One Perfect Moment--"Charge of the Sea-Soldiers!"

[skjam]

For the theme week, something you probably didn't think you'd see....

3 pages of 13 from the story.



Context: Throughout the story, Professor Enos Snark (yes, really) has been using his scientific genius for robbery, only to be repeatedly thwarted by Aquaman and his finny friends. Professor Snark finally hits on a plan to separate Aquaman from his allies. He builds a large-scale desalinizer (allegedly to help mankind by creating potable drinking water from seawater) that turns large swathes of seawater into fresh water. Aquaman's saltwater-based allies can't function in the desalinized area, and they're too far out in the ocean for Aquaman to call for freshwater backup.







Notably in a previous page, Aquaman points out that the desalinizer could have made Snark rich beyond the dreams of avarice, but he knows that the Professor will throw it away for relatively petty crime.

Your thoughts and comments?

Suggested tags
char: Aquaman/Arthur Curry
creator: Jim Mooney
publisher: DC Comics
series: One Perfect Moment Week
theme: animals

Comments

[megami18]

I think there should be a separate category for "crack-tastic-one-perfect-moments".

[skjam]

This is the comic book I had to hand. There's also a story with a great moment for the Silent Knight, but I think I want to post the maximum scans from that.

[bradhanon]

"I've attached special tanks to these whales and dolphins, so now they're breathing saltwater!"

"So... they're dead, then? I mean, mammals breathe air, dude."

"Yes, they're all dead. Wait, that one's still... no, he's dead too."

"This was a pretty bad plan."

"It was a terrible plan."

"I don't want to be your friend any more."

"Neither do I."

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, the WHALE, yes, but its possible that those others are SHARKS, not dolphins, which ARE fish, and which WOULD require seawater. (Anyway, whales and dolphins ARE saltwater creatures - they just don't breathe the stuff.)

[skjam]

In story, the whales were weakened by exposure to fresh water, so perhaps their tanks just spray seawater over their sensitive hides.

[psychopathicus_rex]

A thought, yes. Or, of course, we could simply assume that while Dr. Snark is a criminal genius, he is NOT a zoological genius, and who knows what those things actually do.

[psychopathicus_rex]

You know, it's weird - it just struck me that for most people, the word 'Snark' simply brings to mind 'snarkiness', or possibly the Lewis Carroll poem, but the first thing I thought of when I read the 'Snark - yes really' up there was 'The Snark-Out Boys and the Avocado of Death', by Daniel Pinkwater, which I have fond memories of. Has anyone else here read that?

[ormardu.blogspot.com]

So did Aquaman destroy the desalinizer or did he keep it and market it as a way of funding Atlantis?

All this cool tech in comics thrown away by the Heroes....

[skjam]

Still intact at the end of the story, but never mentioned again. But given Snark's tendencies, perhaps it ran on baby harp seal blood and was thus unsuitable for mass manufacture.

[kingrockwell]

What's the issue number on this one? I'm guessing from the header on the second scan it's from Brave and the Bold.

[skjam]

The Brave and the Bold #114, though it's a reprint of an Adventure Comics story from 1961. (Issue number not mentioned in the Brave and the Bold issue). The main story of the issue is Aquaman and Batman in "Last Jet to Gotham!"

[kingrockwell]

Thanks, that's enough for me to go on. I've got it originally sourced to Adventure #284, and the writer's Jack Miller. All I needed to know.