. It’s sure a nice change from the “brooding king” version we got for a few years. The folks who made B&B came up with the personality based on the idea that anyone who was a king and a family man and had so many responsibilities yet still went out on adventures must do it just because he likes going on adventures.

      My figuring is that this personality, or at least a less extreme version of it, would be a good fit for the pre-Atlantis Aquaman. You know, when he was just swimming around the ocean helping seafarers and stuff (circa 1959-1962). I read those issues in one of the big Showcase volumes and it struck me that he was the most pure “adventurer” in DC’s superhero set. I also liked those stories more than a lot of his later stuff. I wonder sometimes if it’s just Atlantis I don’t like.

      1. It grated on me at first, but I quickly became rather fond of the BatB version. It was like he needed someone to be his minstrel and sing his praises, but he didn’t have one, so he did it himself. It fit in with the generally loopy atmosphere of BatB. I particularly liked the Aqua-family vacation trip; especially the part where (Rene would have liked this) the Atom and some other tiny foe wind up slugging it out on the Aqua-RV’s windshield and a bored Aquaman just slaps them away with the wipers.
        .
        PAD

  9. It’s spitting into the wind, Peter. It’s like trying to explain to people that there’s a difference between weather and climate whenever they say “It’s freezing today, so much for global warming eh?” The “common wisdom” will not be easily toppled by the facts (or, in this case, your substantial narrative record in writing the character).

  10. I dunno…. that whole sentence about “Drop Batman in the middle of shark-infested waters or off the Marianas Trench, and you’re not going to hear from him again.” doesn’t carry much weight in comparison, because we all know Batman carries shark-repellent in his utility belt…

    😛

      1. Yeah, which is great if he’s hanging from the ladder of a helicopter and he can use an aerosol spray. If the shark’s coming up from under water, y’know, good luck with that.
        .
        Basically Batman would have to hope he can survive until someone rescues him. Aquaman would be fine on his own.
        .
        PAD

      2. Batman has been taking shark poison pills everyday since he first became Batman. All he has to do is pee in the water and the sharks are all dead.

  11. During a discussion I had with PAD on this very topic (one on which we respectfully disagree), he said the main reason for Aquaman’s bad reputation is how he was portrayed on the cartoons of the 1970s: always getting trapped, flailing in the grip of an octopus or seaweed, using fish like skis, etc. For an abso-frickin-lutely hysterical commentary on this, check out http://www.seanbaby.com/superfriends/aquaman.htm (The main page here is pretty hysterical too.)

    I agree with Jason Bryant that Aquaman’s abilities work best when in the water, and he’s usually on dry land. And while PAD is right that most of the earth is water, most of what we care about is on dry land. You don’t see the Joker trying to rob a lake or Lex Luthor out to control the world’s aquariums. In fact, almost every comic book story that revolves around an underwater adventure does so because… Aquaman is making a guest appearance! (Or it involves Killer Croc, but considering he’s tough enough to punch through concrete and bite someone’s arms off makes him more than a water-only character.) For Aquaman to really work he needs to be in the ocean — which means abandoning almost all surface-only villains and giving him an Evil Scuba Squad to fight.

    Some folks have joined PAD in making Aquaman more respectable. In the HeroClix game later Aquaman figures had more toughness, and even a click of Invulnerability, because someone who can survive at depths that could crush a submarine should certainly be tough. During Grant Morrison’s run on JLA he gave Aquaman the ability to give any human a seizure by telepathically affecting the part of the brain that evolved from aquatic life.

    (As for PAD’s contention that Batman would fare worse in shark-infested waters than Aquaman would in Gotham City, Batman was once dumped in a shark tank, with his hands tied behind his back, by the Joker — and managed to beat the shark and escape. I don’t know if Aquaman could walk from the center of Gotham City to the ocean on a hot, sunny day without stopping for water every 10 minutes — and that’s without any villains!)

    For the record, I’d love to see PAD on the show — maybe challenging Raj to a bowl-off for the dignity of Aquaman?

  12. BTW, with all the discussion of Aquaman, no one seems to care about the equally-frequent jokes about Wonder Woman’s cleavage. There’s a heroine who’s one of DC’s Big Three, a character who can go toe-to-toe with Superman, and yet she is still treated like someone who works at Hooters.

    Incidentally, how could Penny confuse Green Lantern with the Green Arrow?!? I know she’s supposed to be pretty ignorant about geekdom (“Guess who’s going to be there? Stan Lee!” “That’s terrific! Stanley who?”), but why think someone with no bow, no arrows, and no bow or arrow images on his costume would be an arrow-related superhero?

    1. For the same reason the Green Hornet(who I love and would never dis.) has no bug wings on his back or insect eyes on his mask.

    2. BTW, with all the discussion of Aquaman, no one seems to care about the equally-frequent jokes about Wonder Woman’s cleavage.
      .
      On “Big Bang?” I don’t remember any. If anything, most of the jokes regarding Wonder Woman seem self-directed at their own inadequacy (ex: “We’ll win just for showing up with a girl.”)
      .
      Then again, I’d probably be more attuned to it if I’d written “Wonder Woman.”
      .
      PAD

      1. And now I can’t get that idea out of my head.
        .
        I am intrigued by the idea of a PAD written Wonder Woman.
        .
        Did you ever pitch WW to DC? Was it ever something on your radar? Is it even something you would remotely be interested in doing?

    3. Incidentally, how could Penny confuse Green Lantern with the Green Arrow?!?
      .
      It’s a common mistake among non-fans and I’ve no idea why. I agree with you that it surpasses understanding why people would confuse the two, but they do; I’ve seen it happen consistently, starting from when I was a kid to when I’ve been on airplanes and chatty seat mates ask what I do for a living. A woman once said to me, “Do you write Green Arrow? I love that ring he wears.”
      .
      PAD

      1. Fortunately, they’ve fixed the Green Arrow/Green Lantern confusion for the general public. Thanks to the upcoming movie schedule, everyone non-comic fan I’ve talked to has now conflated the Green *Hornet* and the Green Lantern.

