Aquaman - TV Tropes

When you're the monarch of the seven seas, and a crusading super-hero in your spare time, you don't get many vacations—as a matter of fact, there's never... a quiet day in Atlantis.

• Aborted Arc:
  • Peter David initially wanted to expand on Arthur's connection with The Clear to make him an elemental like Swamp Thing, this was upended by the editor and he left afterwards.
  • The story of Aquaman as the waterbearer of The Lady of the Lake was cut short in its time.
  • A run detailing the corrupt MegaCorp run by a Gregory Jupiter who'd illicitly acquired Aquaman's DNA which transformed the populace of Sub Diego into water breathers was dropped as quickly as it was conceived.
  • Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis fell short of finishing how it should have due to the story taking a turn in a different direction.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Aquaman's archnemesis is Black Manta, a mercenary who wears a large metal helmet that vaguely resembles said fish's shape.
• Arch-Enemy: Has two recurring foes with an equal claim to being his nemesis; Black Manta and Arthur's own brother Orm, aka Ocean Master.
• Artificial Limbs: During his fight against Noble, his Hook Hand was destroyed and he used a mechanical hand for the remainder of the battle.
• Artistic License – Marine Biology:
  • Rick Veitch's run in Aquaman (2003) has the Gamemnae deny all Atlanteans from doing any "human" activities such as walking, sitting, laying down and even chatting—only doing what sea creatures do, i.e. swimming and floating the whole time. Ignoring the part the Water Breathing Humans have always done all these "human" things and were indeed considered "human" in past runs, actual sea creatures do much more than just "swim and float". They crawl on the sea floor (many creatures can only crawl, being benthic and too heavy to swim), they lay and tuck themselves on the sandbed or inside nests to rest and sleep (many fish even make their own nests, some of which are incredibly elaborate), and yes, they chat—constantly, with fish communicating via squeaks and hops, crabs cackling with their pincers, etc.
  • Geoff Johns's run has Aquaman denying being able to talk to fish, telling us "fish have minds too simple to carry a conversation". In reality, fish (especially teleosts) have incredibly complex brains, including an analogue of the mammalian prefrontal cortex—and many fish coordinate between themselves on daily and yearly matters such as hunting, nesting, mating and migrating. Behold, a family of anemonefish discussing their perfect nest. Invertebrates other than cephalopods have also shown themselves to be incredibly intelligent, e.g. these crabs practicing retail with conchshells.
• Artistic License – Physics:
• Awesome Underwater World: Aquaman stories have had this as a general trait since his inception, with many stories focusing on the wonder of undersea life and how beautiful it is.
• Butt-Monkey: Ever since he got hit with the Cerebus Syndrome in the Bronze Age, Aquaman's life spiraled into a long series of blunders and humiliations. First he lost his beloved son, then his wife (who started to openly loathe and hate him, berating him for A.J.'s death with every breath); was exiled from Atlantis again with no apparent reason; got his left hand eaten by piranhas; pursued a relationship with a Cute Mute aquatic girl who later tried to kill him because of a major Mind Screw, leaving him for his former mentee, Tempest; became King again and got his relationship with Mera mended—just to be later exiled, cursed and left to die by Atlantean wizards; became the Champion of the Lady of the Lake and protector of a Sunken City of modern water breathers just to be forced to trade sanity and his humanity to save them when they revert to air breathers, while his former home, Atlantis, got smashed to shreds under The Spectre's foot; died while guiding his successor; was called back as a soulless corpse; was resurrected to have his hand lopped off (again) and was unwillingly turned into the new Water Elemental. While he got better afterwards, a certain speedster then proceeded to wreck the entire DCU continuity, putting him back on square one. It's not until Rebirth he's allowed to live a happy married life, being a stay-at-home dad caring for their little Andy while Mera runs Atlantis on his stead.
• Cain and Abel: Aquaman's enemy Orm, the Ocean Master, is his jealous half-brother and tries to defeat him and wrest control of Atlantis from him. This is a recurring theme in the story of Atlantis, according to The Atlantis Chronicles, with the two of them being the latest in many brotherly feuds across history.
• Canon Welding: Before DC started emphasizing Shared Universe elements, both Superman and Wonder Woman introduced their own contradictory versions of Atlantis; later writers on all three titles had to tie it all together.
• Captain Fishman: If Namor the Sub-Mariner was the Trope Maker, then Arthur Curry, AKA Aquaman is the Trope Codifier. Being the half-Atlantean son of Queen Atlanna, he would eventually become King of Atlantis and use his extraordinary powers to protect both Human Subspecies from anything that would threaten them, becoming a member of the Justice League of America. He's so popular, most (though not all) examples of this trope were deliberately made to be Stock Parodies of Aquaman, for better or for worse.^note 
• Captured on Purpose: Aquaman (1989) opened with Atlantis conquered by evil giant jellyfish. Seeking a quick way into the city, Aquaman used his prison garb costume to his advantage and was quickly captured in a net... only to find the invaders had also rigged it with a charge of electricity. From there he leads La Résistance from prison.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The death of Aquababy marked a permanent shift in tone from the lighthearted early years.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Golden Age Aquaman had a sidekick called Phineas Pike (aka 'the Sea Sleuth'.) Pike was a brilliant but eccentric detective with a Sherlock Holmes style deerstalker who knew almost everything about the ocean and ocean life except how to swim. After several appearances in 1949 where he was the brains to Aquaman's brawn he abruptly vanished from the storyline and has not been mentioned since.
