Aquaman's Most Lethal Weapons

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We can't be sure, but we think Alan's referring to the fish...

Smallville - "Prophecy" Preview

F.O.A.M.ers flooded the Shrine's inbox in regards to this, a preview for next week's episode of Smallville, titled "Prophecy", which debuted last night.

We see what looks like nothing less than a live-action Legion of Doom, featuring (upper right), what sure looks like...Black Manta!!

You can see the whole trailer here, and start adjusting to the idea we're going to see a live-action Black Manta. Pretty amazing stuff.


(This high-quality still was sent in by our newest F.O.A.M. member, Henry Rentas. Welcome to F.O.A.M. Henry!)

Smallville "Arthur Curry" Trading Card

Father and daughter F.O.A.M.ers Chris and Becca Chance were nice enough to send me this Smallville trading card a few weeks ago, featuring an actual autograph by Alan "Arthur Curry" Ritchson!

I haven't heard anything, but I hope the show finds some way of working Arthur Curry (and Mera, maybe) in one more time before it goes off the air. Smallville really helped increase the character's outside-of-comics notoriety and it'd be cool to give him one last hurrah.

Thanks for the card Chris and Becca!

Smallville - "Icarus"

Season Ten, Episode Eleven: Icarus
Written by: Genevieve Sparling
Directed by: Mairzee Almas
Original Air Date: December 10, 2010

F.O.A.M.er David Cutler really had his eye on the ball last night, catching this super-quick glimpse of Aquaman/Arthur Curry on last night's episode of Smallville, "Icarus."

We never see actor Alan Ritchson, so this is clearly an extra or stunt player just filling in. But at the end of the episode, we see Clark, Lois, Green Arrow, Star Girl, and all the other heroes knocked out by some mysterious force, ending with a cliffhanger. (On a side note, I like how A.C. accessorizes all his outfits to his traditional Aquaman colors)

While its doubtful we'll be seeing Ritchson as A.C. in the following episode (news would have broken by now), its a reminder--to me at least--that Smallville may still have a surprise or two up its sleeve in its final season, at least when it comes to Aquaman.

Thanks David!


(By the way, you can see the final scene from the show here!)

Smallville: "Patriot"

Season Ten, Episode Nine: Patriot
Written by: John Chisholm
Directed by: Tom Welling
Original Air Date: November 19, 2010

After a two year absence, Aquaman returns to Smallville, and he's not alone!

There's been a whole mess o' changes with Smallville since I watched it last: Clark is now pretty much in Metropolis full-time, doing a sort of undercover superhero thing, complete with base of operations (called the Watchtower) and friends who are in on his secret, which even includes Lois Lane.

But before we can get to all that, we start off inside some dark, secret government office (aren't they all?) where the gruff, serious Col. Slade (Battlestar Galactica's Micheal Hogan) is talking about rounding up all the various "heroes" out there, claiming they are a threat to National Security. He's even got an old school whiteboard with all sorts of info on it:

(Before we move on, I can only assume the silhouette at the bottom right is Zatanna, the drawing above that is Black Canary, and of course that's Impulse/Flash at the left. I bet more devoted watchers of the show can determine who the others are.)

Anyway, miles away off the Florida coast, we're at what looks like an oil rig about to get a visit from two...somethings traveling at lightning-fast speed. They jump aboard, and we see that it's Arthur Curry and...

...Mera (Elena Satine)! Lo and behold, Aquaman's queen makes her live-action debut. Aqua-History is made.

After Arthur instructs Mera to make sure the platform is deserted, they set some explosives and take off, surfacing on a nearby beach. They take a moment as the rig goes kablooey:

"I'll be with you 'til the end of the world, baby."

After that kick-ass moment, we cut back to Metropolis where Clark and Oliver Queen have a confab. They debate the newly-created VRA (Vigilante Registration Act) and how Arthur's actions are only making this worse for them, in the eyes of the government.

Clark contemplates voluntarily registering to the VRA to show they have nothing to hide. Oliver decides to do it instead, since his superhero identity is still already known. That leaves it up to Clark to go find Arthur and talk to him.

After Oliver and Lois have a talk, we're go to Miami, where Arthur is using the Aquarium of the Atlantic as his homebase. Clark finds him talking to some pals:

Arthur refuses to talk to Clark, insulted that he isn't trusted. Clark makes a move to stop Arthur from walking away, when he is hit by a burst of hard water, knocking him into the pool. When he surfaces, he's introduced to Arthur's wife, Mera.

