Has this movie redeemed Aquaman’s reputation?

[Silvermoth]

i hope so, I’m glad to see more people are comfortable with saying they’re Aquaman fans now. In fact, they’ve just opened an Aquaman ride at a theme park not far from me and I’m dying to check it out.

What do you think? Is Aquaman no longer a joke character?

 

[frankgutz]

i think so, this should change ppl minds about him, specially with younger generations

 

[jolldan]

i hope so, I’m glad to see more people are comfortable with saying they’re Aquaman fans now. In fact, they’ve just opened an Aquaman ride at a theme park not far from me and I’m dying to check it out.

What do you think? Is Aquaman no longer a joke character?

 

[dennis_3107]

The submarine scene is enough to silence all the jokes.

 

[harlequinade]

It's going to earn a billion and it's played by practically everyone adores

Not only are people not gonna laugh, he is considered cool now

 

[frankgutz]

Well, ppl is already making fun of the haters and bias sites like the salty/pressed guys from Collider and Comicbookcast on twitter

 

[chintai80]

aquaman was always cool just that people are only catching up now.

 

[Silvermoth]

aquaman was always cool just that people are only catching up now.

You’re right of course, he never deserved the hate

 

[Mandon Knight]

For me, there was never a case to answer. Cool AF then, Cool AF now.

 

[Legendver2]

Aside from the dorky Superfriends cartoon back in the day, my first true Aquaman exposure was through his New 52 reboot, and Geoff Johns run with Ivan Reis's art on that was probably my favorite title from the New 52 launch after Superman's. So from my first full exposure, he was always cool.

 

[frankgutz]

For me, there was never a case to answer. Cool AF then, Cool AF now.

Aside from the dorky Superfriends cartoon back in the day, my first true Aquaman exposure was through his New 52 reboot, and Geoff Johns run with Ivan Reis's art on that was probably my favorite title from the New 52 launch after Superman's. So from my first full exposure, he was always cool.

i believe @Silvermoth might be talking about the mainstream and GA, where Aquaman was a living joke thanks to Adult Swim, South Park and Spongebob, a few weeks ago when AM was briefly released in China i believe, i read an interestng article about, its worth it:

A Brief History of Pop Culture Dumping on Aquaman

or years, the King of the Seven Seas and his waterlogged superpowers have inspired jokes particularly on television series geared toward a young male audience, e.g. Family Guy and South Park. The gags tend to boil down to the same thing: Aquaman is a lame hero, and also, his costume is dumb. But where did this mockery start—and can Jason Momoa’s muscular, long-haired Arthur Curry get Aquaman the respect he deserves, once and for all?

There's also some youtube videos with the characters in the article

 

[Mandon Knight]

I think like many are saying both the New 52 & Re-birth runs have highlighted and presented how relevant, effective and actually how damn important he actually is to both his own story builds in the context of 'finally' putting Superfriends to bed once and for all and certainly in a JL context, Throne of Atlantis is one of the 'all time' told greats, re-issued origin or not.

 

[kguillou]

I am an Aquaman fan now. I actually really liked Geoff Johns’ run on the New 52 series but my thing with Arthur is that he always seemed like such a...sterile character you know? Even in Geoff johns’ run. Jason Mamoa injected the character with personality and attitude that anyone can latch on a like. He’s a guy you wanna have a beer with.

 

[chintai80]

aquaman can seem silly because his powers include communicating with fish and other cute sea animals.

but he is a badass: his strength nearly rivals superman, and he can control whales and sharks. that is not silly, that is actually scary powers. lol

 

[COCOS]

momoa did something great with it, he's now on the same level as superman & batman, not as iconic but popularity

 

[David H.]

I think on the “Momoa is cool and Aquaman furthered that” camp, rather than the “Aquaman is cool now” one.

 

[Claude_Speed]

Probably, but not by making a faithful portrayal of the character, but by completely changing everything about him.