• Colony Drop: In The Atlantis Chronicles, the impact of a massive asteroid with the image of a skull imprinted on its face caused Atlantis to sink under the waves. Shalako and his followers believed it to be this, sent by the Goddess of the Sky to punish the Atlanteans for forsaking her. But most assume it was just a natural event. Aquaman (1994) reveals it was neither, but a literal Colony Drop by the alien Annunake, who later attempted to destroy another city the same way. Fortunately, the second attempt was stopped.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • Aquaman's history has been subject to numerous retcons over the years. In the Golden Age he was raised by a human scientist and his name was Aquaman, and he had no ties to Atlantis at all. In the Silver Age, he was the half-human son of Atlanna and Tom Curry and was elected king of Atlantis, while Orm Marius the Ocean Master was his half-brother and fully human. Post-Crisis, he was the fully Atlantean son of the wizard Atlan and Atlanna, while Orm was the half-Atlantean. Post-Flashpoint he went back to being Tom and Atlanna's son and had a claim to the throne of Atlantis as heir, while Orm was now fully Atlantean and also king by birthright through his father marrying into the royal family.
    • Similarly, Aquaman can be either childless (Golden Age), have a firstborn son, Arthur Jr., that was killed by Black Manta (Silver Age), have Arthur Jr. but also an illegitimate son named Koryak (Post-Crisis), be childless again (post-Flashpoint), or have had Arthur Jr. but also a daughter named Andrina (Modern Age).
  • Atlantis' status has varied over time. In the Golden Age, they were afraid of the surface world, only meeting Aquaman once. In the Silver and Bronze Age they were a more technological society, but hardly a world power, and coexisted alongside other continuities' Atlantises fairly peacefully. Post-Crisis they had rising tensions between the capital cities, Tritonis and Poseidonis, and were first seen as a legitimate nation to the people of the surface world as opposed to a curiosity, and magic became part of their backstory and, to a lesser degree, lifestyle. Post-Flashpoint they were heavily reimagined as a nation of proud warriors, both technological and magic, who could make massive moves on the world stage should they feel like it, and were intensely prejudiced towards surface-dwellers.
  • Are Atlanteans human? Are they fish or mammals? Do they breathe water with their lungs, or do they have gills or "tiny pores in their skin"? Are they a Sci-Fi Crystal Spires and Togas civilization full of curious folk, or a mysterious magical Hidden Elf Village who really hate surface-dwellers? Are they vulnerable to hypothermia and "the bends"? Do they need to go to the bathroom? These panels from volume 4 say it all◊.
• Culture Justifies Anything:
  • Post-crisis, exposing newborns is not only still a common practice in Atlantis (a medically advanced civilization), there's even a special place, Mercy Reef^note , for the ritual killing of "cursed" and unwanted babies. Orin and Garth only survived out of a stroke of luck.
  • Post-Flashpoint, this is how many Atlantean terrorists, usurpers and insurgents justify deposing Arthur every time he comes to the aid of the surface world or just being an inadequate leader. The fact that Arthur is born of the surface is as much a reason as discriminating against his friends because of their connection to him.
• Deadpan Snarker:
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Whether Aquaman outright controls fish, or if they just do as he says because he's the king of the ocean is an inconsistent aspect of the character. Geoff Johns explicitly stated the former to be his real power in the first issue of the New 52 series, and this is what writers stuck with for a while—until Dark Nights: Metal had him simply talking to the fish again. Whether his powers extend to seagulls or how effective (if at all) his powers are on non-aquatic life also varies.
  • Likewise, the extent of his powers—whether he actually has Super-Strength, Super-Speed etc.—varies from writer to writer, as well as whether every Atlantean has his abilities or if he's just the very best among them, either due to hybrid uniqueness, a lot of training, or Magi genes inherited from legendary wizard Atlan (his father in some versions).
• Designated Victim: Garth and Tula's adventures often ended with one or both of them nearly dying due to lack of water, and in the Silver Age they were frequent kidnap victims.
• Doing in the Scientist: In his first appearance, his powers manifested through scientific means.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • His original Golden Age status quo would seem quite jarring to modern readers. Instead of being half-Atlantean, he was a normal human who owed his powers to experiments performed by his scientist father. Atlantis was a dead, sunken kingdom instead of a place where people actually lived. He actually did talk to fish instead of communicating with them telepathically, and even then, these powers had time and range limits. He also had No Name Given, and wouldn't go by "Arthur Curry" until the late '50s. And of course, his iconic supporting characters and villains like Mera, Aqualad and Black Manta wouldn't exist until The Silver Age.
