The Four Color Media Monitor

Yahoo Entertainment posted another list originally from Nerdist, this time presenting their choices for what they believe the 7 best moments in the history of sea king Arthur Curry, and while there are some worthy choices of yesteryear to be found here, there's at least 2 I wouldn't touch today with a 50-foot pole. One is written by a guy who used to be impressive, but has since plummeted in quality, and made things worse with his far-left politics:

In 2006, after the big Infinite Crisis event, DC took a gamble on this oddball Aquaman title. This came after recent interpretations of the character were not really clicking with readers. DC went for a bold new take from writer Kurt Busiek, famous for his work on Avengers. Busiek’s Aquaman, was not the ruler of Atlantis as we’d known him for years. Instead, he was the similarly named Arthur Joseph Curry, a younger man who gained water-breathing powers thanks to experiments performed by his scientist father. This series renamed Aquaman vol. 6 as Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis.

This was all a callback to the 1940s Aquaman, who, costume and powers aside, was an almost totally different hero than the one we know today. Arthur’s adventures were more fantasy-oriented in nature, hence the “sword” in the title, and beautifully illustrated by Jackson Guice. Writer Tad Williams and artist Shawn McManus continued the Busiek/Guice story until the end of this run. This weird version of Aquaman only lasted for 18 issues, after which the original Arthur Curry returned from the dead. But it’s one of the more interesting takes on a hero named “Aquaman” that’s out there.

Sounds more like a lot of baloney for nothing, and that could just as well explain the less than 20 issues it ran. Plus, all that talk of "boldness" has gotten mighty old. The other citation here was written by one of the worst omens to infect comicdom, and written at least a few years after Busiek's volume was published:

After a very celebrated run in the ‘90s, DC sidelined the character of Aquaman again. Despite some interesting takes on the King of the Seven Seas, nothing really clicked with comics fans in a big way. That is, until the 2011 New 52 reboot, when writer Geoff Johns reinvigorated the character in a new ongoing series which made him cool again. Although this time, he’d be cool while retaining his classic costume and Silver Age origin story. Illustrated by Ivan Reis and Paul Pelletier, during two years and 25 issues on the book, Johns was quick to shatter the “my power is just talking to fish” perception Aquaman had with the mainstream. In Johns’ view, Arthur Curry was a true force of nature, not a Super Friends punchline.

In Geoff Johns’ Aquaman run, he introduced many new concepts. There were the Others, new heroes who wielded ancient Atlantean weapons, and the Lovecraftian horrors of the Trench. He also reimagined Atlantis as a more multifaceted kingdom, with many different undersea tribes. Ocean Master and Black Manta received major upgrades. Their new personalities and backstories became a big influence on their big-screen interpretations. And after decades where DC treated Mera like a hysterical ex-wife, Geoff Johns made her a hero in her own right. Something that has stuck to this day. Aquaman was so popular at this time, that he even received a spin-off series, Aquaman and the Others. For only a 25-issue run, Geoff Johns really left his mark on the hero of Amnesty Bay.

Frankly, I'm not buying the notion Johns was ever first to make Mera more than meets the eye, and besides, he waterlogged the impact with quite a repellent take on Manta that was just as bad as some other renditions of villains in his resume, possibly worse. Some "upgrade" alright. There's always room for Mera to be her own agency. But Johns has never been qualified for realizing that potential.

I'm amazed that the other 5 choices were those written and illustrated pre-2000, because I've seen how these propagandists have been so bent on gushing over much of what's post-2000, no matter how bad that became compared to the previous century's offerings. Even so, the 2 aforementioned choices made are complete wastes of time, and written either by scribes who lost their common sense, or those who were never a healthy influence on comicdom to begin with.

Labels: Aquaman, dc comics, dreadful artists, dreadful writers, golden calf of villainy, good artists, good writers, moonbat artists, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, violence, women of dc