Lois has a meeting with Col. Slade (buttering him up with cigars and booze) in an attempt to snoop for info about the VRA. Meanwhile, Clark tries to talk some sense into Arthur and Mera, but he quickly learns Mera is no less shy about acting on her beliefs, getting right in his face:

They explain that the "rig" they took out wasn't drilling for oil, it was a high-tech prison for superhumans, and it wasn't the only one (glad to see BP is diversifying).

After the shortest press conference in history, where Col. Slade offers up Oliver Queen as the VRA's first official signee, Lois heads for Miami, where she meets Mera for the first time, and learns like Clark did that Mera isn't shy, though in a different way:

While Lois gets caught up to speed, Clark and Arthur sneak into another one of these prison facilities. Arthur gets a message from Mera that Oliver has been "taken off the grid." They decide to split up to try and find him.

Later, we see where he is: being examined by the government to see if he has superpowers, which he doesn't. Slade tries to convince Oliver that he should try and get his metahuman friends to sign up, too.

Oliver refuses, so Slade tries another approach: showing him they have Arthur in custody, dangling from chains! Before he can react, Slade knocks Oliver unconscious, and wakes up in the same prison cell, strapped to a board hovering over a tank of water.

Clark makes it back to Miami, where he and Mera learn Arthur has been taken, too. They locate them both in a remote facility in Alaska, where Arthur is being slowly roasted, keeping him weak. Col. Slade promises that they won't be alone for long, he has plans to round up all the metahumans.

He dunks Oliver into the water, but before it goes further, an intruder alarm goes off. Mera busts in, and uses her powers to both free Oliver and resuscitate her husband:

There's a great, slow pan-in on Arthur as he breaks free from his chains, back up to full strength. The music swells, and, muscles rippling, Aquaman looks ready to dole out some serious butt-whipping:

...ladies, enjoy!

Meanwhile, Clark runs into Slade, revealing himself when Slade's bullets bounce off Clark's chest. As a countdown begins for the facility to self-destruct, Clark gets trapped in a Kryptonite cage of Slade's devising. Clark tries to get Slade to see the light, telling him he'll die in the explosion. Slade seems indifferent, and let's the whole place go up.

Days later, back in Smallville, Arthur and Clark talk in the Kent Family's barn, and they make strides in seeing things from each other's perspective. Arthur says he trusts Clark and agrees to try and "lead by example" instead of the way he's been doing it:

As Arthur tries to give advice to Clark about letting Lois in a little more emotionally, Lois is inside packing. But before she can leave, Mera is there to also offer advice, and to show that she still shops in the kids' department for clothes:

Mera advises Lois that it took her a while to get Arthur--whom she calls Orin--to open up, and Clark needs that time, too. After all saying goodbye inside, Arthur and Mera depart.

After a scene with Clark and Lois where they discuss their relationship (which goes on approximately eighty-five minutes), we rejoin them, Oliver, and Tess Mercer at the Watchtower. Clark explains to them all what he thinks they're up against: a malevolent being of some sort of that preys upon people's weakness, turning them into vessels of hate.

The episode ends with some bandages being removed, and after the camera pans around we see Col. Slade is not, in fact, dead:

...Colonel Tigh! Er, Deathstroke! To be continued!


Well, of course this episode is probably my favorite of all the Aquaman Smallvilles, because we get our first live-action Mera, played by the comely Elena Satine. Given this show's general tone, she was pretty much what I expected, though I did enjoy the touches of humor wrought from Mera's indifference to social niceties. She also gets to use her powers to A)knock Clark around, and B)save both her husband and Oliver Queen, which was awesome.

Alan Ritchson as Aquaman never seems to get much to do in these guest shots, crammed as these episodes are with the ongoing Smallville season-long storylines. They hint at the sheer power he has (like in the opening scene, when he yanks a metal door off it hinges with nary an effort), and of course it'd be great to see a whole episode of just Aquaman doing his thing (of course, they already sort of tried that).

In an interview, Ritchson said he didn't know whether this would be his last Smallville or not. That seems kind of hard to believe--you'd think the rest of this final season's episodes would have to be at least written by now--so possibly Arthur is returning and Ritchson just doesn't want to spoil the surprise. A 2-hour final Smallville episode featuring all the various DC heroes the show would seem to make a lot of sense, if even just for little cameos. Now that we've gotten our first flesh-and-blood Mera, I want more!

