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Author Topic: Kurt Busiek to write Aquaman  (Read 16009 times)
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JulianPerez
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« Reply #8 on: December 12, 2005, 06:25:45 AM »

Quote from: "DoctorZero"
Wow. What a different concept for Aquaman. A different guy as Aquaman? A sword carrying Aquaman?


I feel your pain. However, once you get over the initial suspicion of having another person as Aquaman, I am optimistic about the series for two reasons:

1) It's exploring the undersea regions, a very interesting and underused part of the DC Universe. Please, please, PLEASE tell me they're using the Fire Trolls somehow! Those were some great bad guys. Ditto for those monster jellyfish creatures seen in the Curt Swan-drawn 1989 Aqua-miniseries. Where DID those creatures come from? Inquiring minds want to know! King Shark also is a character with an intriguing Polynesian magic cultural connection that has yet to live up to his full potential to arouse interest. Though primarily I am a "classic" Superman fan (it is Superman's past history I find most interesting and not his current incarnation) there are five or six things about the post-Reboot Superman that ought to be kept around, and King Shark is one of them.

2) Two and a half words: Guice the Juice. In another thread, I praised Guice for his stylish art in the Baron FLASH right after CRISIS. His "Savage Speedster" story qualifies him for Sword n' Sorcery work: for one thing, look at all those foxy cave girls who lived inside that fat man.

Also, it's been a few decades now...don't you think it's time we got a new Aquagirl? There have been something like four or five Batgirls and it's a name that can't be kept down.

Superheroes that go in a Sword n' Sorcery direction CAN work; look at how interesting SWORD OF THE ATOM was; superheroes can actually be improved by the addition of adventure-fantasy elements. The Atom wielding a sword and kicking tiny keyster in a lost city of tiny people...strangely enough, it worked: it allowed the Atom's shrinking, which ordinarily is felt by many writers to be an unimpressive power, to be a "gateway" into telling different kinds of stories. The same is being done for Aquaman (turning his limitations into strengths), and it MAY work. That said, some characters, however, may not work given the Sword n' Sorcery context: Superman doesn't work without science fiction elements, and Batman with a cutlass is a little goofy.

Quote from: "Kurt Busiek"
She's been discussing it in her blog and her Aquablog...


Really? I just tore her blog apart tonight looking for a response and I couldn't find one. If she did, I feel vaguely guilty for thinking she had ignored me.

Quote from: "Kurt Busiek"
Nope. Loved it.


What about the Jurgens Aquaman appealed to you, what did you think "worked" about it? Granted, it's been years and years since I read the comic, however, my principal memories of it involve a shotgun wedding for Aqualad and Dolphin, Mera wearing a nonexistent bikini, Lagoon Boy, and a king from a "hidden" city below Atlantis coming up because Aquaman's birthday party made a lot of noise.

Interestingly enough, it's not suprising Busiek was chomping at the bit to write Sword and Sorcery type stuff; we can see signs of that all the way back in his AVENGERS run: look at the prevalence in the first issue of Thor and Asgard villains, the appearance of magic and wizards in the next one.
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« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2005, 07:54:24 AM »

Quote from: "DoctorZero"
I know Aquaman hasn't been a best seller for decades nowl


Was he ever?

Sword of the Atom was great fun.  Swashbuckling Gil Kane art and a competent, adult melodrama from Jan Strnad (sp?).  It would have been horrible with Jackson Guice.  Luckily there is an inventive, knowledgeable  writer attached to this Aqua-project.  What's Ramona Fradon doing?  I'm sure she's available.
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« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2005, 08:04:33 AM »

Quote from: "JulianPerez"
Please, please, PLEASE tell me they're using the Fire Trolls somehow!


You bet.  Heck, we'll even use the Flame-Haired Karla, in time.

Quote
Really? I just tore her blog apart tonight looking for a response and I couldn't find one.


I didn't mean she'd been discussing you e-mail, but rather the new Aqua-direction.

