Episode 36: Intro to Aquaman

I mean, I guess there's that great debate. It's the Great debate. It's a marvel deep c It's toaster Struddle's pop tarts. It's looks like those um was it those pastry Ravuli Yeah, Pastry raul. Look, I'm weird, Like I remember, I forgot what it was, but I think it was Carl's Jr. Had a pop Tart ice cream sandwich and it was like two pieces of pop tart and an ice cream in the middle. Anyways, we are joined up top by a host of fangirling on nerd as she is also we asked her because she is one of

the hosts of d C Daily. It is our girl, Marquisa McCarty, Hey, yeah, thanks so much for having me, and uh for people that do that pop tart versus revul thing, which is a real thing. Damn on Twitter. Um yeah, look at the pop Tarts Twitter and you'll see people sending them pictures of revel. Oh the shade, Yeah, the shade, poor pop You know they're doing fine. College kids, parents, busy parents, they're hanging in. I mean the edge pop Tarts has over Toast Shroudles is that you can have

them at any temperature. You know, there's there's too much prep for toast of Shrewdle, but I think you know, both heated and completed. I'm gonna have to give it to the Toasta's trude. But you know, if you're running out the door, you're busy. You know, you're like, I gotta get out of here. You can pop a pop tark. You can't do that with tous. True, you got an ice cold brick. You could suck on it in the like pop like a popsicle in the summertime. Marcia, we

brought you on because we're talking about Aquama. Excellent Aquaman, who is a known DC character and also has a film dropping December fourteen, starring Jason Momoa. Yeah, already a few good reviews out. I know, I don't want to say better the best DC like Universe movie, and I was like, no, there's no way. Yeah, mar knows what I'm talking about. I'm like, there's no way, but you know,

we'll see. Yeah, I'm I'm super excited for the direction that a DC is going, especially with A with Aquaman, with Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman and so on and so forth, because they're I don't want to say taking the note, but you kind of get what I mean where it's not we don't just want ready, we want to have like that cross genre when it comes to Superhero and they've they've given Arthur the nuance that I enjoy him

having in the comics. You know. Um. One of the things I mean in like being off the top with like with Aquaman, I think it was basically because of Super Friends, he turned into like this joke where it's like, oh, the dude the tugs of fish and he looks like Goadfish. It's like what you know, um, And then he had

a partner, Aqualat that would say things like great guppies. Well, you know, they all got a you know, Robin, Robin was hidden, but that that was funny because because people were wondering if it was his power that made him lame. But then you have someone like nay More in the Marvel universe who has always been dope, like he's always been cool, this dude who's like and because and I think it goes back to that word you said, which

is nuance. Where you have someone who is this king or in some cases fallen king, or some case forgotten king or some case lost king. All the variations of someone who is belongs to royalty and is for some reason either away from it or stepping away from it. There's there's a lot of baggage there, and when you make him guy who talks to fish, you don't explore

any of that interesting, fun baggage. But I guess we should start, you know, start with the top of the deep dive, and then we'll get into our thoughts and and and and feelings about Aquaman a k. A. Arthur Curry. Yeah, because I don't think a lot of people realize how far deep the you know, the rabbit hole goes with him.

I meant, oh, yeah, yeah, he's uh he debuted in More Fun Comics number seventy three and nineteen forty one November of one, so hey just hit that anniversary, uh uh, And he was like a backup feature in DC's anthology titles, and he later ended up starring in several volumes of the his own comic book series, and then during the fifties and sixties superhero revival period, which you know is known as the Silver Age, he was a founding member

of the Justice League. Which is interesting because I think that the iterations that I think of, because I was going to try and make a definitive statement, but I'm gonna walk it back and make a statement that goes from my mind is I know, he started one version and then the other version, the newer reboot, it was more like the Flash was getting everyone together in the like, uh what was it? D C was New fifty two, and the New fifty two was kind of the Flash

who was kind of the leading one. But in a lot of iterations, I think it is Batman who's like I think, especially in the DC Cinematic universe, it's Batman who's wrang letting everyone. So it's interesting because you know, you do kind of get a vibe. We're gonna explore this, but you do get a interesting vibe based on who is starting the Justice League. Like when the Flash was doing it in the comics, he was kind of the the goofy one who was kind of just being like,

come on, guys, let's just be friends. Let's you know, you know, we need to work together to save the world. And he was the heart of the Justice League, whereas like in the cinematic universe, it feels like Batman is, you know, doing the tactician version of like, this is the most efficient way to handle this. This is why we gotta do it, Martha. You know, yeah, it's pretty grim. Yeah.

So so you know, getting into you know, uh, this version of the Justice League, which was a little a little hokey at first, it is interesting that Aquaman, who is like the do good or do goody guy. Yeah, so he was created by Paul Norris and more. Uh White singer by saying that, right, Um, I read a lot of words and a lot of people's names, and I think of how it sounds in my head, and I just say it that way until somebody else corrects me. Perfect.

