My whole life I have never been in the “in-crowd,” I have always felt like an outsider looking in. I was never cool enough to hang out with the “cool kids” in high school, and I wasn’t nerdy enough to fit in with the nerds. So, I found solitude in comic books. I was able to escape the world and be taken into other worlds, Gotham, Metropolis, Coast City, and Atlantis. (As you can tell I am a DC fan boy.)
There has always been one superhero that I related to, Aquaman. He wasn’t the cool popular guy like Bats, he wasn’t the hero like Superman, and he wasn’t the lady killer like Green Lantern. Aquaman was the nobody, the butt of all jokes, and an outcast that was looking in. I mean even the king of nerds hated and made fun of Aquaman. I somehow saw myself in Aquaman. As I began to read more of Aquaman I saw how much of the underdog he was. He’s the king of Atlantis and he still gets ridiculed! He can control the seas, telepathically communicate with fish, (he doesn’t have conversations with them contrary to popular belief) and he is the ruler of 75% of the world. So, why’s he constantly made fun of?
Lets look at another king of Atlantis, Namor. I feel like this is where I will have to add a few facts, so bare with me for a minute, Namor pre-dates Aquaman by two years, Both are “half-blood,” Namor and Aquaman’s fathers were human and their mothers Atlantis royalty. Both are king of Atlantis, both struggle with anger and the injustice on how Atlantians are treated. Namor though, is the first Marvel mutant as well as their first “anti-hero” due to the anger and hatred that he feels to “land-dwellers.” So, what makes Namor so different?
Both Aquaman and Namor have a lot in common but they are also very different. Namor was the first mutant in the Marvel universe, which really says a lot. If it wasn’t for Namor, I guess in away none of the X-Men would be here. Namor also has a surprise power that you wouldn’t guess, he can fly. This seems a little off topic for the King of the Seas to be able to do, wouldn’t you agree? Besides taking to the skies when he becomes tired of the ocean Namor also has the ability to heal himself, super speed and super strength. When it comes to Aquaman, though, they have a few different main factor, one being telepathy, water control and swordsmanship.
I get a lot of flack from friends, nerdy and jock, that Aquaman sleeps with fish and has impure relationships with sea life, but is this true? I have not once come across any evidence that Aquaman likes that fishy smell. Hell, in issue #1 of Geoff Johns “New 52 Aquaman,” we see Aquaman order some fish and chips and the waitress and fellow customers are just puzzled that this happened, as if it’s a catastrophe. On the other hand we have Namor, who is by character a playboy and man attracted to all kinds of creatures and of these creatures is a red sea beast in Uncanny X-Men #8 from the Marvel Now Title by Brian Michael Bendis. So my question is simple yet backed by facts, so why on Earth is Aquaman portrayed to sleep with fish, when we have no supporting evidence, but Namor clearly has no problem going down under on the ones under the sea?