DC Comics LEGACIES: A Field Guide #2 - AQUAMAN

DCU Legacies Field Guide #1: Superman and Batman

Following up on our first installment of the DCU Legacies Field Guide, we return with a look at another core DCU hero.  This time, we turn back the clock on the King of the Seven Seas.

Aquaman of Earth-2: Aquaman’s actually a surprisingly complicated case.   The beginning is rather simple; the Aquaman that we would consign to Earth-2 appeared in 1941 and more or less ran until 1959.  That Aquaman had a different origin.  His father was a human ocean explorer, and that father “taught” Aquaman his powers after studying texts that came from Atlantis (though he was shown with gills at times).  The Earth-2 Aquaman did pop up in “All-Star Sqaudron” in the ‘80s, but vanished from continuity after “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, replaced in his Squadron membership along with other major heroes in the new Earth continuity by the Young All-Stars (with Neptune Perkins being his analogue) and The Spider (who subbed for Green Arrow, post-Crisis).

Aquaman of Earth-1:  The more familiar take on Aquaman kicked off in 1959.  Lighthouse keeper Tom Curry saved a woman during a storm; she was Atlanna, an exile from Atlantis.  They fell in love, and she gave birth to the son they named Arthur.  As a toddler, Arthur’s abilities began to appear.  Tom later married again, and the issue of that union was Orm Curry, Arthur’s half-brother.  Orm would later become the villain Ocean Master, marking Aquaman as one of the heroes that can actually claim a villain as part of his legacy.  Make a note of that villain part.  We’ll see it again.

Aquaman later joined other heroes to become a founding member of the Justice League of America in the “Feb-Mar” 1960 issue number 28 of “The Brave and the Bold”.  It was a big month for Aquaman, as that was the same span (Feb 1960) when he was assigned his own sidekick.  Aqualad debuted in “Adventure Comics” #269, and actually had some interesting resonance in terms of his story.  Like Aquaman’s mother, Aqualad (Garth) was an outcast; Garth’s expanded origin is actually fairly complicated, as he was the heir to the throne and mystical power of the Idyllist colony, feared and shunned for his purple eyes that marked him as that heir.

The next major addition to the Aquaman family was his future wife, Mera.  She arrived in September, 1963, appearing for the first time in “Aquaman” #11.  A queen from another dimension, Mera recruited the help of Aquaman and Aqualad in winning back her throne.  However, Mera would later leave to join Aquaman.  They were married in “Aquaman” #18 (1964) as Arthur, whom by that point had been revealed as the heir to Atlantis, ascended to the throne.  Aquaman became the first major super-hero to get married in his own book without it being a gimmick or imaginary story.

Aquaman also got to lay claim to another milestone as he was the first of the major super-heroes to become a father.  Gestation must move more quickly underwater, because Arthur Jr. came into the world in “Aquaman” #23 (1965).  Aquaman and Mera, then, become the first major super-heroes to welcome a proper legacy character that wasn’t just a sidekick.  Arthur Jr. predates the first appearance of famous super-hero progeny Franklin Richards by three years, just as the Aquamarriage predates the Fantastiwedding (by one year).

In 1967, we met Aquagirl.  She was Tula, Princess of Poseidonis, and she became the love interest of Aqualad as well as an ally of the Teen Titans.  Aquagirl was part of the tradition of young female sidekick analogue that had been kicked off by the first Batgirl and continued with the Barbara Gordon Batgirl.

Unfortunately, just as Aquababy would be the first proper child of a major super-hero, he’d be the first one to die.  Over the course of a story in 1977 (when Aquaman was appearing in both his own book and “Adventure Comics”), Arthur Jr. was victimized by the machinations of Black Manta.  Though Mera went back to her home dimension and got a device that could possibly save her son, Arthur Jr. died before she could get back. [Writer’s Note: I remember reading “Aquaman” #62 as a child, featuring the scene with a returning Mera being told by Vulko that her son was dead; that was devastating.]

The Aquaman family would continue to take their lumps up through the “Crisis” era.  The Aquaman/Mera marriage struggled.  Aquagirl was killed by Chemo during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Also, tweaks to continuity changed the origin of Aquaman so that his father was revealed as Atlantean sorcerer Atlan, lending a more magical bent that dovetailed with the history of Atlantis laid out in titles like “Arion, Lord of Atlantis” and “The Atlantis Chronicles”.

These adjustments also spun Aquaman’s relationship with Atlantis.  His birth-name was revealed as Orin, and we learned that young Orin had other adventures and an extended family under the sea (like the dolphin, Porm, whom he regarded as a mother figure).  Young Orin had also fathered a child named Koryak, whom he wouldn’t see until he had grown into an angry young man.   Back in the then-present, Mera briefly went insane and blamed Aquaman for their son’s death before leaving “our” dimension.  Many of these developments played out in several mini-series and short-lived series published between the mid-‘80s and early ‘90s.