So that's how So apologies to the people that are listening to this for the pronunciations that I'm going to be doing. Yeah. And so during the late nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, the superhero revival period known as a Silver Age, which we went over I think yeah in our flash episode. Um, he was a founding member of the Justice League. And then in the nineteen nineties, Modern Age writers interpreted Aquaman's character more seriously, with storylines depicting

the weight of his role as a King of Atlantis. Yeah. And in his nineteen sixty original animated appearance, Uh, it ended up leaving a lasting impression which made him widely recognized, which I think it makes sense. Oh, nineties Aquaman nineteen No, I heard nineties, but yeah, yeah, no, I like the nineteen sixties one. Um uh for Aquaman. Well, to know where the base came from with it, where you have,

um Atlanta and Tom Curry. You know Tom Curry's uh you know, worked in a light house and um, well, in the original nineteen sixties one, there was a woman that was lost in a hurricane on a raft and Tom Curry's the one that saves her. They flipped that and you know, um in the latest one in two thousand eleven, Jeff John's did that one, Jeff Johnson, I'm gonna say ivan rece r e I S and and that.

Then they fall in love, and you know, like I think a year or two years go by and she gets she becomes pregnant, and it's like, oh, but there's still something about her. Baby. Uh, there's still something about her. You know, she keeps on staring at the sea. What's going on? And then you know, baby comes along. And then when they're playing one day he finds out, oh, Arthur can breathe underwater. What the crap? What's going on

in Atlanta? Whoa? Whoa? What's happened? You know, because in his early Golden age appearances like you said, I'll come in, can breathe underwater, control fish and other underwater life for up to a minute. I like that. There's a time you only got it for him. That. Yeah. After that, the fish like, get off my neck. That's how all fish talk, by the way, if you didn't know, uh,

that's why we eat them. Yeah. Nope. But initially he was depicted as speaking to see creatures in their own language rather than telepathically, and only when they were close enough to hear him, which was generally around twenty meters and the Knockleman's adventures took place all across the world, and his base was a wrecked fishing boat kept underwater. Kind of an upgrade now in the movie where he's he was staying now in like a kingdom as opposed

to a wrecked fishing boat. He was originally a dude who talked to fish and lived on a boat. Prime dating material right there. Yeah, I mean super Friends alone. When he's the noise that he would make when he's communicating with fish, you just see the wavy lines going out into the ocean. Yeah. So during his wartime adventures, most of Aquaman's foes were nazi U boat commanders and various access villains where he once worked with the All

Stars Squadron. The rest of his adventures in the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties had him dealing with various sea based criminals. I like that sea based criminals Arial's father King Triton, including modern day pirates such as long time arch enemy black Jack, as well as various threats to aquatic life, shipping lanes and sailors. You know what they need to bring that back. I haven't seen the film.

Have you gotten to see Aquaman yet? I have not? Okay, that I would love because you know, I want to see him battling like plastic water bottles, plastic straws, plastic bags, about that plastic islands, plastics. I believe it's the Pacific, the Pacific or the Atlantic and it's this giant as we need Aquaman more now than ever. Well, they did have like a little stint during the BP oil spill where he like was kind of mad about and he was like, see humans always messing up the shoot and stuff,

and that was Matt Corny, uh but necessary. Yeah, but you have black Jack, which is his first you know, black arch Nemesis because you know black manch this is the man who who is like arch Nemesis with Now black Jack was Captain Blackjack was a modern day pirate.

But like everyone when we first said it kind of was thinking of like look at me and the captain now, you know, but this was this was back in the day and to them, modern day pirates were just people who dressed like pirates, but exists now because Captain Blackjack these like he has like a straight up what is the name of the the that pirates sword that you always see cutlass, cutlass. Okay, you know, but that's also what I'm whipping in. Wasn't there also a female black Jack? Yeah?

The black Jack was the name used by several characters in the in the d C universe. I mean that happens like with superheroes, like across the board, like yeah, yeah, I mean just think how many green lanterns we have. Well, also, what I like about looking through his powers and the building abilities. This is what I love about all the early like silver Golden Age villains is this is usually

they're they're so corny. Here's Blackjack's power skilled combatant, seamanship, swordsman, leadership, a word, that's that's that's your Yeah, that's your power set right there. You you are what what is it? You went to Toastmasters. That's yours and that's where you got you. So it started off. I was in a radioactive spill that I narrowly avoided and walked into a Toastmasters. I like the seamanship though, because it's like, is this like etiquette class or you know, are you like high

class etiquette with that seamanship? You know all the laws of the sea even unwritten, well, like, so you can break them all. I mean straight up, because in Blackjack's first appearance, his gang stole a yacht full of passengers and through the ship's captain at sea. And I feel like nowadays that you'd be a hero for that. That shows you have times to change back and they eat

the rich. All right, let's keep this ball rolling, yes, So, starting in the late nineteen fifties, new elements to Aquaman's backstory were introduced, with various new supporting characters added and several adjustments made to the character, his origins, his powers, and persona. So the first of these elements was the story Aquaman's Undersea Partner and Adventure Comics number two to October nineteen fifty six, where his octopus sidekick Topo was

first introduced. They need to bring Topo back, seriously, this and subsequent I'm going to say that throughout the thing they need to bring this back is Subsequent elements were later after the establishment of DC's multiverse in the nineteen sixty attributed to the Aquaman of Earth one, I did want to say, I don't know if you remember, if you When they first tweeted out the poster for the current Aquaman film, and um, somebody had photoshopped it to

look like Lisa Frank, which listener, if you don't remember, Lisa Frank was a very big thing in the eighties and nineties of like those psychedelic looking like bear leopards and yeah, leopard print, pink glitter, and so someone made a bunch of dolphins and it just looked like Lisa Frank and I, honest to God, thought that that was the poster, and I retweeted it and was also sad that it was not, in fact going to be him

writing pink dolphins. I was like, going for you were like genuinely hyped because I was like, whoa, that's such a risk. I love it, you know, like I want to see Jason Momoa writing rainbows. This is cool. I actually enjoyed that because you know, yeah, that all command love is there, like that fan art love is there.

