This is a new feature called "Beg Steal or Borrow," which is about when comic book characters are abruptly pulled from one book to another. I'm not talking about when comic book characters simply migrate from one title to another (I spotlight examples of that in my feature, "Looks Like I'm Moving"). I mean examples where a writer has a character taken out of the book against their wishes. It almost always happens in team books, but sometimes it occurs in solo titles, as well.

We begin the feature by looking at how this sort of thing made Aquaman look quite two-faced when it came to the creation of the version of the Justice League now known as "Justice League Detroit."

Just recently, CBR's own Tom Speelman wrote a great spotlight of the history of "Justice League Detroit," but I'll re-examine it here quickly specifically in terms of Aquaman's involvement with the team and why it ended up leading to an awkward scenario for the writer of the series later on.

Now, as you may or may not know, in the late 1970s, Aquaman's son was killed by Black Manta. While still reeling from that, Aquaman was also deposed as the ruler of Atlantis. This was right as Aquaman lost his solo feature in the early 1980s, so it was a super strange time for Aquaman. He was going through all of this trauma in his life and yet he was still appearing as a regular cast member in the Justice League of America, so there really was no way for him to deal with all of his baggage, since he was still appearing in standard superhero yarns where he was just a minor player in the whole thing, like when the Justice League fought Starro in the early 1980s in Justice League of America #190 (by Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler, Larry Mahlstedt and Bob Smith)...

Okay, so that's the status quo for the next couple of years. Just standard appearances in the Justice League and that's it.

ni Uncanny X-Men, the Legion of Super-Heroes and the New Teen Titans were all becoming huge sellers and they all three notable things in common - 1. They were mostly all young heroes 2. They were more diverse than your typical superhero team of the era and 3. The heroes were almost all unique to that team book, so the writers could do major things with them.

Conway didn't have that with the Justice League except for Red Tornado and Zatanna, where he was allowed to do stuff with their private lives. Everyone else, naturally, was off limits for something like that. So Conway pitched and got approved on a drastic revamp of the Justice League.

In Justice League of America #228 (by Conway, George Tuska and Alex Nino, whose inks really added a whole new side to Tuska's pencils), the Earth is attacked by an invasion from Mars. Aqauaman sends out the Justice League alarm, but "only" seven other heroes respond to the alert...

In the next issue (art by Alan Kupperberg and Pablo Marcos), Aquaman even complains to himself about the fact that the League's "heavy hitters" didn't show up for the invasion of Earth...

They obviously succeed in stopping the invasion (with the help of former Justice League member, Martian Manhunter, who turns against his own people to save Earth). However, Aquaman is pissed off.

First off, his wife, Mera, leaves him when he DIDN'T return to Atlantis during the invasion and then he decides to change the League so that they would only have members on the team who would be fully committed to the League....

They also add some younger, more diverse members to the team...

Pretty straightforward, right?

But wait just a sec...

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Oops, Now I Can't Commit, Either!']

In 1986, DC came out with a new Aquaman miniseries by Neal Pozner, Craig Hamilton and Steve Montano...

In the first issue, Aquaman pointedly gets a new costume that does NOT have his Justice League communicator on it...

Rob Kelly interviewed Gerry Conway about his Justice League run and Conway explained that yeah, Aquaman was pulled from the book by editorial, "At that point, I was being told what to do. My autonomy on the book--whenever I had any--probably ended around the time I left the book that first time, and after that I was basically trying to manage my way within the DC system.

I don't think [Aquaman leaving] would've been my goal, leaving a group he had brought together."

So in Justice League of America #241 (by Conway, Tuska and Mike Machlan), Vixen tells Aquaman that he should go out and find Mera...

Aquaman thinks about it...

And at the end of the issue, he has disappeared...

In the next issue, he finds Mera and they reconcile...

He and Mera catch up with the League (who are fighting with Amazo) in the next issue....

They all defeat Amazo, but Aquaman quits the team because he realizes that he can't give the same level of commitment that he asked for from the others...

Okay, folks, that is it for this inaugural installment! Feel free to suggest other ideas for future installments! Just drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!