It's Adventure Sunday!
Are curses real? Aquaman doesn't think so, but his skepticism is put to the test when he meets...The Sea Hermit!
Aqualad notices that the maelstrom disappeared once they got free, so the curse must be real, right? Aquaman is of course skeptical, and makes plans to check back in at night.
Later that night, as they approach, the water around the ship starts to boil and glow! Aquaman is perplexed, and the "cursed" man warns them that the curse is very real:
...and so ends another adventure for Aquaman and Aqualad!
After a five-year gap, this is writer George Kashdan's last credited Aquaman comic book story. He would eventually write a number of episodes for The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure for Filmation. Never terribly influential on the character, Kashdan's history with Aquaman nevertheless spanned two decades! I love how this story hinges on Aquaman's knowledge of Maritime Law. he probably could have written a book or something.
I guess I should take all the superlatives I used when talking about Ramona Fradon's work and just move them over to Nick Cardy, because pretty much right off the bat he was doing outstanding work on this strip. He added a wonderfully illustrative, highly detailed sense of realism to the Aquaman strip, excelling at facial details so all the people in these stories really came alive.
After this, the Sea King would appear again in a Superman story (this time only for two panels), then helped the JLA take on some invading aliens in Justice League of America #7, finally swimming back to Detective Comics once again, so be here next week!
