Ripples Through Time - 185

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 #262 (July 1959) - The Undersea Hospital!

Aquaman opens a hospital after Topo sprains a tentacle, and his kindness to the fish pays off when he is himself injured.

Glove Color: Yellow.

Regular Supporting Cast: Topo.

Aqua-Exclamations: "Great Goldfish"

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is shot by pirates, and is unconscious until his fishy friends patch him up.

Quotefile: Aquaman, after being shot, "T-this's the end! I can't swim a stroke! *GASP!*... I-I'm losing consciousness! No one can help me now! No one... No one..." Melodramatic Much?

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman binds Topo's tentacle to relieve the pain. He has octopi, swordfish, and whales help him build his clinic. His first patient is a seal with a broken flipper. Then a shark with a toothache. Aquaman uses a lobster to pull the shark's tooth. An ambulance "manned" by Topo, pulled by dolphins, with eels for wheels brings in a sick dogfish. Topo puts the dogfish into a tank. Aquaman uses a swordfish to pry a turtle's head from where it's stuck in it's shell. A cutlass fish cuts a length of rubber sheeting for Aquaman to wrap around an electric eel that cannot control it's discharges. Aquaman puts a whale with a high fever into a tank of ice from a glacier.

After Aquaman is shot, all his finny friends help guide him to the clinic. Octopi act as stretcher-bearers with eels acting as the poles of the stretcher. Lantern fish illuminate the operating room, electric eels shock Aquaman for anesthetic. Octopi create tourniquets, and swordfish remove the bullets. Sucker fish suck out the lead, and jelly fish apply healing balm. Sharks and crabs make bandages from old sail cloth. A whale creates a sun deck for Aquaman to recuperate on. Flying fish shade him from the hot sun.

Aquaman's first stint at the medical profession was in Adventure #188, when he has to set up a quarantine. In that tale, Aquaman already has an established undersea clinic for treating his finny friends.

This story has a tiny link with Adventure #119, due to the floating observatory. While the idea doesn't seem too fantastic, the problem with creating any sort of successful observatory that floats is that you have to keep the platform absolutely still. Even an inch of change would completely mess up your observing. But clearly the idea appealed to the writers of Aquaman... more than once.

The pirates shoot Aquaman with what appears to be a tommy gun. It seems worth noting that, although Aquaman is described as being "riddled with bullets", the artwork shows no injuries, and the coloring shows no blood.

Have you read this story? What do you think?