Aquaman: Arthur Curry is a king of the oceans, member of the Justice League — and certainly not a joke

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Outside of comic books, Aquaman has a bit of a branding problem, at least until very recently. Over the last decade where comic book superheroes are more popular than they have ever been, Atlantis’ finest son still tends to be treated as a bit of a joke.

Even including him in 2017’s Justice League and having the questionably charismatic but unquestionably attractive Jason Momoa portray the vagrant royal wasn’t enough to silence his detractors. The fact that the film had little to do with the ocean, which completely hamstrings Aquaman’s abilities right off the bat, as well as it…not being a great movie overall probably had quite a lot to do with that.

“A strong man is strongest alone.” – Arthur Curry, Aquaman

But perhaps things are finally turning around for Arthur. With a solo movie that gave him the opportunity to show us what the King of seven seas can really do, Aquaman had a chance for mainstream audiences to understand why he’s one of the founding members of the Justice League and far more than an inside joke that got out of hand…. Though some of his appearances in pop culture (even the ones that weren’t intended as parody) certainly haven’t done him any favours.

His reputation as a joke is unfair…but it’s not entirely unearned.

But we’re not here to talk about James Won’s vision for Aquaman. No, Arthur Curry, or Orin if you prefer it, was a powerful warrior king in the comics far before Momoa’s skills with a trident helped bring him back to the forefront of DC’s superhero roster.

Origins and powers

Co-created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris, Aquaman debuted in 1941, although he wouldn’t be headlining his own dedicated publication until the 70s. Unlike most heroes, Arthur Curry has several completely different origin stories, which did make creating a profile on the Atlantean monarch harder than usual.

In fact, when he was first introduced, Aquaman was simply the wholly human son of a famed deep-sea researcher and his, now late, wife. In these initial stories, his ability to live underwater and communicate with ocean life came not from his lineage, but from ‘hundreds of science experiments’. It is probably this version of Aquaman that people think of when they consider him to be a mostly powerless hero, since he had the proportionate speed and strength of…a regular adult man and could only control sea creatures for about a minute. Overall, this made him about as useful as this guy.

More valuable as a team mascot than as part of your starting line up

In the 60s this origin story was changed to something a little more familiar. In his retold origin story, Arthur Curry was the son of a lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry and Atlanna, an Atlantean who had been cast out by her people. From his mother, Arthur inherits his ability to breathe underwater, command sea life (now far more effectively) and prodigious swimming skills. This version of Aquaman is far more concerned with overfishing, whaling and ocean trash build up than his predecessor who preferred hunting Nazi Kriegsmarine U-boats.

But it seems Aquaman’s writers thought this origin was too tame, since in 1989 they changed Aquaman’s origins again. Now his real name is Orin and he’s a full-blooded Atlantean, the offspring of Queen Atlanna and a…wizard named Atlan. Unfortunately, blonde hair is considered a terrible omen in Atlantean culture, being seen as a mark of a powerful curse. The infant Orin is abandoned by his parents, but is found and initially raised by a pod of bottlenose dolphins, led by Porm, a sort of Dolphin Queen (I’m not making this up). Young Orin is eventually found by the lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry who takes him in.

In the current re-telling of his origins, it looks like Aquaman is once again the son of Thomas Curry and Atlanna. His royal lineage and legitimate claim to the throne of Atlantis has been more firmly established and he doesn’t appear to have suffered abandonment due to his blonde hair nor enjoyed the subsequent and probably awesome dolphin upbringing that followed.

In current continuity, Aquaman is the itinerant former king of the Atlantean people turned full-time hero. With superhuman strength, speed, durability and reflexes along with heightened senses, the current iteration of Arthur Curry is about as strong as we’ve ever seen him. As an expert combatant, tactician and diplomat, Aquaman is equally capable of ruling his kingdom as he is fighting alongside other heroes on league business.

His ability to communicate with marine life has also been enhanced significantly over the years, with Aquaman now able to access “The Clear”, a psionic network that links all aquatic life through which he can telepathically command any ocean creatures anywhere on the planet (and even other planets, as it has been possibly hinted).

