He promised an original Aquaman sketch for the Shrine in conjunction with his Save the Martian Manhunter campaign, and boy did he deliver!
Here we have not only Aquaman, but also the Martian Manhunter and the Atom, all hanging out and taking five from presumably yet another world-shattering JLA adventure.
This is a detail from Michael Netzer's in-progress super awesome drawing of Aquaman, the Martian Manhunter, and the Atom.
Michael's efforts to save the Manhunter have been nothing less than heroic(can honorary membership in the JLA be far behind?), and his original sketches featuring the oft-neglected heroes have been uniformily cool, and incredibly generous.
I've been ruminating over this whole rumored mishegoss about DC's supposed to plan to kill off Martian Manhunter and/or Aquaman for a little while now. I haven't seen fit to mention it yet, but then my pal Damian pointed out to me that my lack of comment has been mentioned by Michael Netzer, swell comic book artist and Manhunter fan, here on his page devoted to a campaign to save J'onn.
Michael surmises that maybe I have "been suspiciously silent about the rumor, perhaps knowing that Aquaman is not likely to be done away with anytime soon."
Actually, just the opposite. I'm sort of assuming that Aquaman has a good chance of being on the chopping block, but since the Aquaman I know, love, and obsess over has already been "killed off" in the pages of Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, I'm assuming that if "Aquaman" is killed off, it'd be the new version, the Arthur Joseph one.
While it'd be a shame to kill the character off so soon after his debut, I think I'd find a way to go on living if it happened.
Take that with the classic Aquaman being a part of the upcoming toy tie-in book Super Friends, and the rumors going around that Geoff Johns just might be working on a new Aquaman book, I'm sort of assuming that killing AJ off sets the stage to bring the classic one back, with a new mega-popular writer with a jones(sorry) for the original version, to boot. So I don't necessarily think this is bad news for AquaFans.
Add all that to the fact that I think that internet petitions generally don't carry much weight with publishers, movie studios, etc., I just couldn't find a way to get all worked up.
But! I am a fan of lost causes(that's why I have an Obama '08 bumper sticker on my car), and I think killing off such a venerable character like Martian Mahunter is dumb. It doesn't get you much other than a limited-to-one-month sales spike, and you just keep some other hot writer who loves the character the chance to do something really cool with him.
Also, With Manhunter's enduring participation in Justice League Unlimited, more people outside of comics know about him than ever before. Can a Manhunter Super Friends figure be far behind? Why choose this moment to off him?
So, Mike, count me in--us Aquaman and Manhunter fans have to stick together. Let's Save our the Manhunter From Mars!
