Arthur Curry, born with the Atlantean name Orin, is the crown prince of Atlantis, as well as the superhero known as Aquaman. While initially reserved and content with his isolation from the surface world, Aquaman would eventually be recruited by Batman to join the Justice League in order to help defend Earth against the forces of Steppenwolf and his Parademon army.
Following his recruitment to the team, Arthur played a pivotal role in reviving Superman a year after his death. With the League now assembled, Aquaman helped driving back Steppenwolf, forcing the alien invasion into retreat. Afterward, Arthur decided to finally pursue his rightful place in Atlantis.
Arthur Curry was born on January 29, 1979[1], to Thomas Curry and Atlanna, the Queen of Atlantis. This heritage caused Arthur to grow up with incredible powers, including the ability to breathe underwater. However, Arthur's ignorance regarding how to handle these Atlantean powers induced him to become very conflicted, and somewhat reserved, with internal struggles.
Monitored by Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor, in pursuit of proving the existence of extraordinary individuals hidden amongst the general population, discovered Arthur's existence by hacking into the NSA's UUV drones, which recorded a video of Arthur emerging from a wrecked ship in the Pacific Ocean near Tonga Trench.[2] by One drone showed Aquaman emerging from the shadows, and then aiming his trident and quickly destroying it while another recorded him swimming away from the site, causing an underwater sonic boom in his wake.[2]
After her Suicide Squad successfully defeated the mystical duo of Enchantress and Incubus in Midway City and saved her, Amanda Waller met up with billionaire Bruce Wayne, asking him to take care of the rumors following the aftermath of the calamitous events, and in exchange, she gave Bruce her files on multiple notable metahumans, including that of the Barry Allen, Arthur Curry, and Victor Stone[1], referring to the information's value as equivalent to 'crown jewels'.
Arthur was visited by Bruce Wayne in Iceland, who had eventually tracked him down using files given to him by Amanda Waller.[1] Bruce arrived during the winter, during which time Arthur brought fish to feed the hungry, always coming into town on the King tide. On the day afterward, Bruce asked the village's council if he could speak with Arthur, whom he deduced was still around. When Arthur revealed himself to be there, he demanded Bruce talk, during which he informed Arthur that an impending threat was coming to the world, asking Arthur to join the newly founded Justice League under his leadership. Initially, Arthur refused to become involved with, and risk his life for, a group of strangers. He responded with hostility when Bruce made a quip about Atlantis and proceeding to pin Bruce against the wall in an attempt to intimidate him.
Arthur meeting Bruce for the first time.
However, he decided to hear Bruce out, where the latter disclosed that he was Batman.[3] Bruce commented on the rumors surrounding Arthur, amusingly pointing out his ability to "talk to fish." Afterwards, while Arthur was beginning to depart back to the ocean, he remarked that 'the strong man is strongest alone', to which Bruce, incredulous, commented that Arthur had gotten the actual saying backward.
"Your mother would have gone to the surface world to stop that thing. But she's not here, so it has to be you."
―Mera to Aquaman[src]Arthur rescued a sailor caught in a storm, taking him to a bar where he deposited him on a table and ordered himself a drink. The sailor, however describe having been attacked by a strange creature, as Arthur look at his own hand and notice a green strange substance in it. Realizing that there was something wrong happening Arthur decides to return to Atlantis.File:Justice League (2017).mkv snapshot 00.44.56 -2018.01.24 11.57.01-.png
Arthur fighting Steppenwolf
In his pursuit of the Mother Boxes left on Earth from his previous visit, the New GodSteppenwolf invaded the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, where Arthur and Mera quickly arrived to defend their home.[3]
As the battle began, the Apokoliptian warlord quickly proved his might, subduing Arthur by trapping him under the rubble of a pillar before continuing his search for the Mother Box. With the Mother Box in the hands of Steppenwolf, Mera convinced a reluctant Arthur to retrieve it from Steppenwolf, noting that it is what his mother would've done. With this, Arthur is convinced and asked for the Atlantean armor and Mera’s trident before going after Steppenwolf.
After a intense fight with the team of heroes and having lost some of his Parademon minions, Steppenwolf, annoyed by the heroes intervention, manages to catch one of the missiles in mid-air, shot by Cyborg who was piloting the Knightcrawler, redirecting it to the wall, leaving its structure weak, and releasing all the water above.
