COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Aquaman 20 Universal
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Grade:
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9.4
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Page Quality:
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OFF-WHITE TO WHITE
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Pedigree:
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Pacific Coast
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Certification #:
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0994442009
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Owner:
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Mississippi Mudcats
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
In Issue #20, Aquaman rescues an Atlantean menaced by a great two-headed beast, and meets a newcomer--Kaltor, an Atlantean who trained him in the use of his powers when he was a teenager. Now Kaltor claims that his fighting strength has waned, and makes Aquaman swear a sacred oath to destroy the two-headed monster. But Kaltor's daughter Starene arrives, and is sorrowful that her father has made Aquaman swear the oath. Later, the monster kidnaps Mera, but Aquaman refuses to let Aqualad destroy it, opting to capture it instead. As the sea king deduced, the two-headed beast soon metamorphoses into Kaltor. The Atlantean tells Aquaman that, since being exposed to strange fumes in an underwater mine, he has been transformed periodically into the monster, and fears the next change will be permanent. Kaltor becomes the beast again, and, after Aquaman finds Mera, he slays the creature, but the monster transforms back into a living Kaltor, who is reunited with his daughter Starene. Aquaman prophesied that the "death" of the monster was evidently the antidote to Kaltor's curse.
While just a 9.4, our comes from the Pacific Coast Collection, which is generally considered to be the greatest Silver Age collection to ever surface. It was brought to market by Robert Roter after he discovered portions of it for sale on E-Bay in 1999. The books were marketed through PCE over the next several years and contained over 7,000 comics and magazines that included Marvel, DC, and Gold Key among others, covering a time span between 1961 and 1977. Many of the highest graded Marvel and DC issues from the early '60s hail from this collection with exceptional page quality. The books do not exhibit any distinguishing markings.
Our book is still tied with two others for highest graded copy in the census as of June 202o. We acquired the book off the Heritage Exchange on 6/27/2019. While not all acquired together, this book marks the end of a six issue Pacific Coast run and is our 12th out of the first 20 issues in this title.
2024 Update: The statement above about the number of Pacific Coast copies is no longer true, as we upgraded two of the Pacific Coast 9.6s for 9.8s in June 2024. There are also now four 9.4s topping the census.
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