23.Jan.2010 In Defense of Aquaman – By Jason

In Defense of Aquaman

Aquaman is part of the pantheon of DC heroes. He’s easily one of the  Most Recognizable Superheroes of all time. First published in 1941 and created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, he was just a backup feature in DC anthology titles until he was granted his own solo title.  He was one of the first superheroes to get married (and it wasn’t a hoax or an imaginary story) in 1964 and he even had a baby, Arthur Jr.

He’s a true Golden Age hero, and was revamped and brought into the Silver Age. And that’s when things started going downhill for the King of Atlantis.

As was customary at the time, an “Aqua-Family” was created and consisted of Aquaman, his wife Mera, (his unrelated sidekick) Aqualad, Aqualass, AquaBaby and a host of marine animals.

In 1979, Black Manta kidnapped the entire family and killed Arthur Jr. Did you read that? A supervillain killed a hero’s BABY! And the issue wasn’t even written by an Englishman (it was written by David Michelinie, best known for his Iron Man work.) Black Manta escapes (mainly because Aqualad is too big a sea-P to help Aquaman go after him, ) and later Mera blames Aquaman for the death and she leaves him.

That’s how happy a life Aquaman had BEFORE the Crisis.

After DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986, the “Big Guns” got revamped and retrofitted by some of the business’ most talented people. Superman got Byrned. Batman was Millerized. Wonder Woman was, uh, Perezed. Who did Aquaman get? Neil Pozner. No offense to Mr. Pozner, he wasn’t a writer or even a creator… he was an editor and helped to perpetrate this onto us:

DC Comics Aquaman Mini-Series Ad image by nurgh

The Aquaball continued to roll downhill since then… Since the 80s the title and hero have been bounced from creative team to creative team (Peter David’s run probably being the most notable.) The character himself lost a hand and his empire. He grew a beard and got crabby (no pun intended). In the Justice League series, he’s handled quite well but his own series continues to linger and gets cancelled. In fact, the entire JLA gets lost in time in a quest to rescue Aquaman and all of Atlantis (the Obsidian Age) but the series spun out of that storyline never lived up to the promise. Thanks to all the attempted restarts and revamps Aquaman’s origin is now just a complicated and confusing as Hawkman’s was ten years ago.

Let’s get some things straight.

Arthur Curry / Orin of Atlantis / Aquaman

Is a king

Can speak with and command all the creatures of the deep

Is incredibly strong

Is a low-level telepath

Has incredible endurance

Is a leader, both from a ruler stand-point and in the field

Depending on the continuity, his powers stem from being a mutant or from the gods… either way, pretty boss.

All adds up to a fascinating character longing for a great creative team!

Aquaman shares a problem with Wonder Woman; they’re hard to relate to; both are royalty and from lands completely foreign to us. Superman is from Kansas. Batman is from, let’s face it, New York. So’s Spiderman. That’s part of their popularity.

Aquaman needs a giant reboot. Let’s make him into the hero that people remember from decades of history. It’s an amazing feat to see what they did with Green Lantern in the past few years and I hope that DC turns theirs sights onto Aquaman and gives us a new title with new and exciting (and excited) creators.

Here’s some suggested material if you’re interested in Aquaman:

-       Aquaman: Time & Tide by Peter David and Kirk Jarvinen

-       The Adventures of Aquaman – the complete cartoon collection from the early 80s

-       The Atlantis Chronicles – written by Peter David (the past myths and history of Atlantis… Aquaman just reads them, but it’s a GREAT mini-series)

-       Online you can find the pilot for a show called Mercy Reef, a “Smallville”-esque show about the future Aquaman starring Justin Hartley, Lou Diamond Phillips and Ving Rhames. Wish it had made it into a series!