It's a pretty good image -- aside from the fact that giant seahorses don't exist and the weirdness that the flag would be way, way, way too long if it was stretched out straight.
Still, this is one of the better Bicentennial covers put out by DC in 1976. It embodies the season while still giving Aquaman a fight scene against Black Manta. And poor Aqualad looks like he's in a bit of a pickle in that giant aquarium.
Unfortunately, that's the only Bicentennial content in the comic. The inside pages contain two stories -- one staring the King of the Seven Seas, another starring the Creeper. Neither feature a mention of the Bicentennial.
What we do get is this banner ad on the top of the page, something similar to what ran on all DC comics for a couple of months that year:
That ties to this full-page ad, which asks kids to cut up 25 DC comics to send away for a free Superman belt buckle. (I love that everything had to be postmarked by July 4, 1976. That's a great touch.)
I don't think too many people took DC up on this offer because their Bicentennial comics still seem pretty easy to find. I got this issue at Excalibur Comics here in Portland for about a buck fifty. (It's in pretty bad shape, but not "somebody cut the banner off the top of the cover" bad shape.)
Still, I may need to start haunting eBay to see if any of these Superman belt buckles exist out there. I think that will be a fun addition to my ongoing quest to track down all of these Bicentennial issues.
Although this comic doesn't have any real Bicentennial content, it's still pretty fun. Martin Pasko wrote both stories (Paul Levitz plotted the Aquaman story). The great Jim Aparo drew the lead story (and the cover). Here's my favorite moment from the entire issue, which may not have much to do with 1976 but it sure rings true for the period:
That's it for our first dip into the Bicentennial comics pool. Come back next week for a look at another issue. Who shall it be that time. Maybe...Batman?
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