''See the sea, my friend!''
When you consider that our
planet is covered by over 70% of water, legends regarding the
mysteries of the depths and its mysterious inhabitants were
inevitable. Sailors traveling across the oceans may have witnessed the
vaguely human shape of a manatee or a seal slicing through the waves,
and dream up in their drunken stupor fantasies of humans who have adapted to an underwater
existence.
The first account of
the mermaid legend itself seems to date back to over 3000 years, with the
Assyrian myth of the Goddess Atargatis who jumped into a lake after accidentally killing her lover, and
became part fish. Followed a number of tales and legends,
including 1836's famous Hans Christian Andersen's
THE LITTLE MERMAID.
In all of those tales, those people of the sea would be half human
and half fish.
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| The mother of all mermaids, the Assyrian goddess Atargatis. |
The most famous of them appeared in 1939
in the pages of
MARVEL COMICS #1, published by Timely comics.
NAMOR
the Sub-Mariner was created by writer/artist Bill Everett as a
vengeful menace from the deep, despising the human world. Yet
strangely, his rampaging nature made him somewhat endearing to people
barely out of the Great depression, and about to enter into WW2, and
he quickly became a formidable antihero, earning his own regular
title, and fighting the members of the Axis alongside the Allies.
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| Namor the Submariner fighting those darn Nazis in this 1940 issue of MARVEL COMICS. |
Two years later, knowing a good thing
when they saw it, DC comics editor Mort Weisinger and artist Paul
Norris introduced in the pages of
MORE FUN COMICS #73 a jollier
version of the sullen Namor, AQUAMAN. Aided in his own fight against
Nazis and pirates by his so-called ''finny friends'' Ark the seal,
Octy the octopus and Slippery the eel, the water-breathing superhero
had no direct connection yet at the time with an underwater race of
people, having been raised underwater by his father (!?), although
there was mention of the lost city of Atlantis.
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| 2 pages from MORE FUN COMICS #73, featuring the first appearance of Aquaman, and his very first, and brief, origin story. |
It's in 1959 that the character's
origin was revamped to the more familiar story we know today, where
like Namor, he is the son of a human father and an Atlantean Mother.
Unlike Namor, though, he is raised on land, and grows up as a normal
boy, while Marvel's Sub-Mariner is raised in Atlantis as heir apparent to
the throne. Having grown up in the human world, his disposition
remains more positive towards the human race than his counterpart at
Timely/Marvel comics. He also exhibits other powers like controlling
marine life, which has also lead him to be ridiculed by fandom.
 |
| A page from issue # 260 of ADVENTURE COMICS, published in 1959, where writer Robert Bernstein and artist Ramona Fradon re-imagined Aquaman's origin. |
Because let's face it; Aquaman was
considered by many as lame. And his image got molded in the mind of
comic book fans in the Seventies by his portrayal in the
SUPER-FRIENDS cartoons (1973-1986) where moments like this weren't
uncommon.
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| Hard to be taken seriously while riding flying fishes. |
Even I as a kid had a
Mego doll ofAquaman, and found him so bland that I burned his face, and ended up
covering him in modeling clay and turned him into the
Man-Thing.
Aquaman is the butt of
many jokes in Seth Green's
ROBOT CHICKEN,
further spreading his inadequacies to the world.
Many attempts in recent years were made
to make him more relevant or gritty, as Aquaman had remained roughly
the same since his ''revamp'' in 1959, save for a short-lived costume
change in 1986.
Writer Peter David brought probably the
biggest change in 1993, where both his look and origin were changed.
The superhero formerly known as Arthur Curry was now named Orin, and
was the son of an Atlantean Queen and a Demi-God. He was, however,
raised as an infant by a lighthouse keeper named...Arthur Curry. Still with me? No
longer clean-cut, he now had long hair and a beard (not unlike Jason
Momoa in the new film, but still blond) and his hand was replaced by
a harpoon. The new gritty Aquaman still couldn't beat cancellation
and his last issue was published in 2001.
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| Two page spread from AQUAMAN # 34 (1997) written by Peter David and illustrated by Jim Calafiore. |
He made a big splash, no pun intended,
when he returned to basics in 2011 when DC relaunched all its titles
with ''The New 52''. Writer Geoff Johns made him once again the son
of human Tom Curry and Atlantean Atlanna, and gave him back his more classic look.
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| A return to his former glory, from 2011's AQUAMAN # 1. |
In the meantime, as Aquaman was riding
flying fishes in cartoons, live action versions of heroic amphibians
populated TV and movie screens. In the wake of weak TV versions of
THE INCREDIBLE HULK,
CAPTAIN AMERICA,
DR. STRANGE and
SPIDER-MAN came
THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS in 1977. Marvel Comics even offered a short
lived comic book version of the Namor wannabe.
 |
| the late seventies were great for comic book fans on TV, yet we were so starved for our favorite heroes that THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS became the closest thing to a Namor or Aquaman series we ever got at the time. |
The 1995 blockbuster bomb
WATERWORLD
also featured an ersatz Aquaman/Namor hybrid, as Kevin Costner played
the taciturn Mariner, a powerful amphibian antihero who
drinks his own pee to survive.
