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| Aquaman's Golden Age origin. |
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| Tom Curry meets Atlanna. |
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| Aquaman vs. Black Manta. |
In 1962 Aquaman finally received his own self-titled series. It was
during this period that Aquaman’s mother had died and Tom eventually remarried
a human woman. Together, they had a son named Orm. Orm grew up jealous of
Arthur and turned to petty theft, eventually contracting amnesia and becoming his
arch-nemesis Ocean Master:
a high-tech pirate who attacked ships and caused natural disasters. Other foes
introduced were The Fisherman
(Aquaman #21, 1965), a high-tech international criminal with a
pressure suit, collapsible fishing rod, and gimmick lures; Black Manta (Aquaman #35, 1967), a mysterious armored figure whose suit
allows him to exist in the water, fly, and fire eye beams amongst a myriad of
weaponry; and the terrorist organization known as O.G.R.E.
(Organization for General Revenge and Enslavement, Aquaman #26, 1976).
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| Aqualad and Tusky rescue Mera. |
Aquaman wasn’t just making enemies, though. Along the way he befriended
Aqualad (Adventure Comics #269, 1960); another
Atlantean outcast and orphan that Aquaman took under his wing and mentored. In Aquaman #11 (1963), Aquaman was introduced to his future wife,
Mera; queen of an alternate dimension called Dimension Aqua. In
addition to having similar powers to Aquaman (sans the telepathy), she could
create hard water objects and control certain amounts of water.
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| Aquaman and Aqualad on Storm and Imp. |
In 1966, Filmation Associates
had produced their first television program: The
New Adventures of Superman. With that show’s success, they acquired the
rights to further DC Comics (then-National
Periodical Publications) superheroes. They created a show based around Aquaman,
bringing him (Marvin Miller), Aqualad (Jerry Dexter) and Mera (Diana Maddox) to
life along with an assortment of his foes. Unlike Superman, Aquman
was played more towards the campy tone of the live-action Batman series that
inspired CBS’ foray into superheroes. Helping
that tone was the inclusion of the giant seahorses named Storm and Imp, which
Aquaman and Aqualad rode, and the comic-relief pet walrus named Tusky
(seahorses appeared nameless in the comics; both Imp and Tusky were voiced by
Knight, who also provided episode narration). Aqualad also took a cue from Robin’s playbook with the
constant exclamation of “Holy halibut!”
As with Superman, Filmation
produced two 6-minute episodes for each half hour. The remaining time was
filled by an alternating segment featuring different “guest” characters for a
series of three episodes each. The first segment involved the Justice League of
America, which starred Aquaman alongside Superman (Bud Collyer, carrying the
role over from The New Adventures of Superman),
the Atom (Pat Harrington, Jr.), the Flash (Cliff Owens), Green Lantern (Gerald
Mohr) and Hawkman (Vic Perrin). The line-up was largely based on the original
team line-up from their debut throughout most of the 60s. Missing were Batman, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter,
whose rights were not included in the deal.
Another team segment involved the Teen Titans. Created by Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani, The
Titans began when Robin had to team-up with Aqualad and Flash’s sidekick, Kid
Flash (Tommy Cook), to defeat the weather-controlling villain Mister Twister
in The Brave and the Bold #54 (1964). In
issue #60,
they were joined by Wonder Woman’s younger sister, Wonder Girl (Julie Bennett),
who shared the same abilities, and they adopted the Titans name. They received their own series in
1966 where they were aided and eventually joined by Green Arrow’s
sidekick, Speedy (Harrington), who used trick arrows just like his mentor.
Initially, the team helped teenagers but expanded their focus as their series
went on. Each of these sidekicks were inspired by the success of Robin, with DC
deciding to duplicate that formula by giving their other heroes their own
partners.
The remaining segments focused on the exploits of the League members away
from the team. The Atom was an update to the Golden Age character
of the same name. Developed by editor Julius Schwartz along
with Gardner Fox and Gil Kane in Showcase #34 (1961), Ray Palmer was a scientist who developed a
means to atomically compress matter in order to fight overpopulation. He used
the process on himself in order to save his students on an expedition, and
began his miniaturized crime-fighting career.
