These days, there are a lot of characters who can’t break away from the public’s expectation of what they should be. Nowhere is that more true than with the heroes of the ‘Superfriends’ cartoon: Stalwart Superman, Brilliant Batman, Stoic Wonder Woman and… Aquaman. “He talks to fish!”, goes the familiar refrain of dozens of schticky comedians and innernet wags, and thus, poor Aquaman is filed away under ‘L’ for lame. It’s unfair in a lot of ways, but the real question becomes ‘How pervasive is this assumption?’, leading to today’s prejudicial query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) has a reflex rejection of most any shorthand groupthink pop culture assumption like ‘Cyclops is boring’ or ‘Superman is too powerful,’ asking: Aquaman – Cool Or Nah?
9 Comments
Aquaman is as cool as the story the writer is telling. Otherwise, Aquaman is just this guy, see?
You never see Aquaman & Zaphod Beeblebrox in the same place… Coincidence???
I think Aquaman has as much potential as Batman, Superman and any other number of more “popular” characters, it is just few and far between the writers who actually utilize that potential instead of trying to turn him into Hawkman and giving him new, convoluted background retcons. I don’t think Aquaman needs to be reinvented yet again, I think he just needs the right writer or writers to tap his potential on a regular basis.
So yeah, I think Aquaman is kinda cool. He’s more than just the stereotypical idea that he’s a guy that talks to fish.
I’ve never been able to get behind Aquaman as a good character, no matter how hard I may try (or Geoff Johns tries to tell me). He has always just seemed ridiculous and looked silly to me. I’ve never liked his powers either, and yes I’m aware he doesn’t just talk to fish.
He’d be a lot cooler if he could control Cthulu, but Stephen said that isn’t possible, so…
I think any character is as good as people writing and drawing him. Also, some stories and characters aren’t for everybody.
Hella cool. Don’t believe those lieing liars on Robot Chicken
Nah.
Dude dresses to look like a goldfish with green swim trunks. Nothing cool about that.
HAHAHA!!
Man… Not cool.