      2. This ties in with a pet peeve of mine, people who seem to believe every character has ever been in a comic book has also been in a newspaper comic strip and an animated cartoon (theatrical and television, if they can tell the difference). I still smile remembering a “Family Feud” in the late 70s or early 80s where the survey was to name someone in a comic book. Superman was instantly guessed as the No. 1 answer, and the family who got him passed to the other family. After enough points had been racked up to win the game for either side, the question went over to the first family. With a teenage daughter shouting “Spider-Man, Dad, Spider-Man!” the father, who could’ve been the standard dad on 90% of sitcoms, said “Bugs Bunny,” who was NOT in a comic book at the time. They got buzzed, the other family won, and I’m sure Bugs Bunny Dad hasn’t been allowed to forget about it since.

      3. People confuse edward and jacob from the twilight series, too. They don’t know which one is teh vampire and which one is the werewolf. They have heard of both, but since they have no familiarity with the books, they are just as likely to get them backwards.

    4. “but why think someone with no bow, no arrows, and no bow or arrow images on his costume would be an arrow-related superhero?”
      .
      He doesn’t have an obvious lantern on his costume, either. He’s got a circle with a couple lines, but that looks as much like a target as it looks like a lantern.

      1. In fairness, a lot of the scenes showed Leonard holding an actual green lantern. He didn’t bring it in to talk to Penny, but I *think* he was holding it, or had on his knee, when Penny and Zack showed up in their costumes. (Since Penny isn’t a geek, she probably wouldn’t be following the upcoming Green Lantern movie either.)

        Still, based on PAD’s anecdote above, apparently people can confuse any heroes with the word “Green” in their name. To me, that’s like confusing the Red Tornado with Red Sonja. Well maybe not *that* bad, but still…

    5. From what I recall, only Howard told a cleavage joke and that was only implied.
      Sheldon: In what universe is Wonder Woman blond?
      Howard: I don’t think anyone will be noticing her hair.
      (Penny punches Howard on the shoulder)
      Howard: OW! I mean (makes his voice lower and whispery) ow!

      I’ll grant you, the studio audience made it obvious where the humour was going to go but it was more the case of Leonard hitting it on the head that Penny was the only girl there and another Justice League entrant was a guy dressed as Wonder Woman, so Raj isn’t the only one with “gender issues” at the shop. I wonder how many viewers would have noticed that the comic shop owner was dressed as Tom Baker’s Dr. Who instead of Chris Eccleston’s, David Tennant’s or Matt Smith’s. Granted, Tom’s is more distinctive but I wonder if the younger Whovians would have recognized it.

      1. Baker’s look is arguably the most instantly recognizable. I mean, all of them are recognizable to varying degrees if you know what to look for, but you can see the Baker version in any context and say, “Oh! The Fourth Doctor!”
        .
        PAD

      2. .
        “From what I recall, only Howard told a cleavage joke and that was only implied.
        Sheldon: In what universe is Wonder Woman blond?
        Howard: I don’t think anyone will be noticing her hair.”

        .
        I wonder if the writers actually knew that she really was played by a blond on TV?

      3. That was exactly my reaction when Sheldon said, “In what universe is Wonder Woman blonde?” And I said, “In the Cathy Lee Crosby Universe.”
        .
        PAD

    6. Buddy of mine at work got Green Lantern/ Green Hornet confused. I told him Green Hornet punches bank robbers in the face and Green Lantern punches space aliens in the face.

      1. When I was a kid my dad would tell me that his favorite superhero growing up was the Green Lantern, who had a sidekick named Kato and his own radio show. I was convinced that this was some aspect of the Alan Scott Green Lantern I was unaware of until I, as a teenager watching an old episode of the Adam West Batman tv show, was introduced to the Green Hornet.

  13. Peter David: Arthur Curry was married to a smoking hot red-head.
    Luigi Novi: And for a time, was nailing a pretty hot platinum blonde white-head. 🙂

  14. Aquaman is just an angry, occasionally better written, non creepy and stalkerish Namor.

    Nuff said.

    1. Wait, are you saying that Namor *isn’t* angry? Or stalkerish? (Or was that part of the “non?”)

      1. Okay, you’re right. Aquaman is an occasionally better written non-stalkerish rip-off of Namor. All it would take was for Aquaman to start randomly abducting any woman other than Mera who’d ever been interested in him and you’d have the same character. Which means they really were the same character up until the 1960s. Come to think of it– wasn’t Gypsy interested in Arthur. And what’s her power– she turns invisible.

      2. You know, I never understood the notion that Aquaman was a rip-off of Namor. It’s like saying that the Phantom is a rip-off of Tarzan because they’re both heroes who operate mostly in the jungle.
        .
        Yes, there are commonalities, just as with the Phantom and Tarzan (the first Phantom, a helpless youth orphaned in the jungle who is found and raised by a native tribe and grows up to acquire a godlike status; Tarzan, an infant orphaned in the jungle who is found and raised by a tribe of apes and grows up to acquire a godlike status.)
        .
        But there are huge differences. Aquaman grew up having no idea who he was, happened belatedly upon Atlantis, and eventually was installed as king. He was as much surface man in his attitudes as he was subaquatic dweller. Namor was born to royalty, was 100% allied with the undersea race over which he ruled, was hugely arrogant and utterly comfortable with being a ruler, and hated the surface world with a passion.
        .
        Aside from the fact that they both have mixed heritage and are water breathers, at least starting out, they were incredibly dissimilar.
        .
        PAD

  15. The most damaging criticism of Aquaman on The Big Bang Theory was not this latest episode but in one a few weeks ago when Raj wondered how Aquaman went to the bathroom in Atlantis. Water is everywhere so…
    .
    It did not paint a pretty picture.

