Ocean Master

52 years ago - Orm Marius is born the illegitimate son of Orvax Marius, the future King of Atlantis. He is raised by the religious leader Kalandro to one day usurp the throne.

42 years ago - 10-year-old Orm Marius breaks free of Kalandro's control and leads a coup against the royal family. He kills his biological father, Orvax Marius, but his forces lose the trail of Queen Atlanna. He begins reinstating the theocracy led by Kalandro, who names Thorne the chief royal scientist.

39 years ago - 16-year-old Orm Marius's agents find the location of Atlanna. He sends his Shock Troops to kill her, and is informed that she is dead. He accepts Nuidis Vulko into his royal court.

28 years ago - 24 year old Orm reopens Idylis, Atlantis's ancient prison colony within the Bermuda triangle opening into Xebel. He begins exiling all undesirables & enemies of the church, against the arguments of Nuidis Vulko.

24 years ago - 28-year-old Orm sends all Atlantean magical adepts into Idylis, even infants like Garth. Kalandro and his followers become the sole arbiters of magical power in Atlantis. When Nuidis Vulko publicly speaks out against the decree, he is branded a heretic and imprisoned.

14 years ago - 38-year-old Orm meets Arthur Curry when he protects Atlantis from Black Manta. Realizing he is the son of Queen Atlanna, Orm places him in prison, but he escapes. Nuidis Vulko recants his past heresy and is permitted to return to court.

12 years ago - 40-year-old Orm learns that Arthur Curry has liberated the prisoners of Idylis and is beginning a campaign to retake Atlantis.

11 years ago - 41-year-old Orm loses the throne of Atlantis to Arthur Curry. He is imprisoned in the palace.

9 years ago - 43-year-old Orm, having gained Arthur Curry's trust, is permitted to leave his prison and join the Atlantean court and attend his wedding to Mera.

7 years ago - 45-year-old Orm escapes Atlantis and rejoins Kalandro, taking command of his followers, forcing Arthur Curry to leave the Justice League to protect his city.

6 years ago - 46-year-old Orm allies with Black Manta to invade Atlantis but is betrayed when Manta kills Kalandro and abandons the assault, leaving Orm to be defeated by Arthur Curry. He retreats in defeat to utter exile.

3 years ago - 49-year-old Orm joins Lex Luthor's Injustice Gang in a bid to defeat Arthur Curry along with the Watchtower, but when he is defeated he is imprisoned on land.

The overall quality of Aquaman's stories have varied wildly over the years, and that is probably best reflected in his villains. In modern comics Ocean Master is a huge badass, single-handedly driving entire Justice League arcs as he threatens the entire planet. Comparatively, some of the classic Aquaman stories featuring Ocean Master were... not kind.

We built a story for Aquaman that we are really, really proud of, and it uses the character to great effect. He becomes a very classic archetype of a villain, and he fits the role fantastically.

Ocean Master's Comic History

Ocean Master first debuted in 1966 in Aquaman #29. He wasn't the first Aquaman villain, but he was one of the first to have an intrinsic tie to Aquaman's backstory, because up until that point Aquaman's origins had been vague at best. Once it was established that Aquaman was the result of an impossible love between a human lighthouse keeper and a mermaid princess, Orm was revealed to be Arthur's half brother... on his human side. For those keeping score, that meant that Orm was completely human. He couldn't breathe underwater. He was, like many of Aquaman's early enemies, a high-tech submarine pirate. As the years passed, Black manta proved to be the best example of that particular villainous archetype, and Ocean Master became a natural-disaster causing terrorist a-la Doctor Evil. He continued to be played as a pseudo-joke of a character all the way into the 90's.

Eventually, When Aquaman's origins were being redesigned in the 90's, Ocean Master got a similar redesign. He was still Aquaman's half-brother, but now the parent they shared was Atlan, the ancient Atlantean sorcerer. this at least made him a much more credible thread. It was in the post-new 52 that Orm became Arthur's full-blooded Atlantean brother and therefore vied with him for the throne of Atlantis, which has proven to be a vastly superior use of the character.

Our Ocean Master Story

Our version of Aquaman has a really grandiose arc, living as lost, unknown king who must lead a campaign to retake his throne. That story deserves an epic Game Of Thrones villain, and it just so happens that one of Aquaman's villains is his half-brother.

Once we arrived at the idea of Orm actually having held the throne of Atlantis for most of Arthur's life, a lot of his new characterization fell together. He would be the king's illegitimate son, would have been raised since birth to one day overthrow his father and claim the throne, allowing the theocrats that raised him to take control of their civilization. This lets us set up Idylis, and give Aquaman a perfect motivation to take the throne, even if he doesn't necessarily want it.

Of course, making Orm a classic evil usurper king makes him a little bit pathetic once he loses... which, of course, he will. He's a villain. They tend to lose. We've made Aquaman's powers all associated with his Royal blood, so Orm will still be a pretty formidable baddie, even if he probably is going to seem like a lot of talk. Power-mad, totally believing that power is owed to him, and completely undeserving of that power; If you'll permit me another Game of Thrones reference, he's going to seem like a combination of Joffrey and Viserys.

Ocean Master's Future

Here's the thing; as well as Ocean Master fills the story we've crafted for Aquaman, it is a little unfortunate that he doesn't get to be a singular, badass villain all on his own.

We've left him imprisoned and land-bound, which takes him largely off the table for the time being. For now Aquaman and Mera are going into an extended storyline that brings them into Xebel. Once they're back, it might actually due to have Orm already have reclaimed the throne in their absence. What actually makes the most sense is for him to acquire some sort of powerful Atlantean artifact that allows him vastly expanded powers; Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of his trident.

Of course, he's the bad guy, so he'll probably lose it. Aquaman is, in current comics, always depicted as carrying a trident, but that's kind of a new thing. If Aquaman returns from Xebel with an empowered water hand in place of a hook, then he just might need to get that trident, and this could be an awesome story to make that happen.

Related Characters

Vulko