At the beginning of the November 8th Magliocco lecture, entitled “Aquaman Sucks!”, Department Chair Marjorie Allison welcomed all in attendance, while giving special recognition to Maurine Magliocco. Magliocco, who studied at Western beginning in 1967, went on to teach in the English Department for 37 years, and upon retiring, created the Magliocco Lecture Series. The lecture series, which hosted its first annual lecture in 2006, would finance the visit of a guest lecturer to provide academic enrichment for both Western students and faculty. Apparently, Magliocco has not visited Western in some time, so it was a real treat to have her, with many professors in attendance greeting her with well wishes and warm embraces.

            Once Allison had welcomed the attendants, she turned the podium over to Rebekah Buchanan who gave an introduction to the guest lecturer, Ryan Poll. Poll is an associate professor of English at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, IL. Outside of teaching, Poll researches the overlapping of politics, aesthetics, and ecology. His second book, Aquaman and the War Against Oceans is a prime example of his work in which he uses Aquaman, both as the figure and as a stand-in for the aesthetic of comics, as an allegory for the global mistreatment of our precious oceans. According to Buchanan, this unique perspective is what drew her to his teachings and led her to invite Poll to come give his lecture. The lecture was a long time coming as Buchanan stated that she first virtually met and began corresponding with Poll a year ago. Following this kind and flattering introduction, Poll stood to begin his lecture.

            “The best projects start with a paradox”, according to Poll. He went on to explain what he defines as the disappearance of oceans from popular literature. Beginning in the 20th century, oceans became a forgotten space in stories, appearing less and less, if included at all. Before this disappearance, oceans were often written about as expanses of natural beauty, connections between humans and spirituality, or alien-like worlds filled with mysterious wonder. According to Poll, this disappearance, although it can be taken literally as there is a well-recorded gap in the mentions of oceans in 20th-century literature, is also referring to the change in the connotation of oceans in writing. Following this disappearance, oceans were no longer seen as wondrous or positive environments but were seen as dangerous, untamable, and the home of villainous monsters or beings. With this outlined, Poll began discussing the realistic use and histories of our oceans.

            Poll asked the audience what they thought the two most important ships were. With a few ideas shouted out that were well reasoned, but not what Poll had in mind, he revealed his answer. According to Poll, it was “slave ships and container ships that enabled modernity.” These two classes of ships, different in their purposes and positions in our history, initiated the usage of oceans as a means of transport. “Oceans have become highways for our hot commodities”, Poll explained. It was then, after giving plenty of background information, that Poll began speaking on comics as a form of media and more significantly, Aquaman as an allegory for oceanic ecology.

            While talking about comics, Poll covered a wide range of topics, from the systematic racism within comic publishing companies to the specific intentions behind mapping out comic panels/frames. The main point that Poll seemed to be making was the connection between the extreme humiliation received by Aquaman dating back to his first appearance and the horrible mistreatment and oblivious mindset towards the world’s oceans by humans. Poll took time to show us comedy spoofs of Aquaman, from a skit animated by Robot Chicken to a parody clip included in Family Guy. He then asked the audience why we thought it was such a popular trend to hate Aquaman. The general consensus was that Aquaman’s powers are essentially useless, even while in the ocean. Poll then linked this back to the disappearance of oceans from popular literature, stating that the reason we view his powers, dominion over all the world’s oceans, as lame, is due to the lack of positive imagery of oceans in media. Poll spent much time expanding on this idea, showing us many slides with graphics from comics and excerpts from videos. After his lecture concluded, he offered time for a Q&A. Few questions were asked, but for those that were, Poll answered them with thoroughness, sometimes opening up the discussion to tangents that were not entirely connected to the question, but interesting nonetheless.

           Poll, who used his brief lecture to its fullest extent, effectively used a comic character, a superhero dressed in orange and green, to argue for the desperate plight of our world’s oceans. This interesting allegory allowed Poll to address world threatening issues in a light and digestible way, while not permitting further ignorance. Like this heavy moment which followed a silly joke about mismatched comic panels. He said, “The one that’s becoming a graveyard because of global capitalism.” Here, Poll was referencing the decrease in biodiversity of marine environments due to the mismanagement of industry-related processes, near or significant to coasts. It’s safe to say, members of Poll’s audience will no longer be able to scoff at the King of Atlantis.