  • Extends to the Atlanteans as well. Their Golden Age incarnation was of air-breathers living in a dome who were afraid of surface-dwellers. It's not until the Silver Age they would be reestablished as the Water Breathing Humans we know and love.
  • The Silver Age version of Atlanna was not Queen of Atlantis—rather, she was simply an average sea-dwelling civilian who got exiled from Atlantis for her curiosity about the surface world. Likewise, Arthur became King of Atlantis not by bloodline, but by election. This changed in Peter David's run, who retconned Atlanna as Queen of Atlantis as part of his extensive retools, and Arthur (now renamed Orin) inheriting the throne.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Only at the ends of both the pre-Flashpoint and New 52/Rebirth does Aquaman finally have something of a happy ending after being put through the wringer. The former case is understated, with Aquaman Back from the Dead and his relationship with Mera mending throughout Brightest Day, but with the rest of the original Aquafamily still dead. Rebirth #65 may not conclude their story, but we see Arthur and Mera living with their baby Andy at the Curry lighthouse, and them finally getting married.
• Elective Monarchy: Traditionally, Atlantis elected its rulers from the Silver Age until pre-Flashpoint; Aquaman only took the throne to avoid civil war.
• Empowered Badass Normal:
  • Villainous example with Black Manta, who originally depended on his equipment to fight Aquaman, but Neron transformed him into a manta-man in Underworld Unleashed. This would be undone some time later.
  • Pre-Flashpoint, Orm was a simple pirate who relied upon tools and gadgets to stand on equal footing with Arthur Curry/Orin in his environment. In both the pre-crisis and post-crisis continuities he'd acquire magical abilities through either an Ancient Artifact allowing him to breathe underwater, or by making a Devil's Deal with Neron for power.
• Era-Specific Personality:
  • The Golden Age version of Aquaman, owing to his origin as a human experimented on by his scientist father, was a curious sort who much preferred the company of the sea to land people and was often a Guile Hero when dealing with villains.
  • Silver and Bronze Age Aquaman had a different origin and was more of a Science Hero as alien invasions became semi-frequent, and the addition of a supporting cast in Aqualad, Mera, and Vulko meant he now had ties to Atlantis as well as the surface. He became a devoted family man after marrying Mera and having a child, which was shattered when Black Manta murdered his son, causing the first of many rage-filled moments for the character.
  • In the 90's Aquaman was known for weathering his depression and exerting himself in service to others, before taking on an aggressive, more proactive attitude accompanied by a change in attire and growing a beard. He also became grumpier and snarkier than before.
  • Modern-day Aquaman is defined by being a child of two worlds and not really comfortable in either, having stronger surface ties than previous incarnations with his hometown of Amnesty Bay, and trying for peace between Atlantis and the surface.
• Ethnicity Monarch: Arthur is the king of "All Marine Life", according to some interpretations of the character. His ability to talk to sea creatures is sometimes limited to how dependent said creatures are on water. So fish will heed his commands almost instantly while aquatic fowl may take a bit more coaxing. Some interpretations also say that the animals have the choice of refusing his commands if they're not happy with them, but most respect Aquaman as their champion.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: Aquaman was one of the most prominent Black Lanterns. In Brightest Day, it turned out that he still had some of the Black Lantern taint—he summoned undead sea life just like when he was a zombie.
• Fantastic Racism: Atlanteans have been depicted with this flaw since post-crisis:
  • In Peter David's run, Orin was exposed as a baby due to his blond hair, due to his association with the Curse of Kordax. Likewise, Garth was also exposed for having purple eyes, due to their association with a dangerous prophecy that spelt doom for every party involved. The Atlantis Chronicles also reveals Poseidonians used to be prejudiced against the Tritonians in the past, something they had by then grown out of.
  • Post-Flashpoint, this flaw has been exaggerated to the point of Flanderization, with Atlanteans portrayed as superstitious, racist jerks, targeting their Sea-Changed ilk for being "impure" and being borderline genocidal against surface-dwellers—something their pre-Flashpoint selves never did^note .
• Fish out of Water:
  • Interpretations where Arthur is raised on the surface often have him completely clueless about the culture and customs of underwater peoples—such as the time he was completely taken aback because being elected the King of Atlantis means he's◊ expected to marry now. Even after he's King, expect him to need a lot of debriefing about daily Atlantean customs (with Vulko as the usual Mr. Exposition) and frequently encounter foes he "never heard about".
  • The version of Aquaman in The '90s who was Raised By Dolphins—and believing himself to be a dolphin for most of his life—tended to be clueless about humans (land and sea-dwelling alike) in general. JLA: Year One had some fun with this, with things like Aquaman speaking too softly out of the water because he was used to sound carrying farther.