And when you think about it, um, having Aquaman do something in a Lisa Frank way in any way shape or formed like something as a as a web video would be like Thor doing Thor and Darryl, his roommate Darryl. It would be like that. So if they went that route some plus She's alone a literal fish out of water. Yeah. Then we had the Silver Age Aquaman who made his appearance and adventure comics number to sixty on May nineteen fifty nine. And you know what happened in May nineteen

fifty nine, right, that was oh um got his powers? No, no, no, that was I like to give little anecdotes about the time when we say them and uh. And May nineteen fifty nine was after the release of Some Like Some Like It Hot. It dropped that March also twenty nine years before me and Danny were born. And I gotta say it was a great year because Aquaman he was better than ever. And it was revealed that Aquaman was

Arthur Curry, son of Tom Curry, grandfather of Tim Curry. Uh. Which is a lighthouse keeper in Atlanta, a water breathing outcast from the lost underwater city of Atlantis. That sounds too much like Atlanta. Now I'm thinking of the Atlanta Aquaman cross. You can you can call her Atlanta Atlanta. That might help to distinguish shot between that in Atlantis. Yeah, like, yeah, that's see. This is that early age comics where we got real lazy with names like Atlanta from Atlantis? Uh?

Do we all? Does everyone in here? No? Black Bolt's real name black Bolt from Marvel Comics. Real name is black Agar Bolt. You know that. Scooby Doo's real name is Scubert. No, Scubert Scobert. I don't want to believe. No. I was going to tweet to Maybe I'll do it later. Scooby Doo's full name. I made up the second part, but it should be Scubert Dubington. Subert, you always This isn't the first time you told me that, and it still makes me laugh because the last time he said

Scubert Dubert Scubert Dubington. Archer decided to use his talents to become the defender of the Earth's oceans. It's a noble cause. It was later revealed that he had, in his youth adventured as Aqua Boy and on occasion met super Boy, or only other publicly active superpowered hero at

the time. When Arthur grew up, he called himself aqua Man. Yeah, this seems like mixed up, because I mean, is this a This is where we lean to Marcia, who is an expert in d C. So is this Superboy, the super Boy that we know today, or is this an like the teen Titans Superboy where he's a Superman for this silver Age Superboy, I don't believe that it is. Yeah, it's from this. Is it the same? Is it the

same one with a clone background for Superman? Because I know that for later on I believe this is different. I think you're right, Okay, it's just Superman and yeah, exactly, yeah he was super Boy. Okay, so yeah, I mean you have to think back. It was a simpler time in the Silver Age comics. So it's like somebody is younger, they'll be called super Boy and then they'll if you go into yeah, this is a different one. He does not look like a boy. Look at this Markia. Look

it's a sixteen birthday. That man is hardcore twenty five years Is he is Lizzie McGuire sixteen? Yeah? Is Channing Tatum? And um what was the one? She's the man? Yeah? Channing Tatum in that. Yeah, you know, one well grown man. One would think that with that kind of mentality, that if Bruce Wayne had taken on the cowl, you know, at an earlier age as opposed to like training to get ready for to take on Gotham. He might have been bad Boy eventually been Batman. Yeah, because that's close

to what I call Superman. Whenever he walks out the house wearing something weird, I'm like super Boy. One of one of the things that's really great about Aquaman that I feel that people don't people don't realize because they think, oh, it's the guy that talks to fish kind of a thing. His rogues gallery is uh, pretty impressive. I mean, this dude stabbed dark Side and the eye with this tritnant

Aquaman did that, you know that? And like some of his other roadus, like for instance, with like continuing with silver Age, with um At Lana, she yes, was an exiled queen. There was this whole thing where she okay with silver Age. It's like comics are hell of a drug. There's so much okay. So she was exiled, she had author on land um knew that she couldn't bring him

back with her. She did go back where then she was forced forced it was politics by the people, to then marry another suitor where she then had another baby orm Ocean Master, and one of the between that him and Black Manta, I think are like the strongest my favorite supervillains for Aquaman. Yeah, so it's good to know that that happened when Yeah, it says here Arm disappeared after becoming an Amnijack and would resurface years later as

Aquaman's nemesis, Ocean Master. Yeah, but I think I think in Silver Age it was like reverse where I think orm was on the sea, not on the sea on land. I think it was like that. But there are so many like this has been red on so many times. I will say, here's my my thing on Black Manta is he's the only time in Silver Age DC that I'm like, yeah, I'm glad you called him black Manta because because when he pops off the helmet and he

is black, I'm like, oh, I didn't know. Thanks for putting it in your name, bro, Like you don't need it for black Lightning. I see, just be lightning, my guy. You know. Yeah, it's amazing. It was like with um this is Marvel where they do black Maria for um Luke Cage. You don't you don't have to do that. Yeah, you can just call her Strong Maria or you know, as Maria. But also black Manta is way harder than like Manta, but like Lightning. That's like, oh that's a

good name. Could have been like death Manta or something. No, I like black Man because he's like not just so you know, so you know who I am under this mask. Uh. So during this time, Aquaman's ability to talk with fish eventually expanded to full fledged telepathic communication with sea creatures, even from great distances. He also retroactively developed a specific weakness, again to Superman's vulnerability to kryptonite. Uh. Kind of interesting

