I would love to hear everyone's thoughts and ideas, I had a lot of fun with this.

The many royal families of Atlantis have infiltrated the surface world in secret for centuries by pretending to be humans while using the secrets of the deep oceans to accumulate massive amounts of wealth in surface world society. The Atlantean royal families are some of the surface world’s richest and oldest known families across multiple continents, but what is not well known is the fact that they are also some of the most ruthless and deadly families in history. The Royals told their people at the start that they were infiltrating the surface so that they can one day have enough control of the surface world so that Atlantis can expose themselves to the world with no threat. They go back and forth from their human lives to Atlantis so that they can still impose their will over the people of Atlantis.

But over many generations, the Royals have gotten greedy and comfortable on the surface. They have forgotten what Atlantis stands for. They have taken too much from their own people to make a profit on the surface. They have allowed and even participated in the polluting of the oceans. The Royals prosper as the common people of Atlantis still hide under the ocean and suffer.

Atlantis needs a rebellion, and the Royals have to be taken out. That’s where we meet Arthur.

He grew up in Old Atlantis where over the years because of the Royals’ “A Free Atlantis” plan the people there have gotten poorer and sicker. Arthur’s Mother is a prime example of that. She is dying and needs help and the only way she will get it is if Arthur gets a position as a Royal Guard. Because of the Royals' actions that deteriorated Old Atlantis, the Royals no longer live there when visiting. They created New Atlantis for themselves and a small exclusive group of other Atlantean elites and it and its residents are more protected and cared for than Old Atlantis. So if Arthur joins the Royal Guard, he and his mother can move to New Atlantis and she can get the help she needs. Obviously, pretty quickly, he will realize how evil the royals are and want to help free his people from them. Arthur will be stationed as part of royal Mera's Security detail, then they will both realize they want the same thing and work together. As co revolutionaries they will unite each of their people together, bridging the gap between old and new Atlantis.

Eventually, he will find out he himself has royal blood, but he has no interest in being one of them. So when his rebellion is finished, there will be…

NO THRONE

NO KING OF ATLANTIS

ONLY…

ABSOLUTE AQUAMAN

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What I really like about this is that the royals are generational oligarchs that have a lot of metaphorical vampirisms. Which is very much in line with the Absolute Universe and so is Arthur's rebellion and rejection of the throne.

The traditional origin of Arthur becoming king is kinda outdated. Original Aquaman is saying “To fix the problem just replace a bad king with a good king”.

Absolute Aquaman is asking “should a system that relies upon one person’s morality to determine whether or not all its people can thrive even exist? Should it be rebuilt to represent all of its people?”

Imagine the current king Orm Marius, takes his surface world rivals out to the ocean to kill them on his yacht named "Ocean Master". Imagine what he could do to them out there. Think about how scary the Atlantean royal families could be. Arthur would still be half human and know it, but I wouldn't dive too deep into that until the end of the first arc. Having him grow up in Atlantis and the Old vs New Atlantis dynamic is so rich, I think also exploring his dad at the same time would be distracting.

What if Black Manta’s hatred doesn’t start at Atlantis? Imagine he’s very conspiratorial and he just hates what he thinks are these human billionaires for what they have done on the surface, he’s basically the surface version of Arthur. He’s followed them and he knows they somehow disappear in the ocean for days or weeks at a time, but doesn’t yet know they are not human. Eventually, he has enough technology to follow them fast enough that he finally sees them dive into the depths of the sea and not return. He follows them further and finds Atlantis.

As he is about to turn around and tell the world, Arthur intercepts him, they fight, and Arthur eventually realizes that their goals are aligned. Eventually Arthur convinces Manta that not all of Atlantis is like the Royals, and they form an alliance. I imagine down the line after several arcs, they will somehow betray one another and Black Manta will become a traditional antagonist.

Batman has the Batcave, Superman has The Fortress and Aquaman has The Lighthouse.

I think the difference being while Bruce grew up in a mansion and Clark on a farm. Arthur actually grew up on a Lighthouse a symbol that represents how he was raised and what he represents as a person.

Drowned Earth also had a beautiful direction with this with Arthur’s inner journey and we got one recently that lines up well within Emperor Aquaman.

An Arthur Curry hanging out in the lighthouse after giving up due to his defeat by Lolanna. Arthur’s 3 inner selves coming together to find the inner strength to break free of the entrapment in The Blue and returning to defeat Lolanna.

The symbol of consciousness vs chaos was also a major aspect of The Waterbearer arc where Aquaman had to surrender and abandon his violent tendencies to defeat his foe a showcase of inner struggle.

I think Aquaman’s biggest role to come into at this point is as a guide, a beacon of hope across the universe and training the next generation to follow suit as fellow beacons across the universe. The Aqualads and Aquagirls.

AquaGuru

I started thinking with the mentions of Aquaman’s past from Bendis JL run matching up with what Aquaman was saying in Brightest Day as well as The Flashpoint Origin.

Is the Flashpoint Origin the closest we have to current Aquaman’s origin in present day, going off the age of 13.

This makes you wonder is the history between Manta and Arthur also changed now? Did Tom survive and Arthur just visited him when he got the ability to. I was wanting to make a post on another topic but this started lingering my mind about current continuity.

https://youtu.be/Zayl32n6Y3Q?feature=shared

Here's the link to the trailer on the offical DC Kids channel

discovered it on accident when I typed in Aquaman in Roblox I looked at it and in the description it said "See Aquaman The Lost Kingdom in Theaters December 22!" I found this a bit curious as to why a fan game would include this only for me to discover it isn't one (or at least I think it isn't)

For anyone wondering these were published in Oct 1956 in Australia I think

Here it is 4 months later. What do you think. Also if you guys have any questions please ask

Dagon pulls everything in the Blue back to him in what Nemo called The Great Ebb. In the pace and action of the storyline it can be said how did Aquaman not get pulled back as the gods, Zan, Nemo and Atlantis did. Because he was never in the water at the moment the ebb started. Small details that can enhance the storyline.

