Aquaman is the rightful king of Atlantis, son of Queen Atlanna and Atlan the Wizard. He was abandoned to die at birth on Mercy Reef, but survived against the odds. His birth name is Orin, but he knows himself as Arthur Curry, after a lighthouse keeper who taught him the ways of surfacers. During a liason in his youth he fathered Koryak, but left long before the boy was born. An early run-in with the Flash established him as a hero to the surface world, and he later helped establish the Justice League.
Early in his career as a hero, he met Garth, a young Atlantean searching for adventure, and adopted him as a son/little brother/sidekick, Aqualad. During his adventures, he eventually found Atlantis and was recognized as the rightful king. He also met an other-dimensional queen named Mera, who gave up her throne to rule Atlantis with him. They had a son, Arthur Jr, whose powers manifested at an early age. But he never got much of a chance to use them, as Aquaman's enemy Black Manta suffocated the child after making Aquaman fight Garth for his life.
Aquaman's relationship with Mera was shaky for a time after their son's death, and she eventually left him by vanishing into another dimension. Without his wife, son, or best friend, and having abdicated his throne, he then lost his hand to the villain Charybdis, who also managed to temporarily steal his powers.
Aquaman replaced the hand with a harpoon, then a S.T.A.R. labs prosthetic, then a mystical water hand. In the meantime, he took over Atlantis again as king, and ran the inhabitants through the ringer. He also annexed Cerdia as a vassal state. And sent Atlantis into the past where all the inhabitants were enslaved by their ancestors. And sank ancient Atlantis to rescue his people. And was sentenced to death by the people of Atlantis.
Sick of Atlantis, he headed to the Pacific and helped out during the Sub Diego disaster, becoming the de facto leader of the sunken part of the city once the survivors were found. He also picked up a new sidekick, Lorena, who styles herself Aquagirl. He's currently the protector of Sub Diego as the DC Universe moves into a time of infinite crisis, but he can't escape his connections to Atlantis.
I suppose this guy will soon be know as the "Between Crises Aquaman"...
Posts
