Aquaman: Difference between revisions

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Said [[Superfriends]] persona also appears in a [[Needs More Love|highly-unknown]] ([[No Export for You|only released in]] [[Latin America]]) official parody series called [[Aquaman and Friends Action Hour]], which resembles [[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]].

Aquaman now has a [[Aquaman/Characters|developing Character sheet.]]

 

{{tropenamer}}

* [[This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman]]: the [[Trope Namer]], most noticeable in the ''Superfriends'' cartoon.

 

{{tropelist}}

* [[Advanced Ancient Acropolis]]: Atlantis.

* [[Already Met Everyone]]: Superboy, anyway, in the Silver Age as "Aquaboy," Earth-One's sole other superpowered superhero during Superboy's time-era. Yes, the Silver Age Aquaman was an active hero longer than nearly everyone else, even [[Batman]].

* [[Gullible Lemmings]]: Atlantean culture is mired in an atrocious history of [[Unfit for Greatness|following the wrong guy]] down a dark path. Usually after a cabal of racist jerks supporting him or her work [[Apathetic Citizens|said ingrates]] into ousting [[The Good King|Arthur]], only to lead them all down the path to isolation and ruin.

* [[Hair of Gold]]: Aquaman

** Aquaman's mother Atlanna (pre-Crisis)

* [[Half-Human Hybrid]]

* [[In a Single Bound]]: Being fully adapted to live in the pressure of the deepest sea trenches, Aquaman and Mera while on surface are both able to leap miles at at time through the air, with [[Incredible Hulk]]-like jumps.

* [[In-Series Nickname]]: While Mera found that amusing during the '60s run, a slight annoyance in the '90s, she's now shown as completely fed up at the amount of people calling her ''Aquawife'' or ''Aquawoman'', and ready to snap towards them whether they use the unwanted fan nickname in her presence.

* [[Kraken and Leviathan]]: He's been called on to fight these things a few times. For obvious reasons, Aquaman can deal with them on a much more level playing field.

* [[Love Redeems]]: Mera, post [[Brightest Day]]. Raised as little more than an assassin, her only purpose in life enacting her people's revenge towards Atlantis, she was meant to get close to the then-current Atlantis' king and start tearing apart the undersea kingdom from behind. However, she found Aquaman noble, gentle and likeable, [[Becoming the Mask|becoming an affectionate wife]] and a heroine on her own.

** [[Memetic Mutation|PLATE]][[Large Ham|LET!]]

** And no one can forget Tusky the Walrus in the [[Filmation]] series (who even made a brief appearance in the [[New Titans]] comic) — though God knows I've tried.

* [[Our Mermaids Are Different]]: There are pretty much three different distinct varieties of Atlantean in Aquaman's oceans. Poseidonians - the [[Apparently Human Merfolk]] like Aquaman and most of the other Atlanteans. Tritonaians - your mermaids and mermen like Lori Lemaris. And an unnamed race of [[Fish People]] like Lagoon Boy, the animated version of Triton, or the revamped Topo. In ''[[Superman]] #129'', [http://superman.nu/tales2/lori/?page=9 it was established] that when scientists learned that Atlantis was sinking, they built a giant dome over the city, then later found a way to convert the populace into merfolk. As to why this has anything to do with Aquaman, ''[[Adventure Comics]] #280'' [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rLV-ZuNPwJ4/S4OS6tRoq7I/AAAAAAAAGwc/t8U5w2aqgac/s1600-h/Adventure280_06.jpg tells] that not everyone became merfolk successfully, thus a domed city remained necessary. This origin was later retconned in ''The Atlantis Chronicles'', where is clearly stated that the acquatic serum was never meant to convert Atlanteans into merfolks, but rather to merely give them the ability to breathe water and thrive in the ocean. The merfolk came to be much later as an accident, when Shalako, a villainous wizard-prince of Atlantis, just to spite his scientist brother, [[A Wizard Did It|tampered with the special serum used to achieve the transformation]], turning his denizens into frog-legged humans, who later gave birth to the current merfolk. So, while every Atlantean city was originally domed, some of them got the domes dismantled for the benefit of the merfolks. Curiously, the [[Fish People]] of Atlantis have yet to be given either an official name or origin story in the entirety of the franchise's history.

* [[Overshadowed by Awesome]]: For all the grief that pop culture gives him, Aquaman is by no means a lightweight - command over all sea-life, de-facto leader of the oceans and super-strength among other qualities. Problem is, he regularly hangs out with powerhouses like [[Superman]] and [[Wonder Woman]].

* [[Required Secondary Powers]]: Due to being adapted for life deep underwater as well as dry land Aquaman has basically won the [[Superpower Lottery]]: He's strong and tough to the point where he can lift around 20 tons, has several [[Super Senses]], is very fast, and his telepathic abilities are as strong as (if not stronger than) the [[Martian Manhunter]].

** Aquaman is actually far above twenty tons, both in and out of water. And he's even admitted J'onn is the more powerful telepath

* [[Rogues Gallery Transplant]]: The Shark and King Shark started out menacing Green Lantern and [[Superboy]], respectively.