Smallville: "The Patriot" Tonight!

Everyone remember--tonight @8pm EST is the Smallville episode, "Patriot" featuring Aquaman and, making her live-action debut, Mera! Be sure to tune in.

The Shrine will feature a recap of the episode Monday!

Smallville: The Visual Guide - 2006

F.O.A.M.er Russell "Eagle Eyes" Burbage caught some Aqua-content in this book, the 2006 Smallville: The Visual Guide, and was kind enough to scan it in for the Shrine.

Aquaman--or, more accurately, Arthur Curry--gets two pages all to himself:

(click to see a bigger version)

I guess now that Smallville is ending its run, they'll need to do an updated version of this book, with more Aquaman stuff and even Mera! Russell, you're on the hook for those scans, too!

Smallville: Aquaman and Mera!

Courtesy a photo now up on the Superman Homepage, here is our first glimpse of the live-action Mera (along with her husband, of course) from the upcoming Nov. 19th episode of Smallville!


(h/t: F.O.A.M.er Chuck Coletta)

Mera on Smallville?

This is a tweet from Matt Mitovich, Executive Producer of Smallville. Aquaman and Mera??? Great Neptune!

Supposedly this will be the ninth episode of the tenth season, scheduled to air on November 19. Warm up your DVRs, Aqua-Fans!


(h/t: F.O.A.M.er Joe Slab)

Aquaman on the Web: Smallville

Here's a short article on E! about Alan Ritchson's return to Smallville as A.C. Definitely some interesting thoughts about the character from the man who plays him...


(h/t: F.O.A.M.er Marcus Errico)

Aqualad On The Web: Smallville

Another coup for Aqualad--an appearance on Smallville?


(h/t: F.O.A.M.er Chris Franklin)

Smallville: "Odyssey"

Season Eight, Episode One: Odyssey
Written by: Todd Slavkin & David Swimmer, Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders
Directed by: Kevin Fair
Original Air Date: September 18, 2008

This episode of Smallville is the third and (so far) last of Aquaman's three appearances on the show--and once again he's got some super-powered friends!

By this point in the show's run, I had stopped watching it regularly. So I apologize while I play a bit of catch-up to what went on on the show just prior to this episode. Apparently, Season Seven ended with Clark heading off to the Arctic and forming what will be The Fortress of Solitude.

Both Lana and Ma Kent left Smallville, and Lois offered Clark a job at The Daily Planet. Chloe got kidnapped, and Clark and Lex had a showdown at the Fortress which seemingly led to Lex's death and the destruction of the Fortress.

This episode kicks off in the Arctic, and LexCorp is running some sort of massive investigation to learn what happened to their boss. A young woman named Tess Mercer arrives, saying she's now in charge.

After they get word they may have something--or someone--we see a familiar face is also there:

After Green Arrow fires a shaft into a piece of LexCorp equipment (causing it explode and crash onto the ground), we see he's not alone. With him on this mission is Black Canary (Alania Huffman):

Using her Canary Cry, she helps Arrow take out some of the LexCorp workers.

One of them gets the drop on Green Arrow, and is ready to shoot him point blank. But then the floor begins to rumble, and then it breaks open. Shooting out of it is...Aquaman!:

Aquaman tosses the gunman aside, knocking him out instantly. The three heroes then follow the trail LexCorp was following, a shaft deep into the ice floor:

At first we see Clark's familiar red jacket, but after they dig it out of the ice we see that's all that's there. Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Aquaman go outside, and wonder where has Clark gone?

Later, we see Tess Mercer have a run-in with an undercover Lois Lane (snooping around Lex's mansion in a French Maid outfit--oh, those Smallville producers don't miss a trick). Lois is there to find out what happened to her cousin Chloe, but Tess pretends not to know.

Chloe, in fact, is imprisoned by some shadowy government agency who is subjecting her to a series of interrogations, determined to find how he hacked into a top-secret government mainframe. Chloe protests her innocence and demands to be freed, but her captor refuses.

Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Aquaman search through Chloe's files to learn what happened to her and Clark, but they find no clues.

We learn that Clark is in Russia, doing manual labor:

Its clear he owes money to a tough-sounding mobster type, and is working to pay off the debt. He asks to make a phone call home, and is refused. Clark then tries to escape by stealing a truck, but is stopped before he can get too far. One of the boss' goons punches Clark, knocking him out! Clearly, something has happened to the once Teen of Steel.

