How did Geoff Johns turn Aquaman into one of the most popular DC franchises today?

How exactly I ask? Because it seemed something practically impossible to achieve in those moments.

As I discussed in my previous article here: http://comicobsessed.blogspot.com/2013/11/aquaman-history-of-successes-failures.html, Aquaman was passing for one of his hardest periods.

The last volume was an interesting experiment that ended in failure, his history was compromised to the point that it had become too convoluted to continue it, the sales were at their lowest point ever, the character had so many changes of direction that no one was exactly sure what to do and of course, he had the small disadvantage of being dead at the time.

Who could possibly be able to make the character succeed? Most importantly, who would be interested on make him work?

Enter Geoff Johns.

Johns who was famous for revitalizing the Green Lantern franchise starting with the miniseries Green Lantern: Rebirth always expressed a huge respect for the character. He used to include mentions of Aquaman in several of his books and in fact had an opportunity to write him way before the most recent volume in the JLA arc called "Crisis of Conscience" starting with issue 115 towards issue 120 which was a tie-in to the event "Infinite Crisis" from 2006 in which Johns portrayed him as a quite competent and imposing hero.

Johns wouldn't limit himself to only the character though but he would also explore a bit of his universe in other projects including a short cameo from Black Manta in the miniseries "Final Crisis. Rogues' Revenge" from 2008 where he would start gaining attention to the villain with a short but powerful phrase: 

"They're worried about Captain Cold, that guy doesn't know what cold is, not like me. You know what I did"

People who were aware of Aquaman's history automatically knew what he was talking about and new readers were immediately intrigued about what he meant, it was just a really good line and perfectly defined the villain I might add.

However, Johns' proper work on the franchise wouldn't start until 2009, not in an ongoing series, not even in a miniseries but in the DC crossover event "Blackest Night" drawn by Ivan Reis which was heavily focused on the Green Lantern franchise with appearances of a lot of characters from the DCU, the premise consisted in that every DC character that died over the course of the years revived as horrible beings to kill the people who shared an emotional connection with them.

You heard it right, superheroes and zombies!

Of course Aquaman was one of the first ones to rise along with Tula (Who died in COIE) and Dolphin (Who died when Atlantis was destroyed in Infinite Crisis along with Tempest's son) and started tormenting Mera and Tempest, killing the last one and making him join
their undead ranks. As far as DC events go, Blackest Night was one of the most successful since it delivered an action packed story full of great character moments and most importantly for Aquaman fans, it introduced a Mera who could kick major ass.

Previous to her portrayal in this event, Mera was simply characterized as either a typical supportive wife from the Silver Age or a mean-inspirited woman with mental-illness from the 80's onwards but here Johns actually gave her a more respectful personality and also made her one of the main characters exploring aspects of her psyche especially when she received a red power ring that made her a rage-fueled Red Lantern, her fight with Wonder Woman was unbelievable..

Well, back to the story, it had huge ramifications obviously, the most relevant being that several characters came back to life, one of them was Aquaman, this created the new state of development for the franchise, one that didn't last much I'm afraid to say.

Immediately after the end of Blackest Night came the 26 issue bi-weekly event called "Brightest Day" written by Johns and Peter Tomasi and a roster of talented artists which featured several of the returning heroes and villains as its protagonist and told their respective stories in different chapters. Johns and Ivan Reis were responsible for telling Aquaman's story which consisted on resolving some past mysteries that never got an answer. Where did Mera truly came from? Where is Black Manta? Plus, perhaps the most important, why did Aquaman come back to life?

One thing that you must know about Geoff Johns is that he loves playing with continuity which means that he's always using stories from the past, twist them and turn them into something that modern audience can appreciate. Here, we're introduced to the new idea of Mera coming from a different dimension called Xebel to kill Arthur due to the grudge that her people hold towards the king of Atlantis and Mera's sister named Siren is coming for her to force to accomplish her mission, It's necessary to mention that Mera's home was introduced first in the Silver Age and called Dimension Aqua and even her sister was created on that era except with the name of Hila. History is being revisited and expanded.

Another important point here is that this story reintroduces Black Manta who resurfaces once that he realizes that Aquaman is alive again but that's not his only motivation since he's also looking to reclaim his son who is a teenager named Jackson Hyde and would become the new Aqualad.

