Tom Curry
68 years ago - Tom Curry is born to a family of fishermen in Amnesty Bay, Hawaii.
51 years ago - 17-year-old Tom joins the Navy and serves on an patrol vessel.
49 years ago - 19-year-old Tom completes his active duty and becomes a naval reservist, working full time as a fisherman.
47 years ago - 21-year-old Tom is on a ship that sinks in a storm, losing his father. His love of the ocean is tempered by his fear of it.
45 years ago - 23-year-old Tom finishes his time as a reservist. He becomes a lighthouse keeper full time.
42 years ago - 26-year-old Tom saves an injured Atlanna in the middle of a massive coastal storm, and helps nurse her back to health. They fall in love, and are married.
39 years ago - 29-year-old Tom & Atlanna are attacked by Atlantean Shock Troops. They fight them off, but it appears that Atlanna is killed.
30 years ago - 38-year-old Tom sees Arthur befriend a dolphin and begin to explore his powers. He begins to realize that his son has a larger purpose.
26 years ago - 42-year-old Tom gives his blessing to Arthur to venture out into the open ocean where he starts having adventures.
19 years ago - 49-year-old Tom sees the rest of the world learn about Arthur, and name him Aquaman.
14 years ago - 54-year-old Tom learns that Atlanna was the Queen of Atlantis and that Arthur is the true heir to the throne, helping him decide that is falls to Arthur to Liberate Atlantis.
9 years ago - 59-year-old Tom overcomes his fear of the depths of the ocean to attend the wedding of Arthur & Mera
7 years ago - 61-year-old Tom meets his grandson, Arthur Curry Jr.
Because Aquaman's backstory has undergone a major change in his history, Tom Curry's role changed quite a bit over the years. When I was first reading Aquaman comics it was during the 90's, when Peter David was redesigning the Aquaman mythology. During that era, Aquaman discovered that the man he thought was his father had actually adopted him when he found him abandoned on Mercy Reef. His biological father was actually Atlan, the ancient Atlantean sorcerer. This was the story I always took to be cannon.
However, thanks to the renewed interested in Aquaman in the last few years, there has been a lot of energy spent refocusing on the original love story between the human lighthouse keeper and the lost Atlantean princess. This really is a much better way to begin Aquaman's story, and we've in fact made a real effort to shift our timeline to give these lovers their due.
However, thanks to the renewed interested in Aquaman in the last few years, there has been a lot of energy spent refocusing on the original love story between the human lighthouse keeper and the lost Atlantean princess. This really is a much better way to begin Aquaman's story, and we've in fact made a real effort to shift our timeline to give these lovers their due.
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Tom Curry's Comic HistoryTom Curry appeared for the first time in More Fun Comics in 1941, the same issue where Aquaman debuted. In his original appearance, he was a man who had discovered the remains of the lost city of Atlantis, constructed a bubble-home there, and raised his child using the lost science of Atlantis to be able to thrive underwater. Later, an issue of Adventure Comics in 1959 retold Aquaman's origin, introducing the idea of a lighthouse keeper falling in love with a lost mermaid princess.
the 1990 limited series the Atlantis Chronicles drastically rewrote Aquaman's origins, making him the abandoned son of Atlantean royalty. In this version of the story, Tom found him and raised him, making him Arthur's adopted father. |
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The original version of the story was brought back in 2011 during the New 52, although at first, it was still understood that both of Arthur's parents were deceased.
As children of the 90's, We were very committed to the Peter David story and to the idea of Arthur having been abandoned on Mercy Reef. Even as the comics transitioned back to the classic origin, we clung to this far more complicated story. We've finally realized, through, that there is something timeless in the idea of Arthur being the product of an impossible love between two people from different worlds. While the New 52 comics introduced the idea that Atlanna was actually still alive, they still haven't found a way to establish that Tom Curry might still be alive, and having seen the fantastic Aquaman movie, that's clearly a mistake. |
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Our Tom Curry StoryThe current notion of who Tom Curry and Atlanna are is very much taken from the recent Aquaman movie. Even the comics are shifting the bedrock of their story to accomodate it. We've largely done the same; although because we're working to give everyone a more complete backstory we also had to define some of the events that make Tom who he is. This means incorporating his history in the Navy, and as a fisherman. We also introduced the idea that he lost his father at sea, because it makes Tom a very interesting character to suggest that he has this life-long relationship with the ocean but also has a deep-seated fear of it.
One change that we enjoyed was the ethnicity of Tom Curry and Arthur. The casting of Jason Momoa as Aquaman introduced the idea that Aquaman is Maori, and It really does bring so much to the character. Tom is played by the always-awesome Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett himself), who is technically from New Zealand rather than Hawaii, but the results are still fantastic. We are all absolutely in favor of the idea of Tom Curry being Maori, so much so that we even moved Amnesty Bay from Maine to Hawaii. If Aquaman is going to have a home on land, this just made so much sense. |