Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor. His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy. David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference. David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.
In the eighties Peter David took over The Incredible Hulk, a mainstay character that nobody actually wanted to work on, and turned the title into one of the top comics at the company. In the nineties he did the same thing to Aquaman. Stage one was The Atlantis Chronicles, a fresh origin for DC's Atlantis. This was stage two, a fresh origin of Aquaman.
Aquaman adds his own story to the Chronicles, narrating his life. Put out to die, the infant Orin was raised by dolphins. David is an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan, and Aguaman's childhood is similar at times to Tarzan's. His first encounters with humans aren't always good. His first romance ends badly. And, upon reflection, Aquaman comes to a revelation about his old foe Ocean Master.
The stories are good on their own, but the whole book doesn't have a beginning, middle and end. And it's a lot better if you read the Atlantis Chronicles first and then the Aquaman monthly series after. Unfortunately DC has never connected David's Aquaman series.
Wow. I mean I didn't expect it to be great, but this was really bad. I usually love Peter David's stuff and I've always had a soft spot for Aquaman, but this was just awful. Lame story, corny dialogue, terrible art. This was a big let down. No one seems to be able to get Aquaman right. He has the potential to be a really interesting character. I wish this would have been good.
My mother took me to swimming lessons at the Mount Greenwood Park District pool when I was just three years old. Evidently, I clung to the fence for dear life, screaming bloody murder the whole time. As soon as they could pry me off the chain links and coax me into the water, I felt like I was at home. No one could stop me from getting in the water after that. I joined different swim teams until I hit high school. When I have anxiety attacks at home, I sit in the bathtub and let the shower run to calm me down. I love the water, I love to swim, it makes me feel comforted and comfortable.
Its no surprise then that I latched onto Aquaman early on in life. Batman may be my hero now, but Arthur Curry was my first love. From the Super Friends TV show and then to his comic books, III started relating to his character on so many levels- his anger, his temper, his narcissism, hs reluctance to be the hero, his misanthropy. When good writers took hold of him, it was the best character going.
Peter David takes a great approach to the character- he is both man and myth. A man struggling with apparent godhood, a dark past and a deep, rich history. When all of these things come together, its beautful. The stories here, though, and not the characterization, that is the problem (along with the artwork). These are just a bunch of throwaway stories for a lazy Sunday morning read and nothing that changed the character or the reader's perception. There isn't anything lasting here, most likely from editorial order. Peter David gets the characterization perfectly, though. That's what this mini is good for.
Time & Tide. Following on Peter David's superb Aquaman: The Atlantis Chronicles Deluxe Edition his Aquaman origin, Time & Tide, is ... disappointing. Oh, there's a little bit of nice focus on the Chronicles' prophecy and a battle with Ursula from the Little Mermaid is almost mythic, but much of this mini-series is just mediocre. I mean, need we even speak of the entire issue about Arthur being raised by dolphins that culminates with him wanting to get it on with his dolphin sister? Then there's a boring team-up with Flash. And it's all horribly ordered and somewhat nonsensical. Oh, and there's garish art that makes Arthur look like a member of an '80s hair band. Not a great start for Peter David's run ... [2+/5].
Nice retelling of Aquaman's origin and early adventures that was done as the set up for a new series. The art was nice too.
Only problem, is the constant attempts to give Aquaman a tragic back story and make him all dark and serious.
It's Aquaman! How grim and gritty can you be while wearing a bright orange shirt?! Like Superman, Aquaman can be written seriously, but really doesn't work if you try and make him a grim badass. He ends up sounding whiney .
Writers need to concentrate and on writing him cool adventures, remembering he is a super hero and that despite what you saw in the Super Friends cartoon, this is a guy that can walk around on the bottom of the ocean and rules a kingdom that covers three quarters of the world.
This is almost bad enough that it should be read just to enjoy laughing AT it. The art is Saturday morning cartoon bad and at times worse. Peter David, who is a really good writer, delivers jokingly bad dialogue with plots that Stan Lee would scoff at. Please read something else.
I have never been a fan of Aquaman, in fact I make fun of him almost daily, but goddamnit, Peter David can write anything and I’ll read it. This book is a really cool origin story, it sort of reminded me of an ocean Tarzan, raised by dolphin, wanted to bang one, you know, normal growing up stuff. I think the big part of this that bugged me was the consistency of the art, there didn’t seem to be any, some pages looked awesome and epic, while others looked goofy and cartoony, it was a mess like 90% of DC’s movies, but with strong writing I was able to look past the art.
As an introductory origin story for the character, this book is not successful at all. It's a bit too scattered and unstructured. However, as the first arc of Peter David's epic run on Aquaman, it works just fine. Just don't expect a full meal here. This is a prologue.
Originally released in 1993 (and collected as a trade paperback in 1995), Aquaman: Time & Tide was writer Peter David's attempt to make Aquaman a viable character in the DC Universe. That's no mean feat when you consider how many series the character has been unable to sustain over the years. I'm not even sure this revamp was necessary in light of the underrated 1989 Aquaman limited series and Legend of Aquaman one-shot, but I gave Time & Tide a chance because I really do love the Aquaman character and keep hoping someone will get it right (I'm still waiting).