    1. First off, I don’t know that water is necessarily everywhere. We’ve seen enough shots of people simply walking around in Atlantis that there may well be places in Atlantis that don’t have water.
      .
      Second, we’re assuming that waste elimination in Atlanteans is the same as in humans. Their biology is obviously different; otherwise they couldn’t survive. Perhaps, if they produce urine, for instance, it dissipates instantly.
      .
      Third, assuming that there is water everywhere and that they do have waste elimination needs, perhaps they have toilets that create a seal upon sitting on them, and urinals that are basically tubes inset into walls, and the waste matter is pumped into a trench some distance away from the city.
      .
      Ultimately, I think there are some elements in comics that it’s probably wiser not to dwell on, such as whether Superman is the most dangerous lay in the world (as per Larry Niven) or whether the Flash is the least satisfying, and whether Superman’s urine stream would destroy any plumbing structure it hits, and if the Invisible Woman is bending light around herself, how is she not effectively blind because light needs to be able to reach her eyes…
      .
      I’m just saying that Aquaman and his environs are no more or less subject to such scrutiny than anything else, and it’s unfair to single him out.
      .
      PAD

      1. and if the Invisible Woman is bending light around herself
        .
        Always seemed a particularly ridiculous explanation for her powers. She’s invisible. Transparent. Doesn’t that mean light just passes right thru her? Someone saw “Balance of Terror” too close to writing the Invisible Woman entry in Marvel’s who’s who.
        .
        Light passing thru her is a lot more sensible than it warping around. And opens all sorts of possibilities. Can she walk thru a force field by letting it’s energy pass thru her? Is she more detectable with heat sensors since her body heat would pass out of her more easily than a normal person? Would the fast loss of body heat mean she has a particularly efficient metabolism?
        .
        Yeah, comic geek stuff. but the “Warps light around her” always made, even in a comic book universe, NO sense to me.

      2. I don’t think it does, actually. First of all, it would mean that every cell of her body would have a refractive index of one, like air, not to mention zero absorption of light. People see because light strikes the retinas of their eyes, is absorbed, and then interpreted by the brain. If her retinas aren’t absorbing light, then we’re right back to her being blind.
        .
        PAD

      3. The only way it would possibly work is if she had the self-control to isolate enough cells of her retina and keep them visible so that they could absorb light. So effectively there would be a couple of dots floating in the air in the vicinity of her head. They’d be very small so she would be, to all practical purposes, invisible. But someone sharp-eyed enough would be able to pick her out.
        .
        PAD

      4. True. But at least the light rays would pass through her eyes allowing some manner of explaining how she sees.
        .
        I wonder if she’d then have a very narrow field of vision.

      5. Sean, there’s an explanation for how she sees whether she’s transparent or she’s bending light. Either way, whatever she’s doing doesn’t happen at the position her eyes are at. Either a small bit of her eyes are absorbing light instead of being transparent, or a small pinhole in the wrap-around-forcefield is letting light through.

      6. Peter David: Third, assuming that there is water everywhere and that they do have waste elimination needs, perhaps they have toilets that create a seal upon sitting on them, and urinals that are basically tubes inset into walls…
        Luigi Novi: Just as astronauts do on the space shuttle and the ISS.
        .
        The only way it would possibly work is if she had the self-control to isolate enough cells of her retina and keep them visible so that they could absorb light.
        Luigi Novi: Unless she could see in portions of the EMS other than that narrow portion in the middle that’s visible to humans.

      7. Luigi Novi: Unless she could see in portions of the EMS other than that narrow portion in the middle that’s visible to humans.
        .
        Or perhaps her eyes work completely differently from normal human eyes. Ben is made of rock, he obviously doesn’t use any version of normal muscle tissue. Perhaps her eyes function very differently from ours, somehow reading the information on the rays of light without absorbing them.
        .
        This is why arguing the details of superhero physics is kinda pointless. No matter what anyone comes up with, there’s both a hypothetical problem with it and a hypothetical solution. Great fun if you like brainstorming games, but it can lead to a big headache.

      8. Rays of light don’t have “information”. The effect they generate only occurs when they hit the retina, so that it can bend it and form images, either directly (the light hitting the retina) or indirectly (the light bouncing off other objects before hitting the retina, which is how we see everything around us). That’s just physics.
        .
        How pointless it is to contemplate really depends the degree to which each person likes their sci-fi plausible, and steeped in real science.

      9. Having a basis in Science is key. It helps with the inevitable suspension of disbelief that enjoyment of comics requires. Easier to believe the fanciful stuff if the basic stuff is correct.
        .
        But once into the fanciful science, it helps if it’s consistent. Or seems plausible given he ground rules you’ve set up. That’s why I (and many others, I assume) enjoy considering how super powers might actually work. Sure, there’s always hypothetical solutions and problems.
        .
        But what if Sue did turn utterly transparent rather than warp light? What implications does that make for what she might be able to do? What possibilities does that bring up for stories? I’d mentioned being able to pass thru force fields as one possible example.

  16. I love Aquaman and it gets really tiresome seeing that character picked on. I remember watching the 60s cartoon series on DVD and one of the special features mentions that the Super Friends cartoon was Aquaman’s undoing. He was relegated to HQ and occasionally he’d be on a mission, but even then it was awkward. Writer’s seem either to have no interest in him or don’t know what to do with him. Obvious that isn’t always true, but that can be the perception. For me the iconic Aquaman artist will always be Ramona Fradon – the female Jack Kirby (at least to me) and was wonderful to see the Namora cover she did for Marvel.

