The Aquman Argument

"Aquaman had the hottest babe of them all, Mera, at his side... and later married her in a special issue."

"Something that’s been on my mind for quite some time is the concept of the devolution of classic characters. I mean devolution in the biological sense of degeneration. What happens is this: A character at some point gains popular appeal, but then, for whatever reason (bad marketing or a change in trends) he/she/it appears to not do so well. I say appears because you cannot trust in marketers to tell you what’s cool and what’s not cool. Nevertheless, with so much constant fodder thrown at our psyches—it is easy to forget or dismiss many popular icons as soon as they are not readily available. Of course, if you’re a real fan of the character, person, or concept—you’ll seek them out. But the general populace will let un-marketed product drift toward the wasteland of long-term memory, while erased from the short term, and finally gutted out all together when the information isn’t accessed for an increased time period. ...

What about fictional characters that are well established but fade from popularity? Should they be randomly reinvented—just because they’re not selling as well as the latest pop song? I see the comic book character Aquaman as the greatest example of reinvention gone wrong, and here’s why:

There was nothing wrong with him to begin with. ..."

The Aquman Argument By Bradley Mason Hamlin for retroCRUSH.
Great article and great images. Check out The Aquamn Classic Comic Book Cover Gallery at the bottom of the article.

More about Aquaman:
The Unofficial Aquaman Website
The Wikipedia entry on Aquaman (very informative)