Arthur Curry / Aquaman Appreciation Thread 2020

[MadFacedKid]

He arguably acted most like an actual monarch/politician at the onset of Rebirth where he had to make an actual hard decision as head of state. It's rarely dealt with because, much as it bothers me to say so, most readers don't care about the ocean and the politics therein. Pretty sure any story on ocean dumping would get a lot of the usual jackasses complaining that their comics are suddenly political. Anything on how we aggressively destroy coral reefs and Arthur has had enough would be decried as SJW. It would just be a space opera but undersea with a bunch of ill-defined, made up cultures staking claim over territories just introduced and most would roll their eyes.

It's hard to deal with Atlantis as a realm because it's so tied to the environment so it usually gets made into just another sci-fi locale like a planet in GL or a less mythic Themyscira.


I love all that stuff, but I've yet to really see it sell.

I thought Johns handled it well. We saw Aquaman handle environmental crisis post Throne of Atlantis without it getting to preachy. He did the mythic stuff in Death of a King with Atlantis and all the relic stuff before hand. We saw a lot of the sci-fi elements of Atlantis leading up to Throne of Atlantis.

I feel like the mythos should do a healthy balance of all that stuff with Aquaman. Incorporate the Environment, The magic, The sci-fi futuristic aspects of Atlantis. That’s what makes the lore interesting in my opinion.

[Frontier]

what should of happened after the Rath arc is instead of Aquaman standing down they put people in council from each tride making sure each station of Atlantis had a say and was heard. If that happened a lot of problems like Orm becoming a king of sorts again could of probably been avoided. Or another Corum Rath could of been prevented. Which I still don’t get the politics of Rath ever becoming king till this day

Weren't the widowhood all "let's make Rath king" only to then suddenly pivot and go "let's make Mera queen" after saying she didn't even deserve to be Arthur's wife?

[Robanker]

I thought Johns handled it well. We saw Aquaman handle environmental crisis post Throne of Atlantis without it getting to preachy. He did the mythic stuff in Death of a King with Atlantis and all the relic stuff before hand. We saw a lot of the sci-fi elements of Atlantis leading up to Throne of Atlantis.

I feel like the mythos should do a healthy balance of all that stuff with Aquaman. Incorporate the Environment, The magic, The sci-fi futuristic aspects of Atlantis. That’s what makes the lore interesting in my opinion.

Hey man, I love when it comes into play too. It's a part of the mythos, much like Batman going undercover as Matches Malone and having Bruce Wayne factor into the stories told with him. The political landscape of Atlantis is a facet to Arthur's universe, so it's naturally a richer narrative when incorporated. Most just can't or simply do not wish to engage it.

And in a readership where half the fans complain about "muh SJWs" any time it's not just a punch-up with nothing behind it, I don't blame writers (especially new ones) not wanting to invite that onto themselves.

I absolutely want more world building with Atlantis. Since New 52, Aquaman has been consistently great sans the Bunn arc. I just don't think the readership will support it currently.

[MadFacedKid]

Weren't the widowhood all "let's make Rath king" only to then suddenly pivot and go "let's make Mera queen" after saying she didn't even deserve to be Arthur's wife?

Best course for Aquaman honestly would be a totalitarian rule. I didn’t care much for The Widowhood myself. The council didn’t seem that bad even with some siding with Rath, but the Widowhood always came off as self serving.

Hey man, I love when it comes into play too. It's a part of the mythos, much like Batman going undercover as Matches Malone and having Bruce Wayne factor into the stories told with him. The political landscape of Atlantis is a facet to Arthur's universe, so it's naturally a richer narrative when incorporated. Most just can't or simply do not wish to engage it.

And in a readership where half the fans complain about "muh SJWs" any time it's not just a punch-up with nothing behind it, I don't blame writers (especially new ones) not wanting to invite that onto themselves.

I absolutely want more world building with Atlantis. Since New 52, Aquaman has been consistently great sans the Bunn arc. I just don't think the readership will support it currently.

Honestly given how many topics a comic book discusses the whole SJW cries is ridiculous as hell. Writers should be able to write what they want as long as it fits in with the lore and respects what’s been previously established. Certain circumstances different ofcourse.

I definitely would love more World Building myself, personally I didn’t dislike Bunn’s run for the reason we got more potential world building that sadly went nowhere. I think the execution was the issue but the story elements were interesting and I’m still curious to what happened to the people of Thule. What exactly infecting their world did etc which probably will sadly never come up again.

Given the whole direction of DCYou I welcomed the change but I understood some of the complaints and shared some myself

[hareluyafan1]

He arguably acted most like an actual monarch/politician at the onset of Rebirth where he had to make an actual hard decision as head of state. It's rarely dealt with because, much as it bothers me to say so, most readers don't care about the ocean and the politics therein. Pretty sure any story on ocean dumping would get a lot of the usual jackasses complaining that their comics are suddenly political. Anything on how we aggressively destroy coral reefs and Arthur has had enough would be decried as SJW.

No offence but how would that work?

Destroying coral reefs is a crime. There's nothing "SJW" about it. It's illegal. Simple as that.

Likewise how could anyone claim there's anything "political" about saving the oceans? Saving the environment benefits everybody since we all live on the same planet. Who wants to see the Earth become an uninhabitable wasteland?

