Tuesday, February 20, 2007


Ripples Through Time - 084

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order. After I read each story I will post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #151 Aquaman Splash Page
Adventure #151 (April 1950) - The Biography of Black Jack!

After finding a book on famous pirates in the library of one of his victims, Black Jack decides he needs to have a book written about himself.

As far as I know, this is the last appearance of Black Jack. I'll continue to look for him while I read other stories, of course, but I think that this is the tale that finally sunk him.

Black Jack finds a book called "Lives of the Great Pirates" on a captured ship, and reads about Captain Bartholomew Roberts, Captain England, Captain Kidd, and Henry Morgan. He gets a bit jealous that they are immortalized in a book, and decides he has to be immortalized as well, so he orders his crew to find and capture an author.

The author he gets is a famous biographer, Derek Hartley. After hearing about the kidnapping, Aquaman decides to give Derek some material to work with. The end result is an entirely different book than the one ol' Black Jack wanted. And, apparently, the publication of that book marked the end of Black Jack's career.

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman has some whales corral and polish an iceberg, which he uses as a mirror to fool Black Jack. He has some whales bring an old Navy ship used for target practice onto Black Jack's course, and Black Jack attacks the ship only to get used as target practice himself. Aquaman also has some sea creatures help him finish off Black Jack when he attacks the yacht.

Quotefile: Black Jack, "Not a word about me, Black Jack, the greatest pirate of them all! Ye might think people never heard of me!" Prophetic words indeed, Black Jack.

Have you read this story? What do you think?

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