Quote
What about the Jurgens Aquaman appealed to you, what did you think "worked" about it?


I thought it had personality, majesty, a strong sense of identity and gorgeous art.

Quote
Granted, it's been years and years since I read the comic, however, my principal memories of it involve a shotgun wedding for Aqualad and Dolphin, Mera wearing a nonexistent bikini, Lagoon Boy, and a king from a "hidden" city below Atlantis coming up because Aquaman's birthday party made a lot of noise.


I believe all those things were in the Larsen Aqua-run, not the Jurgens one.

Remember, when you think it's Cary Bates, it's Len Wein.  Maybe that same syndrome causes you to switch Erik and Dan, too.

kdb
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JulianPerez
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« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2005, 06:10:48 PM »

Quote from: "Kurt Busiek"


You bet.  Heck, we'll even use the Flame-Haired Karla, in time.


Oh hell yeah.

Quote
I believe all those things were in the Larsen Aqua-run, not the Jurgens one.


Wait...which was the one that wrote the Cerdia story arc? Because I liked that one. The fantastic wraparound covers were the icing on the cake.
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« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2005, 06:31:38 PM »

Quote from: "JulianPerez"
Wait...which was the one that wrote the Cerdia story arc? Because I liked that one. The fantastic wraparound covers were the icing on the cake.


That was Len -- I mean, Dan.

And at this point, it probably won't surprise you that the covers -- which were very nice Kaluta pieces -- weren't wraparounds.

kdb
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« Reply #13 on: December 12, 2005, 08:03:51 PM »

Maybe it's time that poor Julian invest in some Ginkgo Biloba or something Wink
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JulianPerez
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« Reply #14 on: December 12, 2005, 08:12:22 PM »

Quote from: "Kurt Busiek"
That was Len -- I mean, Dan.

And at this point, it probably won't surprise you that the covers -- which were very nice Kaluta pieces -- weren't wraparounds.


Ah! In that case, I retract my statements about my distaste for Jurgens' Aqua-run. Actually, I rather enjoyed his issues and not just for the covers, either, though they were, like you said, very nice. Ocean Master was a wonderfully ruthless foe that was titanically clever, and the moment where Aquaman leads Aqualad in a charge against him in a deep cave (especially that splash page where he says something like "And from here on, WE CALL THE SHOTS!") gave me goosebumps. Jurgens took Aquaman seriously as an important superhero. Aquaman was written as competent, and this is important: the center of action, the prime mover of the events of the story.

As an additional aside, I have for years, been upset with Jurgens because of his participation in the Spider-Clone Saga. However, recently, when reading the online comments by one of the Spider-Clone writers (whose name, unfortunately, escapes me at the moment but it's online) he pointed out that Jurgens was one of the voices of reason through the entire thing, stating very emphatically something to the effect that "the only solution that I am happy with would be if Peter Parker was the true Spider-Man and Reilly was a clone, period."

If someone writes a similar memoir that states that Jurgens was "just dragged into" Electric Superman and THOR: LORD OF ASGARD, I would not only apologize to him, but buy him roses and give him a big wet Bugs Bunny smootch.

I stand by my view of Peter David's run, however. My admiration for Peter David's other work is endless (especially his Star Trek novels and SPACE CASES: a cute, wonderful show), however, Aquaman's concept was fundamentally muddied by his run on the series. David does this quite a bit. Supergirl's concept previously, was a direct one: Superman's cousin from Krypton. Then, we get to Peter David, and she becomes part Earthbound Angel or something.

How is underwater swordfighting going to be handled? Hopefully, it ought to be very different from land swordfighting. I think the guy that wrote that AQUAMAN issue of LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE or whatever where Aquaman fights the Joker put it best: "use water wrong and it stops you...use it right, and you fly!"
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« Reply #15 on: December 12, 2005, 08:14:09 PM »

Cary Bate/Len Wein - funniest thing I read all day! Smiley
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