that they kind of a CURATORI ama this. It was like going back retroactively, like, oh, by the way, he also he's allergic to this. So Aquaman had to come into contact with water at least once per hour or he would die. Prior to this story, Aquaman could exist both in and out of water indefinitely, which I think

our current Aquaman is like that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I feel as far as I can gather with what they're going forward with it, I feel like that was just silly, like adding that ability rather kind of a thing. They don't want to make him to opeque, but he wasn't Like I can see if his power set because you have someone like Daymore who you know, this comparison is always going to be coming up because that was Marvel's Aquaman. He was the first one. Yeah, he had

super strength, you know, outside, was sexy. Yeah, oh yeah, he was that dude essential. It's just like an arrogant Oh yeah, it's just like yeah, and then and then you have Arthur Curry, who's is a good guy, a good guy, but he's a king and he's had to make a lot of really tough decisions. Like what I'm really interested in with with this movie, like what you can read in the comics, but depending on who who you're going, like Peter David's Aquaman, that's a whole different

kind of Aquaman than Jeff John's Aquaman. For instance, are m Paul North and why Singer So with it, I would like for them to do it where they do comedic nuance and like building this world like for instance Marvel did with Black Panther, because you have that with Aquaman. He is a king of the sea, that of the ocean, two thirds of the earth, you know right there. He has control over that, and there's this whole culture and

everything that happens underneath there. I think what people don't realize is like it's kind of like what they did with Black Panther, where he's like he has Waconda in its own culture, but he spent a whole lot of time in America and in other places, you know, traveling with the Avengers and with Arthur Curry. He spends a whole lot of time, you know, oh, in America, traveling, you know, with the Justice League and say everything like that. Yeah,

and that's that's kind of what was cool. That was explored. So man, I feel like we're talking so deep in comics. Luckily, with Aquaman, it's pretty much like he's pretty much stayed the same for the most part. You know, he'll lose the arm here or there, but like his attitude in the nineties totally changed, but he's generally like King of the Atlantis, same same person, the same way through. Unlike you know, you have Batman, who has tons of red cons.

He ended up having a son, and then his son got killed and his son got back, and then you have like Flash where there's like three, four or five different Flashes if you go back and listen to that episode. Same thing with Green Lantern. Aquaman was pretty untouched. So we get to be done for the most part we'll go into his powers and abilities, but we get to be done with most of the history of it. You know, we we could if we wanted to talk about like

the big moments. But look, if if I'm being an off rip and there's gonna be some Aquaman had who come at me like there's nothing and you can you can let me know. And of course we'll always blast you and retweet you if you have like historic Aquaman moments like from one I was going to talk about mine because I got I got one. We might have the same one. I think we'll see, Yes, we will see. Right after these messages are doing that, I'm going to

do it. I'm going to do it. Okay, and we are back, so I am going to I don't think you guys actually are talking about the same moment, but um, since Marcia is our guest, I'm going to start with her. Of just come on, MARKA, what is the big moment for you that really stands out with Aquaman? Well talking you know, back in the seventies, like that Aquaman not on the two thousand eleven um and on Aquaman, which I feel is a that's a whole different kind of Aquaman.

It's got a different kind of feeling. I really enjoy way what is happening, especially with what they're doing now with Drowned Earth. James Tynan Jr. The Fourth I can't say enough about that. It's it's epic. But for like in the seventies, my moment is Dark Destiny Deadly Dreams, where okay, so um Aquaman had kind of been on hiatus before that, and then he comes back and they're like, okay, so we're gonna do this storyline. It's this is gonna this is gonna be great. It's good for the fans.

He's backed by popular demand, is going to bring in some more fans, and the and the whole thing of it is like, okay, so Aquaman is married to Mara and they have a baby. Author Junior, So aqua baby. Actually, yeah, and you know things are going good, you know still as politics, you know, Atlantis and such and such. And he also has Aqua Lad. Aqua Lad is there than Garth and this black aqua Lab it is not, Yeah, it is. It is the same Aqua Lad that becomes

a founding member of Teen Titans. But yeah, but this one like goes and trains in Scotland and all this other stuff. Yeah, but in this major storyline where they do like Black Manta comes after Aquaman and um he gets ahold of Aquaman by getting ahold of Aqua Baby. And Aqua Baby can't breathe oxygen, like he can only live under the water, so he traps him in this like in this sphere and then he slowly fills it with oxygen. Oh yeah, yeah, So do you want me to tell you what happens or it came out? I

mean yeah, it's like seven. So Black Manta's terms are, hey, I'm going to kill your son or you can kill Aqua Lad. So and then Aqua Lads like, ha ha ha, that's not going to Aquaman like goes to town and

he's like, I'm sorry, you know it's gonna have to happen. Um. So he's battling with Aqua Lad and you know, long story short, it gets to the point where it's like, oh, were we in time too, you know, save Author Jr. And then you have this panel like this picture where they're just holding the body and no, oh my god, they literally brought back Aqua Man and in this storyline they killed Aqua Baby. Yeah, so yeah, that was actually, yeah, the miss didn't that happen, not like that the Ultimate

where the kid died too. In the midst he kills and then there was help coming right then, right after he kills because he like he kills everyone, he's about to kill himself. There's not a bullet left, and then

