In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

Today, we look at when Aquaman first visited Atlantis in the comic books.

As you know from the fact that I've written about it a lot, including just recently when I talked about a change to Aquaman's origins during Peter David's run on Aquaman where he revealed that Aquaman was originally raised by a pod of dolphins, Aquyaman's origin went through some strange changes over the years. Originally, he was the son of a scientist who was literally TAUGHT how to sleep underwater!

That aspect of his origin was not really discussed for almost two decades. His adventures were all pretty straightforward. Heck, we never even learned the guy's real name. He was just "Aquaman."

Finally, in 1959's Adventure Comics #260 (by Robert Bernstein and Ramona Fradon - this is 18 years after Aquaman debuted!), we learned the new "true" origin of Aquaman, where we discover that he is from Atlantis...

However, while the issue introduced Atlantis, note how it ends, Aquaman specifically notes that he CAN'T go to Atlantis!

Six issues later, Aquaman meets someone who claims to be AquaGIRL. She has Aquaman's powers, but in the end, she loses her abilities. It turns out that she is an exile from Atlantis...

Three issues later, Aquaman meets Aqualad, who is an older exile from Atlantis...

After Aquaman fixed Aqualad's fears, he sends Aquaalad back to Atlantis, and we see Aquaman come all the way to the edge of Atlantis once more, but that's it...

That's it for the next year or so.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='When did he finally get to Atlantis?']

In a clever turn of events, DC seemed to wait until the perfect moment to actually have Aquaman go back to Atlantis. You see, Aquaman had been a back-up feature for his entire history (first in More Fun Comics and when that comic became a humor title, he made the move over to Adventure Comics along with Green Arrow and the lead feature, Superboy), but now that he was part of the Justice League of America, DC likely believed that he might be able to handle his own title. Thus, Aquaman was given a shot in 1961's Showcase #30 in a story by Jack Miller and Ramona Fradon. And sure enough, Atlantis contacts Aquaaman and asks him for help!

He first thinks back about his origins before he answers...

Yep, it turns out that Atlantis has been conquered by some strange creatures! It is kind of lame that they only allowed Aquaman to come to Atlantis when they were at their most desperate, right? Lame behavior.

However, Aquaman rose above that attitude and saved the day and sure enough, now Atlantis was cool with Aquaman...

When Aquaman did, in fact, receive his own series soon after this, Atlantis became a regular fixture in the series.

If anyone else has a suggestion for a notable comic book first, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!