The Secret Origin of.... AQUAMAN

Though there were other comics series with similar names before and after, the longest-running Secret Origins comic book was published by DC Comics from April 1986 to August 1990.  It included 50 regular issues, three annuals, and one special edition.  This series of blog posts focuses on the stories that would have, should have, or otherwise follow the spirit of that series.

The Secret Origin of... AQUAMAN

This is one of the "could have" stories.  Aquaman Special #1 (1989) told "The Legend of Aquaman" according to the title on the cover.  This legend was different than the "pre-Crisis" telling of Aquaman's origin.  As John Wells writes in Back Issue magazine #98 (August 2017): "Nearly four years into the existence of the post-Crisis DC Universe, the approach to its history was changing. Exceptions like Superman, Wonder Woman, or Captain Atom notwithstanding, there was still an overall view that the Earth-One origins for most characters still applied. As the Poison Ivy tale [Secret Origins #36] showed, that attitude was beginning to change. Indeed, Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming conceived an entirely new backstory for Aquaman, abandoning the Silver Age tale of a lonely lighthouse keeper and his Atlantean bride. Their alternative owed more to the legends of Mowgli and Tarzan with its account of an Atlantean baby left for dead on Mercy Reef and raised by sharks. Originally scheduled for Secret Origins #30 (opposite a Roy Thomas/Gil Kane [Golden Age] Ray story), the story— beautifully illustrated by Curt Swan and Eric Shanower— was so well received in the DC offices that the decision was made to release it as a standalone Aquaman Special. On sale in March 1989, the one-shot was followed by a miniseries a month later."
Since I didn't read comic books prior to the so-called "crisis on infinite earths," I did not object to the revisions to Aquaman's origins.  The artistic combination of Curt Swan (penciler) and Eric Shanower (inker) blended the best of the Silver Age with the post-Crisis Age.  One surprising detail about this new origin (at least to me) is that the fins on the back of Aquaman's calves are not part of his costume as I'd always believed, but they are a feature of his Atlantean body.  And a fun origin detail is also seen in this panel: among the first English words learned by the young man who would become known to the world as Aquaman were the swear words spoken by his adoptive human father.      


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