The government agent holding Chloe to work tracking down some "terrorists"--in reality, the locations of Aquaman and Black Canary. After Chloe unwittingly reveals their locations, government agents capture both heroes with the help of some well-aimed tranquilizer darts.

Chloe gets wise to what's happening, and refuses to say any more, leaving Green Arrow still free.

Green Arrow, in fact, has made his way to Russia, having found Clark. Oliver starts an argument with Clark, who goes along with the role-playing. Oliver even decks Clark one:

Oliver "buys" Clark from the Russian mobster, who is all too happy to be rid of him. Oliver gets Clark onto his private jet and they head for home.

On the way, Oliver catches Clark up with what's happened, and they head for a secret base LexCorp has in Montana, where--unbeknownst to him--Black Canary and Aquaman are being held, along with Chloe:

Their captor wants to know where "the alien" is, but they won't talk.

Green Arrow and Clark break their way into the base. They split up, and Clark runs into...Lois Lane?!?

Yes, Lois has gone undercover to find Chloe, so they team-up to try and find her. In the meantime, one of Lex's men injects Chloe with some sort of truth serum, forcing her to decode the information revealing Green Arrow's location--which happens to be in the same building!

Clark and Lois find Chloe, and free her. Clark then goes off to find Green Arrow. When he does, Green Arrow demands to find out from Clark where Lex is. Clark says he doesn't know, and Green Arrow shows he's not kidding around:

Green Arrow asks again, and gets the same answer. He fires another arrow, and shoots it straight through Clark's chest!

Turns out Green Arrow was captured and injected with the same "truth serum" LexCorp zapped Chloe with, and then released as part of a plan.

Clark's life begins flashing before his eyes, and at the end of a series of memories, is a friend--John Jones!:

Jones (Phil Morris) scoops Clark up, and flies with him into the sky:

Later, Clark wakes up, fully healed. John Jones tells him that he took Clark to the sun, which brought Clark back to life. John was entrusted by Jor-El to watch over Clark, but when John saw that Clark was about to die, he stepped in to save him.

Back at Lex's mansion, Tess Mercer takes her place behind Lex's desk, fully committed to finding her missing boss. She reviews some of the evidence found in the Arctic, including a glowing, almost alien-like crystal...

With his father dead and mother moved away, Clark doesn't feel compelled to live in Smallville anymore (but that's the name of the show!). He meets with Oliver, Dinah, and Arthur, who are splitting up to search for Lex Luthor, who they all believe is still alive:

Clark shows up at the offices of The Daily Planet, having accepted a job as a junior reporter. He tells Lois the news, and she sees his new desk is right next to hers.

The end...for now.


This makes two out of three Smallville episodes where Aquaman was tranquilized and held hostage. Since this happened a lot in the comics too, I guess there's just something about Aquaman that makes writers immediately think of having a bad guy knock him out, only for him to wake up later in some death trap.

This remains Aquaman's last appearance to date on Smallville. While I haven't heard any word as to when the show will finally end, it has to be fairly soon, considering the show is in its ninth season (an extraordinary run). Let's hope that before its all over, Alan Ritchson as Arthur Curry gets one last curtain call!

Smallville: "Justice"

Season Six, Episode Eleven: Justice
Written by: Steven S. DeKnight
Directed by: Steven S. DeKnight
Original Air Date: January 18, 2007

This episode of Smallville is the second of (so far) Aquaman's three appearances on the show--and this time he has some friends!


Plucky Chloe Sullivan runs into some trouble when her investigation into some LuthorCorp business leads her srating down the barrel of a gun, held by a corrupt doctor under Lex's employ.

A red blur comes into the room, dispatches the gun man, and leaves. Seconds later, Clark arrives, and Chloe thanks him for the save. Clark says he had nothing to do with it, but knows who did.

Clark follows the red blur out onto the streets of Metropolis, only catching up to the young man--Bart Allen, dressed in red with a lightning bolt on his back--because Bart wanted him to do. He then takes off:

Clark catches Chloe up to speed (no pun intended), and Bart shows up again. Calrk wants to know why Bart was in the offices of the Daily Planet, and Bart refuses to tell him the truth, innocently saying he was there to visit Chloe, who he's trying to woo.