Honestly, I don't think that Brightest Day was that strong of a series. Johns was having a pretty uninspired period at the time as seen in works from the same year like his second run on The Flash (God, how much I hated that). Brightest Day had some very badly paced issues (which were made worse due to the story jumping chapters among the different protagonists) and Johns' dialogue was pretty blunt and unrefined, Aquaman wasn't the strongest part from that series (That honor belongs to Peter Tomasi's Martian Manhunter story). Still, I have to handle this to Johns, he pretty much gave us here the definitive portrayal of Black Manta.


Cold, cruel and merciless, Black Manta wouldn't stop at anything to destroy Aquaman or anyone who crosses his path, his hate for Arthur is not explained because it doesn't need an explanation and that's what makes it great. I have mentioned in the previous article that everytime that an author tried to make Manta more complex they just made him a worse character so Johns instead of going for complexity he goes for full personality and presence. Scenes like when he first appears and starts slaughtering people, phrases like "he's nothing but another man I've killed" and "I will come for the boy and I will gut him in front of you as I did your son" makes you instantly invested on the antagonist. Yeah, you can see how a villain doesn't necessarily need a complex or tragic story to be good but unfortunately Johns would try to go for a more complex portrayal in the future with mixed results, I will explain that ahead.

I guess you have noted that I've been calling Aquaman "Arthur" instead of "Orin" by now right? Well, it seems like Johns was soft-rebooting the title and going back to the Silver Age origin at the time which is pretty adequate since it's the most interesting and recognizable one, that wasn't the only retcon though since we have already seen changes in Mera's origin, Arthur's trident is presented as his de facto weapon (Which works much, much better than a grappling hook, a water hand or a sword by the way) and based in Black Manta's words, the murder of Arthur Jr. was much more horrible now compared to how it was originally depicted. Besides, Johns left enough hints and teases about future stories to make people interested on them,

But of course, Flashpoint happened and honestly, I think it was for the better, Aquaman's history was pretty rich but became too convoluted for its own good so the best choice available was to start from zero and based on the sales figures and reception of the new title, it was the correct one.

The definitive reboot.

The New 52 started along with a new Aquaman series starring Arthur and Mera rid of most of their history which means no squizophrenic origin, no Aqualad whatsoever (Either the first or second one) or any other sidekick, no 90's bearded Aquaman, no death and rebirth, and most likely no Arthur Jr. This allowed the characters to have a fresh start and to begin building from that premise,

The story begins when Arthur stops a band of common criminals just to receive the typical Aquaman jokes as a sign of gratitude meanwhile an unknown and terrible threat is starting to surface from the depths of the ocean. The plot from issue 1 was basically about trying to integrate the public's opinion about Aquaman into the series by making Arthur start answering about the pop references that most people believe about him including the classic "You talk to fish". I have to say that Arthur's responses were pretty adequate and in fact show some progress in his abilities, I really like how meta this segment becomes but fortunately the jokes don't go as far as in Peter David's run.

The first arc was called "The Trench" consisting of 4 issues where Arthur will have to deal with a race of carnivorous underwater monsters that need to capture humans if they want to survive but it's actually more complicated than what we might think. Arthur will have to travel to their homeworld to save the missing people and he will be forced to deal with the entire horde of creatures where he will start learning aspects of Atlantis itself. The conclusion is both satisfactory and heartwarming, not to mention that it introduces a new member to the Aquafamily, the amazing Aquadog!

Johns' usual methods become apparent just from this first storyline. His style tends to focus on long term planning which means that he usually leaves little hints and sub-plots that are building towards something bigger in future issues. We have already mentioned about The Trench's relation with Atlantis but this story also introduces to Dr. Shin who is someone that we will see a lot in the following issues and it's necessary to add that Dr. Shin was created in David's run as a minor character and The Trench have a pretty close resemblace to the creatures from the lost city of Hy-Brasil also from David's run.

I suppose you can see the influences right? It bears to mention too that Johns is usually a writer that depends immensily from continuity which means he likes to play with the history of the property he's working and apply it to his stories but since most of Aquaman's history was erased he prefered to reinterpret the mythos.

Back to the story, issue 5 is a one-and-done story called "Lost" but it's also a really important part of the overarching plot. It consisted of Arthur being lost in the desert (Aquaman in the desert, the story writes itself) after a fight with a strange troop that it's trying to reclaim an Atlantis artifact. As I said, the mystery about the sinking of Atlantis is being revealed slowly and you can see where the story is going by these sub-plots.

Now, issue 6 is another stand-alone story drawn by Joe Prado but this time it focuses on Mera and how her past connects her to Arthur and the future conflict with her people. Another great little tale that advances the main plot.

