Aquaman
Aquaman is a male comic superhero who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Golden Age
Silver Age
Arthur Curry was the son of a human named Tom Curry and an Atlantean named Atlanna. His father was an ex-sailor who maintained a solitary existence as a lighthouse keeper. One day, a hurricane hit the region and Tom was shocked to find a young woman trapped on a raft at sea. He quickly moved to rescue her and took her back to the lighthouse where the two fell in love. Two weeks later, the two got married and they had a son they named Arthur Curry a year later. Despite the love they shared though, a strange feeling came to Atlanna who was always staring out into the sea. Arthur himself also developed strange abilities from a young age where he was able to naturally swim in water when he was 10 months old. When he was two years old, Arthur struck his head and fell underwater by a derelict for an hour with his father desperately in search of him only to shockingly discover his son able to breath underwater. A year later, Arthur was in the water when sharks emerged but Tom was shocked to find that the animals did not harm his son and in fact allowed him to touch them. A while later, his father fell ill and was on her deathbed where she finally revealed her origins to her husband and son thus showing that she was from Atlantis. (Adventure Comics v1 #260)
Whilst setting up their lair, they were visited by a water sprite named Quisp who came to warn them about the Fire Trolls. The giant beings had invaded his realm but a fissure came to form a doorway to Earth with the fiery creatures invading the world. (Aquaman v1 #1)
Upon returning to Atlantis, he learnt that Juvor who ruled the city had died and that Aquaman was his successor. To avoid the bloodshed of civil war, he accepted the crown whereupon ancient law dictated that he needed to choose a wife. Shocked by this, Aquaman decided to go on patrol first before he came to a decision as he struggled with the idea of marrying any of the maidens in Atlantis as he was not in love with them. During patrol, he witnessed Mera being pursued by Oceanus who was from her kingdom and madly in love though she rejected his advances. Mera had actually left her watery dimension when the barrier between their worlds was set to shut for many years. Thus, she had left her kingdom in order to be with Arthur. However, the ancient law stated that he could only marry an Atlantean and regrettably had to reject her. Afterwards, a despondent Aquaman returned to Atlantis which had been conquered by Oceanus who had taken Mera to his side. The Xebellian had enslaved the Aquaman and Aqualad alongside the Atlanteans until Mera turned against him forcing him to flee. In the aftermath, Aquaman used his authority as ruler to make Mera an honorary Atlantean thus allowing him to marry her with a large wedding held for the pair. (Aquaman v1 #18)
In South America, after saving a group of sailors from being drowned by a waterspout and returning them to their freighter, the Frisco Dawn, they asked Aquaman for a favor. All the sailors on the Dawn had lost loads of money to first mate Mr. Kipp, who loved to bet with them and always found a technicality that let him win. Aquaman challenged Kipp to a number of bets, with Kipp winning each time, until they bet on who would be the first person to find a man overboard. Kipp was worried about losing, so he took a lifeboat and fled from the Frisco Dawn. His lifeboat sank and he was forced to admit he was a man overboard so that Aquaman would save him. Kipp then returned all his ill-gotten earrings to his crew. (Adventure Comics v1 #243) The military shot a nuclear projectile into space, but it had a defective rocket and thus landed in the sea, where Aquaman found it. The military contacted Aquaman, telling him to bring the projectile to Pierce Island within three hours so they could deactivate it, otherwise it would detonate and irradiate the ocean. With time running short Aquaman assembled a “Super Sea-Squad” of various denizens of the deep to help him reach Pierce. Just as the device was about to explode, Aquaman launched it from the catapult of a Roman galleon stuck in the Sargasso, and had a whale near Pierce bring it to a gentle rest using its’ water-spot. The military deactivated the device; and Aquaman reminded them to thank his fishy friends for helping to avert disaster. (Adventure Comics v1 #247) Aliens demanded that Aquaman collect specimens of sea creatures for their cosmic aquarium, otherwise they would kill him. Thinking fast, Aquaman pretended to capture a number of his undersea friends, then slipped into a seaweed bed where the aliens could not observe him, and switched the sea creatures for realistic dummies. Lopo, an octopus that wanted to be the first sea creature in space, volunteered to manipulate the dummies with his tentacles so they seemed alive, and the aliens flew off with their haul, none the wiser. (Adventure Comics v1 #248)
