Just Imagine: Stan Lee and Scott McDaniel's Aquaman

Just Imagine Stan Lee with Scott McDaniel Creating Aquaman
Writer: Stan Lee
Pencils: Scott McDaniel
Inks: Klaus Janson
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colorist: Guy Major
Cover: McDaniel and Janson, colors by Alex Sinclair

“On the Street”
Plot: Michael Uslan
Dialogue: Lee and Uslan
Pencils and inks: Ramona Fradon
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Colorist: Major
Released: April 24, 2002

After meeting Shazam, we're back for the final third of Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe and starting off with an Aquaman who does not talk to fish but probably wishes he could.

Readers are introduced to Ramon Raymond, who is gushing about the importance of the oceans to his extremely bored but still supportive girlfriend, Amelia. The two have even less in common than Ramon and his brother Frank, a police officer who wishes younger sibling also would have followed their dad into a career in law enforcement.

Amelia is not at all concerned when Ramon talks about his upcoming experiment, despite the very real chance it could result in an origin. See, he's mixed up a cocktail of sea life DNA, which he expects will allow him to breathe underwater. He wants to show Amelia his results; she wants to show him her barely there bikini.

After appreciating what she brought to the boat ride, Ramon dives into the water where he encounters a) some water that he assures readers is green, although the coloring says otherwise, and b) a shark. If you've been reading this long, you know green is the Just Imagine Earth's way of drafting her super-powered protectors. The shark leaves, either because Earth told him to or because he has no desire to eat water, which is exactly what Ramon has become.

Returning to the boat, a confused Ramon decides to clear his head by making out with his girlfriend. Unfortunately, that's when a trio of pirates board the boat, tie Ramon's hands behind his back and throw him overboard. They turn their attention to Amelia, who jumps overboard just as a re-water-ized Ramon splashes back onto the boat and learns about his powers while roughing up the bad guys. Bullets pass through him, and he can blast jets of water, for starters.

Amelia loses consciousness in the ordeal and doesn't see Ramon in action. Later, he tests out his abilities before deciding to confide in his brother. But the pirates apparently got out on bond and follow the men, opening fire and shooting Frank in the leg. Aquaman leaps into action and chases their vehicle by propelling himself forward, like water shooting out of a hose.” In their haste to flee, the pirates rear-end a garbage truck, and Aquaman shows as much concern for the sanctity of human, albeit criminal, life as the Just Imagine Flash.

The next day at the hospital, Frank vows to walk again, which, despite what one of his fellow officers says, doesn't seem that impossible since he was only shot once in the leg. He's off active duty for the foreseeable future, prompting Ramon to pledge to protect people in his stead as Aquaman.

A few weeks later, Frank is walking with a cane and decides to take five at the Church of Eternal Empowerment. The wrong Rev. Dominic Darrk and his righthand henchwoman Morgana Le Fey sense the presence of an unbeliever. Rather than smite Frank right then and there, they track him, with magic, and discern, with magic, that his brother is the real threat. So they dispatch a bunch of robed cultists* to Ramon's houseboat, where fisticuffs ensue.

Having defeated the henchmen, Ramon decides to go clubbing with Amelia and Frank worries about his brother attracting Darrk's attention.

The On the Street backup finds Frank flying to France to study how they reintegrate disabled officers into active duty. Not only does he get a middle seat, but it's between two Church of Eternal Empowerment flunkies sent by Darrk to take him out. Frank fights back and is soon joined by most of his fellow passengers in a nod to the folks on United Flight 93 who stood up against hijackers on 9-11, which probably happened shortly before the script for this was finished or while the issue was being produced. It may be a little forced, but it's a nice moment.

To start out positive, the design of Aquaman, like a gray alien made of water, is very cool, and this definitely feels like an almost new character, rather than a play off the existing version. The explanations for his powers seem a little goofy at times, but overall it's a good look and concept.

On a more negative front, the explanation of the powers isn't the only thing that feels clumsy here. Errors like the blue water as Ramon worries about its green glow and him telling Amelia he's going to win the Pulitzer Prize for his scientific work make this issue feel rushed. In the backup story, Frank muses about how he trusts the JLA because of his brother, who hasn't met any of the other heroes at that point. Either there was some sort of an error, or Frank is the opposite of a lot of characters, blindly trusting superhumans rather than being skeptical of or outright fearing them.

Maybe there were more changes necessitated by real-world events than the airplane heroics in the backup story. Perhaps that's why Darrk sent a bunch of generic guys in robes after Aquaman for the brief climactic fight, after enlisting a number of more impressive cat's paws against other characters. In-story, sure, he may not have known exactly what they would find, but even the mercenary who took on Green Lantern had a name and a personality.

The foundations are there. Ramon and Amelia's opposites-attract thing may have been cringe-inducing here and there, but it makes them stand out as a couple and didn't lead to predictable squabbling. And Frank makes for an interesting supporting character, allowing Lee and Uslan to continue their underlying theme of superheroes compared with everyday heroes.

In the note after the story in the trade, McDaniel recalls a case of nerves when told he would be drawing an Aquaman story in sunny southern California rather than an urban setting like the Batman stories that put him on the map. His style isn't problematic; it looks like it would work even better for a story like this than a darker setting, but maybe that's because he made adjustments. However, some of the art feels a little rushed too and just a notch or two below what we've seen in previous installments.**

Next up, Stan joins forces with Chris Bachalo for Catwoman.

* - Presumably with magic, but maybe just a van.

** - But as always, it's way better than anything I could do.