  17. I apologize to all Aquaman fans out there (and to PAD), but there IS something inherently silly about controlling sea life, even though it is useful.
    .
    I think one of the reasons Namor is a much more badass character is because he LACKS this ability. It can’t be the little ankle wings.

    1. I think his bad-assness stems from the fact that he debuted as a villain and amassed entire armies to try and destroy the surface world.
      .
      There’s nothing inherently silly about controlling sea life, especially when one considers the devastatingly dangerous creatures that are out there and the damage they could do. A ray killed Steve Irwin without even trying. Surfers and bathers have had pieces taken out of them by sharks or been poisoned by jelly fish. Having all of those and more besides at one’s command is not remotely silly; it makes you freaking dangerous.
      .
      What’s silly is addressing them as “my finny friends” or having Ted Baxter intoning, “Immediately Aquaman summons a school of tuna for help!” THAT is where the problem lies.
      .
      PAD

      1. Nah, some powers are just silly.
        .
        “I am superstrong, fly, and shoot heat rays from my eyes.” That is cool.
        .
        “I move at superspeed.” That is cool too.
        .
        “I have a magic ring that does freaking everything.” That is way cool.
        .
        “I control sea life.” I am sorry for you, dude. That is almost as lame as that guy that can get really small.

      2. “I control sea life.” I am sorry for you, dude. That is almost as lame as that guy that can get really small.
        .
        That was actually Superboy’s attitude in one of my early issues. Superboy was at Pearl Harbor, keeping Aquaman away from a highly placed individual, and dismissively said he wasn’t impressed with Aquaman or his powers. Next time he saw Aquaman, the sea king–along with Garth and Dolphin–were barreling toward Pearl atop three whales, creating a tidal wave that swamped the Harbor and nearly drowning Superboy, shouting, “Hey, punk! Impressed yet?!”
        .
        “Hi, Aquaman. I have heat vision and superspeed.”
        .
        “Nice to meet you. I’m superstrong, fairly invulnerable, can move extremely fast on the surface (since my muscles are designed for maneuvering underwater), I can see in total blackness, can breathe underwater and move as fast as a torpedo, and function with no problem at the bottom of the ocean floor.”
        .
        Plus he used to have a kick-ášš weapon when I was writing him.
        .
        To dismiss him as, “Oh, Aquaman, he’s the guy who talks to fish, that’s his power, that’s lame”–it’s wrong on every level.
        .
        PAD

      3. ““I control sea life.” I am sorry for you, dude. That is almost as lame as that guy that can get really small.”
        .
        Think of it this way. What you read about a character who could only control one animal: a shark. He had all kinds of adventures in the sea and nobody messed with him because you don’t mess with the guy with a pet shark. That doesn’t sound silly to me.
        .
        What if it was an army of sharks?
        .
        What if it was an army of sharks, whales, and giant squid?
        .
        At what point does becoming more and more powerful make it less serious?

      4. They also made the Sub-Mariner *much tougher* than Aquaman. The Sub-Mariner has gone toe-to-toe and held his own against the Thing (and the whole FF at times), the Hulk, and Hercules. That sort of strength and invulnerability trumps just talking with fish. (And yes, in the fan Marvel vs DC matchup they had Aquaman beat Namor — but only by Aquaman commanding a whale to fall on Namor. That’s like my beating Fred up by paying someone bigger to beat up Fred.)

      5. The Sub-Mariner has gone toe-to-toe and held his own against the Thing (and the whole FF at times), the Hulk, and Hercules. That sort of strength and invulnerability trumps just talking with fish.
        .
        And I had Aquaman going toe to toe with Lobo and Wonder Woman, neither of whom are exactly lightweights. There’s only so many ways to say that Aquaman’s powers far transcend “just” talking to fish.
        .
        (And yes, in the fan Marvel vs DC matchup they had Aquaman beat Namor
        .
        What “they?” That was me.
        .
        PAD

      6. “Almost as silly as the guy who can get really small”?

        Have you ever considered the consequences if the Atom ever got really cheesed off at some guy, shrank down, got inside the guy’s body – and then returned to normal size?

        Kind of like laughing at the dude who can have his friend the giant squid hold you in place while his buddy the great white shark bites your freaking head off…

    2. If you want to call that silly, then pretty much every character with the brand “super hero” has a fair bit of silliness in him.

    3. How cool or edgy or whatever a given power can be lies largely in its execution.
      .
      Controlling sea life isn’t just “useful”, it’s a weapon that can cause untold devastation and loss of life. I mean, did you see the confrontation between Aquaman and Superboy that Peter mentioned? Did you ever read his version of the character?
      .
      Consider this:
      .
      What if he didn’t have that power, but just had his other powers?
      He has superhuman strength, speed, invulnerability. That alone puts him in a class with lots of characters who are not considered lame. In various incarnations across various media, he has taken on Superman, Wonder Woman, Deathstroke, etc. It’s not just Peter who has written these stories. He took on WW in DCU animated stories, another writer had him knock Superman silly with one punch, another had Deathstroke completely baffled at how he was barely able to hold his own against Aquaman, and recently in Brightest Day, Geoff Johns had Aquaman beat the crap out of whatsherface and their goons. Just his fighting abilities alone (which sometimes includes wielding a trident pretty effectively) puts him the same class of badassness as people like Captain America, Punisher or Batman, who have no powers as at all.
      .
      Rene: That is almost as lame as that guy that can get really small.
      Luigi Novi: A power that can be used to take out the Hulk, as demonstrated in Ultimates #5, when the entire Ultimates teem, including Iron Man, Cap, Thor, Quicksilver, Giant Man, etc., got their áššëš handed to them by Hulk, but the Wasp took him out by shrinking down to size, flying into his ear, and zapping the frontal lobes of his brain. A pretty effective power that can be used on almost any opponent, and a frightening one too if there was a villain on the loose with this power. (Sue Dibney, anyone?)
      .
      Any power can be cool or lame, depending on how you choose to view it, which is determined by one’s biases more than any objective assessment of it.