After being conked on the head by a stray guided missile, Aquaman became amnesiac and was discovered by the Barnacle Gang, who he was on his way to arrest for smuggling. The Barnacle Gang sussed out the situation, and told Aquaman they were secret service men who needed Aquaman to recover treasures at the bottom of the sea, which was really contraband the Gang had to dump overboard during a run in with the coast guard. Aquaman salvaged the goods, then suffered another bump on the head which jogged his memory. The Barnacle Gag took Aquaman hostage, but he was rescued and the Gang was defeated by Aquaman’s pet octopus Lopo and an army of undersea creatures. (Adventure Comics v1 #249) Aquaman saved scientist Dr. Avry Rush’s boat from a waterspout, and Rush begged Aquaman to let him run a series of tests on Aquaman’s body to learn exactly how his powers worked. Aquaman participated in a battery of tests, but could never spend too much time with Rush because some sea emergency or other kept dragging him away. Rush got so frustrated that he locked Aquaman in a steel cage to keep him from running off. Rush went out to sea, and was nearly drowned during a storm before Aquaman learned of the predicament from some flying fish ad sent some whales to save Rush. Rush realized the error of his ways; humanity needed Aquaman more than science, and Aquaman accepted his apology. (Adventure Comics v1 #250) A government test of a new undersea nuclear weapon went awry, and Aquaman was caught in the blast, which hurled him into the year 6958. He awoke in the future city of Atlantica and learned that the vast majority of Earth’s water had dissipated after a nova exploded in Earth’s atmosphere, but that undersea creatures evolved and learned to live on land. A council of scientists offered their time machine up to Aquaman so he could return to his own time. After foiling crooks that aimed to steal the machine, Aquaman returned home. He was shaken by the experience; he never wanted to live to see an Earth that went dry. (Adventure Comics v1 #251) While charting an unexplored section of sea for the oceanographic society, Aquaman came upon a cave that housed a time warp, and Aquaman was sent into the distant past. He fought a number of dinosaurs and saved the life of a prehistoric man from a pterodactyl. Aquaman re0entered the time warp and returned to his own time. He wondered if this adventure was real until he found cave art depicting the prehistoric man he saved shaking Aquaman’s hand. (Adventure Comics v1 #253)
Aquaman had to cope with a number of sea disasters occurring at the same time. After each time he made a choice as to which disaster was the most urgent and returned to the lesser catastrophe he found that someone else had already saved the day. He noticed an old man in a boat following him around, and the man revealed himself as the Olympian god Neptune. Neptune revealed that he had been helping those in need during the rash of sea disasters, and told Aquaman he would be of assistance anytime Aquaman needed help, because Aquaman had proved a worthy king of the sea. (Adventure Comics v1 #255) Aquaman was captured by a group of smugglers he had been pursuing, and they dropped him in a desert. Aquaman nearly perished from lack of water before finding a nearby town where the citizens assisted him in staying alive. The smugglers went to the town and turned off the water supply, but Aquaman led them to a aquarium, where he renewed his vitality with water from the various exhibits, and had the sea creatures on display at the aquarium capture the smugglers. (Adventure Comics v1 #256)
Later on, the Flash came upon Saranna and Jasonar, two refugees from Kalanor. Their home dimension had been conquered by the tyrant Despero, and Jasonar had perfected an anti-weapon device to disable Despero's arsenal. Flash summoned the Justice League and they prepared to use Jasonar's dimensional traveler to go to Kalanor, but Despero had ambushed Aquaman and the Justice League and held them in stasis in their headquarters. He planned to banish them to other dimensions, but couldn't affect Flash, who'd been exposed to the radiation of the dimensional traveler that made him immune to Despero's teleport beam. He challenged Flash to a variation of chess, using the Justice League as pawns. he rigged the game with his mental powers, and each time Flash lost a pawn, a leaguer was teleported to another dimension. Flash lost and entered a dimensional traveler to the world of Narx. Meanwhile, Aquaman and Green Lantern were sent to the water-planet Thanakon, which Despero was destroying with a flying burning glass. They saved the Thanakonians and left the planet, meeting up with other Leaguers who had saved other worlds from destruction by Despero, and together they returned to Earth. Despero caught up with Jasonar and was about to take his anti-weapon device, when Snapper, who had stowed away on Despero's traveler turned the anti-weapon on him, sapping his energy. The League allowed Jasonar to take Despero back to Kalanor as a prisoner thus ending the villain's tyrannical reign. (Justice League of America v1 #1)