By 1994, Aquaman got his own ongoing again, as well as long hair and a beard, but lost his hand battling the villain Charybdis.  He replaced it with a harpoon.  During the initial part of this run (written by Peter David), Aquaman gained a number of allies, including “Forgotten Hero” Dolphin, Tempest (the revamped Aqualad), appropriate DC mainstays the Sea Devils, Power Girl (who believed herself at that point to be a descendant of Arion), former Young All-Stars Neptune Perkins and Tsunami, their super-heroine daughter (initially called Deep Blue, later renamed Indigo), and Koryak.  Aquaman didn’t have a family so much as an army, which he needed to save Atlantis from an alien invasion.  It was also during this period that Aquaman rejoined the JLA that was relaunched under Grant Morrison.

Interestingly enough, Tempest got a legacy of his own rolling when he hooked up with Dolphin.   The aforementioned Dolphin first appeared in 1968 in an issue of “Showcase”, and later joined the team known as the Forgotten Heroes.  She appeared in “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, and was part of the group that convinced Darkseid to help the heroes in their final battle with the Anti-Monitor.  Dolphin was actually Aquaman’s love interest for a brief period around the loss of his hand, but the return of Mera and the emergence of Aqualad as Tempest complicated matters.  Tempest and Dolphin began a relationship and were later married.  The two had a son named Cerdian.  Cerdian was mistakenly referred to as a daughter in “Infinite Crisis” #3.  This was not a retcon and Superboy did not reality-punch off the boy’s bait and tackle; it was merely a mistake.  Also, due to the fact that Aquaman considers Garth his son, it can be said that Aquaman was one of the first major heroes to become a grandfather (Green Arrow was technically the first, due to the birth of Speedy’s daughter Lian years earlier).
The 1994-launched series came to a halt in 2001.  For two years, the adventures of Aquaman were confined to other titles and, well, absence.  During “Our Worlds at War”, Aquaman and Atlantis disappeared and were presumed destroyed.  It turned out that Aquaman had enacted magic that dispatched the city to the past and trapped him as sentient water in a fountain.  Due to the intervention of the JLA (see the lengthy “Obsidian Age” storyline), Aquaman and Atlantis were returned to the present.  However, Aquaman was forced to flee Atlantis because the people blamed him for their troubles in the past.

In the Aquaman series that launched in 2003 (his sixth), Aquaman lost the beard and long hair, replaced the harpoon with a “water hand” thanks to the Lady of the Lake (yeah, that one; he IS a King named Arthur, right?), and became the super-hero of “Sub Diego”, part of San Diego that had been submerged.  It’s here that a new Aquagirl joins the Aqua-legacy (building from “Aquaman” #16, 2004); her name is Lorena Marquez, and she’s recently been a member of the Teen Titans.

“Infinite Crisis” made things infinitely worse for Aquaman.  The crazed Spectre destroyed Atlantis, which resulted in the deaths of Aqua-advisor Vulko, Koryak, Dolphin, and Cerdian.  Neptune Perkins also died at the jaws of King Shark.  When the DC titles segued to One Year Later after IC, Aquaman was missing and a new Aquaman was in place.  That was Arthur Joseph Curry, who looked a lot like Sawyer from “Lost” and had an origin that indicated his powers were derived from a serum; his adventures began in “Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis” #40 (which became the new name of the 2003 series at that point, May 2006).  This new Aquaman was advised by the Dweller in the Depths, whom it turned out was a mutated Aquaman/Orin/Arthur, who had been twisted by magic that he used to save the people of Sub Diego.  Dweller/Aquaman/Orin/Arthur winds up getting killed in “A:SOA” #50.  Joseph would briefly be king of Atlantis, but bugged out prior to “Blackest Night”.

With Atlantis lacking a king, Garth/Tempest stepped up.  His reign was short-lived as the Black Lanterns of Dweller/Aquaman/Orin/Arthur, Tula and Dolphin attacked, leading to Garth’s death.  He became a Black Lantern as well.  During the conflict, Mera became one of the Red Lanterns of Rage.  When the pitched battle when Black Lanterns, the heroes of Earth and the various Corps reached Coast City, Black Lantern Tempest was obliterated by the Atom (using Indigo power) and Atrocitus of the Red Lanterns.  Soon after, villain Black Hand was forcibly resurrected, causing him to vomit white power rings.  One of these rings restored the life of Dweller/Aquaman/Orin/Arthur, although he now had his more classic appearance (and both hands).  Mera’s love for Arthur rejected the Red Lantern power, and other Lanterns on scene helped her stabilize.  The couple have been adventuring in “Brightest Day”, where residual problems from his revivification still plague Arthur.

Interestingly enough, a new member of the Aquaman legacy is currently appearing in “Brightest Day” as well.  We’ve recently met Jackson Hyde, the young man that’s said to be the next Aqualad.  In a surprise twist, Hyde has been revealed to be the son of Black Manta.  If Aquaman does become the young man’s mentor, it will be an interesting inversion, considering that Black Manta is responsible for the death of Aquaman’s son.

So there you have it.  Aquaman’s legacy journey is quite the long one, inspiring other mini-legacies (the Perkins family), marking milestones with his marriage and the birth and passing of his son, and the rotating band of allies and sidekicks.  Oh, damn . . . forgot Topo and Tusky.  Maybe another time.

Tune in next time when the Legacies pick up speed.  In a big way.