• Foreshadowing: A story from 1959 titled "Aquaman meets Aquagirl" featured Aquaman meeting the titular Aquagirl, a purple-eyed Atlantean who was jettisoned from Atlantis as a baby because purple eyes indicate an Atlantean who is a throw-back to the time before Atlantis sank. Not long after, the purple-eyed Aqualad made his debut, but rather than not being able to survive underwater he was afraid of fish.
• Funny Animal: "Aquaduck," a Funny Animal duck counterpart who lives on the parallel world of "Earth-C-Minus" (a Funny Animal version of the mainstream DCU), and is part of his world's "JLA" (the "Just'a Lotta Animals").
• Genre Shift: The Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis storyline was an attempt at this; dropping most of the superhero Tropes and instead framing the book as a sword-and-fantasy tale, with the new Aquaman facing mystical threats and themes.
• The Good King: Much like his namesake, Arthur tends to be portrayed as the resident writer's ideal of the ideal monarch—from a plucky Everyman who goes with the flow, being so beloved to his people he gets chosen as their King (Silver Age), to a Barbarian Hero asskicking into authority (Dark Age), to an older and wiser King retired from the superhero business (whenever the focus of the story is on Aquaman legacies instead). Whether Atlantis is The Good Kingdom or not, though, depends on the writer.
• Green-Eyed Monster: This is a consistent trait for Orm (aka the Ocean Master) in all eras. In the Silver Age, he was Arthur's surface-dwelling half-brother through his father's side (son of Thomas Curry and a woman called Mary O'Sullivan) who was so jealous of Aquaman's ability to live under the sea and commute with marine life, he scavenged a plethora magical artifacts to stand on his level in his watery environment. Post-crisis, Orm was still Arthur's half-brother through his father's side, but since the latter was retconned into being the son of a mysterious immortal wizard, Orm was now a half-Inuk surface-dweller bearing the Magi gene, jealous about Orin becoming the king of Atlantis. His post-Flashpoint incarnation has him as the sea-dwelling son of Queen Atlanna and King Orvax, and Depending on the Writer he's more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Villain who held the throne once Arthur abdicated it, or just as jealous about the throne like his post-crisis counterpart.
• Grief-Induced Split: Mera holds Aquaman accountable for their son's death, accusing him of putting his adventuring life ahead of his fatherly duties. Aquaman is asked to leave his son's funeral because of how upset his presence makes her. Their split is ultimately subverted, as Mera eventually chooses to reconcile with her husband and cope with their shared loss together.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Aquaman's most famous origin—his Silver Age self as well as his post-Flashpoint self are the son of Thomas "Tom" Curry, a surface-dwelling lighthouse keeper, and Atlanna, a woman who comes from a Water Breathing Human Subspecies dwelling in Atlantis (though only her modern version is royalty).
• Happily Married: Aquaman and Mera, until the death of Aquababy. Finally once again at the end of Blackest Night when he comes back to life. Post Flashpoint, their relationship is retconned into being engaged. By the end of the Rebirth run (issue #65), they are finally married once again.
• Heroic Sacrifice: If Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis had not been canceled, Arthur Joseph would have given up the part of Orin's soul that had kept him alive in order to revive him so that the original Aquaman could save the world from an evil sea god.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Golden Age Aquaman was shown to have a knack for poetry, even helping a man write a verse book about sea creatures from A to Z. If one takes The Super Dictionary as canon, this is true for Arthur Curry as well.

  If you sail the seven seas!

  In gondola or catamaran!

  And you find yourself in trouble!

  Please call on Aquaman!

  • In Aquaman (1989), an imprisoned Mera is shown coping with her situation via making abstract hard-water sculptures◊.
  • Aquaman (2011) shows us Orm Marius had an interest in Atlantean history and theatre during his childhood.
• Human Outside, Alien Inside:
  • Mera. Aquaman (1989) stressed the biological differences between Atlanteans and her kind, which meant getting impaled through her (assumed) innards didn't kill her. Though her alien status was retconned post-Flashpoint, more recent installments revealed Xebellians modified their biology via genetic engineering, so their youth could grow twice as fast and quickly get drafted to their eternal war against Atlantis.
  • Depending on the Writer, Atlanteans themselves may be portrayed as this—most notably during a post-crisis New Titans issue where paramedics did not know how to heal Garth because his innards were unrecognizable◊, and in the Post-Flashpoint continuity. This was averted for the most part, however, with Atlanteans usually depicted as "human-until-specified-otherwise".

• Important Haircut: Most of the different interpretations of the character can be distinguished by their combination of beard and hairstyles. Classic Aquaman (short hair and no beard), from the pre-crisis continuity; stoic Aquaman (long hair and no beard) from the early post-crisis continuity, appearing in Aquaman (1991), Aquaman: Time and Tide and being a frequent guest star in DCU crossovers; Barbarian Hero Aquaman (long hair and long beard) associated with his '90s Anti-Hero persona in Aquaman (1994); Boisterous Bruiser Aquaman (short hair, short beard) who while mostly associated with Batman: The Brave and the Bold is also present in Kelly Sue DeConnick's run; and Arthur Joseph Curry (long hair and no beard), the star of Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis. The given name of Aquaman also varies—Classic Aquaman tends to be called Arthur, Barbarian Aquaman tends to be called Orin, and Joseph is... well, Joseph, the only interpretation who was established as a (sort of) completely different character. Until Geoff Johns recently retconned the Golden Age Aquaman as his own separate character as well, who has the given name of, wait for it—Adam Waterman.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • "Aquaman" is usually this, especially recently, as for the most part Arthur/Orin prefers going by his given name. The Flash was the one who gave him that nickname in Aquaman: Time and Tide, much to his chagrin.