Meanwhile, Oliver Queen and Lois Lane--who are now dating--are getting back from a long romantic lunch. Their romantic interlude is cut short when Oliver gets a call, and says he has to leave on business. Lois is more than a little angry that she's being stood up by Oliver--again.

Oliver responds by promising they're going to take a vacation together, but he has to take care of something first. As Lois leaves to pack, he gets another message:

Meanwhile, Lionel Luthor and his son Lex discuss the fact that their secret labs for experimenting on people with extraordinary powers are being broken into. Lex shows his father a surveillance photo of someone they think is doing the break-ins: a small man, wearing a red hooded sweatshirt.

That night, we find Bart Allen breaking into yet another LexCorp facility, taking away some vital information. He meets his associate outside--Green Arrow!

The next morning, we see that Bart is staying at the Kent's. Ma Kent is delighted to have the charming young man around, but after Clark finds out LuthorCorp has been broken into, he confronts Bart, who admits to doing it, but won't say why.

Meanwhile, Lois is talking to Chloe while packing. One of the items she packs is a flimsy piece of lingerie, a green one-piece (Chloe thinks the color--an inadvertent choice on Lois' part--in particular will grab Oliver's attention). In the middle of the conversation, Clark shows up, surprising them both:

Clark is there to talk to Chloe, and privately he tells her of Bart's abilities, and his LuthorCorp break-ins.

Chloe does some tracking of Bart's cell-phone calls, and they learn that Bart has been making a lot of calls...to Oliver Queen.

That night, Bart does another break-in, except this time Lex is waiting for him, along with an army of goons. They zap Bart with some sort of high-tech weapon, knocking him out.

Clark shows up at Oliver's high-tech office, wanting to know why he has gotten Bart involved. Queen defends his decision, citing LuthorCorp's nefarious experiments, and also tells Clark that Bart has gone missing. Clark offers to try and find him, and Oliver then says he's put his "team" into place to do just that, and we see who he means:

...Aquaman and Cyborg!

Back at LuthorCorp, Lex puts Bart in a cell with a floor that grows so hot that Bart has to keep running in ever-faster circles to keep from frying (a pretty cool death-trap, I have to say), promising to turn it off if Bart will reveal who he's working for.

Back at Oliver's HQ, Clark learns how A.C. and Victor got involved with Oliver. A.C. says he ran into some legal trouble with a Japanese whaling ship, and infers Oliver and Victor helped get him out of it. Oliver and Victor bust on A.C. saying they saved him from being sliced up and packed into tiny cans of tuna:

"Fish jokes...all I get are fish jokes."

Chloe helps figure out where Lex is holding Bart, and while she delivers the info to Oliver, Clark shows up to try and rescue Bart.

Unfortunately, after Clark leaves Chloe figures out that the reason the LexCorp building is lead-shielded is because its a trap. We see that she's right--Clark breaks in, only to find himself face-to-face with a roomful of Kryptonite! Clark, trapped, collapses the floor.

Later, Oliver and Victor break their way into the building, while A.C. makes his way in through an underwater pipe:

As Bart starts to weaken from exhaustion, Oliver, Victor, and A.C. all make their way to the heart of the building. Oliver rescues Clark, whom he calls "Boy Scout" (Clark protests, but Oliver--calling himself Green Arrow--says "If you were part of the team, you could've picked your own code name.")

Aquaman, having found his way to the building's main computer room, opens it to Cyborg. Cyborg taps into the building's mainframe, shutting down the death-trap Bart was in.

Green Arrow runs into Lex, and GA shoots an arrow just past him, into a pressure valve (and nicking Lex's cheek in the process). The valve will cause the building to explode, which Clark objects to, worrying about any possible casualties.

Green Arrow assures him everyone has been evacuated, and that the only way to make sure no one else ends up imprisoned and experimented on is to blow the place up. Clark agrees, and our five heroes stroll out of the place as it explodes:

Later, Lois is ready to leave on their vacation, but Oliver tells her he can't go, claiming important business. Lois, deeply hurt, breaks it off with Oliver. Oliver is upset, but insists that there are things "more important" than what he wants.

Back at the Kent's, Clark, A.C., Victor, Bart, and Chloe talk about how The Daily Planet will be running a story that a "vacant" LexCorp building blew up in an accident. Bart flirts with Chloe again, and A.C. refers to him as "Impulse":

Clark asks, with all of them now having code names, what they call their little team. Oliver shows up, and suggests, "Something with the word 'justice' in it."