Issue 7 begins a new arc called "The Others" that lasts for 7 issues where Johns explore Arthur's life before joining the Justice League and meeting Mera. If the first arc was influenced by the horror genre this one is certainly influenced by the adventure genre. The Others are a group that was lead by Arthur in the past consisting of:

• Kahina, a seer who is able to see the future thanks to her talisman.
  
• Ya'wara, a warrior from the jungle who has a talisman that allows her to teleport.
• The Prisoner of War, an ex-soldier with a couple of gauntlets that brings him the ability to create force-fields with the disadvantage of being haunted by spirits of his fallen comrades.
• The Operative, a spy with a talisman in form of a key that grants him the power to opne any locke.
• Vostok, a russian artronaut with a mystic helmet that can make him survive without needing to eat, drink or breath.

The story begins with Kahina being murdered by Black Manta claiming that he's doing this for vengeance against Arthur who once that realizes that Manta has resurfaced, immediately goes to confront him. In this arc we will learn that, in an interesting twist to their previous incarnations, Aquaman actually murdered Manta's father and that caused the cycle of revenge and hate between them this time. This would conclude with the death of another member of the team, Manta being incarcerated and the Scepter of Atlantis, the weapon that caused its sinking, being stolen by a mysterious person.

The Others was another good arc but the plot could have been told in one or even two issues less, I suppose that Johns wanted to exploit Reis' ability for widescreen action and adventure since there are a lot of big moments and double-page spreads being drawn here (Which are wonderful so I shouln't be complaining anyway) and for that reason the content of the story suffered a bit. However, this storyline still introduced several important aspects of worldbuilding and Atlantis' mythos including the introduction of The Others, the talismans they use and the first mention of the Dead King.

After it comes what is in my opinion one of the best events that has been written on the New 52. Starting unnofficially with issue 0 where Arthur's origin was explored and we're presented to Vulko, a classic member of Aquaman's supporting cast who will guide Arthur to his destiny as king of Atlantis and also would prepare him for his eventual conflict with the current king, his half-brother Orm also known as Ocean Master.

"Throne of Atlantis" was a crossover event with Justice League which is another title written by Johns and drawn by Reis, it started with issue 14 of Aquaman and 15 of Justice League and lasts until issue 17 from both titles. The event consisted on the war between Atlantis and the surface world due to an unexpected attack to Atlantis, Arthur will try his best to stop both Orm and the Justice League to going to into war but what he doesn't know is that none of the nations is the culprit here since someone else was manipulating them. The story concluded with the true villain being imprisoned in Atlantis and Orm incarcerated on the surface due to his crimes while Arthur takes his place as king.

Ah, memories of Dan Jurgens' run are coming back to me. As I explained before, Johns' certainly takes inspiration from that run but also adds his own style (Big moments, nice twists, great action, etc.) to make the event stand on its own and turn it into one of the most successful crossovers since the reboot (If not the most successful at least quality-wise) which would demonstrate that Aquaman is a character that can also be taken into an epic direction that affects the whole DCU.

I also have to give props to Johns for finally making Ocean Master a compelling and complex antagonist instead of making him be evil for the sake of being evil and put him into a sympathetic light even that actually gives a new spin to the relationship between Arthur and him.

This story also marks the debut of Paul Pelletier as penciller of Aquaman since Reis was leaving for Justice League. I'm happy to say that both titles would receive improvements due to this change.

Issue 17 of Aquaman works as an epilogue of Throne of Atlantis but also serves as a prelude to Johns' final arc. In this issue we will see Arthur's struggles about his position as a king since there are several of Orm's loyalists that are not satisfied with the result including the leader of the Atlantis' army named Murk. This issue also recreates the Sea Devils, a group dedicated to protect sea life around the world and brings both the Dead King, the first king of Atlantis and The Scavenger, a classic Aquaman villain into the next upcoming story. Pelletier is able to bring much more content to the title than Reis since his art is not so concentrated on big moments but at delivering more plot points to the story and he does it with great beauty to boot, his depiction of Atlantis and the different beings living there is wonderful.

"Death of a King" starts with issue 18 and continues to develope Arthur as the leader of Atlantis not knowing that his presence has awaken the Dead King who is willing to recuperate his reign by any costs. Arthur will learn that all the talk about his destiny as a king were lies and in fact his ancestors were the ones who murdered the Dead King's family and drove him mad, he's not the only threat though since The Scavenger is planing a full invation to Atlantis.