that's when the help comes through. The miss. Yeah, it's always that's like, that's like something that Twilight, like Rudd Sterling died of black mirror crap was Stephen King, so you know he was ready to do So my moment is a lot lighter than that, a moment true anguish, and I remember that one that is like the moment and everyone that you, anyone who who reads comics and has read a lot of comics, and you and ask you that will be the Aquaman story. That's they'll tell

you to check out. My story was one that was like, oh, Aquaman can be cool, but it didn't it technically never it happened, but it doesn't exist. And it was during flash Point. Well Flashpoint happened. There was real cool. This is one of the only times I went around buying So okay, I think I've explained crossover events and comics and crossover events are an event that is so large it's happening over multiple comic books, and there's usually one

main story book that you can copy. Uh, And normally I just read the main storybook. You you ain't gonna get me, comics publisher. Now I'm only picking my mans and the and the art. So if it happens in the books, I'm already again, then I'm reading it. But besides that, I'm not going around. And except they did one which one was it? Where it was hopping from book to book and I was, Uh, so Flashpoint they did this cool thing. So what what happened in Flashpoint?

And I felt they were going to do this with the movie. Now it seems like they're not. The Flash was fighting the reverse Flash and went back in time, messed up the storyline and it caused a moment called the Flashpoint that and and uh and it like shifted timelines and you know this created new timelines and so

all the books changed into these new timeline books. Uh, A death stroke had a real dope one that was him as a pirate and uh the Aquaman and in this universe, I think, uh, Bruce Wayne was dead and his there was Batman, which was really cool. Yeah, Superman was being kept from sunlight and he was a he was a being helped by the government under experience. Experience and Wonder Woman and Aquaman and Mira were at war.

There was a world war where like wonder Wan was commanding all the Amazonians and they were trying to conquer the world and it was so hardcore, like just to see like you know, Aquaman like yo, it's it's going down and just like seeing that side of it. And I really started falling in love with Mira around that era too, because during like the Darkest Night stuff, she got the Rage ring and like Rage Mirror. I still

have that action figure at home. It's such a cool mir because like she had does it kind of like it was a cool way for them to address kind of the baggage that she is dealt with, but they never get to talk about because it's Aquaman's book and she kind of had the rage of you know, losing her throne. Not her throne, but she lost a lot.

It's like losing a way of life. It's like, um, it's not necessarily lifestyle, it's like losing the stuff that you self identify with and then having that just ripped away and then all that black Lantern stuff was so dope as Nicron, I need to go back and read that.

I know this was so well worth a reread. Yeah, if you if you ever want to read any DC fool like, if you just want to look at crossover ars, obviously it's going to be, Um, what's the one, you know, the one I'm thinking, Um, you're thinking Dark Knight Oh, Final Crisis, Yeah, Dark Knight Metal. Yeah, Dark Knight Metal. That's the current running one. Yeah, everyone's been talking about that.

It's amazing, it really is. There's there's dark dark Days and Dark Night I'm hoping that I'm saying it right metal. If someone was to bring that up to make sure I've read through. Uh, Danny, this is an other thing that I read the second half of gosh instead of the first half. I will go back and read the first half, um, which is Dark Day Metal and this is Dark Night Metal. Feel free to correct me if

I got that wrong. But like, for instance, um, they have different Batman like from different alternate you know, the dimensions, different dimensional Batman's Like there's the Batman who laughs, it's a Batman who went the way of the Joker. It is terrifying. Um, and I love that causeplay so hard. There were so many either and for talking about like what you were saying, if he that is well worth a dive into. In fact, I'm Sam Humphreys from d C Daily has written one of the Batman. Yeah, I

will because someone literally last week I forget. I wonder if it was after episode mentioned that we should read it. And it is good. Well, the latter half that I read. I need to go back and see where everything started. So I just wanted to talk about some of Aquaman's abilities before we fully, before we move on to other other elements of his comics and then eventually the film. Yeah,

he's surprisingly Opie. He is, and so I think that that's why they made So that's why they made that a couple of those changes in some of the comics where he needed to have water or needed to be around water every hour. Um, they also removed there was one comic where they removed his ability to talk to fish. Yeah, sorry to cut you off, Danny, but I found it. It was infinite content. Soul brother. He sent me this picture and this is from Yes, she's looking at the Batman,

who laughs. Yeah, it's he's gnarly there. There's one storyline in in this Metal series where just after the Metal series is actually I'm sorry, it's not the Doubles, it's the in any case, I'll remember in a second, but they have Lex Luthor trap the Batman, who laughs. And then he also as part of his local ball, he grabs Joker and all of them because he's trying to I don't want to give away what he's trying to get, but he puts him like in this is like four

layers of things to wrap him in the cell. And Joker is like, no, he's there because he wants to be there. This is not a good idea. And this is like the Joker Joker, not like another Joker Joker. So the Joker is like literally helping out. Oh my gosh, I got to read that. Let's go back to powers of ability before we go on this huge Yeah, so he has ability to breathe underwater and possesses a superhuman physique strong enough to withstand attacks from superhuman opponents and

resist machine gun fire because of his density. Because he basically he you know, do you even lift bro, but under the sea you know. There was another hero who had the power to control their density UH who existed. Nobody is gonna get this reference and his name was de Ka Nakam Valiant Vanquished. There was a character Noah who had a crush on him, and it was This is the most meta inside joke. The ones who get

it will love it. They'll love it. He can swim at very high speeds, capable of reaching speeds of three thousand meters per second Damn, and can swim up Niagara Falls. He can see in near total darkness and has enhanced hearing, granting limited sonar. He's like he's like a bat He has more bat like powers than Batman. Although Aquaman can remain underwater indefinitely now without suffering any ill effects, he grows weak if he remains on land for extended periods.