  18. Peter, You are my hero. You get Aquaman, and many people don’t simply because they prefer the obvious rather than the more intricate!

    Or in other words: PAD’s Response = EPIC WIN!

    1. I think many writers do get Aquaman nowadays, but only because of Peter. Ever since the series Peter wrote, everyone and their goldfish wants to write for him, either in a solo series, or as part of an ensemble, and as aforementioned, they’ve been depicting him as a badass.

  19. BTW, did anyone else see the issue of “Power Girl” a few months ago where the BBT guys made a cameo and Howard tried to hit on PG’s alter-ego? No, she didn’t destroy him — not physically, at least.

    1. Yes. That was a cute moment.

      As for Aquaman, he’s like the Benedict Arnold of the sea. No one’s going to show him any respect until he stands against them, and even then they still won’t get him.

      Commanding sea life is a recipe for disaster anyway. We kill far more sharks each year than they’ve killed humans in a century; imagine how much worse it would be for the sharks in war time. Do you remember what idiots were doing to rays after Steve Irwin died? Any action by Aquaman would result in something far worse, especially among all the sharks and whales and dolphins that had never even met Aquaman.

      We all underestimate the size of the ocean. Try to imagine Genghis Khan ever knowing any sort of success if the Mongol population had been spread across that kind of distance when he first tried to unite them. Even if he could unite them, the results would still be what you’d expect from pitting horse cavalry against tanks and jets.

  20. Namor is also one of the strongest (100+ ton in water) in the
    Marvel Universe-and has been able to take on the Avengers or the Fantastic Four by himself.

    People have mentioned Family Guy for making fun of Aquaman, but so has Robot Chicken and South Park.

  21. <>

    There was a panel at an I-Con in which the latter topic came up, and one of the speakers said that yes, Flash would probably finish fast, but his refractory period would also be super-fast, so he could go again, probably before the woman realized that he was on his second time.

  22. Aquaman suffers from the trope: “Atlantis is Boring”
    (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AtlantisIsBoring)

    Underwater environs are difficult for the layman to grasp. They are quite alien to those of us who don’t live there. Imagination hits a wall. What’s to do in Atlantis? Get wet, talk to fish. Most of us seem to get stuck there.
    Aquaman has this imagined limitation built into his NAME. At a glance that’s boring. But then, a lot of classic heroes have silly names if you stop and think. Superman. What does he do? Why he’s a man that’s SUPER! Batman? He dresses as a bat! We know there’s more to them than that. Also, they’re much more well received. Why? They’re more well-known characters. Aquaman isn’t as well known, and the silliness of his name stands out.

    1. I find it interesting, Ebonstone, that you would link to that as proof that Aquaman is lame and silly, since…if you happen to scroll down…you’ll find this…
      .
      While it’s true that comics writers often have trouble making Aquaman and Namor interesting (as mentioned at the top of the page), there have been notable aversions. (E.g., Peter David’s run on Aquaman, in which Aquaman became a badass with an extensive supporting cast, complicated cosmology, and lengthy story arc.)
      .
      Aquaman as ‘King of the Seas’ literally, makes for a potentially fascinating badass backstory character, too. Imagine if he has access to enough military power, for ex, to limit or stop oceanic cargo transport, for example, or to interdict the movement of national navies.
      .
      So since your own source material acknowledges it, how about we all agree that maybe, just maybe, I know what the hëll I’m talking about.
      .
      PAD

      1. Maybe, but I have strong doubts. Whale assault is only slightly more impressive than what Hannibal could accomplish with elephants, and technology has advanced a little since the Roman era.
        .
        The tactic you described against Superboy should also be fatal for whales, even with the assistance of tactile telekinesis to help unbeach them. Large aquatic mammals do not handle falls well at all, let alone surfing.

      2. I do apologize that my first post came off wrong.

        I didn’t mean to say, infer or imply in anyway that you didn’t know what you were talking about(Heck, if I thought that, I wouldn’t be here).

      3. .
        “… how about we all agree that maybe, just maybe, I know what the hëll I’m talking about.”
        .
        Well dámņ… Where’s the fun in that?

      4. See, at least I said Aquaman was occasionally better written. Granted, there were only two eras that I liked.

    2. I don’t think that trope is limitation for the reader’s imagination as an obstacle for the writer. Yes, the environment is something that’s alien and hard for us to relate to, but there’s also the potential in that to make something very different.
      .
      Just take a look at Tron. That’s not even a world we rarely see, that’s a *completely* alien world. However, people love the style. So even though it’s hard for you and me to come up with an original world as cool as the one in Tron (or describe the sea as vividly as a great writer) there are writers who have not only done it, they’ve created something terrific with it.

      1. What you’ve mentioned reminds of NASA’s lament, that some folks aren’t impressed with what they do because “space looks cooler on Star Trek”.

    3. You misunderstand. I do not find Aquaman lame, nor was the link an attempt to prove he was.
      I’m was saying–on the surface–he might not appear that cool.
      The Underwater setting isn’t an easy one to work with. Most folks don’t know what to do with it. The layman(aka the non-comic reader) has the expectation that AQUA-man only functions underwater–which is boring because “Atlantis is Boring”(thus the link).
      His name is silly in that it’s simple, and leaves little to the imagination(imagine Wolverine as ‘Clawman’ or Nightcrawler as ‘poof-dude’)
      We accept Superman because of his legacy. Try a name like that these days, it’s a hard sell.
      Between his simple name, and this perceived setting, Aquaman is ‘lame’. Delve any deeper, you will know better.