The new portrayal of The Scavenger is a pretty nice update since he's a quite believable menace in comparison to his past incarnations where he was either retired or a pedophile (Seriously).

Issue 20 becomes and interlude starring The Others written by John Ostrander. By now it had become obvious that both Johns and DC have big plans to expand Aquaman's world and Ostrander does a pretty good job at making these characters a bit more complex and progress their story into a new territory.

Death of a King has another interlude by issue 23 since Arthur awakes 6 months later after his first battle with the Dead King and has decided to learn more about his past and the true responsibilities of the King of the Seven Seas.

The interlude would consist of two issues focusing on Villains Month that took place in September of this same year.

One of the issues starred Black Manta co-written by both Johns and Tony Bedard, the plot is based on how after the dead of the Justice League (which includes Aquaman) affects him and how his story unfolds into the DC event Forever Evil. Here is where my main problem lies, as I said before, Manta is the kind of villain that works best if you make him less complex and more threatening instead. Now, the twist about Aquaman killing his dad worked as an instant shock to justify his hate but once that the shock passed that reason becomes a bit shallow, weak, and it limits his character instead of expanding it. This is one of the aspects that needs to be adressed in the future.

On the other hand, the issue focusing on Ocean Master works a lot better. At different from Black Manta, Ocean Master is a character who does become better when authors try to make him more complex and here we're presented to how his new morally grey characterization makes him react to the current events.

We're once again back to the main story with issue 24 where Arthur learns about the lost cities of Atlantis, properly called the Seven Seas and how his ancestor named Orin betrayed Atlan, the first king.

As you can see Johns takes a lot of inspiration from Peter David's run into this story. We're not only presented to classic names like Atlan and Orin from The Atlantis Chronicles but we also behold a new spin in their portrayal by making Atlan the actual king this time and Orin his misguiden brother. I can't help but laugh about the fact that Johns and Pelletier depicted this Orin with a close resemblance to 90's Aquaman and even his wife looks a lot like Dolphin who was his girlfriend from most of that decade. Johns loves to make fun of that era.

However, those are not the only references, from the seven statues that we check in this picture we can recognize a lot of familiar figures. First, we see what clearly is two beings representing both the Xebel and The Trench but there is also a statue that looks quite similar to the people from Thierna Na Oge and we can also see a statue that seems to be inspired by The Fisherman, Aquaman's old enemy who appears to be more connected than ever to his mythos. Who could be the rest? The people from Poseidonis, maybe Basilia?

Finally, Johns' run on the title concludes in issue 25 with the final battle between Aquaman and the Dead King, it works at solving some of the plot points but not all of them since Johns will probably keep exploring this new development in the Rise of the Seven Seas crossover event between Justice League and Aquaman (Which of course, I will be talking about).

Oh God, that took more time and work than what I was expecting. Okay, how did Geoff Johns turn Aquaman into one of the most popular DC franchises today?

Put it simple, he made it much more appealing, focused and compelling than ever before.

Johns takes his time to expand Aquaman's universe while respecting what came before, reinventing it and expanding it. We have seen glances of this kind of worldbuilding before, especially in David's run but never as well planned nor as integral to the story.

As usual, he concentrates on what makes the character great and tries to tell the most epic story that he can, there can be some flaws here and there but the direction and scope are interesting and exciting enough to keep being invested on it.

Obviously, Johns also is able to create valuable challenges for the protagonist as seen in his revamps for classic villains like Black Manta, Ocean Master and The Scavenger who are more menacing than ever before as well creating new threats like the Dead King.

Besides, the audience responded positvely since its debut sales were the biggest from the history of the franchise, it had even better sales than the popular David's run which had the advantage of being released in the 90's where almost everything sold well.

Plus, if there's something that he loves is to build a franchise and it seems like Aquaman is well on its road considering that there some rumours currently about a The Others ongoing series which was heavily teased on the Aquaman Annual #1 written by John Ostrander which also sold well enough to justify a title based on them.

This the end of an era which I consider the greatest the character had and makes me excited about the discovered potential of the property and its place in the DCU. To conclude, I will say that I have high hopes about what Jeff Parker, the new Aquaman writer, is going to bring to the book since he has his own sort of strenghts (and weaknesses) that are different from Johns' and will be talking about them when the time comes (Yeah, I can't stop).

I'm more optimistc about the future than ever before and I thank you Geoff Johns for that.