  • While Mera found the nicknames "Aquawife" and "Aquawoman" to be amusing during the '60s run, and a slight annoyance in the '90s, the New 52 marked the point she's shown to be completely fed up whenever people call her by anything but her real name.
• The Irredeemable Exception: Many of Aquaman's rogues, especially in the Silver Age, were reformed or at least given the chance to reform. Of those that haven't, the Fisherman has extenuating circumstances (his helmet is a parasite), Ocean Master has noble goals and is sympathetic at times, while Black Manta is irredeemably evil and has firmly rejected offers to reform, vowing to kill Aquaman like he did his infant son.
• Lazy Alias: Aquaman has had this as a character trait since the Golden Age of Comics, where he named himself Mr. Waterman while attending college and Seven-Seas Saunders upon spotting a seven-seas shipping company at the docks. Arthur Curry's names haven't been much better, as a Silver Age appearance had him use the alias "C. King" and reuse the Waterman last name when undercover, while Aquaman (2016) had him use "Aquaman" as a codename within Atlantis.
• Lethal Harmless Powers: Since all life on Earth and several other planets in the wider DCU evolved from the sea, some writers have Aquaman use his powers to tap into certain parts of the human (or equivalent) brain and exert control over them (though whether Aquaman can control humans with the same finesse as fish or it takes out a lot from him depends on the writer). Some incarnations of the character are shown to be able to telepathically manipulate Eldritch Abominations.
• Lord of the Ocean: Due to Grant Morrison's idea Aquaman should emulate Poseidon in the Justice League, later installments started to ditch his earlier Everyman appeal in favor of this—giving him a beard and a harpoon for a hand, retconning his powers into telepathy and superior genetics, giving him a Magical Trident allowing him to wield powers associated with the deity such as hydrokinesis and the ability to summon earthquakes and storms, and retooling Atlanteans from human beings who happened to live underwater into a Superior Species. Even his status as an elected King was done over in favor of heritage and birthright.
• Lovecraft Lite: Since post-crisis, Aquaman began to ditch its sci-fi roots in favor of a world of "old gods and eldritch horrors", with Aquaman now facing off against the likes of Triton, Poseidon, Hades, Tiamat, or the living embodiment of God's wrath. Every time a new writer takes over there’s a roughly 50% chance that Arthur will meet a never before mentioned ancient magical being and either gain some Lovecraftian Superpower or be recruited in some supernatural mission by the cosmic powers-that-be.
• Love Redeems: Mera, as revealed during 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 king of Atlantis and start tearing apart the undersea kingdom from behind. However, she found Aquaman noble, gentle and likable, becoming an affectionate wife and a heroine on her own.
• Making a Splash: Mera, as well as all inhabitants of Dimension Aqua (or Xebel post-Flashpoint), are bestowed with hard-water powers—a Swiss-Army Superpower ranging from their setting's equivalent of Blow You Away, to being able to condense water in constructs of all shapes and sizes much like a Green Lantern's ring. Since water is, well, everywhere, it was often a Story-Breaker Power in the Silver and Bronze Ages, so they had several drawbacks: they needed to gesture to create those constructs; they risked losing their powers if they spent too long outside their dimension; and they were vulnerable to lead. While the post-Flashpoint continuity did away with those drawbacks, it also went around hard-water powers being a Story-Breaker Power by... having the main cast of Aquaman spend time out of the water as much as possible.
• Manly Facial Hair: Aquaman has a beard in nearly every incarnation in which he's an elderly King of Atlantis. More Darker and Edgier interpretations such as Kingdom Come has him sport a white beard rivalling Poseidon's own.
• Masked Villains, Unmasked Heroes: Two of Aquaman's most prominent enemies are Black Manta, wears a helmet modeled after a manta ray, and Orm aka Ocean Master, who wears a mask that covers the upper half of his face. Aquaman's own face is always uncovered.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Arthur Curry obviously invites comparisons with his namesake, King Arthur. He's often named after him in-universe.^note 
  • Orm Marius—Orm means "Snake" in Swedish, and Marius of course means "Of the Sea" in Latin. Fitting for a character commonly portrayed as power-hungry, deceptive, cunning and sly.
  • Mera being named after mer-maid is obvious. This signals her outsider status even among Atlanteans, as a Human Alien hailing from a Pocket Dimension where the rules of reality are very different from our own.
