Aquaman: The Trio of Terror / The Torp, The Magneto and the Claw / by Mark

Apparently, Aquaman has run through all his archvillains, so now they are ganging up on him.  Dennis Marks brings us "The Trio of Terror". 

The Brain, Queen Vassa, and Black Manta meet up and introduce each other to the audience. Vassa will attack the the underwater detection systems, Manta will attack Atlantis, and Brain will destroy the Sea King. Our heroes see the damage being done and go off to investigate, only to find Vassa's whaleship shooting torpedos at them. Aqualad heedlessly goes off to stop them, and Aquman has to save him. Mera calls, saying that Atlantis is under attack by Manta--he's shooting balls of fire at the domed city. Aquaman calls for dolphins to help out, and a fish army puts out the fire...underwater. Manta runs, and they follow to find all three bad guy ships. The Brain zaps the Sea King and is going to entomb him in a salty coffin--so he calls in some whales to crash into the ship and free him. Manta then tuns on the Brain, and Vassa blasts Manta. The fish army cleans things up, and Aquaman as usual lets the bad guys go.

Some things to look for:

  • Aquaman's nickname for Aqualad count: Tadpole (33)
  • Aqualad catchphrase attempts: Bouncing Blowfish
  • Why do the other villains just accept that Brain gets to kill Aquaman--especially Manta, since he's the only A-list bad guy in the group?
  • Nice Aquaman quote--"There is no honor among thieves".  Think of that yourself?
  • The episode seems to run out of steam at the end

 

Bob Haney brings us another evil trio in "The Torp, The Magneto, and the Claw". 

Mera, Aqualad, and Tusky are returning to the Aquacave. They see Topedoman, who zips by them. Aqualad goes off to investigate, and Tusky swims off to find the Sea King. Torpedoman goes into a sea junkyard (?) and meets up with Magneto (not the Marvel character, but another armored bad buy) and the Claw (not the Craw, the Craw!). Torpedoman must have watched the previous episode--they are teaming up to destroy Aquaman too. They see Aqualad and capture him and Mera. Aqualad then blames Mera for trying to help him. Aquaman arrives to have a wrecking ball thrown at him--he uses the old spinning trick on the villain. The Sea King finds the teenager and his wife in a cartoony construction equipment scoop. Magneto attacks him, but some hard water balls take him out. The fish army comes in, and Torpedoman decides it's time to leave. He's pelted with sea junk by giant squids. Aqualad is having no luck with the Claw, so Aquaman takes him out. Torpedoman follows them into a cave where sharks fight him off, then Aquaman sends him into an endless maze.

Some things to look for:

  • Aquaman's nickname for Aqualad count: Tadpole (35), Minnow (7)
  • Aqualad catchphrase attempts: Suffering Sea Snails, Murmuring Moonfish, Holy Hogfish, Leaping Lionfish, Puffing Porcupinefish
  • Nice eyelashes on Mera's seahorse
  • Torpedoman seems surprised to see Aqualad, although he just went past him. Maybe the armor has lousy peripheral vision?
  • Mera looks askance at one of Aqualad catchphrase attempts

Remember, you can play along by watching the show on iTunesAmazon Instant Video, or VUDU. You can also buy the DVD on Amazon.