If anyone were to ask me who my favorite DC superhero is, I would say Aquaman. I don't say that for hipster purposes, though to be fair I do have a tendency to make favorites out of characters not a lot of other people like. Rather, I admire Aquaman for his principles and selfless dedication to his work.
Let me explain...
Aquaman is king of the ocean. That makes him to sole monarch of about 70% of the planet, geographically speaking. So down in the ocean, he's not just one of the cool kids, king of his own little world. No, he's the absolute top banana, king of a very, very big world.
And yet, he still spends a great deal of his time out of the water. He voluntarily spends his time out of his natural environment, where he's much weaker than usual and all of his peers are more powerful than he is. I mean, yeah, he's a superhero, but he's the superhero who's actually been called "nobody's favorite superhero" to his face. Up on land, he's not the best at what he does, and he gets very little respect or praise for trying to do it.
So, basically, Aquaman is constantly faced with a choice: spend all of his time on his throne, where he has more power and respect than almost anyone else on earth, or spend his time out of the water with the rest of the Justice League, where he has much less power and respect than anyone else around him.
And he chooses the second option on a regular basis. Aquaman isn't the strongest or fastest or smartest or coolest Justice Leaguer. And he knows it. And he chooses not to care and lends a hand whenever he can anyway. Despite his somewhat lesser abilities, and despite the fact that he could totally just go right back to Atlantis where he's always top banana, he's just as dedicated to the work of the Justice League as anybody else.
Log in to comment