Aquarius

Origin

A ancient being of chaos, Aquarius was banished from his race of living stars for his evil antics by the Council of the Living Stars, whom shattered his form and sent him away into space for his crimes against the universe. Reformed by Starman's Cosmic Rod, he vows to send the cosmos once more into disarray.

Creation

Aquarius was created by Dennis O'Neil and Dick Dillin, first appearing in Justice League of America #73 in 1969.

Major Story Arcs

Where Death Fears to Tread

After stealing the Cosmic Rod from Starman in a short fight and stripping him of his powers, Aquarius finally was able to form his original body: that is, a living star with humanoid elements. Using his powers, Aquarius causes chaos on Earth, changing weather, giving a five year old the power to smash cars and lampposts, as well as attacking the Justice Society of Earth-2 using multiple constructs. When the JSA are united to fight Aquarius, he easily deals with their strongest members like Superman with ease using the power of the Cosmic Rod, and after toying around with the team, fully uses his powers to completely erase the Earth-2 dimension completely, banishing everyone on the planet to a different dimension, with only the JSA spared thanks to a last minute save by Dr Fate. Red Tornado is sent to go find the Earth-One Justice League while Fate keeps the remaining members of the JSA alive in his mystical shield. As Aquarius needed to recharge after exerting all of his remaining energy into destroying Earth-2, he was unable to destroy Fate's shield, but was content in mocking him while his powers recharged.

This was all recounted by Tornado himself to the JLA in a flashback which had happened two weeks ago: the inital team worried that perhaps Earth-2 was already destroyed.

Aquarius in anticipation for the JLA approaching uses his powers to mind control the remaining JSA members, forcing them to fight against the JLA when they come to rescue them. A huge fight breaks out, with the JLA using teamwork to defeat Doctor Fate and Doctor Mid-Nite, while the two Supermen are too equally matched for each other, and both collapse in exhaustion after a long bout. Green Lantern of Earth-One is easily able to defeat Alan Scott as his ring charge had been depleted days ago due to the lack of energy sources to recharge from. Ultimately the fight ends when Larry Lance, the husband of the Earth-2 Black Canary, gives his life to stop Aquarius killing her in a fit of rage. This snaps the JSA out of their mind control and also restores Earth-2 completely.

The heroes give chase to Aquarius, who tries to get into Earth-1 to cause more havoc. However, the Green Lanterns are able to outsmart Aquarius by taking advantage of his premature mindset, baiting him into following them into the Anti-Matter Dimension: this ultimately proves to be too strong for him to handle, and his body is destroyed by the raging Anti Matter and reduced to nothingness.

Powers & Abilities

Aquarius was a almost godlike being capable of doing virtually anything with his powers: he could at a whim cause reality to bend to his liking in a varsity of ways, from reanimating neon figures to creating fire within rainclouds, or could trap people within space-warps within reality itself. At his strongest, he could completely destroy whole entire dimensions, however this took a lot of energy out of him and made him incapable of doing such a feat for at least a few days.

Aquarius could also use mind control to influence whole teams of people, even strong willed subjects like Doctor Fate or the Earth-2 Superman. This wasn't perfect, however, as a major traumatic event could break the spell.

Aquarius at his strongest was apparently capable of disrupting the natural workings of the universe itself when he was fully animated, but the efforts by his peers meant that was not something he could actually do without punishment.

Aquarius did have weaknesses, however: without something like the Cosmic Rod keeping him alive, he could barely even be alive as his form was that shattered and weak, and his childlike mind could be exploited and manipulated by people smarter than him.