Oscar Bensol sticks us with "The Stickmen of Stygia".
Aqualad and Mera have nothing better to do than annoy the Sea King with a prank involving a fake ship--Tusky is wrangled into it too. Aqualad calls in a fake distress call. Unfortunately, actual aliens are watching all of this (for Stygia's Funniest Home Videos?). The aliens want to capture Aquaman and bring them back to their planet as a water slave.
The prank continues--Tusky makes some fake alien sounds as Aquaman arrives. He sees a beam from the fake ship moving a rock, recognizes it as a normal flashlight, and realizes he is being set up. Aqualad is moving the rock, and manages to push it towards the fake ship. The Sea King swoops in to save them, and gets hit by the rock. They apologize to him, but he's not happy. The Stygians take this opportunity to attack with an immobilizer and a magnetic beam. Aquaman calls in an octopus (Topo?) that knocks out the beam temporarily, then cut the line and tie it down. Somehow, this manages to keep the spaceship from escaping, and drags it to the sea bottom. They fire torpedos that knock out Mera, forcing Aqualad to save her. After the ship's guns are knocked out by sharks, they come out with hand guns that fire force rays. Aquaman decides to go the prank route, fooling the Stygians into thinking the flashlight nullifies their guns. Some dolphins pushing rocks onto their ship complete the effect, and they blast off. Laughter plays us out.
Some things to look for:
- Aquaman's nickname for Aqualad count: Tadpole (61)
- Aqualad catchphrase attempts: Holy Hagfish, Leaping Lionfish
- The Stygians are in fact stickmen--they look like they came out of a Play-Doh Fun Factory
- They never explain why they need Aquaman as a water slave "upon pain of death"
Bob Haney's back with "Three Wishes to Trouble".
Tusky finds a jug on a sunken ship. Aqualad opens it to find (of course) an aqua-genie named Snork--is this the father of the Snorks? I smell a lawsuit. Anyway, the genie (who sounds a little like Jim Backus as Mr. Magoo) offers the teen three wishes. Wish #1 is a robot to do his chores. The robot is ordered to clean up the wrecked ships, but his vacuum also starts pulling in Tusky and Imp. Aquaman sees what's going on, and comes in to help.
The genie is hiding from Aqualad while the robot goes wild, destroying a coral reef and trapping him. Aquaman saves him and goes after the robot--Aqualad finds the genie and wishes for a robot smasher, which does his job. Aquaman questions the teen, who tells him about the genie, and Aquaman orders him to get the genie back in the jug. The genie says he has one more wish, and Aqualad decides he would like to have Aqua-telepathic powers, just once. Unfortunately, his uncontrolled telepathy calls up huge mutant fish from the bottom of the sea, and since he said "just once", he loses the power so he can't send them back down. Aquaman has to bail him out with normal fish troops to push them back in. Aqualad confesses to the Sea King, and a pufferfish is brought in to suck up the genie and put him back in the jug.
Some things to look for:
- Aquaman's nickname for Aqualad count: Tadpole (63)
- Aqualad catchphrase attempts: Howling Hungfish, Leaping Lionfish, Mumbling Mantis, Murmering Moonfish, Leaping Lampreys (whew!)
- The robot's vacuum is powerful enough to pull Imp's mane color off for a moment
- Why doesn't Aquaman just order the mutant fish back down, rather than fight them with normal fish?
Remember, you can play along by watching the show on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, or VUDU. You can also buy the DVD on Amazon.