  • Doubling as a Name To Run Away From Really Fast, Thanatos—Arthur's Enemy Without—means Death. Very appropriate for the Shadow Archetype of a character who tends to be defined by the theme of life.
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: The majority of Aquaman (1991) shows how Black Manta singlehandedly ruined Arthur's life by killing his son, which led to Mera leaving him. When not fighting past the point of exhaustion, Aquaman is lonely, depressed, and wonders how he can possibly move on from his past and find happiness again after all that's happened to him. After battling Black Manta and Thanatos, however, he's on the way to recovery as he lets go of his self-hatred, learns when to rest, and realizes Mera and Arthur Jr. would forgive him if he forgave himself.
• Mermanity Ensues:
  • Whether Aquaman is a human being experimented on to live underwater or (half-)Atlantean, most versions of his backstory have him raised in the surface world by his father. If he has not been trained to use his powers by his father since birth, he usually discovers his true nature at a young age, either from one of his parents telling him on their deathbed, or from some form of nearly-fatal accident in the sea.
  • Most takes on Atlantis sees the city sink to the bottom of the ocean, as in the myths, which results in its people altering their physiology in some way or another in order to survive. Usually they retain their humanity in every respect, only their lungs are now fit for extracting oxygen out of the water rather than the air—but as consequence of DC Comics tying Aquaman's Atlantis with the Atlantis of Superman and Wonder Woman, a few Atlanteans have instead turned into merfolk due to a wizard tampering with their water-breathing serum with Dark Magic.
• Misplaced Wildlife: If it lives underwater, it can be found in close proximity to Aquaman regardless of whether it's saltwater or freshwater. A recurring example is electric eels appearing in ocean settings when the most-recognized of the species lives in freshwater.
• Mobile Fishbowl: Aquaman has a special suit filled with water for emergencies. In the Golden Age, he donned it on the surface while recovering from "the bends". Seems he kept it around, as in JLA: Tower of Babel it ends up saving the life of Martian Manhunter.
• Non-Human Sidekick: A given considering his powers, Aquaman had several animal companions through his long comic history: his Golden Age incarnation had Ark the seal, Tusky the walrus (who became the basis for the character in the Filmation cartoon) and Slippery the moray eel, and his New Golden Age profile mentions two great white sharks named Riptide and Scarlett as close companions^note ; in the Silver Age, Aquaman and Aqualad had Storm and Imp (Canon Immigrants from the aforementioned cartoon) and of course, Recurring Character Topo the octopus. There was also Myron the prehistoric aquatic big dragon-cat, who was around for one issue before getting put on a frozen bus.
• Our Humans Are Different: Early on, Atlanteans were more an example of this trope than merfolk. Other than living and breathing underwater^note , they were incredibly ordinary, having the same quirks, needs and desires as any human on the surface. And they were called◊ human, often◊ by aliens◊ (there were a lot of Alien Invaders back then) and considered◊ such by the narration, at least as far◊ as the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Post-crisis, the water-dwelling humans of Poseidonis coexisted with the merpeople of Tritonis, and assorted Fish People such as La'gaan, Nanaue and Topo II. In Superman #129, 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 a result of Aquaman's Canon Welding, Adventure Comics #280 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 aquatic serum was never meant to convert Atlanteans into merfolk, but rather merely give them the ability to breathe water and thrive in the ocean while retaining their own humanity. The merfolk came to be much later as an accident, when Shalako, a villainous wizard-prince of Atlantis, just to spite his scientist brother, 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. While every Atlantean city was originally domed, some of them got the domes dismantled for the benefit of the merfolk. The various kinds of Fish People of Atlantis, meanwhile, have yet to be given official names and backstories in the entirety of the franchise's history.
• Out-of-Genre Experience:
  • Aquaman (1962) #54 is a moody horror story that has Aquaman trapped inside his own mind when some gangsters capture and experiment on him, resulting in a mash-up of genres—including horror, a standard action story, a detective story as the real-world police worked out what was going on, and a Western. The incident resulted in the birth of his evil mirror-self, Thanatos.
  • Aquaman (1989) is much more like a war epic compared to typical Aquaman adventures, with Atlantis under occupation and a resistance working to save it.
• Princeling Rivalry: In both the post-crisis and post-Flashpoint continuities, Arthur and his half-brother and archnemesis Orm/Ocean Master are royalty in some way or another. Post-crisis, Arthur is the son of Queen Atlanna and Time Abyss wizard Atlan, who's also of royal blood, and Orm is his half-Inuk brother from his father's side. Post-Flashpoint, Orm is retconned to be the son of Atlanna and King Orvax. In both incarnations, Orm is jealous about Arthur inheriting the throne, which he believes to be rightfully his.
• Power Trio: Arthur, Mera and Garth were this in classic stories, with Guile Hero Arthur as The Leader, Mera as The Big Gal with Imagination Based Superpowers, and Garth as The Lancer and The Watson.
• Psychic Powers:
• Punctuation Shaker:
  • Merfolk are fond of put'ting a'pos'tro'pes o'ver ev'ry'thing. Stand out examples are S'ona of Tritonis and the Sher'Hedeen.