Beyond his considerable innate abilities, the comic book Aquaman also currently wields the trident of Poseidon, a legendary weapon imbued with some degree of the Ocean God’s powers. Armed with the trident, Arthur can effortlessly manipulate weather patterns and water bodies, creating devastating typhoons, tsunamis and even seaquakes at will. The trident can also summon water elementals and enable the user to wield water-based magic. Finally (if those powers weren’t quite enough) it can also fire bolts of directed energy or form a powerful, but not quite impenetrable energy shield around the wielder.

Of course, that kind of power rarely comes without a catch. In the case of Aquaman, the catch is that he must be able to immerse himself in a water source from time to time or he becomes weakened and dehydrated. The amount of time he can spend out of water tends to change depending on who’s writing the story, but it increased by quite a bit since his weakness was first revealed in the 60s when Arthur could spend only about an hour out of water before dying, this was later changed to 24 hours to help make him more useful out of the water.

Although with the trident in hand and now able to trigger tidal waves and rain storms on a whim, you have to imagine he could probably push back the clock in a pinch if he ever really needed to.

Allies and adversaries

Heroes and tragedy go together like ice-cream binges and self-loathing. From Beowulf to Batman, heroes are defined, at least in part, by their flaws, their fears and their failures. But even when compared to his comic book peers, I’m really struggling to think of any character who has lost quite as much as Aquaman has over the years (Yes, technically Superman lost his entire home planet, but he never really knew that life so it’s hard to argue that it counts).

Taken together, Aquaman’s life story reads like a Greek tragedy full of political turmoil and honour-bound heroes in a mash-up with a daytime Mexican soap opera; with evil twins, long lost half-siblings and family intrigue, all jumping joyfully into the mix.

Throughout his life, Arthur has, all too often and usually through no actual fault of his own, seen former friends and allies turn into enemies and conspirators. Despite his many origin stories, one important theme common to all of them is that Orin or Arthur if you prefer, is an outsider and for some, particularly within the ruling class of Atlantis, he always will be, no matter how legitimate his claim to the throne.

While sidekicks like Aqualad and Aquagirl have generally proved loyal and reliable, Arthur has been twice-betrayed by men he himself placed on the Throne of Atlantis to act as regent. This included his oldest friend and advisor Vulko (which was a major personal blow to Arthur, akin to Brutus betraying Caesar) and the cretinous Thesily (who was probably too incompetent to ever be a real threat anyway).

In his relatively brief time as an Atlantean royal, Arthur has survived no fewer than four assassination attempts, been put on trial and even condemned to death for failing to protect Atlantis from being conquered by time-travelling aliens (how exactly do you prepare an effective defence against time travellers?). Despite doing everything he can to stop it, and even eventually defeating the perpetrators, you better believe that Arthur still seems to get practically all of the blame. His people apparently didn’t need a reason to turn against their king, just an opportunity.

But his troubles don’t stop there. Even on the home front, the king of the oceans can’t seem to catch a break. His former lover, an Innuit named Kako and their illegitimate son Koryak both betray and attempt to kill Arthur at different times, with the latter attempting to use his tenuous claim to the throne to seize power.

Finally, and perhaps most tragic of all is the betrayal of his own wife Mera, who goes insane after their infant son, Arthur Curry Jr (often referred to as Aquababy) is murdered by long-time Aquaman villain, pirate and terrorist, Black Manta. At one point, Arthur even believes that he has killed Mera in self-defence when she attacks him after escaping the asylum where she was being treated. While she survived, she remained an antagonist for some time until regaining her sanity and eventually reconciling with Arthur, although they are still divorced.

With friends like these…

But just because Aquaman has the worst allies in the world, doesn’t mean he gets a pass on the villains front. While there aren’t any truly fascinating, stand-out villains in Arthur’s rogues’ gallery, all the major usual suspects are present and accounted for. Starting with arch-rival and long-lost half-brother Orm, a.k.a. Ocean Master, Black Manta (whom I mentioned earlier), additional nautical themed villain, The Fisherman and Thanatos, a dark reflection of Arthur Curry himself that results in the usual evil twin hijinks.

