710 – Aquagirl?

A panel from Adventure Comics #266, September 1959
A panel from Adventure Comics #266, September 1959

A girl shows up with Aquaman’s powers in Adventure Comics #266 (Sept 1959). Lisa Morel dubs herself Aquagirl, complete with a matching costume and joins Aquaman on adventures. Aquaman asks how she got her powers, but neither she, nor her famous ichthyologist father Hugo, can explain their emergence. Aquaman does digging and keeps a close eye on her. One day her powers give out.

Another panel from Adventure Comics #266, September 1959
Another panel from Adventure Comics #266, September 1959

Aquaman then reveals to her that when Atlantis was first submerged, a bubble of air was built around it, but eventually the bubble cracked. Thankfully, early Atlanteans had developed a way to live underwater by then.

But some babies continue to be born were “throwbacks”, indicated by violet eyes:

“they could adapt only a brief time to underwater life and would eventually die in Atlantis’ watery world!”

Aquaman reading his mother’s diary to Aquagirl

So these throwbacks were ejected in glass cocoons to the surface when surface dwellers were known to be above in boats. Lisa is one such child and her father then admits that they found her at sea and adopted her.

I have to give credit here, I thought this story was great. We get to see and learn a bit more of Atlantis in flashbacks and diary entries, it’s a great try-out story to give Aquaman a companion, and even the characterization of Lisa as a somewhat-reckless heroine was pretty good for a one-off story like this. The writing by Robert Bernstein and artwork by Ramona Fradon is excellent, even if the hijinks in the middle with Topo playing music are absurd 🙂

Topo playing music in Adventure Comics #266, Sept 1959
Topo playing music in Adventure Comics #266, Sept 1959