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Almost exactly like the original Aquaman in everything but his origin, Arthur Joseph Curry’s horror-themed origins led him to simply sink into obscurity.
Aquaman, the King of the Seven Seas, is also known by his human name Arthur Curry. This secret character identity has been a part of his story since the Silver Age and has remained even after the Post-Crisis DC’s reboot changed its origin. Although he remained the son of Atlantean Queen Atlanna, many other elements of his character have been drastically changed. Not only was he no longer half human, but he was eventually replaced by a completely different character.
Arthur Joseph Curry had the same name as the real Aquaman, as well as a strange resemblance to him. Despite these similarities, he apparently had no connection with the classic hero, who had mysteriously vanished. Tangled up in a Lovecraftian fantasy that dealt with the fallout from the destruction of Atlantis, the second Aquaman eventually vanished, never to be heard from again.
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The sword of Atlantis
Arthur Joseph Curry’s adventure began in Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis # 40 by Kurt Busiek, Jackson Guice and Daniel Brown. Despite the title, this “new” book continued the numbering of the previous one. Aquaman volume and played in the shadow of the destruction of Atlantis and the fate of Sub Diego. The original Aquaman had communicated with the various sea gods in order to restore Sub Diego and, in so doing, surrender his mind, body, and soul to their whims. This left him as an abandoned and inhuman monster named the Dweller in the Depths, whose terrifying face combined the appearances of several sea creatures.
With his mental capacities now greatly expanded, the Inhabitant psychically reaches out to the man named Arthur Joseph Curry. The Resident believes he is the real Aquaman and poorly remembers his own life as Aquaman as a cryptic prophecy. He befriends Mera after freeing some of the surviving Atlanteans from slavery, allies with former villainous King Shark, and befriends Topo, a humanoid cephalopod who pays homage to the pet octopus of the Aquaman’s Silver Age. Sadly, that growing circle of friends would soon begin to wane, as the tragic nature of Arthur Joseph Curry was finally revealed.
Living in the depths
The Inhabitant apparently died in an attack announced by an amnesiac Garth. To make matters worse, the new “Aquaman” story was finally revealed to him by the Lady of the Lake. Arthur Joseph Curry was actually a human and had the uncanny ability to breathe and physically survive underwater thanks to an experiment carried out on him as a child by his father. It referred to Aquaman from the Forgotten Golden Age, who wasn’t Atlantean but simply a mutated human. This experience was then used by Anton Geist to mutate the citizens of Sub Diego. Unfortunately, his initial inability to breathe on land apparently saw him die when his aquatic tank was destroyed by a storm.
The boy was named Arthur after the original Aquaman, who gave the boy’s father a sample of his mystical water hand in an effort to save his life. When Aquaman sacrificed himself to raise Sub Diego, part of his soul attached to Arthur Joseph Curry via the Water Hand Sample, reviving the young man to life while mutating Aquaman’s original body into Inhabitant . The new Aquaman blames himself for both of the original’s deaths and now swears to only respond to his middle name.
The new Aquaman hasn’t acclimated much to the larger world of superheroes. After being rejected by the Batman Outsiders due to their inexperience, he and King Shark both opposed Batman and Superman’s desire to wipe out all traces of Kryptonite from Earth, including Atlantis. His status as the new King of Atlantis also didn’t gain him much popularity, as people simply saw him as a reincarnation of Orin, their name for the original Arthur Curry. When Garth tried to meet him in Atlantis, he found out that Arthur Joseph had left the Aquaman suit and trident behind, giving up the throne and the Aquaman title.
The real Arthur Curry would finally be resurrected once and for all through the events of Blackest night, reunite with his wife Mera and return to Atlantis. It’s unclear what effect this had on Arthur Joseph Curry and his soul, as the second Aquaman was never seen again. With the subsequent reboot of the New 52, it is likely that the fate of this future King of the Seven Seas will forever lie in the deep.
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