Others to use the title of Aquaman include a short-lived human successor, Joseph Curry; his protégé Jackson Hyde; and the mysterious Adam Waterman, who was briefly active during World War II.

Aquaman's comic books are filled with colorful undersea characters and a rich supporting cast, including his mentor Vulko, his powerful wife Mera, and various sidekicks such as Aqualad, Aquagirl, and Dolphin.

From the books and records, he learned ways of teaching me to live under the ocean, drawing oxygen from the water and using all the power of the sea to make me wonderfully strong and swift.

The rest of his adventures in the 1940s and 1950s had him dealing with several sea-based criminals, including modern-day pirates such as his longtime archenemy Black Jack, as well as various threats to aquatic life, shipping lanes, and sailors.

The boy learned how to breathe in the water, developed incredible strength, and formed a bond with sea life while training some of them to aid him in his underwater heroic activities.

Due to his heritage, Aquaman discovered as a youth that he possessed various superhuman abilities, including the powers of surviving underwater, communication with sea life and tremendous swimming prowess.

[27] The 1960s series introduced other such archenemies as the Ocean Master (Aquaman's amnesiac half-brother Orm),[28] Black Manta,[29] the Fisherman,[30] the Scavenger,[31] and the terrorist organization known as O.G.R.E.

This origin story of the Modern Age recounts that Aquaman is born as Orin to Queen Atlanna and the mysterious wizard Atlan in the sunken Atlantean city of Poseidonis.

Becoming more and more of a workaholic and solitary figure, Aquaman eventually returned to the oceans and soon becomes tangled up in another attempt by Black Manta to destroy Atlantis by dragging it into a war with a surface nation.

[40] This loss causes Aquaman to become somewhat unhinged and he begins having prophetic dreams, and then, feeling in need of a "symbol", attaches a harpoon spearhead to his left arm in place of his missing hand.

Aquaman replaces it with a golden prosthetic hand developed by Atlantean scientists which can change shape at his command, thus retaining the powers of the former harpoon while also being more all-purpose.

Believing that the human race as it currently existed would destroy Earth, he had sunk the city while also using the DNA sample he took from Aquaman to convert most of the residents into water-breathers.

[53] Sometime between his death and the beginning of the 2008–09 Blackest Night storyline, Orin's body is moved and buried on land at Mercy Reef alongside Tom Curry in accordance with his final wishes.

[54] In Blackest Night #1 (July 2009), Garth returns to Atlantis and tells Orin's wife Mera that he is angry at the notion of Aquaman's body being buried on land.

[54] Aquaman's corpse rises, along with those of Tula and the Dolphin as revenant members of the Black Lantern Corps, and demands that Mera reunite with him in death, offering her a chance to see her son again.

[58] Mera also hints that, despite the long-lasting exile of her people, Xebel's soldiers had been enemies of Black Manta himself from a distant time, even preceding the first public appearance of Aquaman.

[65] As part of The New 52, DC's 2011 relaunch of their entire superhero line, Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis and Joe Prado served as the initial creative team of the company's new Aquaman series, the first issue of which was released September 28, 2011.

Greatly distressed by the harsh treatment given to the oceans during his time as ruler of Atlantis, Aquaman decides to abdicate the Atlantean throne and return to full-time heroics.

8) focuses on Aquaman's role as king and diplomat with Arthur attempting to strengthen Atlantis-surface relationships by opening an Atlantean embassy in Amnesty Bay, with Mera appointed as ambassador.

After the events of Drowned Earth Arthur loses his memories, begins going by Andy and lives amongst an enclave of island dwellers making their home on Unspoken Water.

[70] Unbeknownst to him, however, this habitation is a place set within the Sphere of the Gods where forgotten sea deities go—either when/after they perish, fade from their worshipers' memories or simply forget their role in servicing the ocean's majesty.

Namma, whose real name is actually Mother Salt, has every intention of drowning the world in brine with the intended consequence of killing everything that lives and breathes on it in revenge and to start over—remaking the universe in her own image.

[74] Yearning to remember who he was, Arthur/Andy undergoes a ritual where he communes with another primal ocean entity known as Mother Shark, who, when asked to, restores Arthur's memories wherein he realizes Mera killed him in a fit of rage because of his hesitation about hearing that he is going to become a father.

When Aquaman later exhausted his powers to save the city of Sub Diego, part of his soul latched onto Arthur Joseph Curry's dead body, while Orin mutated into the Dweller.

He once stated that this power more relied on encouraging and compelling the subject rather than full control, citing piranha as a species he has trouble commanding under any circumstances due to their ruthlessness and hunger.

[2] This weakness was later removed from continuity in 2011, establishing that he grew up on land before learning of his Atlantean heritage,[91] but he still runs the risk of dying by dehydration within incredibly hostile environments, such as deserts.

Before The New 52, the Trident, granted by Poseidon to the rightful ruler and protector of the seas, was indestructible and a very powerful melee weapon, which Aquaman wielded with unmatched skill.

[105] Poseidon's trident has displayed the power to summon tsunamis and deluges,[106] and call down thunder and lightning,[107] project and control ice, move landmasses, and grant the ability for Aquaman to teleport himself across global and even interplanetary distances using water as a medium.

In response Superman, Green Lantern, Shazam, and Wonder Woman lift the entire city of Atlantis off the sea floor and carry it to dry deserts, putting its inhabitants in harm as a way to bully Aquaman.

Weldon wrote that critics and pop culture comedians who chose to focus on this had overplayed the joke, making it "officially the hoariest, hackiest arrow in the quiver of pop-culture commentary.