They need to get this straight. This keeps going back and forth. They keep on changing it. There's so many differents. However, when Batman invented Aquaman's water suit, he was able to walk on land for an indefinite amount of time and was no longer vulnerable to a de humidifier. This weakness was later removed from continuity in UH they're just kind

of mess. You know. You know, he can't be too uh, he can't be too op established that he grew up on land before learning of his Atlantean heritage, but he still runs the risk of dying by dehydration within in. I love that. I love that he's like one of the strongest men ever and he can die from d He's just like a regular human. Yeah, it seems like he just and he's also as thirsty as the dudes

in your comments. Oh lord, if he you know our friend Nick Ross who was on our show, Um, he has a really funny tweet about how humans are, like how we're the top of the food chain that can also die from a plastic bag, Like isn't that crazy? Like, no matter how strong you are, if you have a plastic bag over your head for like thirty seconds, no matter how strong you are, you can't hold a glass of water in your hand straight out to your side

for longer than I think it was a minute? What was a minute too, or maybe it was three minutes something like that. Because there's something about the way that your muscles are in your arm that you just you, no matter how strong you are, you physically can't do it. What about people that hold weights and do that, but

they're not like holding it for you know. Three Ever, let's see if the rock is I feel like he has uh so maybe what seven minutes before we hop into the New fifty two market, can you explain to people what the New fifty two was in d C, because it's not just Aquaman in effective comics. Oh so many like, um, the harlequin that people knew like, um, well, she was originally Batman the animated series b t S.

She didn't exist in comics. So then after having her in there, she then you know, existed in comics in a certain way, and then she was And that's the full harlequin outfit that people see mainly at comic cons where you see where she's um, I believe it's like half black, half red type of things, like a full outfit. Very it's like it looks like it's painted on, looks

like body paint kind of a thing. Giant hammer. Um. And that's you know, the harlequin that started off in BTS UM when like, for instance, I'm just using this as a character for instance, and the New fifty two hit that's when she really became the Harlequin that you see now with like Suicide Squad where you have like the candy colored hair and the bat um putting necklace kind of a thing where it's like really doubling down on the relationship between her and Joker, you know, in

the toxic way that we recognize that it is um kind of a thing. So like, yeah, the New Hipty two is kind of like just basically, you know, things have to shake up every now and again, and some it happens. It tends to happen a lot, sometimes um too much that people think. But with a New fifty two or the Rebirth, they took a lot of characters that people had they might have stagnated a little bit, and then they just revitalize them in a different way. Not a lot of people agree with on this there

on the same page with all of the characters. Like some people are not a fan of the new Harlequin as opposed to um a classic Harley, and then other people are like, no, no, she's definitely you know, there's a lot more than we can do that. Plus we have movies now, you know, Bird of Prey and so on and so forth, so you know, mixed bag whatever. It's here to stay for right now. It's seven years old and so far it's going on, it's continuing. They haven't had to reshake things up too much. So yeah.

So the New fifty two was then revamp and relaunch of d C Comics of its entire line of ongoing monthly superhero comic books. So this was following the conclusion of the flash Point Crossover, which, if you talked about, DC canceled all of its existing titles, debut a new

fifty two series um in September ofleven. And I think we have a quote from Jeff John's here, So this is from an I g N interview with Jeff John in eleven around the New fifty two number one issue being released as part of the New fifty two d C relaunch of their entire superhero line. Jeff John's Ivan Rice and Joe Prado served as the initial creative team of the company's new Aquaman series, so the first issue

was released in September of twenty eleven. The three creators remained on the title for the first sixteen issues that subsequently led to the first continual Aquaman related crossover known as the Throne of Atlantis. Aquaman now struggles with his lack of reputation with the greater public, which views him as a lesser metahuman. This is like a going joke that I've seen in the comics of them, kind of

like the public making fun of Aquaman. Yeah, the thing that I enjoy about Aquaman, and they even Jeff John's addresses it really well. UM in like re envisioning Um Aquaman. I like UM volume seven, number one, the trench Um, but with this, Like, for instance, there's a scene where he is sitting in a restaurant. Everybody's like, what you're You're that dude, You're the dude that talks to fish, and it's like, I do not talk to fish, and

it's yeah. And he even goes into it where it's like it's part of him stimulating the cerebellum and and compelling, compelling UM sea creatures to then do what he wants to heed what he wants to make it into an instinct for the creature. So it's not out of you know, it's not out of this step of life for them. So it's not him telepathically being like, hey, so what do you do on Wednesday? My schedules, clear kind of thing.