I've never been a fan of Peter David, and he doesn't convert me here. It's obvious he has some passion for the character, as well as some interesting ideas, but the writing is just too uneven. There are bits of an origin story strewn together with later events that form a narrative that is choppy, at best. And David's dialogue might have been the norm in the early 90's, but that wasn't exactly comics' finest hour.
The artwork is uneven as well. Never mind that impressive cover image. The interior artwork by Kirk Jarvinen is obviously influenced by Art Adams, but ends up looking like a (more) cartoony Ron Lim effort. There are some great pages, but they're offset by a lot of not-so-great pages that looked rushed. It pales in comparison to Martin Egeland's detailed and dynamic work on the Aquaman series that followed Time and Tide.
Despite its flaws, I have to give Time and Tide credit for kicking off an Aquaman ongoing series that lasted the better part of the 1990's. The tale of Aquaman's first encounter with the Flash is also worth the price of admission. If you're an Aquaman fan, by all means check out Time & Tide. It's not like there are a lot of other Aquaman trades to choose from.
One other note about this trade paperback: the paper stock is basic newsprint and the cover stock is not much better. The shoddy presentation just adds insult to injury.
Purely aesthetically. He is incredibly attractive and I love the arrogance. Like a hot Namor. :)
The story felt weird, but I think that's only because I didn't have context. People reading this at the time would at least have known the preceding issues of AQUAMAN Vol.4 (these issues were meant to be part of that series, but it was cancelled, sending these off to be a separate limited series) and possibly the events of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS which also have some minor relevance. Without knowing any of that, it felt a bit like "I'm pretty sure I'm meant to know something interesting here..."
The issue of ADVENTURE COMICS from 1959 actually contradicts the limited series which takes the bulk of the book. I'm not sure how it's meant to come together, but according to a note from the editors, both CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and THE NEW 52 both make it all make sense.
This book was a lot of fun. A friend loaned it to me when I mentioned I didn't know anything about Aquaman's backstory, and he brought this by the next day.
It was far from perfect, and I daresay it was even a far cry from what Peter David can do at the top of his game. There are also some... let's go with distressing art moments. Like Aqualad, who I was starting to think had developed a tic of some kind. And there's a bit of the cheese in dialogue now and again. Nothing in here comes off as terribly original (the perils of reading older comics, in a way).
But I actually felt a lot of pathos for Aquaman, a character who, before this, I could really take or leave. I think the strongest story in the lot might have been the very first one, where Aquaman hangs out with Flash and shows himself to be less fo the absolute good guy than some of his counterparts.
Dividido en cuatro partes, Aquaman: Año Uno relata de manera amena los orígenes de este infravalorado superhéroe, así como también su primer encuentro con los humanos, con otro superhéroe (Flash), su filosofía de la vida y el encuentro con uno de sus más grandes enemigos.
Es muy interesante conocer los orígenes de Aquaman tal como lo muestra Peter David y como este personaje se debate, muchas veces durante el cómic, entre sus dos naturalezas, humano y pez, interesante que también este relatado en forma de crónica por el propio Aquaman, mientras escribe su diario y reflexiona sobre los sucesos ocurridos en su vida.
El punto flojo serían los dibujos de Kirk Jarvinen, en ocasiones muy aniñados, y le quita un poco de fuerza y seriedad a la historia.
Never read an Aquaman comic before, thought his abilities were cool, but always thought his superhero status was less than stellar. I decided to finally read some Aquaman because the idea of him has always seemed cool to me.
I knew this series was going to be good when in the first issue, the Trickster called him a "pussy fish." I guess 94 was a different time, but I laughed.
The rest of the series was good at explaining some of his origin and one of his foes. Mos def read this if you haven't read any Aqauman before.
Historia pasatista y bien contada pero que deja con gusto no tanto a poco como a mal cocido. El dibujo tampoco ayuda mucho que digamos, así que no es un comic que destaque. Leído en la edición española de Zinco publicado con el nombre "Aquaman: Año Uno". Quizás después la suba y, cuando la relea, me explaye un poco en la reseña.
It's a good Aquaman story by one of the best Aquaman writers. The writer has done more to add to the Aquaman mythos then any other that I can think of. This is one of those books that fans of Aqauman have to read to appreciate the character. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about the King of the Seas.
This was the definition of "meh". Wasn't bad, wasn't great. Not sure what the real point was, and the dolphin story was stupid. I might try to find something else to be won over to the Aquaman camp, but not anytime soon.
I started this with very low expectations, so maybe that's why I liked it 4 stars. I liked it a lot more than I expected. Aquaman was always the weakest link in the Superfriends, but this showed a more badass side to him.
Nice collection of short stories, quick read. Makes me wish David's run on Aquaman was collected so I could read more of his take on the character. Seems like people either love it or hate it. But Aquaman's kinda the same way, too, ins't he?