Post-Crisis
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
Whilst at home, Arthur showed Mera pictures of his childhood when they were interrupted by the local police who requested his aid after a number of people went missing off the shore. Aquaman and Mera then went to the scene where he was surprised to find no fish out in the waters after using his telepathy. The authorities managed to recover a survivor encased in a cocoon whereupon they came under attack from monstrous fish-like humanoids called the Trench. (Aquaman v7 #2)
Entering into the depths, they encountered an aquatic vessel fused to the home of the Trench. Whilst there, they encountered the dying spawn of the Trench and discovered their Queen. Aquaman and Mera managed to recover the hostages in their cocoons where they attempted to flee the scene only to be pursued by the underwater cannibals. This forced Arthur to use his trident to ignite an undersea volcano that ended up killing the Trench. Taking the hostages to the surface, they were greeted as heroes at Amnesty Bay for saving the people. (Aquaman v7 #4)
Mera then inadvertently killed Arthur in a fit of rage where he passed into the kingdom of Mother Shark. The primordial being sensed a great destiny within him and decided to let him live but he for a time had forgotten his past. (Aquaman v8 #49)
After the fight, Mera had collapsed and was going into labour with Arthur quickly taking her back to Atlantis to get medical treatment. Whilst there, she had to be put into a coma to allow her body to heal but had given birth to a healthy baby girl who was Arthur's daughter. (Aquaman v8 #57)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Arthur's father was a human lighthouse keeper by the name of Tom Curry whilst his mother was an Atlantean named Atlanna. (Adventure Comics v1 #260)
His father was said to had taken him on trips across the country and made Arthur try new things far away from the water. (Aquaman v7 #2)
Upon meeting Mera, he found her to be beautiful and had fallen in love with her. Eventually, he came to marry her and Mera became his wife. (Aquaman v1 #18)
At one point, one of his allies was a green-haired two-feet tall being called Quisp who claimed to be a water sprite (Aquaman v1 #1)
Arthur and Mera later came to adopt a dog after he lost his owner to the Trench where some people came to refer to him as Aquadog. (Aquaman v7 #4)
He once encountered an ancient primordial being called Mother Shark who was said to be as old as time. She was said to stand watch over those that passed from the world of the living to the dead. Mother Shark resided in the Sunken Forest where the ocean's collective memory resided amongst its corals. (Aquaman v8 #48)
Powers and abilities
Arthur was the son of a human and Atlantean where he inherited abilities of the latter such as being able to breath underwater. (Adventure Comics v1 #260) He was noted to possess enhanced hearing that sometimes meant that high pitched noises bothered him more so than it did to ordinary humans. (Aquaman v7 #5)
One of his defining abilities was his telepathy that allowed him to communicate to aquatic life through a kind of sixth sense. (Adventure Comics v1 #260) He could also use his telepathy offensively against enemies as he could use it to locate the brain's basal ganglia that was a part inherited from a person's marine ancestors and use it to trigger a seizure in an enemy. (JLA v1 #4) In time, his control had improved to the point that he could conduct simple mental probes into a person's mind. (Aquaman v5 #40) Such was his level of control that he could communicate with even microscopic plankton and get their aid to attack his enemies. (Aquaman v6 #22) It was said that this power was tied to a force that linked all aquatic life which was known as the Clear. (Aquaman v5 #35)
Aquaman learned a new technique while traversing the home planet of the Hexapuses, he could channel his psionic force into potent mind and body disorienting psychic waves which throw his opponents off balance. As though they were jostled about by a tremendous earthquake. (Action Comics v1 #530)
Sometimes, when wielding magical relics, an effect that was shown to him wielding their power was his eyes taking a bright golden glow. (Aquaman v8 #32)
Unknown to him, within his body contained the force of the Life Energy that was a primordial power that came from the ocean itself. (Justice League/Aquaman: Drowned Earth v1 #1)
He was known to wear an orange-coated scale armour when operating as Aquaman. (Aquaman v7 #2) By his waist was a symbol that resembled an 'A' which was a glyph that stood for Atlantis. (Aquaman v7 #5)
Notes
- Aquaman was created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris where he made his first appearance in More Fun Comics v1 #73 (November, 1941).