But going back to what you were saying with Aquaman, where he is people make fun of him, you know. I like that about him. I like that he's in the classic outfit. Not everybody agrees with this, but it's like, because he is, he's a decent person, He's a good guy. With this Aquaman. He does have a lot of the personality traits of like the nineties Aquaman, but enough that also bounces it out that he's a sure individual that puts up with people making fun of him. He makes

it okay to be who he is. He normalizes being authentically you. And that's one of the things that I really love about that. And that's why I like that they have Jason Momola being Acaban because can you picture anybody, just anybody else, being totally chill with being themselves no matter what anybody else says, and still being able to like lay down the law but with a gentle hand if need be. Yeah, Yeah, I'm really glad that they

picked him. I was going to say in this I g N interview, the reporter said, who was He was always one of the least interesting characters in the DCU. For me, that changed in Brightest Day. What is about the character that makes him so attractive to you? And Jeff John said that he's the underdog. And then the I g N reporters said, how do you see his relationship to the rest of the DC universe, And Jeff John said, it's very clear an issue number one, what

his relationship is to the rest of the world. I think he's underestimated by everybody, both inside and outside of the comics. Uh So with the rebirth, he is uh once again a founding member of the Justice League and is the main member of the team. That's a huge thing to like being one of the main forefront members. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean he's he's not there you know, for you know the popcorn or you know, for what whatever they have in catering. No, it's not that he's there because

he is abnormally strong. With this with this dense strength, he's able to leap so high it says if he's flying. He has a type of sonar. He has a trident that was um, you know, passed down from the first King of Atlantis. I forget if in the new fifty two if they keep that particular No, no, actually they change that up because his his trident is one of seven artifacts. It's like it's some serious power, some serious legacy that we're talking about with this, and he can

you can't drown him. He breathes underwater, and he's a king with the king's resources with a Queen Mira, who is amazing in our own right. I like like with them the New fifty two, they up the stakes with like arm and black Man, who I talked about before. You can tell a lot from their hero by the

villains that they fight. What I like, for instance, about Orm and what they did with that is that you identify with Orm because he's he's basically like because they have the the deluge, where's like this hierarchy system that's in an Atlantis and there's um these um they call themselves bottom dwellers, like it's not a derogatory term um with them, and it's like they're they're all pure. They're like pure about Atlantis. There's no point in going into

like um on the land. And with Orm, his whole thing is like they're polluting us there one third of the planet and they're killing us all. Let's just get rid of them, Let's just drown them all. Let's do this, and you kind of see where he's coming from, and you also see why he's kind of but he's also he's also a half brother of authors Arthur, so you can't just kill him. So yeah, well that's I mean, that's the recipe for any good villain is one that

you can see where they're coming from. They might not be going about it the right way, but you definitely see where they're coming from, because it seems less cartoonish when you have a villain that you can reason when you're like, I see why you're mad. You This just isn't the way to handle this, I want to say. So we are going to actually hop into the future of Aquaman in this movie right after these messages and we're back and before we hop into the film, we're

gonna talk about a couple of other Aquaman films. Uh. One of them, actually not a film, is the animated series. I don't know if you know this, Iffy, but Aquaman is a filmation animated series that premiered on CBS on September n seven and end of June seventy. It's a thirty minute version of the super Man Aquaman Hour of Adventure and it was repackaged without the Superman and Superboy segments.

I love that they kept super Boy in there. Um. Yeah, so there were thirty six Aquaman segments produced for that, plus eighteen segments featuring other superheroes. Oh man, Just speaking of aquad shows you may not know about. Were you aware of the Aquaman pilot that dropped in two thousand seven? Wait? So like it aired? So what happened was the Aquaman pilot?

They were expecting it to debut on the fall schedule of two thousand six, but they also had a merger with w B and up N, which is what created the CW network. So it was supposed to be for the w B during like small bills, you know, huge boom, but when it turned into the CW, they opted not to buy the series and they passed on the pilot. But they did make the pilot available online, which is

cool because that normally doesn't happen. It just disappears. And Aquaman was played curiously enough by the person who played Oliver Queen and Green Arrow and Smallville, which was the actor Justin Hartley. Uh So that would have been weird anyway.

Which came first interesting crossover? I did want to say for the Aquaman the animated series, those episodes have been seen as part of Cartoon Networks Boomerang, and then in October of two thousand and seven, Warner Home Video released The Adventures of Aquaman The Complete Collection on DVD, SO which was a two disc set features all thirty six Aquaman segments from the series and was presented its original

uncapped broadcast presentation and original air day. I wonder if you're an Aquaman fan at home, let us know if you have those and let us know if you have those that. It also had a little feature at called Aquaman The Sovereign of the Seas, which explores Aquaman's depiction in various media and how his character and superhero capabilities

have progressed over the years. Also, his animation has changed as he's been in different Justice League animated one but uh, the film, the film that's coming up, Marky, I have you enjoyed? So Aquaman was first introduced or are current? Jason Momoa run of Aquaman was first introduced in Justice League, which I've weirdly forgot if you remember when we were talking about Justice League on this podcast and I was like, yeah, we had the introduction Flash and Cyborg and everyone's like

and also Aquaman. But it's so funny because Jason Momoa has just been like in the Zeit Guy so much that I forgot that that was his first introduction. I just feel like we knew him as Aquaman for for when it was first announced, and like Jason Momoa himself just being a part of you know, the nerd fan base with Game of Thrones and everything else he's been in that, and then when it was announced that he was already getting his own film, it just kind of

he just felt like he was already in there with them. Um. But yeah, So, Markia, what has been your take on on his Aquaman? I enjoy it. I think it's a I think Jason Mamoa well when it clicks, it clicks, and definitely does with him. I think he's a really good balance of it feels like there's like two extremes

that it comes with um Aquaman. You know, you like you have the type of Aquaman where it's like yes and the Goldfish inspired, you know, classic suit and um flying around trying to do the right thing, being stalwart, you know, type of goody, but still being him, you know, nerdy him um. And then you have the other one that you have like in the from the nineties, Like I said, Peter David's Um Aquaman where it's like hook for hands. We didn't even mention. I mean, yeah, where

he he loses this harpoon. Yeah that was hand. That wasn't That wasn't his first one, Like um, the Lady of the Lake gives him a magic hand. There's he also has his hand eating. Do you remember when he put it in the piranhas, Well he didn't put it there. Well yeah, well he lost his um, his ability to talk to the we're on the same pace, and then the Piranha took the hands and he was off to

the races. No more pretty boy. Now. It was like the long grizzled adventurer you know, you know, kill you before you kill anybody in my city type of a thing.