As Gotham Harbor was flooding with Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Cyborg inside, Aquaman arrived just in time to save the group by using the Trident's powers to slow down the tide allowing the others to get to the safety of higher ground. As soon as everyone was safe Victor left to retrieve the last Mother Box.
After the fight with Steppenwolf, After Batman meets with Gordon before Arthur shows up and say that Steppenwolf took the Mother Box from Atlantis, then Victor reveals that he is possession of the final Mother Box, which he hid from his father. The team returns to the Batcave and Bruce calls for a meeting with the team. Bruce believes that they should use the power of Mother Box to bring Superman back to life as he believes that they need Superman to restore hope in humanity. Diana and Arthur are hesitant about the idea though pointing out that they could bring Superman back as a monster similar to Doomsday. Bruce informs them though that they have a secret contingency plan if things go awry.
The team put Clark's body in the waters of the Kryptonian ship, using Allen's Speed Force to activate the Box, causing the resurrection of Superman. When he flies out of the Kryptonian ship and lands in Heroes Park. Aquaman, Cyborg, Flash andWonder Woman meet him. Arthur however notices that something is wrong with him, with Clark using his x-ray vision to scan the League and observes that Arthur’s heart rate is spiking due to his nervousness. Stone accidentally launches a missile at him as his cybernetic body registers a threat to him. Superman attacks Cyborg with his heat vision as the rest of the Justice League try to calm him down but he swiftly overpowers them.
As Arthur, Victor and Diana try to flank Superman simultaneously (which was unsuccessful), Barry attempts to help with his speed but Superman is able see him and keeps up with the speedster. Despite Barry's best efforts to avoid all of Superman's blows, a glancing hit knocked out Barry. Batman arrives and gets Superman to stop fighting the League, Wonder Woman tries to fight Superman again but is quickly overpowered and defeated. He then swats Batman and tell's him the same thing that same question that Bruce asked him "Tell me, do you bleed?". Before Superman could kill Bruce, Lois and Alfred to stop him.
Superman calms down and leaves with Lois to the Kent Farm where he reflects and tries to recover his memories. After the battle, Steppenwolf arrives and easily retrieves the final Mother Box.
The team return to the Batcave with an angry Arthur accusing Victor of not wanting to stop Steppenwolf due to the machine half of him but Diana assured Victor he can find them. Bruce then asks Arthur if he can talk to the aquatic life in the ocean to locate Steppenwolf with a somewhat offended Arthur telling him that the water does the talking but will keep an eye out if a possible strong current might lead them to Steppenwolf's location,
Final Battle
Justice League getting ready to battle Steppenwolf.
Victor locates the Mother Boxes near an abandoned nuclear plant in Russia. The Justice League uses the Flying Fox to get Russia to stop Steppenwolf from combining the Mother Boxes together and terrafroming the Earth, the team plans on how they are going to stop Steppenwolf, in which Arthur admits that he believes that they are all going to die and that he is happy to have friends and be apart of something more before Bruce reveals he was sitting on Diana’s lasso. When they arrive Batman tells the team that he‘s going to take out the tower while the rest of the League will take on Steppenwolf and separate the Mother Boxes, Batman destroys the tower but by crashing the Flying Fox. Batman gets in the Batmobile and using a siren to gets the attention of the Parademons, this allows the rest to get to the Mother Boxes without any problems.
The Parademons attack the Batmobile, ripping of one on the guns that it has and opening up the car before Wonder Woman and the reason the League saves Batman, Arthur jumps on the Batmobile and tells Bruce how insane he was for basically going on a suicide mission before getting attacked by Parademons which leads Cyborg to save him and throwing him back into the battle. The Batmobile get's destroyed which Bruce ejects from the vehicle and using his grapple, swings across to take out the Parademons.
Wonder Woman and Aquaman confront Steppenwolf, while Flash helps Victor get to the Mother Boxes, which Barry takes care of the Parademons while Cyborg tries to separate the unity of the Boxes. Steppenwolf finds out the Victor is trying to separate the Mother Boxes, who he grabs before Wonder Woman saves him.
Diana and Arthur tries to keep Steppenwolf away from Cyborg by using the Lasso of Truth to pull him down, Steppenwolf attacks them both before he knocks Arthur into a wall breaking the ceiling which almost crushes him until Diana comes to his aid, with Arthur and Diana down, Victor tries to defend himself from Steppenwolf but fails as the latter pulls off one of his legs.