  • Humans generally avert this, preferring "zienze fukshon" style names instead. One exception, however, is F'ancha—granted, he was originally meant to be Orm in disguise before Shaun McLaughlin's run got cut short.
• Required Secondary Powers: Later writers steadily gave Aquaman more abilities—Super-Strength (in some incarnations able to lift over 20 tons), Super-Speed, Super-Senses, and extensive telepathic abilities—based to this rationale, being adapted for life deep underwater as well as dry land.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: The Shark and King Shark started out menacing Green Lantern and Superboy respectively, until writers integrated them into Atlantean worldbuilding.
• Ruthless Modern Pirates: Black Manta is a pirate who operates submarines and other highly advanced watercrafts.
• Science Fantasy: Aquaman as a whole has gone from hard sci-fi to high fantasy depending on the story, and most runs exist between the two genres, with Atlanteans having technology and the occasional Alien Invasion to worry about as well as magical artifacts and lore, including Jerkass Gods and other sea deities.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: In more recent runs, there's a tendency for writers to emphasize Aquaman as the sole "sovereign ruler" of over "two-thirds of Earth". Even though Atlantis only constitutes a rather small part of the ocean—often depicted as a single isolationist city-state in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean—while other city-states such as Tritonis or Thierna na Oge are autonomous and independent. If the quote is meant to express Aquaman's dominion over sea life instead of his job as King of Atlantis, it fails to account for the differences between the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans, which are distinct enough to be considered ecologically separate oceans as they're for the most part split by land, the Indo-Pacific twice as big as the Atlantic.
• Seahorse Steed: Aquaman sometimes rides a giant seahorse named Storm in the Silver Age.
• Secret Identity: Played with over the years. Aquaman was one of the first heroes to not use a civilian identity at all, as in the Golden Age his name was literally Aquaman. In the Silver Age, while he had a civilian identity as Arthur Curry, he likewise didn't use it due to living under the sea. In modern comics, while he lives on land at times, everyone in his hometown knows that Arthur Curry is Aquaman and he takes no measures to hide it.
• Snap Back: After Mera and Arthur dissolved the monarchy in favor of democracy in Aquaman (2016), with Mera as elected ruler, later stories like Knight Terrors and Absolute Power have Aquaman being king again with no reference to earlier events.
• Space Western: Or rather, Underwater Western—Silver Age Aquaman had all the trappings of the genre, from one plucky drifter and his younger ally riding Cool Seahorses over endless undersea dunes, to Atlantis being an isolated civilization much like a homesteading community, to our heroes battling threats such as bounty hunters, scavengers, Submarine Pirates, mutants and Alien Invaders. Many, many alien invaders. Early Bronze Age developments such as palace intrigue and epic warfare (against giant mutant jellyfish), the fleshing out of undersea civilizations from the rather isolated Atlantis to a plethora of different underwater cities with their own customs and traditions, and the existence of magic due to Canon Welding with the Arion comics, slide it further into "Ocean Opera" category.
• Starter Villain: An unnamed Nazi commander who sent U-boats after civilians, and is killed via grenade at the end of the issue.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero:
  • In the Golden Age, "Aquaman" was outright implied to be his name. He's an average human being who acquired the ability to breathe underwater after lifelong training—he's an Aquatic Human.
  • His given name since the Silver Age as well, Arthur Curry. Current.
  • Then there's Mera. Mer-maid.
  • This was the norm for most characters at the time. Expect many Atlantean civilians to be named something like Selena (who became Aquagirl for one issue), Merlon, Merdo^note ...
  • One Action Comics story arc had a villainous example in V'lana, an insurgent Queen of Dimension Aqua who could possess Mera (somehow). You could say she's the v'llain(a) of the story.
  • Another villainous example in Aquaman (1962) #39 with Aliena, a Human Alien hailing from another dimension (a different one from Mera's homeworld). Though her name doubles as a reference to the verb alienate, which conveys her Vamp role, as well as her estrangement from her peers when she inevitably changes sides.
  • The original version of Aquaman was more recently retooled into his own separate character in The New Golden Age, with "Adam Waterman" retconned from a Lazy Alias into his given name.
• Super Swimming Skills: Depending on the Writer, Aquaman is either simply really skilled at swimming within human extents, or he has a form of Super-Speed. Some comics show him swimming at 150 knots, or 175 mph. Other comics have him reaching 10,000 feet per second, which is nearly mach 10.
• Terrible Trio: A Silver Age issue had a villain trio literally called the Terrible Trio, consisting of the bossy, fire-haired Karla, who ordered her teammates around, the Fisherman, a returning rogue, and the Un-Thing, who was invisible while in water. While effective as a group when working together, they argued a lot and were eventually defeated.
• Thematic Rogues Gallery: The general theme of Aquaman's Rogues Gallery at any given time tells us which era we're in:
  • His earlier Ocean Punk adventures had him facing typical High Seas dangers such as pirates (many of which are a few centuries too late), scavengers and Axis naval powers.
