Aquaman

If you -- like me -- started reading comics in the early 1970s, you're most likely familiar with this version of Aquaman.

Back then, Arthur Curry dressed in orange and sea-green. He couldn't be out of water for more than an hour or he'd die. His blonde hair was short, and he traveled below the ocean depths on the backs of aquatic animals.

You know: porpoises, dolphins, super-huge seahorses and the like.

Even though he carried his own comic book title, this version of the King of Atlantis was at best a secondary character in the DC Universe. He talked with fish and made a pretty good member of the Justice League -- especially when there was a water-based threat.

But readers didn't really take him for a serious hero.

DC retconned Curry in the 1990s to more closely fit the anti-hero trend happening at the time. This Aquaman was angrier, more impulsive, and willing to cross ethical lines his 1970s version would never consider crossing. Writers even severed his hand and fit him with a prosthetic to make the character edgier. 

Meh.


In recent years, DC Comics has focused efforts to morph the literary Curry into a character that more closely resembles the matinee idol being developed for movies. Comic-book Aquaman's hair was darkened, He became more playful, a little more care-free than was his previous incarnations. He lost the throne and embarked upon a swim-about, where he tried to find himself again. The modern comic book stories make it clear: Aqaman's identify is being transformed.

Whether it is a good transformation or not remains to be seen.

Aquaman (2018) gives us pretty good insight into who the comic-book hero will eventually become. The character from the flick is arrogant, impulsive, stubborn, and slightly immature. He's a hard-drinking do-gooder with the soul of a pirate. He lives and loves hard.

The film version of Arthur Curry is -- like the movie itself-- melodramatic. The movie exaggerates even the most obvious banalities common to super-hero-movies. Aquaman is shown in a cliched "super-hero pose" at least three times, and King Orm's "Call me Ocean Master" moment made me laugh so hard I nearly did a spit-take. This despite the fact the moment was supposed to be dramatic.

Aquaman can't seem to find a good balance between humor and drama. It's inconsistent (why can some Atlanteans breath on land while others cannot?), cheesy, and contrived.

The movie will make tons of cash at the box office. But I doubt the flick moved DC any closer to Marvel in its ability to get its universe right on-screen.