Aquaman

41 years ago - Arthur Curry is born, the son of Tom Curry, a human lighthouse keeper, and Atlanna, an Atlantean Queen exiled from her people's kingdom in a coup.

39 years ago - 2-year-old Arthur's parents Tom Curry & Atlanna are attacked by Atlantean Shock Troops. They fight them off, but it appears that Atlanna is killed.

30 years ago - 11-year-old Arthur befriends Porm the dolphin, and begins exploring the strange powers of his Atlantean bloodline. His father Tom Curry begins to realize that his son has a larger purpose.

26 years ago - 15-year-old Arthur gets his father Tom Curry's blessing to venture out into the open ocean, beginning to have adventures.

19 years ago - 22-year-old Arthur first reveals himself to the surface world, who dub him Aquaman. The Fisherman attempts to capture him, but he escapes.

18 years ago - 23-year-old Arthur battles Black Manta for the first time when he stops him from raiding a freighter.

17 years ago - 24-year-old Arthur battles Nanaue for the first time. He is captured by The Fisherman and kept on land. He is saved by the arrival of Oliver Queen.

16 years ago - 25-year-old Arthur helps defeat Starro along with several other heroes, and becomes a founding member of the Justice League.

15 years ago - 26-year-old Arthur saves the Justice League from John Dee's Materioptikon by not having an alter ego.

14 years ago - 27-year-old Arthur contacts Oliver Queen to assist the Justice League with his expertise in international drug trafficking. He thwarts Black Manta's preliminary attacks on Atlantis. When Orm Marius realizes that he is the lost son of Atlanna and the true heir to the throne of Atlantis, he imprisons him. There Arthur meets Nuidis Vulko, who teaches him his heritage and helps him escape. He talks to his father Tom Curry, deciding that it falls to him to liberate Atlantis.

12 years ago - 29-year-old Arthur is contacted by Garth, an escapee from Idyllis, an Atlantean penal city housed within the alternate dimension Xebel. together they breach the barrier into Idyllis and free the prisoners. They are captured by Black Manta's forces, but escape with the help of Kaldur'ahm, destroying their ships. Garth becomes Aqualad and joins the original Teen Titans while Arthur prepares to retake Atlantis.

11 years ago - 30-year-old Arthur is attacked by Mera, but when he doesn't kill her in retaliation she joins his crusade against Atlantis. Nuidis Vulko helps them enter the city without bloodshed. Arthur retakes the Atlantean throne, and imprisons Orm Marius in the palace. Vulko is named as Arthur's valued advisor. Black Manta's forces attack Atlantis in the aftermath of the coup, but finds them ready to follow their new king. Kaldur'ahm plays a vital role in defeating his forces, and earns the right to begin his training early with the Atlantean military, moving to Atlantis.

10 years ago - 31-year-old Arthur orders the Atlantean sorcerers academy reopened. tracks The Fisherman, now fully manifesting it's alien strength with a new Atlantean host. When he defeats him, he removes the parasite and keeps it contained in Nuidis Vulko's labs.

9 years ago - 32-year-old Arthur, feeling he can trust his half-brother, permits Orm Marius to leave his prison and join the Atlantean Court to attend his wedding to Mera, despite Nuidis Vulko's protests. Arthur is not present when the Justice League votes on what to do with Arthur Light. Nanaue begins attacking the outskirts of Atlantean territory, until Arthur stops him.

8 years ago - 33-year-old Arthur rebuilds a new Earth-based Justice League while Nuidis Vulko serves as regent in Atlantis. He invites new hero Mari Jiwe McCabe to join.

7 years ago - 34-year-old Arthur & Mera have their son Orin. Orm Marius escapes Atlantis and begins amassing followers, forcing Arthur Curry to leave the role of leader of the Justice League to Batman so that he can protect his city, remaining a reservist.

6 years ago - 35-year-old Arthur protects Atlantis from Orm Marius and Black Manta when they attack the city together. Manta betrays Orm to kidnap Orin, leaving Mera in a coma. Arthur quests to save his son, with the help of Dolphin. He sacrifices his hand to save his son's life and almost dies of blood loss before Dolphin brings them back to Atlantis. Nuidis Vulko replaces his hand with an Atlantean war-hook.

5 years ago - 36-year-old Arthur is forced to battle Mera when she recovers from her coma, and attacks both him and the city in her rage, believing to have lost her son. She is only stopped when she discovers Orin is alive. She goes into seclusion Nuidis Vulko's help, where she can focus on helping the people of the city rebuild.

3 years ago - 38-year-old Arthur joins the Watchtower. Mera returns to the throne with Nuidis Vulko serving as regent, and Kaldur'ahm works to defend Atlantis in his absence, earning the name Aqualad. Arthur is summoned by Kent Nelson, to assist him alongside Solomon Grundy, Kendra Saunders & Adam Blake in ending a cosmic demonic cataclysm. In the end Grundy gives his life to save the universe.

now - 41-year-old Arthur & Mera cross into Xebel when Nuidis Vulko discovers that the barriers are weakened. They discover that the Xebelites are preparing to invade

Aquaman is a joke of a character who is useless out of water and whose only power is talking to fish. That is, unless you've ever read any of his comics.

Then you might have noticed that he's one of the most powerful characters in the DC lineup whose comics are among the most consistently entertaining reads DC has ever put out. Innovation vs recognizability is clearly a constant battle with Aquaman. You want a character everyone immediately recognizes, but for some reason no one seems to be able to let go of the comic take on the character from the fifties. Nevermind that EVERY comic book character had ridiculous, child's-imagination adventures during those decades. For every picture of Aquaman water-skiing on porpoises, there's a picture of Batman wearing an apron taking muffins out of the oven. Very few characters have undergone more drastic changes in their tone and image than Aquaman, but none of his redesigns are allowed any permanence. So it falls to us to create a singular version of his story, and oh my god, this one was fun.

