Aquaman's power

He's not a crime fighter. He's a king.

Straightedge means I'm better than you.

I just rewatched the episode where the fake Zan uses his water form to fill a room with water where the fake Jayna fights Aquaman, and I'm thinking why is fake Zan deliberately creating an environment where Aquaman is in his element? I know the answer: The writers were tired of having the water guy stuck on dry land, but in-story it made no sense.

In the JLA/Avengers crossover, he was able to control the Atlanteans except for Namor. Although Namor admitted that Aquaman's mental blast gave him a headache. I think Namor said that he wasn't totally affected because he, like Aquaman, was only half-Atlantean.



"There will be blood. Oh, yes! There will be blood."-Jigsaw; "Saw II"

Aquaman doesn't "control" aquatic life, he communicates telepathically with it. There is a difference, though the control vs communicate deal has changed over the years.

What is generally not considered by far too many writers is his inherent strength, based on be able to survive the pressures of the ocean. The main reason for that is that he has, generally, been handled as a gimmick character (foiling criminals through dubious use of aquatic life, like using sword fish to hold them in place). He was created in reaction to the success of the Sub-Mariner, at Timely Comics (the future Marvel), but never had the personality to make him nearly as interesting. Namor, the Su-Mariner, was an anti-hero, so, in the early days, you never knew whose side he was on. That made him an edgier character, and contributed immensely to his popularity. It helped that Bill Everett was a fantastic artist. Aquaman floundered (so to speak) for years as a minor character. He got a bit of a boost in the early 60s, when they added Aqualad and Mera, making him a family man, which is why he ended up in the Justice League. It helps that his art was being done by Nick Cardy and Ramona Fradon, who gave the series a more interesting look.

The Justice League status led to his cartoon series from Filmation, which ultimately led to the Super Friends, at Hanna-Barbera. However, the writers there really didn't know what to do with him. They were forever concocting sea-based calamities to keep him involved. He wasn't faring much better at DC, where his series was cancelled, and he ended up in Adventure Comics.

In the mid-70s, he got a bit of a new lease on life, thanks to writer Steve Skeates and artist Jim Aparo. Aparo could make anything look good and made the character look more dynamic. Skeates tweaked the character a bit and gave him a stronger personality. He had him exiled from Atlantis, and had Black Manta kill Aquababy, his biological child. He has to hunt down the truth behind Atlantean weaponry ending up in the hands of criminals and terrorists and finds out that his successor, the new Atlantean ruler, is involved. he then uncovers the true identity of that ruler. It was pretty good stuff, though you wouldn't know by the way that DC failed to promote it (typical of that era). However, the success was short lived.

Later writers tried to make him more like Namor or give him nastier threats, within his own world. Peter David succeeded better than most, first in the history of Atlantis, detailed in the Atlantis Chronicles (with gorgeous art by Esteban Maroto) and then in his "year one series," "Time and Tide," and in a revived Aquaman comic. However, given the grittier fad going on, he loses a hand and gains a harpoon! It wasn't one of the better ideas, but was typical of that era.

Mark Waid handled him pretty well in JLA Year One, illustrating his greater strength, and by having him at odds with many attitudes of the surface world, towards the sea and marine life. He also had him speak softly, since he was used to how sound travelled in water, vs air.

Aquaman here owed a lot to Peter David's take, but there was more than a bit of the classic Silver Age elements there.

"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"