He also says that they've learned that LexCorp is opening branch labs all over the country, all for the same evil purpose. With their next target in sight, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Cyborg, and Impulse plan to head out. They ask Clark to come along, but he says he has other issues to deal with right now.

Oliver promises they'll be back. And with that, he and his team take off:

...the end!


I think by this point, I had given up watching Smallville regularly--I just couldn't stand how painfully slow the show's story arcs were moving (Clark doesn't know Lex is evil yet? Really?), but I always came back for the "guest hero" episodes like this one.

And I have to give the show credit--its ambitious as hell. Would anyone have guessed when Smallville debuted back in 2001 that by Season Five they'd be doing quasi-Justice League episodes? Also, the use of Green Arrow (standing in for Batman, who I guess the show can't use) as the ringleader is fun, and of course its just great seeing Alan Ritchson as the live-action Aquaman again.

Oliver officially calls A.C. "Aquaman" at one point in this episode, marking the first time he was actually called that on the show.

After Lois' brief flirtation with Aquaman in "Aqua", and now her relationship with Green Arrow, I'm wondering if she isn't just working her way through the JLA membership. That's going to lead to a lot of smart-ass comments on the satellite...

Smallville: "Aqua"

Season Five, Episode Four: Aqua
Written by: Todd Slavkin & David Swimmer
Directed by: Bradford May
Original Air Date: October 20, 2005

As promised in my "Aquaman in Hollywood" post, I wanted to start doing some summaries on all the various appearances of Aquaman in both live-action and animation.

I've been lucky enough to be able to write about the Brave and the Bold shows as they air, but almost all of the Sea King's other TV appearances pre-date the Shrine, so we've got a lot of catching up to do! So let's get started with live-action Aquaman's debut, in the fifth season Smallville episode "Aqua."

This episode opens up at a local teen hang-out, Crater Lake, which gives Smallville the chance to show off most of its cast in skimpy swim wear. No one's outfit is skimpier than Erica Durance's as Lois Lane, which I show here purely to be as complete and thorough in my review as possible:

Lois isn't that great a swimmer, and during a dive she bumps her head and begins to sink to the bottom of the lake. Clark, Chloe, and Lana notice that Lois hasn't come back up for air, so Clark jumps in to see what's happened.

But Lois is currently being saved by...someone else? Yes--Clark sees a young blond guy, who seems to be able to swim at tremendous speeds, grab Lois. He carries her out of the water, onto the beach:

Gently lowering Lois to the ground, this mysterious stranger gives her mouth-to-mouth. After a few moments, she wakes up, and scans her rescuer's chiseled physique:

...hey, can I get a side of vegetables with my slab o' beef?

The young man introduces himelf as Arthur Curry--"A.C."--and helps Lois get to her feet. As they walk off, Clark tells Chloe about what he saw in the lake.

Later, Clark attends one of his college classes, where his professor (James Marsters), starts talking about evil, which leads him to disparage Lex Luthor, who Clark sticks up for.

Meanwhile, A.C. shows up at The Talon, a coffee house Lois works at. She disparages his orange-and-green shirt-and-shorts combo, but that doesn't stop A.C. from flirting with Lois. He offers to take sartorial advice if she'll let him give her swimming lessons.

A.C. and Lois get pretty close pretty fast, Lois getting intrigued by A.C.'s general air of mystery. Just as they're about to kiss, A.C. starts writing in pain, grabbing his temples and screaming. Thrashing around, he falls into the lake, trying to escape a sound apparently only he can hear. That does no good, so he wanders back onto the beach, and passes out, a trickle of blood dripping from his ear.

Back at Lex Luthor's mansion, we see him and a scientist in his employ talk about a weapon he's created called The Leviathan, which he plans to sell to the U.S. Government. The scientist says the weapon hurts marine life and needs further testing, but of course Lex doesn't care.

Back at the Kent Family house, A.C. recovers, with Lois bringing him glass after glass of water.

They talk and get to know one another some more. Its clear that A.C. is a fairly bold guy, and he makes another move on Lois. At first she rebuffs him, but then quickly changes course, grabbing A.C. and planting one on him. Their passionate kiss is interrupted by...:

...this is going to make for some awkward meetings at the JLA Satellite in years to come.