* [[Running Gag]]: Aquaman's love of hot dogs. This led to a hilarious moment when he was forced to see a doctor for an unrelated issue, and told he should be eating more fish.

* [[Sidekick]]: The Aqualads and Aquagirls.

* [[Straw Hypocrite]]: A lot of that going around within the oceanic cultures of the world. In the ''Sink Atlantis'' arc the very same hateful people of the now risen Atlantis, whom spent the better part of 20-30 issues. As well as thousands of years before that, holding the Ninth Tride slums in contempt for being a nesting ground of criminals and undesirables; e.i. The Sea Changed, people who were physically altered by magic and years spent adapting to life under the sea resulting in they're resemblance to the local fauna. A great many of the more fearful lot of the population fled in terror to these lower trides because [[Dirty Coward|they were so afraid]] of the open air and the light of day, even though they can breath air just fine.

* [[Speaks Fluent Animal]]: Only a few amongst the seafarer population possess the ability to commune with marine life, for Atlantean royals, like Aquaman. It is they're birthright.

** [[Technology From Magic]]: In other cases, both humans and Atlanteans have replicated Arthur's marine telepathy through a form of advanced science or [[Magitek]] to control the various sea creatures of the DC universe.

** Used in [[Geoff Johns]]'s run to show just how serious Aquaman and Mera can get.

*** Just as a warming up, Aquaman lifts with ease an armored truck on his own head, impaling it on his snazzy trident.

* [[The Chew Toy]]: In more than a way.

** Aquaman's life, after the ''Superfriends'' screwed his reputation, has spiraled into a long series of blunders and humiliations. In order: he lost his beloved son, was left by his wife (who, by the way, started to openly loathe and hate him, berating him for A.J.'s death with every breath), was exiled again from Atlantis with no apparent reason, got his left hand eaten by piranhas, pursued a relationship with a [[Cute Mute]] aquatic girl who later became noticeably less mute and somewhat less cute (trying to kill him because of a major [[Mind Screw]], leaving him for Tempest), became king again and got back Mera just to be later exiled, cursed and left to die by Atlantean Wizards, became the Champion of the Lady of the Lake and major of a city of modern waterbreathers just to be forced to trade his humanoid looks and sanity for keeping them alive, died while grooming his successor, was called back as a soulless inanimated corpse, was resurrected to have his hand lopped off (again) and was unwillingly turned into the new Water Elemental. He got better every time, but that's not the point.

* [[Thematic Rogues Gallery]]: Most of Aquaman's enemies are involved with water and the ocean in one form or another.

* [[To Hell and Back]]: Near the end of PAD's run, Triton has killed Poseidon and is kicking the crap out of Aquaman and friends. Aquaman lets Triton kill him, so he can get to the afterlife. Once there, he decks Charon, rallies the souls who didn't have boatfare, jacks Charon's boat, runs Charon over with his own boat, storms the literal Gates of Hell, cuts off one of Cerberus' heads, marches right up to Pluto and demands Poseidon back, ultimately convincing Hades with a very solid [[Batman Gambit]]. On his way out, Cerberus is back, and Aquaman has just one word for the titanic guardian of the underworld: [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Stay.]]

* [[Ungreatful Townsfolk]]: Pretty much everybody. From the jerkwater citizenship of Atlantis whom Arthur has to save from their own cack-handed attempts at democracy time and time again, to the equally asinine homo sapiens who aren't much better off but are a lot more disrespectful to the jaundiced hero and the world they call home. Nevermind the fact that he saves these jerks from themselves on a weekly basis, given all the flack they've given him? They are all lucky that Arthur is a [[All-Loving Hero|kindly]], [[Humble Hero|decent]] [[Friend to All Living Things]] who's big enough to ignore their yap. And not as unforgiving, conniving or ill-tempered as another [[Sub-Mariner|Nature Hero]] who'd no sooner drown or fillet them than put up with crap from either side of the idiot coin.

* [[Upbringing Makes the Hero]]: In some continuities.

* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?]]: Aquaman is traditionally the poster-child for this trope, mainly thanks to ''[[Superfriends]]''. However, due to overcompensation by modern writers it no longer really applies to him, see [[Heart Is an Awesome Power]] above.

** As stated above, Geoff Johns has pushed this trope into a dichotomy: while the reader now knows how useful are Aquaman's powers, the DC Universe internal public, accustomed to people as Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, sees Aquaman as the ''[[Superfriends]]'' equivalent.

* [[You Are What You Hate]]: For all of Atlantis and the other sea faring cities fear and bigotry against the surface world, a lot of the fin faced bigots and bastards tend to perpetrate humanities worst qualities better than them. Especially against one another, as evident during the '''Crown of Thorns''' arc where the [[Upper Class Twit|jerkass royals]] commit to segregation, persecution and outright genocidal profiling and extermination of citizens from the lower trides. On the seachanged of their city whom had taken on the physiological traits of marine life due to spending thousands of years adapting to the oceanic environment; people whom supposed [[Deadly Decadent Court|true atlanteans]] scornfully call said undesirables taintbloods as a racial slur.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Better Than It Sounds/Comic Books]]

[[Category:New 52]]

[[Category:DC Comics Characters]]

[[Category:The DCU]]

[[Category:The Forties]]