Remember that one time Aquaman lost his hand?
The year was 1994. The X-Men were carrying Marvel Comics, Todd McFarlane created his own talking tattoo named Spawn, and the comic book genre had experienced a shift in quality unseen to this day. Stories got worse, designs got grittier, and characters became edgy. Superman was killed, Batman's back was broken, The Green Lantern became a supervillain, Green Arrow was killed, and Wonder Woman and The Flash were pretty okay. But DC Comic's big league names suffered one more blow, one that remains in infamy to this day. Aquaman became stupid. Not silly, not unneeded, but very, very stupid.
In 1994, writer Peter David took over the Aquaman comic and wrote it for four years. After that four year run the book lasted until issue 75 and was the longest lasting Aquaman book ever. David's approach was to redesign Aquaman over the course of the first couple of issues. Aquaman had hidden from the world around that time, growing long hair and a beard. In his first return to being a superhero, Aquaman battled terrorists/lovers Charybdis and Scylla. During one battle, Scylla was killed by accident and Charybdis had gone mad. He used his ability to suppress superpowers on Aquaman, then he shoved Aquaman's left hand into a pool of piranha. Unable to control the fish, Aquaman's hand is devoured by them. During this fight Charybdis tries to absorb the powers fully and is partially successful. But when Aquaman shoves him into the pool of piranha and he attempts to control them, Charybdis instead fuses with the fish and takes on their traits. He then becomes the new villain Piranha Man.
In the following issues, Aquaman attaches a harpoon to his stump as "a symbol" and gets his orange armor ripped up by Lobo the Bounty Hunter. Rather than replace it, Aquaman simply dons a metal strap and completes his 90's redesign. In 2003 the hook would be replaced with a solid-water hand that could take different shapes, and finally in 2010 Aquaman's hand is restored by the end of "Blackest Night". Despite the look being removed and redesigned, Aquaman has never truly escaped this look. In the "Justice League" animated series he has this design and it would seem for the DC Cinematic Universe this could be the fate of Jason Momoa's Aquaman. Momoa's Aquaman keeps the beard, the lack of color, and the overall abandonment of Aquaman's traditional character. Currently in the DC Universe, Aquaman has his beard back, but has no hook and retains his costume.
I am not an Aquaman fan, but I appreciate the effort that goes into legitimizing him in the modern culture. Most people see classic Aquaman as a joke, a "Family Guy" or "Robot Chicken" parody of the "Super Friends" version of the character. But when you read Geoff Johns Aquaman, when you read Dan Abnett or Jeff Parker's Aquaman you see a much different take on the character. He isn't silly or over-the-top, he's a lost, conflicted, heavy-shouldered king responsible for a surface world that doesn't respect him and a undersea world that sees him as a bastard. His wife/queen Mera always supports him, his friends on The Justice League know just how powerful he is, and when pushed to the limit he can turn the entire ocean against you. That is Aquaman, and being reminded of what he was here and what he isn't on the movie screen only makes me love this underappreciated hero even more. Besides when you get right down to it, when DC had to decide which classic Justice League member to exclude from the New 52 lineup they didn't pick Aquaman. They picked the second strongest alien on Earth.
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