Okay, anyway, Clark gets jealous, and gets Chloe to do some Oracle-style background checking on him. They learn A.C. has a criminal record--having "kidnapped" eight dolphins from a water-front resort, releasing them back into the ocean.

Clark compares to him the kid with super-speed powers he met a few months ago, surmising that he's not someone who got his powers from a falling meterorite (that fell in Smallville's first episode).

Back at The Talon, both Lois and Lana seem to like A.C., but Clark acts suspicious, revealing he knows a bit about this stranger's past. A.C. reveals his mother died when he was a baby, and that he grew up "more in the water than out."

A.C. says he's in Smallville to investigate why so many fish are dying in Crater Lake, and clearly he feels deeply on this issue. After Clark chides him for just trying to pick up girls with the Sensitive Guy routine, he follows A.C. to Crater Lake, where he sees A.C. sneak his way up stream, through a drain, right into LexCorp!:

A.C. does some looking around, digging through files, and sets up a time bomb! Clark, having followed A.C. into the building, grabs the bomb, absorbing the blast.

A.C. takes off, and Clark follows, where we see A.C. has some other extraordinary powers:

Using his hard water powers, he wallops Clark so hard he knocks the Young Man of Steel out of the lake, sending him flying through the air. This Aquaman can kick some serious ass!

Later, Clark tells Lois what he caught A.C. doing, but she won't listen. A.C. shows up, and they argue about A.C.'s tactics: Clark considers A.C. an eco-terrorist, but A.C. doesn't care. He tells Clark about Lex's Leviathan, and says that the ecological fall-out from this weapon will be catastrophic.

A.C. asks Clark for help, but he refuses. Clark talks A.C. into going to visit Lex directly, trying to talk him out of selling the Leviathan to the government. Lex, in all his black-hatted, mustache-twirling badness, refuses.

A.C. storms out, and heads back to Crater Lake--only to collapse in a heap, the victim of a well-aimed tranquilizer dart:

A.C. wakes up strapped to a table in LexCorp, his skin cracked and parched, having gone a while without water. Lex tries to get info out of him, doing a sort of reverse-waterboarding torture routine by not giving him water.

With another test of Leviathan underway, Lex takes off, leaving A.C. slowly dying. Luckily, Clark shows up, and sets off the sprinkler system. A.C., now rejuvenated, practically hulks out, bursting free of the straps that held him down.

Clark agrees to help A.C. stop Leviathan, and Lex's test with the military is a dismal failure once its seen that some of LexCorps' equipment has been thoroughly damaged.

Later, after Clark talks with Lex, he meets with A.C. one more time back at his house. A.C. says they make a good team, offering to start up a "Junior Lifeguard Association." Clark replies, "I'm not ready for the JLA just yet."

A.C. says that he'll continue his risky work as long as Lex threatens the seas, ignoring Clark's plea to stay out of trouble.

A.C. meets with Lois before he leaves, and despite Lois' sarcastic facade (still mocking him for his choice of orange-and-green clothes) its clear she's starting to really care for him:

A.C. says he might come back to Smallville, but "not for a while." Lois is clearly disappointed, and they share a tender kiss saying goodbye.

Lois makes her way back to Clark's house, where he tries to comfort her. Clark admits that his first impression of A.C. was wrong, and Lois wonders how she'll ever meet someone so special ever again.


I remember having only a middling reaction to this episode when it first aired, but watching it again I liked it quite a bit. I was initially taken aback by Alan Ritchson's frat boy-esque Arthur Curry (he uses the word "bro" a lot), but this is Aquaman as a very young man, so it fits better than I gave it credit for.

I like Arthur Curry's unwillingness to veer off his mission--to save the Earth's oceans at all cost, full stop--and its part of the character that, while being a thorny and difficult moral issue, needs to be addressed, especially when you're talking about a flesh and blood version of the character.

The DVD features a deleted scene from this episode, where A.C. defends his "eco-terrorist" actions to Lois. Not all that consequential, but I would've preferred to see it included in the show instead of yet another Luthor Is Smooth But So Evil scene, one of the parts of the show that made me pretty much stop watching Smallville entirely.

Aside from whatever other reservations I had/have about Smallville, its still just plain fun to finally see a live-action Aquaman!

This episode features a short PSA, starring the ravishing Annette O'Toole (who I still have a crush on), talking about the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. Thinking about Christopher Reeve still chokes me up, six years after his death.