History ComicBook / AquaMan

** Averted entirely by the time of ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}} where he is a hitleresque sea conqueror who leveled half of Europe in his battle against the militarized WonderWoman, sinking most of its major continental cities beneath the waves threatening to plunge the world into unavertable catastrophe. A real farcry from AC's superfriends projection as the whole world [[WhosLaughingNow can no doubt attest]].

This version of Aquaman turned out to be more popular than the original. He continued appearing in ''Adventure Comics'' until issue #284 (April, 1961). He became one of the founding members of the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica in 1960, and was a regular there. In 1961, Aquaman's strip got transferred to ''Detective Comics'', he starred in a few ''Showcase'' issues, and he got several crossovers with Superman. All in preparation of his first solo title, ''Aquaman'' vol. 1 #1-63 (February, 1962-March, 1971, revived August, 1977-August, 1978).

In the process Aquaman picked up a supporting cast, something which he had generally lacked (for a time in the late 40s he had been aided by a DitzyGenius sidekick named the Sea-Sleuth but he had [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome vanished without trace years earlier]].) Most notable among them were {{sidekick}} Aqualad, and super-powered wife ComicBook/{{Mera}}. They even had a kid. UsefulNotes/{{The Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}} led to his comic being canceled, UnCancelled, and re-canceled repeatedly. His child was murdered in an effort to drum up interest and provide angst, and he became the leader of the DorkAge version of the Justice League (often referred to as "Justice League Detroit").

* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks: One of Aquaman's enemies is King Shark, who's basically a humanoid shark.

* EnemyWithout / TheHeartless: This is the role which "The Thirst" plays to the Waterbearer. If a bearer uses their power to harm rather then heal then he will revive to [[OmnicidalManiac drink life itself]]. His strength is based on the bearer's negative emotions [[spoiler: and if they should wield their power against him as well, then the two will merge, leading to a particularly unusual BattleInTheCenterOFTheMind. Giving in is the only way to truly defeat him.]]

* [[FadSuper Fad Villain]]: The reasons behind Black Manta's villainy have changed with the times. First he was [[MalcolmXerox "Doing this to help black people!"]] then it was [[MoneyDearBoy "Nah, I'm doing this for the money."]] then his motivation was [[ForTheEvulz "Screw you, Aquaman!"]]. Post-New 52 it's "YouKilledMyFather!"

* OfThePeople: A clear and glaring problem about the people of Atlantis and possibly other undersea nations is the strict isolationist surface hating cultural ways of the atlanteans. Many of them chose mainly to steer clear of the humans and the world above, other less enlightened minds have a tendency to think [[OneTrackMind cleansing the surface]] is the only way to protect themselves.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'': One of the primary characters, the fourth "greatest hero" next to Superman, Batman and Robin and Wonder Woman. Voiced by Norman Alden and later Bill Callaway.

** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' did not include him. He does show up multiple times as a guest star voiced by Creator/ScottRummell. His appearance and personality revamped to reflect the more barbarian 90's version: bearded, barechested and sporting a hook hand ([[LifeOrLimbDecision cutting off his own hand to save his son]]).
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' voiced by Creator/JohnDiMaggio where he was a LargeHam, could throw hard-water balls and turned water into ''swords''.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' played by Creator/AlanRitchson in a couple of episodes, including teaming up with other members of the future Justice League. He wears orange and green swimwear as a nod to his comic book outfit.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', voiced by Creator/PhilLaMarr. His sidekick Aqualad, Kaldur'ahm, is a main character.
* ''WesternAnimation/DCAnimatedMovieUniverse'' : voiced by Creator/MattLanter
* ''WesternAnimation/LegoDCComicsSuperHeroes'' : voiced by Creator/DeeBradleyBaker
* ''WebAnimation/DCSuperHeroGirls'' : voiced by Creator/MaxMittelman
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGoToTheMovies'' - voiced by Creator/EricBauza

** ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' -- Cameos in secret footage taken by an underwater probe.
** ''Film/JusticeLeague''- One of the core members of the Justice League. Mera is played by Creator/AmberHeard.
** ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}'' -- Where he gets his IconicOutfit and iconic trident. Atlantis, Orm/Ocean Master and Black Manta appear for the first time in live action.

** He gets a really great moment like this in "JLA: Midsummer's Nightmare". Arbitrarily powerful villain Knowman has just punched Superman into orbit. He makes a crack along the lines of "You people have no idea the kind of pressure I've been under. Allow me to demonstrate," and increases gravity enough to knock the entire team, including Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman, to the floor, where they stay as he strides around monologuing. Until he makes the mistake of walking by Aquaman, who mutters [[CrowningMomentofAwesome "Pressure? Obviously, you've never been to the bottom of the sea!" before snagging him with his hook hand and yanking him to the floor]].

*** [[BadassBoast "Don't even think about picking a fight]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome with the King of Atlantis."]]

* ToHellAndBack: 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 BatmanGambit. On his way out, Cerberus is back, and Aquaman has just one word for the titanic guardian of the underworld: [[CrowningMomentofAwesome Stay.]]

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: To start with, not many among the Atlantean populace were all that happy to have a half-breed surface born king on the throne. Even after taking back his birthright, he still wrestles with their superstition and hate-fueled paranoia towards the land above. Ultimately Inverted by Rebirth, where in Aquaman now has a recognizable fanbase with scores of people across America cheering his name. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Even a few kids want to be Aquaman when they grow up]].

** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' did not include him as a regular in part due to the ''Superfriends'' meme. He does show up multiple times as a guest star voiced by Creator/ScottRummell. His appearance and personality revamped to reflect the more barbarian 90's version: bearded, barechested and sporting a hook hand ([[LifeOrLimbDecision cutting off his own hand to save his son]]).

*** An unaired pilot by the Smallville producers. He was played by Creator/JustinHartley, who was later brought in to ''Smallville'' as ComicBook/GreenArrow.

** ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''- Cameos in secret footage taken by an underwater probe.
** ''Film/JusticeLeague''- One of the core members of the Justice League. Atlantis also appears for the first time in live action with Mera played by Creator/AmberHeard.
** ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}''

* FallenHero: Atlan, the Dead King in the Comicbook/{{New 52}} run. [[spoiler:He wanted to unite various races and welcome them into Atlantis, but his brother decided it was better to kill him and his family. He sank Atlantis in response.]]

** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' did not include him as a regular in part due to the ''Superfriends'' meme. He does show up multiple times as a guest star voiced by Creator/ScottRummell. His appearance and personality revamped to reflect the more barbarian 90's version: bearded, barechested and sporting a hook hand ([[DeliberateInjuryGambit cutting off his own hand to save his son]]).

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' played by Alan Ritchson in a couple of episodes, including teaming up with other members of the future Justice League. He wears orange and green swimwear as a nod to his comic book outfit.

*** An unaired pilot by the Smallville producers. He was played by Justin Hartley, who was later brought in to ''Smallville'' as ComicBook/GreenArrow.

In the process Aquaman picked up a supporting cast, something which he had generally lacked (for a time in the late 40s he had been aided by a DitzyGenius sidekick named the Sea-Sleuth but he had [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome vanished without trace years earlier]].) Most notable among them were {{sidekick}} Aqualad, and super-powered wife Mera. They even had a kid. UsefulNotes/{{The Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}} led to his comic being canceled, UnCancelled, and re-canceled repeatedly. His child was murdered in an effort to drum up interest and provide angst, and he became the leader of the DorkAge version of the Justice League (often referred to as "Justice League Detroit").

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'': One of the primary characters, the fourth "greatest hero" next to Superman, Batman and Robin and Wonder Woman. Voiced by Norman Alden and later Bill Callaway. A lesser known precursor show featured him called ''The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure''.

* ''Film/DCExtendedUniverse'': Played by Creator/JasonMomoa.

The King Of The Seas. The Monarch of Atlantis. The ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'''s underwater protector. '''''[[TropeCodifier The]]''''' [[NatureHero nature]] {{Superhero}}.

In UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}, Aquaman's origins were revamped; now, he was a HalfHumanHybrid of [[{{Atlantis}} Atlantean]] and surface human, raised by his father, a lighthouse-keeper, and unaware of his royal heritage until recently. He was super-strong and tough because his body was "adapted to the sea's depths", and he could [[PsychicPowers telepathically]] control anything that lived on or near the sea. However, he was also given a KryptoniteFactor of sorts; he could only spend [[HourOfPower one hour]] out of the water before succumbing to potentially fatal weakness. Aquaman's career was, like Superman's, also retroactively extended back into his childhood as "Aquaboy," ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'s sole contemporary hero. (This idea of the son of a light-house keeper and a merwoman may be inspired by the old song [[http://www.contemplator.com/sea/edlight.html "My Father Was the Keeper of the Eddystone Light"]].)

In the process Aquaman picked up a supporting cast, something which he had generally lacked (for a time in the late 40s he had been aided by a DitzyGenius sidekick named the Sea-Sleuth but he had [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome vanished without trace years earlier]].) Most notable among them were {{sidekick}} Aqualad, and super-powered wife Mera. They even had a kid. UsefulNotes/{{The Bronze Age|of Comic Books}} led to his comic being canceled, UnCancelled, and re-canceled repeatedly. His child was murdered in an effort to drum up interest and provide angst, and he became the leader of the DorkAge version of the Justice League (often referred to as "Justice League Detroit").

This direction, while not wholly unpopular, didn't result in a high-selling series. Thus, during ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis The comic'', Atlantis was destroyed. After the "One Year Later" TimeSkip, ''Aquaman'' became ''Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis'', going back to the BarbarianHero adventures that had done well before. A new Aquaman was introduced, Arthur Joseph Curry, whose origin and powers were similar to the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Aquaman. He was guided by the "Dweller in the Depths", a tentacled humanoid who was implied to be Aquaman — most prominently, through having the magical water hand.

** ResignedToTheCall[=/=]TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Had to reclaim the reigns of sovereignty after his former mentor, Vulko; instigated a war between the surface and Atlantis in order to get Arthur to take back his seat on the throne. Though it didn't help that Arthur's brother was a human hating semi-fascist in the first place. It may have been a pretty risky XanatosGambit on his end given that risking war between the surface and the sea usually results in [[ApocalypseHow horrendous genocide for all]], plus using a clan of veracious cannibals; The Trench as a makeshift EnemyMine for both sides plus the JusticeLeague to fight against when it all could've just as easily gone sideways from there.

* TookALevelInBadass: The series as a whole under GeoffJohns's penmanship, what makes it stand out is how it tackles the whole Superfriends stigmatism that Aquaman suffered from for so long.

** PeterDavid initially wanted to expand on AC's connection with The Clear to make him an elemental like SwampThing, this was upended by the editor and he left afterwards.

** A run detailing the corrupt megacorp run by a Gregory Jupiter who'd illicitly acquired aquaman's DNA which transformed the populace of subdiego into water breathers was dropped as quickly as it was conceived.

* Franchise/{{DCAU}}