Before Steppenwolf could kill him, Superman arrives and easily overpowers the New God. Diana and Arthur begin to overpower Steppenwolf and with Superman’s help, easily subdue him. Victor calls for Superman help with separating the Mother Boxes which they manage to do with great effort and suffering a significant blowback, although they both survive. Steppenwolf attacks again but Arthur spears him with his trident and delivers a devasting punch which knocks the general to the ground. Superman then proceeds to freeze Steppenwolf's Axe as Diana breaks it with her Sword. Feeling true fear as he realizes that he has been defeated, Steppenwolf is attacked by his own Parademons before he is returned back to Apokolips.
A New World
With Steppenwolf defeated and the Earth saved Arthur decided to accept his responsibility and birthright as ruler of Atlantis and set out for his kingdom.
Initially, Arthur Curry is a very conflicted individual, struggling with the fact that he has superhuman powers which he didn't know how to handle, due to him having not been trained in his childhood. Hence, Arthur grew up feeling alienated from both the human and Atlantean worlds, feeling trapped between them, yet having the responsibility of protecting both.[3] In addition, Arthur is very bitter at his mother Atlanna for abandoning him and his father Thomas Curry. Arthur is thus somewhat gruff and reserved, unwilling to accept his place in Atlantean society, and equally unwilling accept Bruce Wayne's offer to join the Justice League at first, as well as getting annoyed with the young and quirky Flash.[3] Surely, Arthur had previously reached an emotional rock bottom during this period in his life, even claiming that he had no concern for the ocean, and by extension, his own people.
Despite his somewhat gloomy and fearsome exterior, however, Arthur is ultimately a selfless and compassionate person, indicated by him frequenting an Icelandic fishing village during the winter in order to feed its hungry inhabitants with fish. He is later seen saving an unconscious fisherman found along the shore, bringing him into the shelter of a local pub in the village. However, he casually shrugged it off by stating that his drinks would be on the fisherman.
When finally visiting Atlantis, his birthright, and speaking with Mera, Aquaman initially pushes back against her reprimands, but upon learning that his mother Atlanna did not abandon him of her own free will, he begins to have a change of heart, and after being unable to stop Steppenwolf from invading Atlantis, Arthur's mind is finally made up and his joins the Justice League. He still clashes with Batman, Flash, and Cyborg a few times, but otherwise gets along with the team fairly well, eventually befriending them.
Arthur, while outwardly very serious, occasionally demonstrates a dry sense of humor, notably complimenting Batman on the latter's vigilante suit. When failing to intimidate Bruce due to the latter's profound experience in intimidation tactics, Arthur quickly drops his façade, revealing his laid-back and charming self. While he initially distrusted the isolated Cyborg (suspecting that he could be working with the enemy, due to his Apokaliptan cybernetics), Aquaman gradually developed a friendship with him as well, seen when Cyborg assisted him in taking down a group of airborne Parademons. Aquaman is also somewhat of a realist, recognizing that he and the other Justice Leaguers could very well die in a battle against the New God Steppenwolf, and agreeing with Wonder Woman that resurrecting Superman with a Mother Box is too risky.
Despite his gruff appearance and devil-may-care approach to battle, Arthur is quite intelligent and introspective, notably when he quotes Friedrich Schiller's William Tell to Bruce when asked to join the League, stating that 'the strong man is strongest alone', thus further emphasizing his preferred isolation from the surface world. When bound by the Lasso of Hestia, Aquaman reveals that deep down he is very grateful for the team's acceptance, and even developed a slight crush on Wonder Woman, despite the Atlanteans having once warred against the Amazons. Arthur, upon his release, became dismayed upon realizing the circumstances of his confession and angrily forbade Flash from ever sharing it with anyone.
Following the defeat of Steppenwolf and the return of the Superman, Arthur is ready to finally pursue his place in Atlantean society.
Atlantean-Human Hybrid Physiology: Being half-Atlantean, Arthur Curry is an extremely powerful being, especially when exposed to water. Thanks to his human heritage, Arthur can also survive on the surface longer than any Atlantean could.