    4. I do apologize that my first post came off wrong.
      .
      Don’t sweat it. I was just being emphatic.
      .
      PAD

    5. I hate to say it, but I kind of agree.

      Not about the problem of an underwater setting as much as ATLANTIS being boring. I like Aquaman, at least when he’s not being pissy. However, I don’t like his city. I’ve never cared for Atlantis. The place simply never interested me. Plus, kings make for boring super-heroes. Usually, when there’s a superhero story that involves a king superhero, it involves some political angle within the kingdom. If he leaves the kingdom, he has to have some amazingly good reason, otherwise you wonder why he isn’t at home creating policy or something.

      I’d really rather Arthur were more the “adventurer” archetype and less the “ruler” one. More Odysseus and less Arthur Pendragon. Nothing against Pendragon, but the strength of his mythos lies a great deal on the fact that he has, like, 50 guys who can go out on quests for him.

      Arthur should go out exploring and leave the ruling of Atlantis to someone else.

  23. I always wondered if Aquaman lured Superman to the bottom of the ocean floor, would it feel like the gravity on Krypton to Superman?

    Also, chicks dig Aquaman because he has a “swimmers” body.

    1. Also, chicks dig Aquaman because he has a “swimmers” body.
      .
      According to the song, it’s the same reason that they want Sexy Jesus to rock them: ‘Cause he’s got a swimmer’s bod’ like nobody do.
      .
      Now there’s a song.
      .
      Rock me, rock me, rock me, Arthur Curry
      The King of the Sea, we love him for sure-y
      Rock me, rock me, rock me Arthur Curry
      All tide long.
      .
      Rock me, rock me, rock me Arthur Curry
      Our city might drown, so you gotta hurry
      Rock me rock me, rock me Arthur Curry
      All tide long.
      .
      Wonder Woman, Flash, they don’t have squat on him
      And let’s see Batman do a forty mile swim.
      Superman can die from bits of Kryptonite
      While Arthur’s swimming lats are really super tight!
      .
      Rock me, rock me, rock me, Arthur Curry
      The hero we need, the rest you can bury
      Rock me, rock me, rock me Arthur Curry
      All tide long.
      .
      PAD

      1. PAD, if I were going to I-CON (living in NC now, it seems unlikely) I’d pay you $5 to sing this whole song out loud — or $10 to do so while someone was recording it with the stated intent of putting it on YouTube. (If I do see this on YouTube after the convention, I’ll gladly mail you a check.)

      2. PAD, if I were going to I-CON (living in NC now, it seems unlikely) I’d pay you $5 to sing this whole song out loud
        .
        Wouldn’t work. The song needs a whole chorus behind it. It wouldn’t work solo.
        .
        PAD

  24. Aquaman was lame – until writers started to take him seriously, stopped fearing comaprisons with Namor and just applied common sense.

    PAD mentions the sixties cartoon with Aqualad (where he threw solid water balls – a power he did not have in the comics) but Superfriends REALLY did a number on him. The episode had to include some body of water or else…

    Also wasn’t there a time (during the Aparo years, THE Aquaman artist, for ME) when he could spend but a hour or so out of water before he got weak; he had no real super strength (despite swimming under tremendous ocean pressures) or thick insulated skin (thanks to cold ocean temperatures)?

    He was – for a time – just a ‘regular’ guy who happen to swim in the ocean or on a giant seahorse, control fish and his wife seemed even more powerful.

    Sadly, the perception is still there (the Doc riding on Storm is a sixties/Superfriends cartoon iconic image) Aquaman is lame even against the reality.

    He really isn’t.

  25. It didn’t help that in the episode of TBBT Raj didn’t just dress as Aquaman: His costume also included a large seahorse. I’m sure Howard’s Batman costume would have looked goofier if he had the Batmobile attached to his waist, and Penny would have looked silly being rolled around on a plexiglass chair to represent her invisible jet. (Leonard’s Green Lantern costume might have been cooler if he’d worn one Hulk Hand, though: Green Lantern with a giant green fist!)

  26. Peter, (if you don’t mind me going off-topic, albeit still in the area of comics) will X-Factor be tying into the “Fear Itself” mega event storyline next year?

    1. No.
      .
      But now we get to see if the fans who declare how much they hate mega-events and don’t want to support them are willing to put their money where their mouth is by buying more copies of X-Factor and ignoring “Fear Itself.”
      .
      Not holding my breath.
      .
      PAD

      1. The sad truth is that people only think of them as “events” when they’re something that they don’t like or aren’t interested in. That’s when they feel most intrusive. For example, in my eyes, Civil War was an “event” while “Chaos War” is just an entertaining miniseries. “Fear Itself”? I have no idea what it is yet.

      2. I started a Wikipedia article for it, based on the sources I can currently cite for it, which include USA Today, The Daily News, Comic Book Resources, and Marvels’ own site, which at present I think describes what is known about it fairly comprehensively, even if it’s in its earliest stages, Adam.

  27. I too have a bit of a problem when people call Aquaman “manby pamby” or say he just isn’t tough enough. There are things that have happened to Arthur that would make other Super Heros the number one resident of Arkham Asylum. How many of them could hold on to that last shred of sanity after losing their only son? Which one of them has the fortitude to endure the loss of his home country, and the trust of the citizens that live there, and yet still emphatically refer to himself as an Atlantean?

    Surviving through all the tribulations he has had to suffer through has made him one of the deepest characters in the comic world. One can only consider himself proud to be associated with Aquaman.

    Those who say Aquaman sucks are the people with uninformed opinions rolling around in their head building like a giant snowball with ignorance at the core.

    Granted, every hero has to have drama or turmoil in their lives. It is what makes them human and relatable to the reader. If it wasn’t presen tin the book, there would be no sales at all. It is up to people like PAD to keep the interest in a particular character, so that people like us on this site can comment so emotionally.