In 2007,
SMALLVILLE creators Al Gough
and Miles Milar produced a pilot for an
Aquaman TV series starring
Justin Hartley. The CW ended up passing on the series, and Hartley
ended up playing Green Arrow later on in Smallville, while Alan
Michael Ritchson played Aquaman in the last couple of seasons of the
same show.
 |
| Justin Hartley, Tom Welling and Alan
Michael Ritchson as Green Arrow, Superman and Aquaman in SMALLVILLE. |
But it's with
BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE in 2016 that we catch our first glimpse at Jason Momoa as
the King of the Seven Seas. His role is expanded greatly in
JUSTICE LEAGUE a year later, as we can see that the attempt is to recreate
the clean-cut image of Arthur Curry, getting rid of the yellow and
green suit, and giving him a devil-may-care attitude more suited to
the hulking bon-vivant of a performer.
The film was far from the huge success
Warner was hoping for, and if it wasn't for the surprise hit of
WONDER WOMAN earlier in the summer of 2017 and the fact that
production began on
AQUAMAN in April of the same year, one could
assume that the James Wan film may have never seen the light of day.
However, Wan being a veritable industry powerhouse since he exploded onto the scene with
SAW (2004), and creating over the following years not one but two horror franchise, the other one centered around the very effective
THE CONJURING (2013)
, there were still some chances AQUAMAN would get made, because of feels that what Wan wants, Wan gets.
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| Director James Wan on the set of AQUAMAN, with Amber Heard, Jason Momoa and Willem Dafoe. |
The result? a beautiful looking mixed-bag. Following a brief origin story reminiscent of the 1959 comic book, Arthur Curry grows up the son of a lighthouse keeper and an Atlantean queen (the appropriately otherworldly Nicole Kidman), and rejects his heritage and responsibilities, preferring to get drunk with strangers in a small coastal town. He has to face his legacy as the future King of Atlantis when he is prompted by Mera (Amber heard, who seemed to step off the comic book) to stop his brother King Orm (the ever-reliable Patrick Wilson) who has started an assault on the human world. Taking a cue from
TALES TO ASTONISH #70 to 76 (1965-1966) where the Sub-Mariner had to find Neptune's trident to be able to gain back his throne, Aquaman is sent to a similar quest for the holy relic and powerful weapon.
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| Original Gene Colan artwork for the second part of Namor's quest for Neptune's trident in TALES TO ASTONISH # 71 (1965) |
Highly colorful and naive, where gorgeous imagery is often assisted by cheesy dialogues, the film never relinquishes its comic book origins, instead embracing it fully while making no attempts to be ''gritty'' or realistic. It even uses literal visualizations of comic book tropes like Aquaman's brain waves and energy emanating from his trident, evoking even more so the styles of a graphic novel. The intent to steer clear of Zack Snyder's somber take on the DC heroes in his
MAN OF STEEL and
BATMAN V SUPERMAN is almost painfully obvious. Even though he is technically an orphan, his mother having been taken away and executed when he was a child, Aquaman is not the brooding type like Snyder's Superman or Batman. Jason Momoa's performance, already honed during
JUSTICE LEAGUE, is the backbone of the film, which is so CGI heavy, it could have fallen into the trap of the
STAR WARS prequels of being a beautiful hollow husk of a film. But Momoa has charisma to spare, and plays the character with a knowing wink, making sure this stunning seashell of a film is indeed inhabited with a sense of joyful bravado. The moment he emerges from behind that waterfall sporting the classic gold and green outfit is pure bliss for old comics fans like me, and makes me wish it would have been kept out of trailers, to provide for a more potent reveal.
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| The absolutely stunning special effects depicting the undersea kingdom of Atlantis in AQUAMAN. |
Because it is stunning. The world building aspect of the film is impressive design-wise, and not unlike the highly popular
BLACK PANTHER and
WONDER WOMAN, offers the viewers impressively beautiful imaginary lands to visit. But unlike
Wakanda and
Themyscira, I can't imagine people recognizing
Atlantis as a safe hidden haven they could identify with. I would warn to avoid the 3D version though, as it makes every bit of CGI feel even less real, and makes characters look like action figures instead of living beings, stuck in a demented video game.
The music by Rupert Gregson-Williams, who had also scored WONDER WOMAN, is unsurprisingly bombastic, and at other times evokes Mark Mothersbaugh's synth score for
THOR RAGNAROK, bringing a sense of retro and levity to some action scenes, especially the show-stopping roof fight in Sicily with the villain Black Manta.
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| Cover to AQUAMAN #35 (September 1967) by Nick Cardy featuring the first appearance of Black Manta, teaming up with Ocean Master (Who first appeared a year prior) |
And since a superhero film is only as good as its villains, and here is delivers two classics; Black Manta (played with intensity by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Ocean Master (the aforementioned Patrick Wilson) who both manage to bring hints of depths to their otherwise thankless roles. Wilson even stands out while wearing a mask, in scenes reminiscent of an underwater
LORD OF THE RINGS battlefield filled with a multitude of creatures and denizens of the deep, where the eye can hardly focus on one element at a time, so he deserves all the praise we can offer him.
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| Yahya Abdul-Mateen IIas the helmeted and vengeful Black Manta in AQUAMAN. |
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| Patrick Wilson assuming his Ocean Master personae in AQUAMAN. |
While it won't garner any awards for its two-dimensional script, AQUAMAN offers enough crazy visuals (When is the last time that you say your hero riding a giant sea-horse and command a giant rampaging sea creature?) and just plain goofy fun that it deserves a spot in your holiday movie schedule.
Aquaman is finally not lame after all, and may show the other Super-friends that he can hold his own at last.
As a friend told me after the film was over: ''The best Namor movie ever made!''
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| The kings of the Seven Seas finally meet in the pages of DC VS MARVEL COMICS (1996). Like in the race to the silver screen, seems like Aquaman was the winner of that contest too. |
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