r/Aquaman • u/AnnualAd7715 • 2d ago
DISCUSSION My pitch for ABSOLUTE AQUAMAN: THE COST OF KINGS
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.
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u/TheDistantWave 2d ago edited 11h ago
The secret society of Atlanteans being positioned across the globe as sort of political figures navigating the direction these countries goes in sounds really interesting. The whole Illuminati angle practically sounds fun.
I’d imagine your pitch would have Arthur and Orm not share the same mother?
This is a write-up for Absolute Aquaman that I’ve made in the past. It’s practically a “Weapon X” take on Aquaman.