Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and sixty-first installment where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false.
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COMIC LEGEND:
Dolphin was added to the cast of Aquaman for a "Single White Female" pun.
STATUS:
True
Peter David, as you may or may not know, is very fond of wordplay in his comic books. In just the first issue of Young Justice, for instance, the team met two government agents named Fite and Madd, fought against Nina Dowd, who was cosmically enhanced to become the Mighty Endowed and gained the team name Young Justice after someone confused them for the Young Justice League of America and Impulse said no, "No...we're young, but just us" and the reporter thought he said "Young Justice."
However, David typically just lets the puns come to him. In other words, he introduced two government agents and then came up with a pun for them after deciding to have two government agents in the book. It wasn't "How do I fit Fite and Madd into this comic book?"
In the case of Mighty Endowed, that wasn't even the original pun (as I noted in an old Legend here).
However, one exception to this rule was the addition of Dolphin to the pages of Aquaman.
She showed up as a prisoner of the evil Charybdis at the end of Aquaman #1....
She had not been used much since her debut years earlier in Showcase #79...
The next issue was called "Single Wet Female"...
A pun based on the then-hit movie, Single White Female...
Dolphin, though, ends up playing a major role in the issue after Charybdis has piranhas bite Aquaman's hand off, she then shoots him...
While not intended more than an initial guest star, Dolphin became a regular cast member...
and even got her own spotlight issues...
David reflected on the situation years later, "Contrary to the opinion of some, I don't come up with a gag and then bend a story to it...except one time, when I guest-starred Dolphin in "Aquaman" just so I could write a story entitled "Single Wet Female." Once she was there, I liked her so much I kept her around. Other than that occasion, humor always flows out of what I'm writing rather than the other way around."
Thanks to Peter David for the information!
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In the latest TV Legends Revealed - Did the Rankin-Bass TV special, Jack Frost, accidentally enter the public domain?
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Feel free to write in with any legends suggestion to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com!