Aquaman's Comic History

Aquaman is actually one of DC's oldest characters, created all the way back in 1941, only two years after the creation of Superman. He was a backup character in More Fun Comics, but would go on to be one of the stars of the book. He came into prominence in the fifties as a founding member of the Justice League, but he also stood out as one of the earliest characters to be depicted in his own animated series in the Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure. He was, along with the rest of the classic Justice League, a part of the animated Superfriends, which is really where the stigma against the character started as he was often, intentionally or not, depicted as a bit of a joke. A lot of different writers have taken a lot of different approaches to overcoming that version of the character.

Currently, the character is experiencing something of a renaissance. Geoff Johns did a wonderful job of depicting a classic version of the character in a way that made it seem like he's ALWAYS been exceptionally awesome and powerful. We're also seeing a live action version of the character (clearly drawing from the Peter David verion of the character) as played by Jason Momoa, the living embodiment of everything awesome in the world.

Our Aquaman Story

The long standing 'Aquaman is a joke' stigma that has followed the character around for decades has actually had a pretty surprising effect. Everyone who's ever written Aquaman was trying to overcome that stigma, and the result is what has to be one of the greatest collections of stories ever. Aquaman is rife with amazing mythology. He's undergone massive arcs involving huge, ocean-wide rebellions, conquered the throne of Atlantis, battled ancient ocean gods... he doesn't have the consistency of a Batman or Superman because he's constantly being rebuilt and reimagined, but every time it's into something truly special.

To build our timeline we decided to focus on his early history as a completely free spirited adventurer before his discovery of his Atlantean heritage and his status as exiled royalty, which fuels what becomes a massive coup to retake his mother's throne. Stories with epic shakespearean scope like that are perfect for Aquaman. This one brings in Aqualad, Mera, Ocean Master, Vulko... it's a lot of smaller tales all spun together into one massive arc.

Moving forward from there, we start to see Arthur's responsibilities as king conflict with his interaction with the surface dwellers, like his role as leader of the Justice League. Of course, eventually we get to see Black Manta's abduction of the infant Orin. Aquaman lost his hand to piranhas in the comics, but in the Justice League animated series he cut off his own hands in order to save his son's life, and that is WAY cooler.

Aquaman's Powers

One of the many elements of Aquaman's story that gets continually reimagined is exactly what his powers are and exactly how they work. It seems each new writer wants to come up with their own version of what he can do and why. Obviously, his ability to command sealife is a huge one. It's a very specific type of primordial telepathy, and we believe this is best explained as a trait of the Atlantean royalty. The ancestry of Atlantis has its roots with the ancient sorcerer Atlan, so the ruling family could easily have some supernatural abilities. While it stands to reason that all Atlanteans are incredibly strong and durable to be able to survive in the depths of the ocean, It should also be a specific feature of the royal bloodline that he is SO strong and able to propel himself through the water at such ludicrous speeds; because how else could he do it, unless he was wielding some sort of magical enhancement?

This means that Aquaman's brother has these abilities too, which makes him a pretty dangerous foe... but I happen to like the idea that Arthur has access to this ability on a far grander level than any Atlantean ruler in centuries. Partially because he has a heightened connection to the families bloodline,, but also because he lived on his own in the ocean for many years, honing his abilities as an adventurer and superhero.

Aquaman's Costume

The classic Aquaman costume clearly has nothing wrong with it. While Peter David's 1994 - 1998 run on the character staged a massive revolution when he rebuilt Aquaman into a bearded swashbuckling king with a harpoon for a hand and produced a look that was absolutely adored... they still managed to move back to his classic look within the next decade. Geoff Johns take on the character in the post New 52 comics became one of the most popular depictions of the character ever, and he does it while still sporting the orange shirt and green pants. So why would we stick to the Peter David Aquaman? Simply put; there's never been a bolder reimagining of a character than what Peter David created. His Aquaman is probably one of the most audacious single runs on an established character you're ever going to read. It has amazing superheroics, Shakespearean drama, soap-opera betrayal and romance.

We actually want to being Arthur's story in his classic costume. There's nothing inherently unawesome about that look, and it actually totally works to have a young, eager seahorse-riding adventurer version of the character be the one who discovers that he is the lost king of Atlantis and leads the refugees of Idylis in a coup to retake his throne. As the character grows over his lifetime, however, you absolutely HAVE to watch him evolve into a grizzled warrior king. That evolution is one of the coolest things in comics, and we want to have it too.

Aquaman's Future

As we close out our timeline, Aquaman and Mera are breaking the barrier into Xebel in an attempt to stop Mera's people from invading Atlantis. While this promises to be a great story all on it's own, it also opens up the doors to a real evolution for Arthur. While there have been a lot of attempts to evolve Aquaman, they all seemed to want to find ways to take him backward into something more reminiscent of his original characterization. What we'd rather see is something that moves him forward.

Before Peter David left Aquaman, he introduced the idea of the Clear, a global magical energy that he taps into to speak to sea life. (It's believed that David was on his way to introducing the idea that Arthur was in fact an ocean elemental) There's also the memorable concept of his magically enhanced "water hand", the device used to replace his harpoon. The magical practices of the Xebelites actually can lead to a huge expansion in what Aquaman is capable of, manipulating the ocean itself. Perhaps this upcoming story of their quest into Xebel can be the catalyst of something even broader than his discovery of his royal heritage.

Aquaman Redesign by Lee Chen Fang

Related Characters

Mera

Orin