Aquaman, Why?

[Lee Stone]

There's no doubt that the film is taking some of the edge from the PAD 90's run in the costume design.

And is that really a bad thing?

This movie has to not only appeal to a wider audience than just comic fans, it has to overcome a very entrenched, negative stereotype in pop culture.

They could achieve this with a clean-cut Orin wearing an orange shirt. But in order to get over those preconceived notions, people would have to see the movie in the first place, and Aquaman's classic look isnt going to help do that. Jason Mamoa in the 90's costume is something that will make people take a second look. And that's all it has to do; once you get people curious they'll find their way to the cinema, and once they've sat down you can hit them over the head with how awesome "normal" Aquaman is. But you gotta get their attention first, and Mamoa's costume is doing that.

And let's be honest, Aquaman has always had a dark streak. His infant son was murdered. Nothing done in the "grimdark" 90's run ever came close to that. What's the worst that happened there? Orin lost a hand? That's nothing compared to the nightmare of having your infant son (and heir to a throne!) murdered. I cannot imagine a worse hell than that. There's a long history of treason and personal betrayal in his stories and Arthur himself is often written as having a pretty depressing attitude, running between "stoic" and "bipolar" depending on the issue at hand.

Aquaman's not the super happy guy that people think he is. He just dresses that way.

But let's not forget the backlash Bunn received when he used a fantasy trope in his run.
There's still a limit to what fans will accept.

[Agent Z]

But let's not forget the backlash Bunn received when he used a fantasy trope in his run.
There's still a limit to what fans will accept.

Thus far, we don't even know if that sort of thing will be in the Aquaman movie and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Wan has said the tone will be light hearted.

[Ascended]

But let's not forget the backlash Bunn received when he used a fantasy trope in his run.
There's still a limit to what fans will accept.

This is very true, but fans aren't the concern here, its the rest of the audience.

Naturally you gotta get the fans behind you first; word of mouth advertising is huge and the bulk of that early effort will be carried out by fans raving online. But if the first trailer goes over well it wont matter what Aquaman looks like.

Also, they released an image of the full League a while ago and the colors on Orin were a lot brighter in that than they are in the original "unite the seven" image. Lot of orange and green, and the image they released of Mera a few weeks back was so spot on my wife and I couldnt get over how amazing it looked.

[Vanguard-01]

Thus far, we don't even know if that sort of thing will be in the Aquaman movie and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Wan has said the tone will be light hearted.

More than light-hearted. He compared the tone to Pirates of the Caribbean, which sounds bang-on perfect to me. That movie had a FANTASTIC balance of action, horror, and humor to make a movie that is just endless fun to watch.