    1. It’s not that he isn’t tough enough. It’s that his powers are just so easy to mock, even when they would prove to be the most effective.
      .
      We make fun of Superman for his personality and Batman for all the ways writers have had him overcompensate for being human in a world filled with the likes of Superman. We make fun of the Flash by comparing him to the Roadrunner, with bonus points for how similar his Rogues’ Gallery is to Wile E. Coyote, wasting some amazing tools on petty efforts that aren’t in their best interests. Green Lantern? Lots of will, little fear, and the sort of imagination that uses the “greatest weapon in the universe” to make giant green fists?
      .
      Aquaman is just a more powerful version of Lou Zealand from the Muppet Show. That doesn’t mean he can’t ever be impressive. He’s surpassed that standard many times. It’s just that he’s still a guy who solves more than a few problems by throwing fish at them.

  28. I agree that Aquaman might have gotten more respect if not for the way he was depicted in the Super Friends cartoons. Though I wonder if having a better sounding name than “Aquaman” would have helped.
    .
    On the other hand, does “Sub-Mariner” sound much better? As PAD said above, “I think his (Namor’s) bad-assness stems from the fact that he debuted as a villain and amassed entire armies to try and destroy the surface world.” If the Sub-Mariner had been an adventurer who happened to primarily live and work under water, would he have run into some of the same problems of how he was depicted as Aquaman has? Granted, Namor was born to royalty, while Arthur Curry learned about his heritage as an adult, so they’d obviously have differences in overall attitude and outlook; but would a “kinder, gentler” Namor (even as a king) have been given short shrift if there’d been an “Avengers cartoon in the Super Friends mold?
    .
    Speaking of the Super Friends, the one episode I remember most clearly ironically concerned Aquaman. Actually, I remember a particular plot point, not the details of the episode overall. From memory, this is what happened: Aquaman was somehow sent back in time hundreds of thousands of years, if not a million years, with no way to get home. So he signals the Justice League for help. How? He activates his radio/communicator (which apparently has the best batteries money can buy) and buries it. Flash forward to the then present day. The JLA picks up the signal, digs up the communicator/radio and probably using carbon dating determines how long it’s been buried. Then somehow (Superman flying through the time barrier, presumably) they go back and rescue Aquaman.
    .
    Even as a kid, I had several questions about that scenario. Granted Aquaman came up with a rather ingenious solution to alerting the JLA to his situation, but wouldn’t his signal have been picked up either when radio was first discovered or when the JLA first used that particular frequency? And that would have been some years before that 1970s adventure. They might well have received the signal before Aquaman joined the JLA or any of them had heard of him.
    .
    The other thing I remember about Aquaman is that in Justice League of America #122 (which I remember reading at the dentist’s office, though I had to look up the issue number) he foiled a plan by Dr. Light to confuse the JLA members (who didn’t yet know each other’s identities) into believing they were actually others in the group. Batman thought he was Oliver Queen, for example. How did he foil Dr. Light’s dastardly deed? By not (apparently) having a secret identity, so Dr. Light didn’t use his weapon on him. That’s when we learned that Aquaman was Arthur Curry.
    .
    I’ve never seen Aquaman as depicted in the recent Justice League or Brave and the Bold cartoons (or anything else of recent vintage) but maybe kids today will hold him in generally higher regard than those of previous generations. Though, I suspect they’d know him primarily from cartoons and not from actual comics.
    .
    Rick

  29. PAD said, of the Phantom as compared to Tarzan, “the first Phantom, a helpless youth orphaned in the jungle who is found and raised by a native tribe and grows up to acquire a godlike status.”
    .
    I thought the first Phantom was shipwrecked as an adult. Or was that a bit of retroactive continuity?
    .
    Rick

  30. Here’s a dubious honor for Aquaman: He is part of a live-action Justice League movie; specifically, a live-action Justice League pørņø! The article is below (and if you think I’m making this up, the original (with seven actors in costume — but no nudity) is at http://business.avn.com/articles/Shooting-Completed-for-Exquisite-Films-Justice-League-XXX-420258.html

    Too bad it won’t be out in time for Christmas…

    Shooting Completed for Exquisite Films’ ‘Justice League XXX’
    Posted Dec 22nd, 2010 02:25 PM

    CHATSWORTH, Calif.—Principle photography is now wrapped on Exquisite Films’ big budget movie The Justice League XXX: An Extreme Comixxx Parody.

    For over a week, many of the hottest names in pørņ came together and transformed into the most popular superheroes and villains to ever grace the pages of comics. The A-list cast includes Rocco Reed as Superman, Evan Stone as Batman, Chanel Preston as Wonder Woman, Tom Byron as Lex Luthor and Roxanne Hall as Catwoman.

    Volumes one and two of The Justice League XXX represent the debut releases from Extreme Comixxx, a division of Exquisite Films.

    “Comic fans have been begging for a big-budget movie about the JLA, so we decided to give them something even better, a big budget pørņ version,” said Jerry, owner of Exquisite Films. “Two of the biggest fantasies people have involve becoming a superhero or sleeping with the girl or guy of their dreams. Extreme Comixxx combines those fantasies.

    “We are already experiencing a major demand for The Justice League XXX movies based solely on leaked media coverage from set,” Jerry added. “Release date is a few months away because of all the green screen work we did, but I can assure fans it will be worth the wait.”

    Overseen by Superman, The Justice League is made up of the world’s most powerful superheroes. The Justice League XXX: An Extreme Comixxx Parody chronicles their battle against evil, as well as their need to release some sexual tension. The acclaimed cast also includes: Scott Lyons (Robin), Barry Scott (The Flash), Talon (Green Lantern), Haley Cummings (The Black Canary), Shyla Stylez (Poison Ivy), Bill Bailey (Aquaman), Jenna Presley (Lois Lane), Ron Jeremy (The Penguin), Andy San Dimas (Mob Boss), Amber Rayne (Harley Quinn), Kristina Rose (Zatanna) and Tommy Gunn (The General).

