Arthur Curry

Aquaman

Arthur Curry

## Biography

### Background

Queen Atlanna ruled Atlantis after inheriting the reigns from her father, who perished. However, she struggled to gain political favor with the Kingdom, some of them due to the fact that she was unmarried. She reached a deal with the Marius family, Poseidonis aristocrats, that she would marry their eldest son Orvax in exchange for him helping her gain favor.

The deal worked, Orvax reached a political agreement that all the city-states felt was fair, and Atlanna was the one true Queen of Atlantis. However, she grew frightened of her violent husband, and eventually fled the city and escaped to the surface world, where she had an affair with a lighthouse keeper in Eastport, Tom Curry.

### Early Life

On January 29th, 1971, Arthur Curry was born, although Atlanna also gave him the Atlantean name Orin. For the first three years of Arthur’s life, his mother stayed with them, living in Tom Curry’s lighthouse. But, one day, a search party from Shayeris found her. At first she resisted returning, but when they begged her due to Orvax’s violent nature, she agreed and walked away into the ocean - which was for years Arthur’s only lasting image of his mother.

Arthur grew up an outsider. It was well known in the town that his mother walked out (although the full extent was unbeknownst to most), but Arthur was a weird kid. For one, tribal tattoos sat on his body, unusual for any in Eastport at that time, but especially a child. Accusations flew that Arthur’s father was a creep who branded his son.

In addition to that, Arthur felt constantly distracted, as he felt he could hear the sea creatures in the bay calling out to him. Many of Arthur’s teachers assumed he had a learning disability, making him even more of a social outcast. Arthur’s home life wasn’t great either. From a very young age, Arthur had to drag Tom home from the bar, as he drowned his sorrows over Atlanna with the finest whiskey.

In his early teens, Arthur took up a job as a fisherman to help make ends meet where his dad was failing. Surprising to few, soon Arthur fell on the bottle, and hard. He became prone to violent outbursts, especially against those cruel to the creatures of the sea, which cost him his job, and later wound him up in juvie.

While in juvie, his unique super-strength was noticed by the guards. Word got around, and a scientist named Stephen Shin came to speak with the boy. After running some blood tests, he found that Arthur was not quite human. Shin used Arthur as his own little experiment, and even tried to traffick the boy. Arthur nearly broke Shin’s back in the ensuing scuffle, before returning to his hometown and warning the scientist never to pursue him again.

He was released from juvie at 18, and returned to his hometown to find it had been destroyed due to Adrian Veidt's attacks. While his home was still standing, Tom was nowhere in sight. A half-written note was left on his bedside table telling Arthur that he went to the sea to find his mother. Dejected, Arthur fell back on whiskey. When a beautiful red-head woke him the next morning, at first he thought he was dead.

### Aquaman

The woman revealed herself to be Mera, and she introduced him to her associate, Nuidis Vulko. They informed him they had come on behalf of his mother to bring him back to his true home. They explained to him his heritage as an heir to the throne of Atlantis, and told him that the nation was growing apart, and he was to help his mother govern the Kingdom.

Arthur was introduced to the Kingdoms of Atlantis, to mixed reactions, and was reintroduced to his mother. Obviously, Arthur had a lot of pent-up rage against her at first, mostly stinging grief from the recent loss of his father, but Atlanna took everything steadily, and introduced him to his brother, Orm.

The three of them worked together to govern Atlantis, with Arthur proposing much of the surface-world’s democracy to them. He also trained with Mera at the Conservatory of Sorcery, with Vulko at the Conservatory of Science, and with General Murk at the Atlantean Training Academy. His training with Mera soon turned to romance, and with Murk, his training turned into adventuring into the Seven Seas - where he faced the terrorist sect NEMO, as well as several other enemies.

Despite his best efforts, the nation still grew apart. He and Mera were wed, in part because of their romance, in part in the hopes of bringing Xebel back into the fold, as the mysterious radical terrorist Ocean Master was pulling them away.

He also began making appearances on the surface, combating those who polluted their waters and killed their animals. The media dubbed him “the Aquaman”, and many were puzzled by him. Arthur’s life would be changed forever when an Appellaxian alien crashed into Poseidonis, and Arthur combated it onto the shores - where he joined forces with six other superheroes to form the Justice League.

His time on the Justice League was very productive, not only did he get his wife a membership spot, and gain his first two proteges,  he was convinced by Wonder Woman to bring Atlantis into the fold of the United Nations. This turned out to be a controversial decision, it further alienated the city-states that already didn’t like Arthur, but also grew him in favor with some of the population.

In 2007, Mera was with child, and the birthing process was long and difficult. When Arthur was called away to deal with a diplomatic duty, Ocean Master and NEMO struck the Conservatory of Science, its now believed they plan to kill Mera and her unborn child. However, Aquaman intervened, killing NEMO’s leader, Jesse Hyde as he crept upon Mera’s chambers. His protege, Aqualad, was assisted by a student at the Conservatory of Sorcery, Kaldur’ahm, who joined the two for a fight against Ocean Master. But, the terrorist still escaped. It came at a perfect time, as Garth was looking to step away from his heroics, he turned over the Aqualad mantle to Kaldur. AJ Curry was born blissfully unaware of the attempt on his life.

Arthur started to view things differently. He kicked the bottle to the curb and focused all of his energy on making Atlantis a place his children would be proud of. As a result, he began neglecting his duties on the Justice League, and took a leave of absence. The leave would grow to number years, as shortly after, the second Robin was murdered by the Joker, causing the Justice League to shut down temporarily.

During this break, Arthur expanded his allies again, incorporating La’Gaan to become Lagoon Boy, now his fourth protege. Mera also began training their son at the Conservatory of Sorcery. He spent time reconciling with his mother and further uniting the city-states together. But, he would soon be rocked by a devastating attack.

### King Orin

A NEMO scientist named Kurt Haartmann discovered the tomb Khe-Wannantu, and kidnapped Aquagirl to force her to open it, which unleashed the beast Karaquan, disrupting the oceans and causing massive tidal waves. Arthur and his allies tried to defeat the beast, but it was Tula who would deliver the fatal blow, also ending her life in the process.

A week later, on the day of her funeral, Ocean Master and Black Manta attacked once more, not only disrupting the ceremony, but also murdering Prince Orm and Queen Atlanna in the process. Arthur angrily pursued the assailants, who cut off his hand in turn. Riddled with guilt and grief, Arthur cast himself into exile.

Wandering the Seven Seas for many months, he found peace within himself, eventually speaking with the Lady of the Lake, who granted him a magical prosthetic hand to replace his old one. He returned to Atlantis, his hair and beard long grown, ready to take up the mantle of Annax.

In that time, the Justice League had returned, and he returned to it as well. Unbeknownst to him, his protege, Kaldur had launched a plan to infiltrate the supervillain organization known as the Light, which caused part of San Diego to sink into the sea. Arthur responded to the event with his wife, son, and proteges, where he faced Black Manta yet again. Here, Manta revealed he was the son of Jesse Hyde, and he planned first to kill his son and proteges in front of him, before taking his life.

The fight didn’t go Manta’s way, and he was forced to retreat, though he would be arrested very soon after. In the weeks following the crisis, Arthur championed the efforts to annex what was dubbed “Sub Diego” into Atlantis’ government. While he was preoccupied with that, he found out Mera was with child again, and so he assigned his Aquaman mantle to Kaldur’ahm, allowing him to focus all of his energy on ruling Atlantis as *Annax*. His son has recently become the third Aqualad and a new Aquagirl has emerged in Sub Diego.