Not many people remember Aquaman’s first ever sidekick Aquagirl, but Lisa Morel’s disappearance is a mystery that demands an answer.
Aquaman is one of the oldest characters in DC Comics history, dating back to 1941, and despite becoming something of a figure of fun in pop culture, he’s largely spent that time as a wise hero and leader. However, with over 70 years of comic lore, he is bound to have a few hanging plot threads that were never resolved. By far the most curious of these is Aquagirl, the hero’s first ever sidekick.
When most people think of the companions of Aquaman, they typically picture his love interest Mera or Garth, the original Aqualad, who later took on the hero name Tempest. More recently, Jackson Hyde took on the name of Aqualad and then Aquaman, denying his father’s villainous legacy to become Arthur’s heroic heir. There have also been others, including more ridiculous sidekicks like Arthur Curry Jr., aka Aquababy, and Salty the Aquadog. However, before any of those members of the Aquaman family, there was Lisa Morel, the first Aquagirl
What Happened to Aquagirl?
Aquagirl made only one appearance in Adventure Comics #266‘s ‘Aquaman Meets Aquagirl’ by Robert Bernstein and Ramona Fradon, and never appeared again, eventually wiped from continuity by DC’s timeline-rewriting Crises. However, with Infinite Frontier and Dark Crisis bringing back all past continuities in DC’s infinite multiverse – and outright confirming some heroes were kidnaped from time in The Golden Age (including a forgotten Aquaman) – it’s the perfect time for DC to bring back Aquagirl and reveal what happened next. Indeed, Lisa Morel is already canonically back in existence, given the nature of DC’s multiversal restoration. So what has she been up to?
Aquaman’s Sidekick Mystery Can Be a Fantastic Story
For any other character, a forgotten original sidekick would be an immense mystery that demanded further exploration – DC has even retconned both Batman and Superman to have early child sidekicks fans never met. However, in Aquaman’s case, readers still don’t know what happened to Aquagirl. In 1959, when the comic industry was on the decline from the Golden Age, editors and writers were throwing everything they could at the wall to see what would stick, and it’s obvious that Lisa’s Aquagirl was one of those ideas that was tried and passed over. However, it’s unlike superhero comics to leave any past associate ignored for long, making the current 64-year gap a shocking amount of time for Aquagirl to be ignored.
With the promised return of so many restored worlds and forgotten characters after the rebirth of the infinite multiverse during Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths, Aquaman’s first sidekick and greatest mystery has a chance to live again, finally showing fans what happened to Lisa Morel after her first appearance.