Alternate Versions
In other media
Television
- In the DC Animated Universe, the character made multiple appearances in the shared continuity setting:
- In Superman: The Animated Series, Aquaman made his first appearance in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Miguel Ferrer.
- In Batman Beyond, Aquaman was referenced in the animated television series in the episode "The Call: Part 1" where his daughter Aquagirl appeared in the setting.
- In Justice League, Aquaman appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Scott Rummell.
- In Justice League Unlimited, Aquaman appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced again by actor Scott Rummell.
- In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Aquaman made multiple appearances in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor John DiMaggio. This version of Aquaman was the king of Atlantis and protector of all the seas. Batman describes him as a friendly, happy-go-lucky adventurer with a "larger-than-life" personality; he has habits of giving his exploits titles such as "The Mystery of The Stolen Statue" and "The Secret of the Mechanical Sea Monster", and telling these tales to anyone within distance of his voice. He uses the phrase "Outrageous!" whenever he is shocked and peppers his speech with sea-based references. His character design is based primarily on his classic character design, but with a beard. In the series finale "Mitefall!", Bat-Mite attempts to get the series cancelled by making it jump the shark in as many ways as possible; this includes changing Aquaman's voice actor from John DiMaggio to Ted McGinley (regarded as the "patron saint" of shark-jumping). Ambush Bug manages to restore the hero's original voice by getting "Aquaman" to admit to being McGinley. Additionally, Sea King, an alternate universe version of Aquaman who is a member of the Crime Syndicate appears in the episode "Deep Cover for Batman!".
- In Young Justice, Aquaman appeared in the setting of the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Phil LaMarr. This version was a member of the Justice League. In "Independence Day", he and Aqualad end up defeating Killer Frost in Hawaii. He and the other adult mentors of the sidekicks end up called away to help Zatara and the other Justice League members prevent Wotan from blotting out the sun. In "Fireworks", he and the other Justice League members arrive at the ruined Cadmus building following Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin, and Superboy's fight with Blockbuster. When the sidekicks and Superboy wanted some involvement with the Justice League, Aquaman ends up agreeing with Batman and Green Arrow resulting in the formation of Young Justice. In "Downtime", Aquaman tells Aqualad that Batman had told him what happened following the team's fight with Clayface, and is called away to help the Justice League with a fire breakout in California. In "Auld Acquaintace" Aquaman is controlled by Klarion the Witch Boy and briefly fights Aqualad, but is defeated by his sidekick.
Films
- In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Aquaman appeared in the setting of the animated film where he was voiced by actor Josh Keaton.
- In Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Aquaman appeared in the setting of the 2013 animated film where he was voiced by actor Cary Elwes.
- In Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, Aquaman appeared in the setting of the animated film where he was voiced by actor Matt Lanter.
Video games
- In DC Universe Online, Aquaman appeared in the setting of the MMORPG video game where he was voiced by actor Jens Anderson.
- In Injustice: Gods Among Us, Aquaman appeared as a playable character in the setting of the fighting video game where he was voiced by actor Phil LaMarr.
- In Injustice 2, Aquaman returned as a playable character in the setting of the fighting vide game where he was voiced once again by actor Phil LaMarr.
Other
Appearances
- More Fun Comics v1: (1941)
- Adventure Comics v1:
- Aquaman v1:
- Justice League of America v1:
- Aquaman v5:
- JLA v1:
- Aquaman v6:
- Brightest Day v1:
- Justice League v2:
- Aquaman v7:
- Aquaman and the Others v1:
- Aquaman v8:
- Justice League/Aquaman: Drowned Earth v1:
External Links
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