[Flash Gordon]

Given what we’ve seen so far in the New52 the monarchy of Atlantis doesn’t seem to mean much there are still rules the monarchs seem to have to abide by and you could arguably correlate the widowhood and council of Atlantis as Atlantis senate and congress of sorts.

Atlantis always appeared to be a constitutional monarchy, at least in recent years. Though the council has been made up largely of schemers and wealthy oligarchs.

spoilers:

I think abolishing monarchy and working towards a new government is the best course of action.

end of spoilers

As for how Rath came to power. It was through a coup. He was put into power by the military (The Drift) and the remaining council members (most of the decent council members were straight up assassinated by US forces, who were attempting the life of Arthur and Mera).

[Flash Gordon]

No offence but how would that work?

Destroying coral reefs is a crime. There's nothing "SJW" about it. It's illegal. Simple as that.

Likewise how could anyone claim there's anything "political" about saving the oceans? Saving the environment benefits everybody since we all live on the same planet. Who wants to see the Earth become an uninhabitable wasteland?

Yeah exactly. These are crimes.

Being against the straight up murder of the planet Earth doesn't equal "SJW". It's just reality and Aquaman is the protector of the seven seas. The surface world has been slowly commiting genocide on Atlantis for years now, with constant pollution of the oceans and destroying of the Earth. It must feel like a constant assault from above.

I think what Robanker was trying to say is that the readership would just cry "SJW", not that he's saying it is. A lot of Americans are gravely misinformed and believe anything remotely outside their world view is "SJW".

[Frontier]

Wasn't there a recent digital story based around Aquaman fighting off an oil platform courtesy of Lex Luthor?

[MadFacedKid]

I think it was the most recent Deep Dives issue

[Robanker]

No offence but how would that work?

Destroying coral reefs is a crime. There's nothing "SJW" about it. It's illegal. Simple as that.

Likewise how could anyone claim there's anything "political" about saving the oceans? Saving the environment benefits everybody since we all live on the same planet. Who wants to see the Earth become an uninhabitable wasteland?

Dude those losers would call stopping child abuse "SJW trash." Don't expect them to use their brain. If you bring up any issue with the world, they call offense. For people who claim to love the medium, they really want to ensure it's a toothless imitation of what they've always been. I don't even see why fighting for social justice is controversial, but apparently it is for some.

[Flash Gordon]

Dude those losers would call stopping child abuse "SJW trash." Don't expect them to use their brain. If you bring up any issue with the world, they call offense. For people who claim to love the medium, they really want to ensure it's a toothless imitation of what they've always been. I don't even see why fighting for social justice is controversial, but apparently it is for some.

It's sad how pervasive their logic has become in the conversations. I wonder if they're just louder than everybody else or if they really are legion? Yikes. Like where did they get on the bus exactly? Even from my earliest memories of comics, they've been political. Hell, getting your street plowed is politics. Crazy stuff, man.

The Ocean Master one shot during YEAR OF THE VILLAIN (or whatever that was?) was rad and approached the "evil corporation taking advantage of sea people the exact way I'd want to tackle it.

[Robanker]

It's sad how pervasive their logic has become in the conversations. I wonder if they're just louder than everybody else or if they really are legion? Yikes. Like where did they get on the bus exactly? Even from my earliest memories of comics, they've been political. Hell, getting your street plowed is politics. Crazy stuff, man.

The Ocean Master one shot during YEAR OF THE VILLAIN (or whatever that was?) was rad and approached the "evil corporation taking advantage of sea people the exact way I'd want to tackle it.

Go back to the primordial ooze of the genre-- Action Comics #1. Clark is 100% crusading for social justice. He busts in and beats up some wifebeater and deals with corrupt politicians. The genre has always been political. They were just too young or stupid to realize it and never grew up. I just don't get it either. A lot of stuff flew over my head as a kid, but I see it now. Instead, that lot dig their heels in and say "my comics were rad without politics!" Yeah, some are, but a lot of the big stuff always had something going on in the background. I just don't get these jackasses. I'm all for criticizing poor, heavy-handed execution, but Arthur absolutely should be talking about the destruction of coral reefs, ocean dumping, plastic beach and so forth. Hell, at least bring up that he never consented to allowing all these sovereign nations to place nuclear subs in his oceans. Have him go to the United Nations and really speak for his people. Remind them all that everyone there owes him their lives a few times over and he deserves to be heard.

And then next issue he can fight an eldritch horror from beneath the ocean. Do it all, dammit!

[MadFacedKid]

Same thing with Carol Danvers when she was Ms Marvel she would have the same concepts, pretty similar dialogue despite the fact people think Marvel changed her when she became Captain Marvel and made her some unlikeable SJW character which is a bit telling on the fact they don’t know much on backstories.

Heck one youtuber was screaming SJW because Wolverine came to her comic for a poker night. Which I’m pretty sure there’s a history there. So it’s not out of the blue forced. It’s just sad people eat this up and start running with it. Despite the people their watching having no idea what their talking about.

[Flash Gordon]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/dc-c...5-in-november/

Hello darkness my old friend...

[Frontier]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/dc-c...5-in-november/

Hello darkness my old friend...

I would assume it would get relaunched with DC's other books if not for the layoffs.