Superhuman Strength: Arthur has tremendous superhuman strength, as he is able to lift an entire submarine over his head[4], destroy an underwater NSA drone with a single strike from his trident[2], and temporarily contend with Steppenwolf and Superman. With his trident, Aquaman was able to hold off a torrent of water single-handedly, preventing the rushing wave from overtaking the Justice League long enough to allow them to escape. Notably, Aquaman was able to strike Steppenwolf with enough force to send the latter flying several yards away. Aquaman's incredible strength extends to his legs, making him able to jump immense vertical and horizontal distances, with him leaping up from the speeding Batmobile's roof to a group of Parademons.[3]
Superhuman Durability: Arthur's enhanced physiology enables him to withstand impacts that would kill an ordinary human, and critically injure an average Atlantean. He has been seen in ocean depths as deep as 20,000 feet (3.79 miles) below the surface of the water,[2] as well as survive unscathed after falling from an immense height and crashing through a building.[3] With the pressure of the ocean floor, at its deepest recorded depth, being over 16,000 pounds per square inch, Arthur's body is extremely and highly durable to impact blows from even the likes of Steppenwolf as well as Kryptonians.
Superhuman Speed: While underwater, Aquaman can swim at speeds of at least Mach 4.6[5], managing to thus successfully escape from the NSA's UUV drones and cause a shockwave in the water.[2] As such, while swimming Aquaman is able to propel himself from the water with the speed of a bullet and onto land, and can travel the ocean faster than any naval vessel. He was also able to leap onto the roof of a speeding Batmobile.
Superhuman Agility: Aquaman has a superhuman level of agility and coordination, allowing him to dodge Steppenwolf's Electro Axe during their underwater battle, to balance himself while standing on a falling Parademon body (which consequently crashed through several stories of a building), and to even support himself on the speeding Batmobile's roof.
Superhuman Reflexes: While no speedster, Curry's reflexes are superior than average. Aquaman is shown to be able to respond to changing tactical situations and react accordingly. He was able to quickly impale a Parademon through the chest after being thrown into a free-fall, then follow up by striking down another to use to break his fall, afterward crashing through a building, then maintain his assault on land.[3]
Superhuman Senses: As an Atlantean, Aquaman possesses enhanced senses to help him better navigate underwater.
Enhanced Vision: Aquaman's vision is better enhanced to help him see in the darker environment of the sea, with Aquaman's eyes distinctly gleaming as he stood within the dark hull of a sunken ship.[2] From his perspective, the seemingly dark environment of Atlantis is brightly lit, with the vivid and vibrant flora and fauna of the sea being as clear as though he were on land.[3]
Marine Communication: Aquaman is able to telepathically interact with sea life, with him notably threatening to introduce the Flash to numerous piranhas.[3]
Aquatic Adaptation: Arthur, as an Atlantean, can survive both on land and in an underwater environment. He can be immersed indefinitely without suffering any ill effects but due to his combined royal Atlantean and human lineage, he can survive on land longer than an average Atlantean. This length can be extended by the humidity in the atmosphere but eventually, prolonged dehydration will weaken him.
Aquatic Respiration: Aquaman is able to breathe underwater, thereby meriting his superhero nickname.[2]
Abilities
Skilled Combatant: Curry is a skilled brawler, especially when armed with his trident, capable of single-handedly taking down numerous Parademons, and even holding his own against stronger opponents, such as Steppenwolf and Superman. Even without his trident, Curry is proficient enough to out-maneuver Steppenwolf, quickly overwhelming the New God.
Expert Swimmer: Aquaman, like all Atlanteans, is an extremely skilled swimmer.
Expert Marksman: With his trident, Aquaman has been shown to be an immensely proficient marksman, striking down a number of Parademons with a single throw. Aquaman was able to throw his trident after being launched forward by Cyborg, spearing a distant Parademon in the chest from a substantial distance away.
Bilingualism: Arthur Curry, apart from his native English, also fluently speaks Icelandic, able to translate for a village elder during his encounter with Bruce Wayne.
Equipment
Trident of Poseidon: Aquaman's primary weapon, which, due to its properties, is one of the few weapons that can actually injure the otherwise invulnerable Kryptonian Superman.[6] In addition, the trident is also able to help Aquaman control water, with him notably holding off the torrential force of a wave by repelling it with the trident.[3] The trident also appears to somewhat enhance Aquaman's speed while underwater, causing a massive shockwave of force as he fled from the NSA's UUV drones.[2]
Aquaman on DC Database
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