Aquaman

In honor of the caped crusaders of the convention scene, ComicsAlliance has created Best Cosplay Ever (This Week), an ongoing collection of some of the most impeccable, creative, and clever costumes that we’ve discovered and assembled into a super-showcase of pure fan-devoted talent.

Here, take this sizable grain of salt because you’ll need it for today’s latest rumor. Although Warner Bros. only recently hired screenwriter David Leslie Johnson to re-team with director James Wan on Aquaman, a new report suggests that we may already know the identity of the film’s main villain — and it’s probably not who you were expecting.

Warner Bros.’ DC movie universe is beginning to really take shape, with Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice set to introduce us to a couple of the new heroes in the franchise, including Jason Momoa’s Aquaman. James Wan has been tapped to helm the aquatic hero’s solo movie, which will be scripted by a writer with whom Wan is already quite familiar.

DC and Warner Bros. aren’t really following the Marvel model when it comes to their superhero cinematic universe. Instead of establishing each hero with separate solo films leading up to the first Justice League movie, WB is introducing some characters in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, while others will make their debut in Justice League. But will WB go back and explore the origins of these superheroes after they’ve been introduced in other films?

Even though he's the king of the seas, DC's Aquaman gets his fair share of guff from the rest of the superhero community... and the fan community. While Aquaman definitely has some redeeming qualities, he's just never been considered a true champion among the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman or Batman. Sure, he gets invited to the big kids' table, but they always seat him near Plastic Man. I mean, it's Plastic Man, guys. Despite all that, Aquaman's come through from the people and animals of Earth more times then most citizens are willing to give him credit. Fortunately, Arthur Curry has more than just the denizens of Atlantis on his side. He's also got Sideshow Collectibles honor him. As crafters of fine statues showcasing the best and brightest DC has to offer, Sideshow wouldn't select Aquaman if they believed he was a lame duck. That's a lot of time and effort to be spent carefully rendering each piece of scale mail in his armor shirt. No seriously, there are a lot of individual pieces of plating in there to give the suit it's fish-y look. It's impressive.

When Aquaman debuted on this day in 1941 in More Fun Comics #73, in a story by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris, he was not the first aquatic superhero—Marvel's Namor the Sub-Mariner had him beat by about two years—but thanks to nearly seventy-five years of more or less continual publication, a choice spot as a founder of the Justice League, and starring roles on Super Friends and The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, he is surely the best-known underwater adventurer in comics. This fame, however, has proven to be a double-edged sword (trident? harpoon?) for the king of the seven seas. Aquaman ran as a feature first in More Fun Comics, then Adventure Comics and World's Finest Comics before finally landing his own title in 1962. Not many superheroes survived the post-Wertham interregnum between the Golden and Silver Ages—Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman being notable exceptions—but Aquaman (and his long-time co-feature Green Arrow) survived the superhero drought unscathed, perhaps because he was a pet creation of editor Mort Weisinger, or perhaps because he kept his head down as a modest supporting feature in a string of anthology titles who didn't even appear on a cover until nineteen years after his first appearance (not even in his own title, but in the first appearance of the Justice League in Brave and the Bold).

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years on the Internet, it’s that there’s no aspect of comics that can’t be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there’s no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we’re taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Five lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. The Justice League is known for having not only the heavy hitters of the DC Universe, but some of the most popular fictional characters in the world, so it’s really no surprise that numerous worthy heroes fall through the cracks and never get the attention and accolades they deserve. Today we’re going to try to remedy that just a little and give five such characters their moment in the sun.

They're perhaps the two most commonly mocked heroes of their respective fictional universes; DC's Aquaman, created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris in 1941, and Marvel's Cyclops, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963. One is the stalwart ruler of an underwater kingdom; the other is the redoubtable leader of a group of outcast mutants. They're both heroes who have overcome great obstacles, lived extraordinary tales, fought terrible villains, and experienced remarkable romances. To some fans, they're incredibly cool. To others, they're irredeemably dorky, perhaps especially in contrast to their more beloved colleagues like Batman and Wolverine. In fact, some comics fans would say that Arthur Curry is the worst. Others would say the same about Scott Summers. Today we're asking you to decide... which of them is the best?

We’ve spoken at length about the curiosity of DC withholding its most recognizable superheros from the TV universes of Arrow and The Flash, while insisting on either medium having their own freedom of continuity. And however much Arrow nods to a Green Lantern we’ll never see, it seems The Flash once had an Aquaman tease much earlier.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years on the Internet, it’s that there’s no aspect of comics that can’t be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there’s no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we’re taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Five lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. This week we're taking a look at the trope of the animal companion, another popular trend from the Golden and Silver Ages of comics that has resulted in a number of enduring characters and concepts. If you couldn't hook kids from the newsstand with another kid in a cape and short pants, certainly a flying dog in a mask would do it. There are so many cool animals in comics that we've had to split this topic up by publisher.