Who's This? Water-breathing Teen Titans.
The facts: Aquaman's sidekick Garth debuted in Adventure Comics #269 (Feb 1960) was made a founding member of the Teen Titans, teaming up with Robin and Kid-Flash in The Brave and the Bold #54 (July 1964), and appeared in the Filmation Aquaman cartoon. Like many of the sidekicks he's had a rocky relationship with his adult partner, changed his name when he grew up (to Tempest), etc. As for his Titans career, it ended when Marv Wolfman showed no interest in using him in New Teen Titans (give or take a handful of appearances), but he did appear regularly in the book up through the '70s. As for Aquagirl, Tula first appeared in Aquaman #33 (May–June 1967) and became a recurring character in that strip as a love interest for Garth, carrying over into Teen Titans exactly once. She was killed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
How you could have heard of them: Young Justice features a very different Aqualad (a cross between Garth as both Aqualad and Tempest and the more recent Aqualad who is the son of Black Manta), and Tula also appears occasionally, modeled more closely on the Nick Cardy original.
Example story: Teen Titans #30 (Nov-Dec 1970) by Steve Skeates, Carmine Infantino and Nick Cardy
I don't want to criticize 1970 medicine or anything, but this story starts with a man falling out of tree and getting a concussion so bad, he can only be saved by an experimental brain hormone. It'll become important later. For now, let us wonder if Garth and Tula had their own series, if it would just take place on land during their one-hour limit. High-concept TV series, right there. Because that's what we're about to read. It's tough being Atlantean teenagers with one foot on dry land. The cool bands NEVER come to your town, and you can only ever catch one hour of any given concert, less once you factor in getting there and back, standing in line, etc. It's such a raw deal, Aqualad doesn't seem to even want to pay for it.
Man, can't even go up to the front. This sucks urchins. Actually, they shouldn't have worried because it turns out their hippie band has a real strange set-up:
The big crowd is at their back, they play mostly to the empty field where kids can see everything from a prone position. Maybe Infantino has never been to a concert, I dunno. Meanwhile, the patient has responded to the brain hormone and it's turned him into a rampaging lunatic. Yay!
Ah man, it seems the drug might have heightened his hearing / reduced his adult tolerance for "devil music"! He's gonna ruin that rock concert, I just know it. Unless the Aqua Teens can save the day!!!
Awww no! Aquagirl is already out! Accidentally elbowed, she gets a concussion that - as mentioned earlier - could be fatal (Skeates does not follow through on this, actually). The lunatic goes on to throw a band member off the stage, Aqualad intercedes, punches the dude light's out before he does something he will regret, and as for Tula...
...she walks in-land in a daze. Don't you just love it when your female star goes from damsel in distress to problem of the week? Aqualad can't find her, and there's this really weird scene where he questions a group of boys as to whether they've seen an Atlantean girl, and they're cagey about it. One of their number points Garth in the right direction and gets some grief for it.
Boy, that's ugly. Scarfy McGee (I mean, Jeff) is either thinking he can hit on anything that moves so long as the girl's significant other is not present, or even worse, he was going to take advantage of her concussed condition. Either way, gross. But Garth IS sent in the right direction and finds Tula hanging by a lamp post, dehydrating. He's not feeling too good either.
You'd think a Titan could get a glass of water in this seaside town, but that would have robbed us of the desperate moment where our heroes collapse on the beach and are saved by the tide coming in. It's pretty cool. In the epilogue we find out the band hadn't even played their hit song by the time they were rudely interrupted. Atlanteans must hate it when Don McLean only plays American Pie in the encore (like everyone else, I suppose).
This strip didn't actually sell Garth and Tula as a viable crime-fighting duo, not the way SHE was treated, and that's too bad. She seemed a lot sassier and autonomous in the stories I (admittedly vaguely) remember from her early Aquaman appearances. As for Garth, my favorite version of him is the relatively recent Teen Titans Year One's, which is a comedy portrayal and not the heroic ideal he's meant to be here. But these characters don't have to be viable solo (or even duo) heroes, not with Aquaman cornering the market on DC's underwater adventures. Speaking of which...
Who's Next? The King of the Seven Seas.
How you could have heard of them: Young Justice features a very different Aqualad (a cross between Garth as both Aqualad and Tempest and the more recent Aqualad who is the son of Black Manta), and Tula also appears occasionally, modeled more closely on the Nick Cardy original.
Example story: Teen Titans #30 (Nov-Dec 1970) by Steve Skeates, Carmine Infantino and Nick Cardy
This strip didn't actually sell Garth and Tula as a viable crime-fighting duo, not the way SHE was treated, and that's too bad. She seemed a lot sassier and autonomous in the stories I (admittedly vaguely) remember from her early Aquaman appearances. As for Garth, my favorite version of him is the relatively recent Teen Titans Year One's, which is a comedy portrayal and not the heroic ideal he's meant to be here. But these characters don't have to be viable solo (or even duo) heroes, not with Aquaman cornering the market on DC's underwater adventures. Speaking of which...
Who's Next? The King of the Seven Seas.
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