It was 15 years ago that DC Comics finished its rollout of the New 52 premiere issues, and in the final week of the rollout, it brought back a Golden Age hero who had become a joke over the last few decades. That issue did several things to try to rehabilitate the hero. It had characters in the comic book itself mock him and make the same comments that fans had been making since the 1970s. This allowed the hero to stand up for himself and set out to prove that he was no joke. The premiere issue also introduced his newest villains, which were a race of monsters and creatures that turned this comic book into a straight horror title.
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On September 28, 2011, DC released Aquaman#1 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. This was Aquaman’s introduction into the new DC Universe in the New 52, and it was Johns’ chance to revitalize a character who had become a joke since Super Friends in the 1970s made him the guy who talked to fish.
Aquaman Roared Back to Life in the New 52 to Answer His Critics
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Whether he deserved it or not, Aquaman became a joke for many years, and it had nothing to do with his comic book appearances. Aquaman debuted in 1941 in More Fun Comics #73 by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris. This made him one of DC’s oldest heroes, alongside Batman and Superman. However, unlike Batman and Superman, Aquaman wasn’t respected, and most of that disrespect had to do with his appearance on the Saturday morning cartoon, Super Friends. That cartoon didn’t have any violence or fighting, so Aquaman was just the guy who could talk to fish, and the jokes started from there.
Thanks to shows like Robot Chicken and Family Guy, the Aquaman jokes continued for decades, and he still hasn’t fully recovered. However, one thing that Geoff Johns did when he relaunched the Aquaman title in the New 52 was to answer those insults and jokes head-on. Early in the first issue, the police were chasing some thieves, and Aquaman showed up. The reaction was priceless. The thieves saw him and laughed about it, calling him Tuna Man. The police wondered why he was there because they weren’t in the ocean and there were no fish. The jokes write themselves.
Aquaman silently used his trident to stop the oncoming armored truck and then slammed it into the ground. One of the thieves opened fire on Aquaman, but the bullets all just bounced off him. He then knocked out the thief. The police then asked why he was there and whether he needed a glass of water. Aquaman was not amused and left. After he was gone, one officer said they were upstaged by Aquaman, and the guys at the station would never let them hear the end of it. Even in victory, everyone mocked Aquaman.
He went to eat fish at a restaurant after that, and a guy told him he couldn’t eat fish because he talked to fish. Aquaman said he didn’t talk to fish, and Johns was getting all the jokes out of his system early. When someone asked him what it was like to be nobody’s favorite superhero, Aquaman had enough and left. However, before Aquaman publicly answered his critics, the first panels of the comic book did something not many readers saw coming. They didn’t show Aquaman, but showed terrifying creatures with sharp teeth at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. They were also intelligent and spoke in their own language, and they learned there was something above the water, and they set out to conquer it. This was the Trench.
The Trench Became Part of the DCEU in Aquaman
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
It didn’t take long for the Trench to show how dangerous they were. It happened when a fishing ship was out on the water, with the crew wondering why the fish weren’t biting. Suddenly, one of the men fishing was yanked into the water, and then the Trench all came to the water’s surface and looked at the men in the boat. One of the monsters commented that there was food up there for them. They then slaughtered the fishermen and attacked the people on the nearby pier. Aquaman was called in to help figure out what was going on. This led to him defending everyone from the Trench, and Aquaman wasn’t a joke anymore.
The entire storyline was about the monsters from the Trench and whether they were true monsters or just deep-ocean creatures trying to survive. That made them perfect horror villains, and it also made them perfect to add to the first Aquaman movie in the DCEU. The creatures were the ones in the deep ocean that Aquaman had to fight through to get to the wormhole that transported him to an uncharted sea at the center of the Earth. The scene where Aquaman and Mera had to fight the monsters of the Trench on the boat was pure horror filmmaking. In fact, director James Wan was so enraptured by these monsters that he wanted to create a spin-off film called The Trench.
The Aquaman movies helped end many of the jokes about the DC Comics hero, thanks to Jason Momoa playing him as the complete opposite of his comic book character’s presentation. The hero never should have been a joke to begin with, thanks to earlier Aquaman stories like “American Tidal” and miniseries like Aquaman: Time and Tide. However, it was 15 years ago that Geoff Johns worked hard to take Aquaman and rehabilitate his image by placing him in a horror story and letting him be the superhero that he was always meant to be.
What are your thoughts about Aquaman’s reintroduction in the DC New 52? Did you consider Aquaman a joke, or did you always take him seriously? Let us know your favorite Aquaman moments in the comments below.
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