The Aqua(man) family Appreciation 2024

[Frontier]

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James Wan in the first movie really went through Aquaman's history, the official poster was inspired from old Aquaman artwork. Even the positioning of Arthur and Mera in the poster is identical to the old artwork

Oh, that's cool .

[Hypestyle]

is Black Manta going to have any more mini series?

[Will Evans]

is Black Manta going to have any more mini series?

He’s got a solo short story in the DC Power 2024 anthology at the end of this month.

[Goldrake]

is Black Manta going to have any more mini series?

that mini series did not do well at sales, therefore I doubt there will be more.

[HsssH]

Was doing some unrelated reading and one weird thought got to me. In recent years Atlantis myth has been associated more and more with racist conspiracy theorists and I wonder if that isn't one of the reasons why DC doesn't look very interested in publishing traditional Aquaman/Atlantis storylines anymore.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

Was doing some unrelated reading and one weird thought got to me. In recent years Atlantis myth has been associated more and more with racist conspiracy theorists and I wonder if that isn't one of the reasons why DC doesn't look very interested in publishing traditional Aquaman/Atlantis storylines anymore.

This is the first I'm hearing of it. Could you elaborate?

[Frontier]

Does this have to do with the humanoid Atlanteans taking precedence over the more fish-like...?

[Bruce Wayne]

This is the first I'm hearing of it. Could you elaborate?

Not him, but it's been a thing since the 19th century where the idea of Atlantis has basically being used as some sort of an ancestral homeland to the "white race" and is rooted in a lot of 18th/19th century science and psuedoscience. Basically groups like The Nazis and The Theosophical Society thought this was where white Europeans had originated.

The longer explanation is that science during this era especially in the field of linguistics really took off and European linguists studying India/Iran had made discoveries that demonstred Greek/Latin/German as well as Sanskrit and Avestan (the religious language of Zoroastrianism) were all related languages that were descended from an earlier common language. The people who spoke the language were called Airya/Arya in Avestan/Sanskirt and thus these early linguists called them Aryans (what we today call Proto-IndoEuropeans).

I think you can probably see by this point where racial psuedo-science rears its head in that these discoveries were co-opted by groups like the Nazis and Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society (in the late 1800s of Hellboy fame) where the Aryans were popularly depicted as some sort of ancestral super-race to white Europeans and were popularly seen as conquerors that had spread across and conquered vast chunks of Europe, the Middle East and India (mirroring the European Age of Empire in the 1800s).

Now back then since they didn't know where "Aryans" had originated (we know now that Proto-Indo-Europeans probably originated in the steppes of Southern Russia/Ukraine), a lot of these groups assumed that the Aryans were European in origin or in the cast of Blavatsky she had assumed that Atlantis was the ancestral homeland of the Aryans and that Atlanteans -> Aryans. And this idea really took off in pop culture and racial psuedo-science of the time where even some Nazi Racial Theorists co-opted her idea where Atlantis -> Hyperborea -> modern day Germans.

So a lot of the idea of Atlantis is mired in racial psuedo-science of an ancestral super race for "white Europeans".

[HsssH]

Yeah, thats a good write up. But you might be wondering what changed since this connection existed back when Aquaman was created? In recent years interest in ancient mythical civilizations has been slowly getting "integrated" into Qanon and various other far right groups. For example, there was recently Netflix series by pseudo archeologist Graham Hancock that caused some pushback.

Note that, if I'm not mistaken, MCU changed the name of Atlantis.

And I don't think that DC has something against Aquaman, but I wonder if due to that context Aquaman jusn't isn't a priority for DC now.

[Mantis-Ray]

They did release an Atlantis Special for Beast World so you can't say they are completely against the Atlantis title and Aquaman.

[nj06]

I thought the Atlantis tie-in for Beast World was interesting. The first story has some great art, and was also glad to see Vixen being featured in the second story.

[Primal Slayer]

[Veni]

Yeah, thats a good write up. But you might be wondering what changed since this connection existed back when Aquaman was created? In recent years interest in ancient mythical civilizations has been slowly getting "integrated" into Qanon and various other far right groups. For example, there was recently Netflix series by pseudo archeologist Graham Hancock that caused some pushback.

Note that, if I'm not mistaken, MCU changed the name of Atlantis.

And I don't think that DC has something against Aquaman, but I wonder if due to that context Aquaman jusn't isn't a priority for DC now.

MCU changed the name of Atlantis because of the Aquaman movie. So there wouldn't be any similarities. They made Namor and his people Indigenous ( based on the Aztec or maybe Maya) to differentiate
him from Aquaman. Nothing to do with racist conspiracy theories. In regards to Aquaman, DC couldn't find a writer or doesn't know what to do with him.

[Keyotheseasons]

Mera: beautiful, powerful and graceful. Love to see it! I need her back prominently in the comics. I was too spoiled by Geoff Johns and Dan Abnett.

[marvelprince]

Mera: beautiful, powerful and graceful. Love to see it! I need her back prominently in the comics. I was too spoiled by Geoff Johns and Dan Abnett.

I remember people not liking it at the time, but I genuinely enjoyed when Mera changed her costume and was with Arthur as Aquawoman.