    Chanel Preston, fresh off signing a four-picture deal with Exquisite Films, said, “I had so much fun filming The Justice League XXX. Everyone put in extremely long hours because we believed in what we were shooting. Fans are really going to be excited at seeing their favorite heroes engaging in some wild sex scenes.”

    Evan Stone added, “The costumes were so perfect, we all put them on immediately and never wanted to break character. With the Batman cape and mask on, I almost felt like I could leap across the tops of building, though it’s probably a good thing I didn’t. We really had a wild time bringing the JLA to life.”

    Fully committed to his role as Lex Luthor, Tom Byron shaved his head. The multiple-time recipient of AVN’s Male Performer of the Year award said, “One of the best parts about working in adult entertainment is the variety of roles. Today I’m badass super villain Lux Luthor, and next week I’ll be General Patton in a movie for my own company. Maybe after that I’ll be a pizza delivery guy. Thanks to Exquisite Films for having me in their amazing movie.”

    1. DC’s probably having a fit as to whether they should start a lawsuit over this or stay quiet and try not to draw more attention to it.
      .
      The problem is that parody doesn’t quite get a company around Trademark laws. The fact that they’ve changed the costumes is good. Putting the big Xs on the costumes makes it obvious that they changed things, which is what parodies usually do. However, they’re also referring to their characters as “Superman” and “Batman” instead of something made up like “Superiorman” and “The Amazing Bat$@*&”. That doesn’t help their case.
      .
      I wouldn’t be surprised if Warner Brothers ends up sending a cease and desist letter.

      1. I’ve wondered about this myself — and based on past history, Warner Bros. *won’t* try to stop them.

        There are two pørņ “parodies” of Batman — BATMAN XXX (parodying the ’60s tv show) and BATFXX (parodying THE DARK KNIGHT) — that have almost the exact costumes and the same, or virtually the same (“Jo-Kerr”), characters as DC. There’s also a Wonder Woman movie out (where she battles — I kid you not — Iraqi spies out to steal America’s pørņ secrets) and a planned version of the first Superman movie. (And, tangentially, Frederick’s of Hollywood has an outfit each Halloween that’s not Wonder Woman but a “sexy superheroine costume” — with star-studded blue panties, a red bustier with eagle-type gold symbol on the top, gold lasso, gold tiara with red star, and gold armbands.

        While I thought it would take more to get around copyright that just copying something and saying “This ain’t…” it seems to work in the world of adult entertainment. One of the biggest areas for them are parodies: old TV shows (THE COSBY SHOW, THE BRADY BUNCH), recent or ongoing shows (THE OFFICE (twice), SCRUBS, SEINFELD), movies (AVATAR, FRIDAY THE 13TH), and now superheroes. Why don’t the owners of the copyright try and shut them down? I suspect if they did, the pørņ companies would make just enough changes to get their movie released, with the added publicity “The movie too hot for Warner Bros!” or “The flick James Cameron didn’t want you to see!” I’d imagine the rights holders decided it’s easier to let it be released in a niche than engage in an oddly public battle that would give the pørņ folks free publicity.

        (It’s a shame comic book stores have to be so careful about carrying adult-only materials. Can you imagine how quickly the superhero flicks would sell at comic book stores? “I have this movie with near-naked versions of Batgirl and Catwoman…” “Sold!”)

      1. Many of the trailers for these films are on youtube and other “non-naughty” sites. I loved that for the Batman one the “Joker” had a mustache under the white makeup.
        And tying things in to the parent topic, they’ve also done a Big Bang Theory parody that including comics, Star Wars, and Star Trek jokes.

  31. Reading this reminds me of the old say, “if you have explain why you’re cool, then you’re not. ” (Or something like that.)

  32. Your letter to Raj is great. I love it. I hope that TPTB (Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady) have you on the show to tell Raj in person that Aquaman does not suck. Totally

    Thanks for the fun. It was like a pre-Christmas present. I’m a total geek for “The Big Bang Theory” and you gave me a little bit of that world.

    Peace,
    Ann

  33. It’s real simple. “Thinkers” like characters such as Aquaman and Atom because their powers inspire imagination, and simplistic insults don’t hold up after the initial yuk. “Non-thinkers” don’t like such characters BECAUSE they have to think about them before they see their value. Much easier to just blow Aquaman off as “talks to fishes” than have to go through all the “if he can do this, then it means he can make that happen; and if that, then the other thing as well” (lots of cause and effect linkage).

    Aquaman is victimized the same as environmentalism or evolution — the people bashing it rarely know anything about it. They just know they’re told it’s bad…so they repeat what they’ve been told.

  34. i’m not rich yet, but when i do…how much would it take to have you write Aquaman again? i miss that series.

  35. Y’know, I’ve read a lot of Aquaman, and it seems to me that a guy who was born a hybrid human/Atlantean like Namor, lives and operates in the same environment as Namor, and is the roughly the same height and build as Namor, is probably no slouch in the muscles department, unless someone wants to argue that the ocean operates differently in the Marvel Universe.
    Besides, no offense to the Sub-Mariner, but a guy who fought Wonder Woman and Lobo and is alive to tell the tale is probably in a higher weight class than Namor anyway.

    As far as the talking to fish thing? Aquaman has in the past communicated with and controlled whales and and seagulls. On the face of it, one could reply “Who cares?”, but a serious examination of this power hints at far greater telepathic abilities than we’ve seen thus far if he can influence both sea-bound mammals and avian life forms

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