Aquaman Deserve Some Respect

No problem with the delay. And thanks for wishing me a good day. The clarification for my claim is as follows: In our mainstream media and pop culture, people have a very fixed perception on the character Aquaman. They see him as this blonde guy in an orange over green spandex suit swimming with colorful fish and dolphins. Their view of judgement was not made through comics or Aquaman's current depiction, but through comedic sources and mainstream media outlets. Just look out how shows like Robot Chicken and Family Guy mocked Aquaman over the years, leaving his fans outraged. People who DO know Aquaman's current image would know that he's nothing close to being a friendly, weak sea loving hero. But their input on how Aquaman gets represented in mainstream culture, which is where Aquaman needs respect, is not as influential as the sources mentioned earlier. Sources: More Fun Comics #73 (November 1941) ,More Fun Comics #84 (October 1942). DC Comics When it comes to discussing non fictional characters, there are some issues that can arise due to the constant changing of storylines and attributes of said characters made by writers and their successors. But in our debate, this problem of continuity and discontinuity does not really have a strong foothold, as we are arguing whether or not Aquaman deserves respect in culture and the media. We aren't debating on who beats who which IS the kind of debate that requires a specific/equal time period or "comic book age" to see which person wins (ex. matching up Aquaman and idk Namor but restricting them to fighting in only a specific comic book era like the Silver Age) . Our debate topic is focusing on one person only, therefore we can both draw points and ideas from more sources. I can see that you went all out in trying to prove that Aquaman's modern representation is something to be reckoned with. Well, I'm not going to argue with you, there. In the comic book community, people have argued with effectiveness that the majority of Justice League members, including Aquaman can individually hold their own against the Avengers. Aquaman is indeed a very cool DC superhero. But the reason why I think he doesn't deserve the people's full respect is because of the tremendous difference between his initial and present portrayal. Now, we all know that every Superhero has had their fair share of character upgrades over the past decades. Superman, for example, initially was only equipped with the ability of flight and human strength. It wasn't until new ideas and themes emerged that they gave him the power of heat vision and smothering nukes, sort of like a defiant response to the Soviet Union's arms race. In assessment, Superman's character development transitioned from being a decent superhero to being an even better superhero. This is undeniably not so for our hero in question, Aquaman. From his inception, Aquaman was a character that had so many flaws, gaps, and questionable features. Let's compare old Aquaman from new Aquaman, shall we? Origins: In the 1940s, Aquaman was the son of an ocean biologist and a female Atlatean outcast. Mocking criticism caused for them to change his parents' identity entirely to the queen of Atlantis and an Atlantean wizard, thus giving him the birthright to the Atlantean throne. Powers: Previously, Aquaman's powers were granted by his human scientist father. All he had was the ability to survive underwater and super strength. "The story must start with my father, a famous undersea explorer"if I spoke his name, you would recognize it. My mother died when I was a baby, and he turned to his work of solving the ocean's secrets. His greatest discovery was an ancient city, in the depths where no other diver had ever penetrated. My father believed it was the lost kingdom of Atlantis. He made himself a water-tight home in one of the palaces and lived there, studying the records and devices of the race's marvelous wisdom. From the books and records, he learned ways of teaching me to live under the ocean, drawing oxygen from the water and using all the power of the sea to make me wonderfully strong and swift." His later acquired traits was the power to speak to marine life through language, NOT telepathy. Again, after the feedback, the writers changed the communication to telepathy and added some additional powers. Name: Previously, Aquaman's name was Arthur Curry. Now, his true name is Orin with Arthur Curry being the name given to him by his human adopter. What makes all of this so funny is that Aquaman's creators had to almost completely change the character to make him more at level with other DC superheroes. From the backstory to his powers, there was at least something that they changed for each of Aquaman's components. The other Justice Leaguers didn't have their origins and storyline changed as much as Aquaman because they already had good characterization to begin with, a good character foundation to build off of.