 

[MadderMaximus]

aquaman was always cool just that people are only catching up now.

Yes. People are finally seeing what I saw.

Makes me feel like a hipster though...*shudders*

 

[TheScarecrow]

Probably, but not by making a faithful portrayal of the character, but by completely changing everything about him.

What would have been faithful though? I don't think the movie overdid the "bro" aspect like JL did.

To be fair, Aquaman has always been cooler in concept than in personality. Arthur in the comics is a bit bland. I'm more than happy to have his comics personality updated a bit to be more like Momoa's Aquaman.

I wanted Aquaman riding on a giant seahorse, fighting with an army of sharks, fighting a giant sea monster etc. This movie gave me that. To me, it's a faithful adaption of Aquaman.

 

[Vlyse]

Spoiler

Still miss this dude, but the movie completely sold me on Momoa's version.

 

[MadderMaximus]

What would have been faithful though? I don't think the movie overdid the "bro" aspect like JL did.

To be fair, Aquaman has always been cooler in concept than in personality. Arthur in the comics is a bit bland. I'm more than happy to have his comics personality updated a bit to be more like Momoa's Aquaman.

I wanted Aquaman riding on a giant seahorse, fighting with an army of sharks, fighting a giant sea monster etc. This movie gave me that. To me, it's a faithful adaption of Aquaman.

I didn't think it was that far off from the Peter David stuff of the 90's where I noticed the badassary that was Aquaman, either. I feel the movie version pulls from that era most. He may be more gleeful about it, that's the only real difference I see.

I knew he had an image problem though. To me, the long hair and beard (from the 90's mainly, I thought it looked too mullet-y on the Justice League cartoon) was way cooler than the short cut clean shaven look, but changing up his race to actually appear bi-racial seemed to be the push the character needed.

Couple years before Momoa was cast, I was fixing to add Aquaman into a wet-on-wet oil painting I worked on that had the cliche waves crashing near a lighthouse (and I thought Aquaman in the foreground would be fun touch). I had started to model him off of Patrick Swayze's surfer locks in Point Break. So I guess the scruffy surfer vibe was something I really wanted to see in the character.

 

[Asr]

Momoa's Aquaman is badass. But Aquaman in the DCAU Timmverse was actually kinda cool too, although super one-dimensional. And Aquaman in the Batman: Brave and the Bold series was an absolute campy riot in the best way possible! So I'd say he's been cool for a while.

 

[Iceman]

He has been totally redeemed. He’s gone from being a joke to an Uber-badass and king of an awesome underwater kingdom.

 

[Iceman]

Momoa's Aquaman is badass. But Aquaman in the DCAU Timmverse was actually kinda cool too, although super one-dimensional. And Aquaman in the Batman: Brave and the Bold series was an absolute campy riot in the best way possible! So I'd say he's been cool for a while.

I think people mean cool to the GA. comic fans have been given some good runs with the character and know better but he hasn’t been portrayed well to the wider audience.

 

[Claude_Speed]

What would have been faithful though? I don't think the movie overdid the "bro" aspect like JL did.

To be fair, Aquaman has always been cooler in concept than in personality. Arthur in the comics is a bit bland. I'm more than happy to have his comics personality updated a bit to be more like Momoa's Aquaman.

I wanted Aquaman riding on a giant seahorse, fighting with an army of sharks, fighting a giant sea monster etc. This movie gave me that. To me, it's a faithful adaption of Aquaman.

They changed everything from his looks (eye color, hair color, ethnicity, tattoos) to his personality (a loud, wild, macho surfer bro).

So yeah, they changed everything to make him "cool" and to me that wasn't necessary, as most of Aquaman's jokes were about his powers (mainly talking to fish) which ironically Momoa's Aquaman still does.

I think Snyder wanted to "fix" Aquaman's reputation so much that he just went after one of the most imposing dudes he could find, not caring about comic book accuracy in the least.