Given that Arthur, as a king of Atlantis, apparently had to live in constant fear of which shadow the next knife aimed at his back would come from, it’s hardly surprising that over time, he minimised his domestic presence and began to spend almost all of his time working with the Justice League. It really seems that beyond his allies in the league, Aquaman is a sovereign under siege, constantly assailed on all sides by the petty and the treasonous. Maybe you, like me, suspect that Arthur is just a really unlikable and unpopular character, but among the league he’s a highly respected comrade and leader, even if he does come off a bit detached or morose at times (considering what he’s been, through I’d say he’s earned ‘morose’). So, the only possible answer is that Atlanteans are, empirically, the absolute worst.

Philosophy and themes

For those whose experience with Aquaman is limited to the movies, you might expect that the character is often used as a vehicle to promote some kind of environmentalist message. While it is true that the abuse of the oceans by humanity is a common point of friction between the Atlanteans and their surface-dwelling counterparts, these issues are usually relegated to the background of most Aquaman stories. In fact, there are many story arcs where the world above the waves is of practically no importance at all to the events that are unfolding.

This approach is extremely refreshing and much rarer in comics than you might expect. So entrenched is the concept of Earth exceptionalism (you only need to look at how many Green Lanterns reliably just happen to come from Earth despite the size of the sector they patrol) in most comics that finding one that is openly disdainful to the affairs of regular humans is interesting in and of itself.

Aquaman’s depiction as a character has changed over the years, but in contemporary stories he’s a ‘lawful good’ character and usually a reserved and somewhat stoic figure, often preferring deeds over dialogue. That is not to say, however, that he’s just a pile of dumb muscle. Arthur can be an effective diplomat when needed, but tends to be plain spoken, coming off as intimidating and a little blunt to those that don’t know him (though to be fair, many that know him well also find him a bit intimidating on occasion).

The central conflict of many Aquaman storylines revolves around Arthur having to choose between his roles as a hero trying to protect the world, a king trying to lead his people and a man trying to protect his family. Choosing any one role over the others reliably comes at a heavy cost and all too often, Aquaman isn’t able to perfectly save the day in the nick of time like other heroes usually seem to be able to. Not without sacrifice. Not without losses.

This brings us to the other major theme of Aquaman, failure and acceptance. For a hero, it really does feel like Arthur gets the short end of the stick quite often. Despite his best intentions, things often go awry for the Atlanteans, with several cities, including the capital Poseidonis, being devasted or even utterly destroyed.

Of course, not every tale ends on a downer like this, but off the top of my head, I can’t think of another hero who has lost quite as much as Arthur Curry over the years. While his stoic demeanour rarely cracks, he is keenly aware of his failures, both in his public life as head of state whose duty is to safeguard the people of Atlantis, and as a private citizen, whose efforts as a hero have cost him many friends, his marriage and even the life of his son. Despite all that he has lost, Arthur has, with some rare lapses or exceptions, always accepted the necessity of his actions even if he regrets the consequences. This remained true even when he made a deal with dark gods for the immense power that turned him into a Davy-Jones-esque tentacle-faced creature called The Dweller.

Although the people of Atlantis are not always pleased with the decisions of their monarch, (and have on at least one occasion banished him from the kingdom altogether) the truth is that Aquaman’s strength as a leader, a diplomat and a hero have been key to ensuring the ongoing survival of the Atlanteans through trying times.

While there is no shortage of treasonous whispers that speak of how Arthur’s cosy relationship with the surface prevents Atlantis from conquering the Earth, let’s also remember that in the past, without Aquaman on the throne, even giant jellyfish were able to conquer this ‘great’ kingdom with apparent ease.

And that’s just one of the many embarrassing defeats that the Atlanteans have desperately needed Arthur to bail them out of over the years. While the people of Atlantis may be too arrogant or short-sighted to admit it, Orin, in absentia, has been a more powerful and capable monarch than practically any other to sit on the throne. So I’ll say this on their behalf.

Long live the King!

Also featured in this series: The Flash , Lex Luthor . Read more from this series here .