Aquaman Isn't Useless

[history79]

Comments

[dr_archeville]

Hunh, I just saw a comic showing the opposite sentiment.

[janegray]

Gotta say, I like this one much better. If only because "lol Aquaman is useless" really grates on me.

[crinos]

Yeah, my interpretation is that Aquaman is the jack of all trades of the JLA.

He's super strong, a trained fighter, a telepath, he's not as strong as Supes, as good a telepath as J'onn, or as skilled a fighter as Bruce or Diana, but he has a diverse enough portfolio he can fill any niche.

He's basically the Bard of the Super hero world.

[icon_uk]

His powers are very useful, though his telepathy is a mite... over specific to be comparable to most other telepaths, unless you use Grant Morrison's (somewhat irritating IMHO) addition of affecting humans because of us having marine life somewhere in our evolutionary past.

[silicondream]

It's not just Morrison; he did birds and the occasional human or Millennium Giant in his own book. Morrison's the only one who actually explained it, though--and come to think of it, did Morrison have him do it on humans, or just on Martians who also had marine ancestors?

[lieut_kettch]

Well, it makes as much sense as him being able to communicate with both fish and sea mammals, seeing as a whale or a sea lion's brain is a lot more similar to a human's than it is to a halibut's or great white shark's.

[silicondream]

Aquaman's also had a fairly unique advantage in many phases* of his life, in that he was a monarch and could call on the magical/technological resources of the largest nation on Earth. Most superguys do everything by their lonesome and can't summon up that kind of people power, and it dovetails nicely with his ability to command all the nonhumanoids of the sea as well.


*though I'm not sure whether he's on the throne or not right now, and whether Atlantis is thriving or wrecked.

[kamino_neko]

I'm most of a year behind (sort of semi-officially dropped it, I guess), but last I saw, he was officially in charge, but mostly hands off. And Atlantis was in pretty good shape for a country that had just been through two wars.

[liliaeth]

me too, it's not like he's only got his powers while he's in the ocean. The notion that he's useless seems rather silly when you put him right next to Batman, who's only real quality is that he's good at preparing and strategy.