Kurt Haartmann

The Fisherman

Kurt Haartmann

## Biography

### Background

Shortly after the destruction of Eastport, Maine, during Adrian Veidt's attacks, clean up efforts were underway at many cities, but Eastport struggled to get the resources they needed. As such, efforts were slow to start, and it took nearly a year before serious efforts were underway. In that period, minor levels of radiation and unique telepathic energy signatures began to have an effect on the plant and animal life of the coastal town.

When relief efforts finally came to the town, there was a whole tent of volunteers found viciously murdered in the middle of the night, in a scene right out of a horror movie, with no outsider human DNA found at the crime scene. Animals began turning up dead as well, including hunting dogs, deer, and large fish. There were sightings reported of a strange creature lurking about the beaches at night, partially humanoid, but partially something else. Eventually, the sightings and the peculiarities stopped, and construction concluded on Eastport, and it was re-established as Amnesty Bay.

According to General Murk Rowa of the Atlantean Army, however, that was the last time the creature was seen on land, as years later it was found by an Atlantean patrol, who nearly perished in the bloody battle. Under Murk's orders, the creature was imprisoned in the tomb of Khe-Wannantu.

### Early Life

Kurt Haartmann was born to two loving parents in the aftermath of Adrian Veidt's attacks. Kurt's father, Nick, was a beat cop, and his mother Karla was a zookeeper. However, the attack seemed to have a unique effect on both of his parents. Both became prone to terrible splitting headaches, tinnitus, and would get miserably carsick and seasick. However, Kurt did not appear to have these ailments.

When Kurt was just twelve years old, both of his parents were subjected to experimental medical tests in an attempt to cure them of whatever disease they seemed to be afflicted with, however the medical tests would leave them in a near vegetative state. Kurt was forced to move in with his grandmother for the time being.

His grandmother, Sila, was an Eastport native, who had begun living in Amnesty Bay and ran a successful bait and tackle shop. Sila taught him to love fishing and care about the animals of the ocean, persuading Kurt to study marine biology. He moved out of Amnesty Bay at age 18 and started going to class at Ivy University. During his time there, he roomed with David Hyde, a mechanical engineering major. The two became good friends, and both were obsessed with the legends of Atlantis.

### Work with NEMO

After graduation, David introduced Kurt to his father, Jesse. Jesse ran the organization known as NEMO, and offered Kurt a job as a researcher for the team, going on oceanic expeditions and researcher animal life. Kurt accepted his dream job and bid goodbye to his grandmother and headed off to sea. He spent the next five years of his life at sea, where he began to slowly fall into the Light's clutches.

He saw firsthand when Jesse was murdered by Aquaman and David succeeded as leader, allowing his rage to consume him. David was hellbent on destroying Atlantis, and so they began charting the depths of the ocean in new submarines that David designed. Through this, they were eventually able to discover the tomb of Khe-Wannantu, but David was dejected to find that he couldn't open it - lacking sorcery powers. Kurt helped him launch a plot to kidnap Aquagirl and force her to open it.

While the plan was a success, opening it unleashed an ancient creature, the Karaquan, whose escaped killed Aquagirl and seemingly killed Kurt, as his diving suit was breached and he sunk to the bottom of the tomb, while David and the rest of NEMO was forced to retreat as the Atlanteans attempted to contain Karaquan.

### The Fisherman

Somewhere in the depths of the tomb, Kurt's dying self was found by some type of creature - the exact specifications of which are uncertain. This parasitic creature attached himself to Kurt's injured body and began nurturing it, healing it in the watery depths, before it spent the next several months making its way back to the surface, terrorizing Amnesty Bay and Jump City - branded The Fisherman by media outlets. This eventually led the creature to conflict with the second Aquaman, however it escaped.

DNA testing from Kaldur's blades showed that the creature's blood matched Kurt's - but the voice and mannerisms of it did not match him. The Fisherman has continued to be a pain to the Sea Devils, who have run across it a couple of times - sometimes allied with members of the newest Legion of Doom, making Kaldur believed that the Fisherman has somehow become a member of this group. Whatever the case, Kaldur considers him a threat, and one not to be underestimated.