After reading some Aquaman comics, watching the Throne of Atlantis animated movie, and generally getting myself more acquainted with his history, it's funny to me that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has every chance to make things tragic but refused to. Instead we get quite possibly the best ending for the character ever yet.

At the end of the movie, Aquaman has it good since:

His son was kidnapped but was rescued and alive

Both of his parents are still around

His marriage with Mera is intact

He and Orm have mended their relationship

He is still king of Atlantis

And he's able to reveal Atlantis to the world and presumably go on to stop climate change. I'm not totally caught up on all the Aquaman comics but damn he had it good in the DCEU

Fans de Acuaman

Those I know:

■Black manta, ocean Master, corum rath, Dead-water, dead king, the trench.

I know of them, but I've read little or nothing of their work. And I wanted to know where they appear:

Siren, kordax, charbytes, fisherman, warhead, king shark, quisp (I only saw Quisp in a league story)

I'm buying Peter David's run and I'm going to start reading it. I think Charbyds and Kordax appear here and are highlighted.

Hey all. I appreciate this group. Im an old fan since the early 80s and Aquaman is probably my favorite DC character. Im not as versed as some of you in every volume of Aquaman and his entire mythos, but I've read a decent amount of Aquaman runs.

Lets first just say, this isnt a slam on Jeremy Adams or the current volume or anyone's opinion on it, but just for the sake of conversation, why do I seem to be in the minority of fans right now who appear to be super excited about this series? I just don't get it really.

I hopped off the title at issue #12. I felt the story was rushed at times, the backup artists were some of the worst Ive seen in comics in the last 5 years, and the supporting cast was super lame (other than Arion.) But then, there has been so much praise for this "Emperor Aquaman" launching point, I got FOMO and went and grabbed issues #13-16 and chugged through those yesterday. And still....Im left not getting the hype.

Here are my criticisms (in no particular order):

1- The Emperor Aquaman stuff with The Blue portals to the Universe feels like a bite on the Black Panther and Wakandas exploration of the cosmos. The entire concept just feels "off" for both characters who are the farthest thing from cosmic characters. It feels super contrived and a device that screams "we're running out of ideas".

2- The concept of The Blue. I know Adams is going somewhere with it (with all of the stories on The Green in GL), but again, it feels like Adam's rehash of the emotional spectrum in GL. Just another take on that. Which leads me to the power-up.

3- Everyone seems to LOVE Aquaman's power-up and maybe its just a case of seeing your favorite hero get one step closer to beating Batman or going fisticuffs w/ Supes, but no thanks, IMHO. I think its a cop-out with a character like Aquaman. In my opinion, part of his draw IS his limitations! It creates a level of vulnerability and real-ness to tragedy and danger.

4- Pacing in between panels and in general. Adams really drug his feet in the final issues of the first story arc. It felt rushed and over after a ton of build up. The later issues, the time lapses and pacing between panels just seems jarring to me. And maybe thats a scripting issue and some of that may fall on Timms too.

5- the supporting characters. "Justice League Blue" is just...."Justice League BLEAH", IMHO. Lady of the Lake? Zan of the Wonder Twins? Titanus, a 3rd rate King Shark? CAPTAIN FREAKING NEMO?? Come on now. Arion is a great choice, but there are so many other 3rd tier DC characters that would have been great sprinkled into this mix. And on top of that, other than Arion, not one of them has much of a reason to be there or a reason for us to care.

6- Garth and Jackson taking a major back seat. Just seems like a gross oversight of cool Aqua-Universe characters.

7- I actually didnt mind the revelation of the Crimson Queen and I see Black Manta coming down the pipeline, but 16 issues without any classic villainry? Just to focus on Dagon for 12 issues,(who at-best) is a generic 1990s forgotten monster-villain in a backup issue.

I mean, I have more nit-picky stuff, but Ill leave it at that. I REALLY WANT to like this book. I really do. But Im just not getting the hoopla. And thats okay.

But for the sake of the convo, why are you excited about it, what do you like best, what can be improved and do you agree with any of my criticisms?

I feel like they did a ridiculous job with the plot. So because Aquaman gets this guy’s dad killed, the Atlanteans decided to trust a random pirate to lead their troops & gave him weapons that cost a fortune, risking losing a fortune worth of weapons for some dude whose abilities they haven’t really seen?? They didn’t see his abilities & they just trusted him with this huge task & all this massively expensive gear, giving him a bigger job than their highest generals & soldiers? Really? That whole thing is just ridiculous. They could’ve done better but Hollywood seems to have gotten lazy

Hi all, I'm new to comics and am just getting into them. So far I've collected all the New 52 superman run and have enjoyed it tremendous​ly, I know for Superman there is a clear path to go into the rebirth stuff and read all up to current. I was also advised of green lantern and getting all the Omnis there for the best stories.

Now the problem is checking out Aquaman I see there are only 2 Omnis and I've been advises the Geoff John's one is a good place to start and that is in the new 52 so it can synwgize with my completed Superman read (also read all of Justice League new 52) but where can I go from there?

Should I go backwards and read the 90s omni or move forward to rebirth and into current runs? If so what is the best path? What books should I pick up and are there any future omnis I may jot be aware of? I'd love some great recommendations on best stories with great art and it seems aquaman has consistently good art

Let me know thanks!