And I think Jason Momoa is a really great balance of the both of those, where you have like that long hair, that physique um, which Aquaman always had a type of physique, but you know it's it's a mentality and the way that you carry yourself, and then still being definitely being the type of dude where It's like, yeah, he would play you know, tea party with his daughter

kind of a thing. So I I love that they have this casting for him for Aquaman because we're I think that we're going to see him lethal, We're going to see him vulnerable. Um, we're gonna see him funny, and we're gonna see him kill, right. I think that's gonna happen. Yeah. I loved his comedic moments. He definitely adds that, like the humor and comedy to the Justice League. I was in a great casting for the balance. Yeah,

for real, I was gonna say so. The development of the Aquaman film began back in two thousand and four, with several plans falling apart throughout the years, and then eventually James One signed on as director in April. It's taken a while for them to get the Aquaman film. Well, you know, there were some ups and downs that happened with things, so I could see why they would be cautious. I am very happy with the direction that they're going

with things, though. I mean with the way that Deucey is going, I could see Flashpoint being a real possibility for and that would be I think by then when that does happen. If it does happen, the public would be ready for it, you know, with the post post Metal series, post wonder Woman, you know, and so on and so forth. It's like get a you know, they would trust and be able to expand on the worlds

that they were creating. Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna say it looks like slash film because we were talking about some of what the critics have said said Aquaman is better than expected. Feels like I'm Marvel Phase one movie in a good way. It's at its best when it's having fun and not taking itself too seriously. Eric Davis A Van Dango said Aquaman is a most ambitious DC movie to date, a big, sprawling visual spectacle that is gorgeous, crazy stuff with terrific action and a lot of fun

to watch. It's crazy. Yeah, it looks like it's a going to be a treat. Yeah. Yeah. Something that I also like about Jason Momo is like you could totally see him writing a big seahorse like and being and making it look cool and then also him stabbing dark Side and the Yeah, he's all those things. He's he's the rock when he's like boxing and he's also the rock when I fall him on Instagram and he's letting his daughter paint his nails. So that is Pen's Aquamani.

Dwayne Johnson content. You know, I enjoy his Instagram feed him. Will Smith like all of the motivational off Dad's huh buff, Dad's buff. Daddy's Yeah. I think that's a that's it for Aman. I think if you haven't seen that c w AT, it will be in the footnotes. It's quite a treat. And by a treat, I mean it's horrible. So uh but you know where can people find you? Mark you? Uh yeah, you can find me on Twitter

and Instagram at Markie McCarty. That's m A r k E I A m c c A r t Y. Also I do fan Growing with Danny ms Danny Fernandez and you can there's new episodes of that every Thursday. You can see that on Facebook, um, Facebook dot com, slash watch fan Growing. I also do Ask your Black Geek Friend for Geek in Century and that is a monthly show we've just wrapped for this year, so check that back out in January unless you have Alpha and then please, you know, watch some of our shows there.

And yeah, that covers the the mainly geek in comic book and movie stuff that I'm doing right now. Uh, and I am in DC Universe, Yeah that before exactly. Um, So yeah, if you have DC Universe, and I do recommend the subscription. It's it's comic book movies. I mean, I go down so many rabbit holes with it is so great. Um. I'm on d C Daily and one of the hosts there that you will see in that show is a Monday through Fridays. Yeah, and you know me.

You can find me uh if I f y n W A d i w E on Twitter and Instagram if he's on twitch. Y'all really came through ner Fem hanging out mostly because Danny r T did a lot of y'all made that a point. It was like, we came here because of Danny Cool. I'm going to pop in more. Wait no, not on your Twitch stream. You're not gonna come. Okay, if you invite me over to your house, I will eat your food and play with your daughter. But also, yeah, coming the Discord That's what

she was talking about. Discord dot g G slash Salt Squad and make sure you get that gear from t public te public dot Com slash near difficent. We got lots of dope gear there. Uh you know you were able during the Black Friday to snag that nerd prem hoodie or shirt if you wanted to. If you missed it, you missed it. But there's lots of other dope stuff you can grab. I am at ms Danny Fernandez and we've been doing a lot of giveaways, so follow us

on Twitter because dang. We did a Doctor Who giveaway, we did a what do we have before, we did a Buffy the Vampire Slayer giveaway. We have more giveaways coming up. I believe we have a Miles Morales giveaway coming up. So um, just check out our Twitter because we are We've been given the love back to y'all

for listening. Um again, if you are an Aquaman fan and you have a comic that you love that we missed, or a certain moment that that we missed, please let us know kindly, or any of your fun Aquaman facts. We will definitely be checking back in with this gentleman after the movie. So yeah, but for now, this was a good intro to our our water Boiling Water King, our Agua senor Um, and I think as always, stay Nearty,