Another Golden Age update, the Flash was developed by John Broome, Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino for Showcase #4 (1956). He was forensic scientist Barry Allen until
a freak lightning strike sent him careening into a shelf full of chemicals.
That caused him to gain super speed and he became the protector of Central City, naming himself
after his hero, the original Flash Jay Garrick. Flash
shared his adventures with Kid Flash, who was the nephew of his girlfriend (and
later wife) Iris West and
gained his powers in a similar fashion.
The next Golden Age revival came in the form of Green Lantern. Schwartz, Broome
and Kane introduced stunt pilot Hal Jordan in Showcase #22 (1959) who came across a downed alien’s ship. That
alien, Abin Sur, used his
dying breath to bestow his ring upon Jordan, turning him into a Green Lantern
and a member of the Green
Lantern Corps. As Green Lantern, Jordan could use his willpower to create
anything from his ring that he could imagine, fly and survive in space. His
bosses were the Guardians
of the Universe (Paul Frees); emotionless beings who resided on the Corps
home planet of Oa. Joining him was
his best friend and mechanic, Kairo (based on Thomas Kalmaku from the
comics, also Frees).
Lastly were the cosmic exploits of Hawkman. Changed from his Golden Age form as
a reincarnated Egyptian Prince, Schwartz along with Fox and Joe Kubert
reimagined him as an alien policeman from the planet Thanagar. His costume, composed of Nth metal, allowed him to defy
gravity and mentally control his wings. Despite access to an array of fictional
weaponry, his weapon of choice was an Nth metal mace. He debuted in The Brave and the Bold #34 (1961)
and came to Earth with his wife, Shayera, aka Hawkgirl, in pursuit of
a criminal and stayed to fight crime. They adopted the names Carter and Shiera
and became curators of a museum in Midway City before both
eventually joined the Justice League. Unlike the other updated characters,
Hawkman’s appearance was largely unchanged.
Aquaman debuted on CBS on September 9, 1967. It was aired
alongside Superman in a block
entitled The Superman/Aquaman Hour of
Adventure. As with Superman, actual employees of DC worked
on the show; including the writing-editing team of Haney and George Kashdan, who
worked on nearly all the “guest” segments, and Aquaman creator Weisinger, who
handled the ones involving Superman. The music was composed by John Marion. Like the comics
that dominated the Silver Age, many of the stories dealt with some kind of
alien invaders and extreme science-fiction elements. Aquaman could retroactively
be considered the debut of the first African-American character on Saturday
morning television when Black Manta was revealed to be one a decade later in Adventure Comics #452 (1977).
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| Aquaman using his mental powers. |
The continued success of Filmation’s DC programs led to additional
programs entering development. Among them was the transmutable hero Metamorpho, the malleable Plastic Man, WWII-era
ace pilots The
Blackhawks, the super-powered misfit team of The Doom Patrol, the
animalistic B’Wana Beast
and the robotic Metal Men, as
well as a series centered around the Flash and Wonder Woman. However, CBS
secured the animation rights to Batman and tasked Filmation with making a show
for him instead. As a result of its last-minute status, Filmation abandoned
most of their plans in order to reassign as many people as they could into the
Batman series. No further Aquaman segments
were produced, and it was broken off into its own series of reruns for the
following season to allow The Adventures of Batman to be paired with Superman in The
Batman/Superman Hour.
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| DVD cover. |
In 1985, Warner
Home Video released eight Aquaman episodes
to VHS
as part of their “Super
Powers” video collection that was re-released in 1996. In 2007, The Adventures of Aquaman: the Complete
Collection was released to
DVD and included only the Aquaman segments of the series. The “guest” segments
were released in 2008 as DC Super Heroes: The Filmation Adventures. In 2014, DC Super Heroes was re-released as two
separate volumes with the six features broken up between them.
Originally posted in 2016. Updated in 2024.
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