How many Aquamen does it take to change a lightbulb?

[espanolbot]

Firstly, Ollie and Dinah's first meeting,


She's 19 there, not sure how old he is.

Anyway, the newly founded JLA are setting up their HQ,


Dinah asks Hal what his origin was,



Aquaman has an accent? Okay. I'd imagined that his voice would be deep like a whale's or high pitched like a dolphin's to be heard underwater anyway.

And yeah, whoops, I got mixed up over whether it was Hal or Ollie who said that they fancied Dinah's mother. XP

Comments

[stubbleupdate]

Bulb Wrench!

I loved the way that this book had Aquaman mumbling because sound travels better underwater

[thehefner]

It's stories like this which made me a Hal fan even though Kyle was the GL at the time, and makes me wish more writers (like Geoff Johns) would play up Hal as the smeghead-with-a-heart-of-gold.

[ian_karkull]

Oh yeah, they're putting this out in a new printing in december again, which makes me all sorts of giddy. Such an excellent book.

[bariman]

They are? I am so buying it!

[icon_uk]

Perhaps it's because I'm reading American comics as a non-American, but Aquaman having a non-American accent seemed obvious to me. I wondered about what various heroes sounded like, I had a pet theory that Dick Grayson wouldn't have had a Gotham accent because he'd wasn't born or grew up there, but Bruce and Alfred would make sure that Robin did use a Gotham accent.

[kamino_neko]

Yeah. Diana probably has one, too.

And, yeah, Dick would totally have a different accent than the rest of the Bat-family. Of course, coming from different backgrounds, the others wouldn't have quite the same accent, either - Bruce's moneyed, educated accent would be different from Jason's uneducated lower class accent, would be different from Tim's middle class accent, would be different than Helena's, etc.

On the topic of accents, I like to imagine Superman speaking Kryptonian with a distinct American accent.

[nezchan]

Hmm, thinking about that I'd say it would be TOTALLY in character for Bruce to train Dick to speak in a Gotham accent as Robin and his original as a civilian. It's the sort of thing Bruce would do, don't you think?

[stig]

I always imagined Aquaman - and by extension Namor - with the voice of Timothy West in "The Tempest" episode of Shakespeare: The Animated Tales.

[aaron_bourque]

SUPERMAN: Midwestern "Newscaster" voice (in America this is considered to be "no accent."
Clark Kent: Cross between a Midwestern Cheesehead, and the above, emphasis on the latter.
WONDER WOMAN: Very light, lilting almost musical Greek or Turkish accent.
BATMAN: Gravelly.
Bruce Wayne: Mild Northeastern Preppy.
AQUAMAN: he learned to speak English from a guy in a lighthouse, who was probably a fisherman. Northeastern Coast/Canadian (think Deadliest Catch, and yes, I know that's the wrong coast) but with mumbles.
GREEN ARROW/Oliver Queen: Since he doesn't know how to keep his secret ID secret, they have pretty much the same voice, a kind of West of the Rockies type regional accent, with a little aristocratic pretensions.
FLASH: Mild Midwestern Cheesehead
GREEN LANTERN: Also probably mild midwestern, coupled with a mild Texan/Southern clipping, as he's a fighter pilot and would try to talk like Yeager.

[jaybee3]

But what is a Gotham accent? According to most maps - including offical DC ones - Gotham is located in NJ. So do Gothamites talk like Tony Soprano? I always imagined Dick learned to talk like Bruce, who in turn being around Alfred and his upper-crust parents has a very cultured private school tone of voice. Superman by contrast having grown up in Kansas would have a flat Midwestern tone (think Bob Dole). Same goes for Barry, Wally and Jay Garrick. Wonder Woman would defintely have an accent of some kind as would Aqauman.The Marvels/Batsons would have a Wisconsin-ish accent (the Power of Shazam used a lot of real Wisconsin geography). While both Hal and Ollie would have the more laid-back Calfornian/West Coast kind. The Martian Manhunter meanwhile who learned Earth language by watching TV and watching Earthlings react would have the same purposeful non-accent American accent that Brits and Aussies use when speaking "American".

[rani]

Has JLA: Year One been totally retconned out? If so, it's too bad, it was such a cute book and it really made the Silver Age heroes like Hal and Barry likable.

[jcbaggee]

I think as of Infinite Crisis we're back to the original JLA origin in which Wonder Woman was a founding member and not Black Canary.

[sianmink]

I always figure Aquaman sounded like BRIAN BLESSED, but that might just be the BatB influence talking.

[kamino_neko]

And yeah, whoops, I got mixed up over whether it was Hal or Ollie who said that they fancied Dinah's mother. XP

It wasn't in JLA Year One, but one of the other retellings of their first meeting (it might have been in Birds of Prey), had Ollie not only admitting to having had a crush on Dinah sr, but mistaking Dinah jr for her.

[sailorlibra]

There was a flashback showing him getting her mixed up with her mom in the recent Black Canary series.

[jcbaggee]

Two pages later, when Aquaman realized he'd been duped and was pissed off..great moment.

"Did I say it right? BULB WRENCH."

[cleome45]

[sigh] I miss Toni home permanent-ed Aquaman.

There. I said it.

[proteus_lives]

Hal-Dickery!

[lamashtar]

He prefers the shortened form of 'Hal'. :D

[wabbitseason]

Tagging notation, if this is Dinah Jr, she's Dinah Laurel Lance. Mom is Dinah Drake Lance. Gets even more confusing in JLA: Year One since Dinah Sr does appear in the story, even as Black Canary.

[kingrockwell]

Got it, but you know anyone can edit tags, right? Just click the button!

[sistermagpie]

Nobody can resist punking Aquaman.

[tornadotwin.blogspot.com]

Mark Waid hasn't changed a bit.

I always imagine 'Batman' and 'Bruce Wayne' with the 2 voices Kevin Conroy used in B:TAS
I actually just imagine everyone's voices that I've heard in the JLU series as the voices in the comic. but i read every little kid like Damian with a voice like Gizmo from Teen TItans :/ And if they weren't in JLU I just go with the flow

[jcbaggee]

There were so many amazing touches in this series that should still exist. Barry and Dinah's conversation about the impracticality of her heels. The amateurish enthusiasm of making Superman a chair before even meeting him. J'onn not really being that much different from Batman.

Crap, I'm gonna have to read this again now.

[lamashtar]

This is the source of my fanon that Hal had a poster of the original Black Canary. And that there's an alternate universe where he was her sidekick.

[aaron_bourque]

whoops, I got mixed up over whether it was Hal or Ollie who said that they fancied Dinah's mother.

There should be a running gag that just about everyone either looked up to or crushed on Dinah's mother back when she wore the fishnets.

[tsunamiwombat]

I wonder why Dinah got soooo mad at the mention of Hal liking his mom and Marilyn Monroe..oh right BECAUSE EVERY ASSHOLE THERE IS HITTING ON HER.

[kamino_neko]

She wasn't upset until he said 'I guess I just like blondes'.

She seemed perfectly charmed by him - like so many other women - until then.