  • His late Silver Age/early Bronze Age Planetary Romance adventures, which were usually entirely underwater, had him facing more sci-fi/Western-inspired threats such as aliens (human or not) from Another Dimension, Atlantean usurpers, aliens from Another Dimension, bounty hunters looking for his head, robotic foes such as the Awesome Threesome, aliens from Another Dimension, Hollywood Natives such as the green-skinned inhabitants of Maarzon, the occasional Kaiju and a couple of gimmicky rogues that stuck^note . It's in this era we're first introduced to his two most enduring archenemeses, Black Manta and the Ocean Master, as well as his Enemy Without, Thanatos. Did we already mention the aliens from Another Dimension?
  • His post-crisis and post-Flashpoint adventures have him mostly face pseudo-Lovecraftian threats such as old gods, eldritch horrors and the Deep Ones-inspired Trench folk, alongside his recurring rogues and black ops special forces.
• Throwing Off the Disability:
  • Aquaman used to be only able to survive only one hour out of the water, since he would mainly star in underwater adventures with the surface world as an afterthought. Eventually, Peter David did away with Aquaman's one-hour limit in his run, Hand-Waving it via retconning his biological father to be Time Abyss wizard Atlan.
  • Aquaman's chopped hand was regrown in Blackest Night in flesh and blood following his resurrection. Then it got chopped off again.
• Token Aquatic Race: The series generally averted this until the New 52, with the Water-Breathing Human Poseidonians, Tritonians, and assorted Fish People being distinct from one another despite falling under the umbrella term of Atlanteans, as well as Mera originally coming from a Human Alien race of water-controlling people. They coexisted with each other alongside other DC beings until New 52 simplified the lore to make them all the same species and take a larger role on the world stage, making them come across as this.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode:
  • His Golden and Silver Age stories were breezy fun, with the exception of a story in Adventure Comics #192 where Aquaman creates a preserve for rare fish and is horrified when crooks start murdering the fish for their own gain. It has a happy ending as the fifth fish only pretended to be killed, but four fish were killed for real, and we see Aquaman's increasing sorrow and anger at the situation.
  • The storyline now called Death of a Prince began innocuously as Aqualad went missing on a quest for his family. Aquaman went to find him and found Black Manta had kidnapped him, Topo the octopus, and his toddler son Arthur Jr., which wasn't unusual for the time period or preceding stories. Then Manta revealed he'd encased the baby in air to suffocate and would force them to fight to the death to save him, and even after a solution was found, Arthur Jr. died.
• Uniqueness Decay: Early on, Mera was the only one in the main cast who had hard-water powers. Post-Flashpoint, every Aquaman character is now given hard-water powers—including Garth who didn't have that power even among the various temperature-based powers he gained as Tempest, Jackson Hyde who was already an Electric Black Guy with bioluminescent tattoos, and sometimes even Arthur himself via magic trident.
• The Usurper: This is a recurring problem for Aquaman. While he dealt with usurpers almost as soon as he took the throne, they were one-and-done stories at first, but later they held the throne much longer. Notable examples include:
  • Aquaman: The Search for Mera had Narkran take the throne while Aquaman and Mera are occupied, and is the first such antagonist to hold it for an extended period of time.
  • In Death of a Prince, Karshon the Shark takes the throne for a while after framing Aquaman for evil deeds.
  • Aquaman (1994) had Aquaman's own son, Koryak, attempt to take the throne at the behest of Vulko, who thought he would make a better ruler.
  • Aquaman (2016) had Corum Rath take the throne while Aquaman is away, quickly establishing a police state that no one can enter or leave without his permission and turning to ancient magics to solidify his rule.
• Water-Breathing Human: In all incarnations, Aquaman has been defined by his humanity as much as his watery environment. In the Golden Age, he was simply a regular human adapted to an aquatic life from experiments done by his father; from the Silver Age onwards, all inhabitants of Poseidonis are human beings who happened to live and breathe underwater in Crystal Spires and Togas, who coexisted with the Human Aliens of Dimension Aqua from where Mera hailed, and Aquaman and Aqualad themselves were Badass Normals in their underwater world, whose greater strength and speed came from extensive training instead of innate biology. When DC Comics merged Aquaman's Atlantis with the Atlantis of Superman and Wonder Woman, the humanity of Poseidonians was often put in contrast to the beast-like Tritonians and Fish People such as Nanaue and La'gaan. The humanity of Atlanteans has been heavily downplayed in recent runs (most notably in Geoff Johns' run) with the focus now given on Aquaman as a half-Atlantean Child of Two Worlds.
• Wham Episode: The death of Aquababy, Arthur Jr., changed the tone of the stories completely and had ramifications for decades as Aquaman dealt with grief and loss, his marriage fell apart and continued to have ups and downs as Mera blamed him for the child's death, Aqualad's relationship with Arthur was strained for a period, and Black Manta became cemented as his arch-nemesis for killing his son.