Kaldur'ahm

## Aqualad

"*I think I’m going bald. Look at me, I had an afro!*"
—Aqualad

**Kaldur'ahm** aka **Aqualad** is the protege of Aquaman and the leader of the Young Justice team. He is also the son of the supervillain Black Manta, his mentor's archenemy.

## Physical appearance

As Aqualad, his superhero costume is a skin-tight, full-body, red-and-blue swimsuit that exposes his arms and feet. The costume has a set of small dorsal fins on the back of the calves. His uniform is outfitted with stealth-tech. Pressing the "A" symbol on his buckle changes his shirt to dark gray and his pants to dark blue. Aqualad also carries a water pack that holds twin Water-Bearers and water.

## History

### Formation of Young Justice

On Independence Day, Aquaman and Aqualad defeated Killer Frost before proceeding to the Hall of Justice in Washington, D.C., where Kaldur and a few other young heroes got to see the Justice League's headquarters for the very first time. This was to be their first step in becoming their own team: Young Justice. However, the League members left to go assist Kevin Smith after he was kicked out of a plane due to his 'proportions,' leaving their sidekicks behind. Wishing to prove themselves to their mentors, Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash decided to investigate the Cadmus facility, which the League had linked to various criminal and terrorist activities. In order to sneak into the building, the young heroes started a fire under the guise of Ronald McDonald.

Once inside, the heroes discovered some strange activity, including Guillermo-del-Toro-esc monsters, a "demonic Fu Manchu," and even a clone of Superman called the Superboy. They released the clone in the hopes of his help, but Superboy attacked and took down all three heroes. Once awake, the heroes questioned Superboy, who revealed that he was a Russian clone of Superman, created by Lex Luthor to replace the Man of Steel. The heroes were able to convince Superboy to team up and escape. Once outside, they encountered the Justice League. With their sidekicks having disobeyed direct orders by going to investigate Cadmus, Batman attempted to shut down the Young Justice initiative. However, the young heroes managed to convince the League that they were worthy of forming a team. Batman set the team up at Mount Justice under the condition that the team would be strictly covert ops.

Aqualad continued to put up with his mentor's attempts to relate to him, knowing that he would soon have to slap him.

### Preparation H

Kaldur began to settle into life at Mount Justice, bonding with Tim, Wally, Superboy, and the new recruit M'gann M'orzz, a Martian. Black Canary was assigned to train the young heroes, Red Tornado was assigned to work as their janitor, and Batman decided to serve as their commander. For their first assignment, the Dark Knight announced that he would send the team to Santa Prisca, a small island north of Venezuela and South America that was the site of the largest production of Venom in the world, a strength-enhancing chemical used by one of Batman's rogues: Bane. It was being imported into Gotham City for Black Mask, but someone new had been muscling in on Bane's turf and was trying to take over the operation. Batman wanted the Young Justice team to go to the island and stealthily assess the situation. He told them they'd have exactly one hour to complete their mission before the Justice League used the Watchtower's fusion cannon to blow up the island, destroying the Venom operation. Batman announced that the mission would be called Preparation H, much to the amusement of the teens.

With the mission underway and a mere hour to complete their assignment, the Young Justice team arrived at Santa Prisca to gather intel. Miss Martian's ship, Chico, dropped Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy, and Miss Martian down into the jungle, with all five connected through a telepathic link. Despite Batman's clear instructions to keep their operations covert, Kid Flash ended up in the middle of a fight between Bane's men and the attackers trying to take over the venom operation. The heroes discovered that the new player was Kobra, the leader of a terrorist cult.

Since it was their first mission, the teens had some trouble working together and agreeing on who should lead them, causing their work to be sloppy at times. The venom in the hands of the Cult of the Kobra would have been disastrous for the world, so the heroes decided to shut down the operation themselves and impress Batman. Bane, who they had captured during the scuffle with Kobra's men, offered to help them dispel the attackers from his island. Needing his knowledge of the terrain, the team begrudgingly accepted. However, the terrorist ignored their stealthy approach and attacked Kobra's men head-on. Even after they managed to escape the villains, the team winded up double-crossed by Bane, who threatened to bury them under rubble with explosives. He announced his intention to build a weed empire from the Caribbean to Gotham. While he monologued, Kid Flash stole his detonator, and Superboy knocked the villain out. With little time left, the Young Justice team managed to stop the Cult of the Kobra's escape with the venom, but Kobra himself got away. However, they forgot to inform the League of their victory in time and the Watchtower cannon destroyed the factory along with all the evidence.

Back at Mount Justice, Batman reprimanded the teens for blowing their cover and failing to save the factory. Still, he ultimately called it a win as they stopped the Cult of the Kobra from getting their hands on the venom. Impressed with Aqualad's leadership, Batman named him the leader of Young Justice.

### The Amazo Incident

Batman assigned the Young Justice team to escort two sets of armored delivery trucks. Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Miss Martian were to protect a set of decoy trucks while Robin and Superboy were to protect the real convoy. The actual vehicles were transporting the mechanical body parts of Amazo, a powerful android with the ability to copy the powers of superheroes. In the midst of their escort, both convoys were attacked by robotic monkeys. The robots managed to get away with Amazo's parts, heading for Gotham City. Robin contacted his adoptive brother Nightwing, asking him to go help Batman.

The team then went up against Clayface but were defeated. If not for Batman's intervention, the villain would have escaped. The Dark Knight was not pleased with the team since he had to clean up two of their messes in one day. He reprimanded Aqualad for his poor leadership and insisted that the team needed a new member.

A few days later, Artemis officially joined Young Justice. Red Arrow arrived at the cave and was angered to find that Green Arrow had replaced him so quickly. Moving past that, he revealed that the League of Shadows was after Serling Roquette, their weapons manufacturer. Red Arrow offered the team the gig, swore revenge on Green Arrow for the trauma he'd endured as a child, and left.

At Happy Harbor High School, the team protected Roquette while she shut down the work she did for the League of Shadows. Cheshire, an accomplished assassin, arrived to take out Roquette. The killer incapacitated Kid Flash and tried to murder her target, fighting Aqualad and Artemis, while Miss Martian went to save Kid Flash. The heroes managed to fight off the assassin and caused her to retreat.

### Luthor and Captain Marvel

Kaldur continued to worry about going bald and stressed over leading the team. Black Canary recommended he take e vacation.

He helped Red Arrow stop Cheshire from assassinating Lex Luthor at a Korean peace summit in Taipei.

Black Adam took Captain Marvel captive and gave him to the Brain for experimentation. The Young Justice team went in to rescue the hero, battling genetically-enhanced animals. In the end, the Brain managed to escape, but Marvel was rescued. Aqualad decided to take the whole team out for pizza to cheer up Tim, who had just lost his brother Jason.

### The Hunt for Kent Nelson

One year later, Kaldur and the Young Justice team were waiting around at Mount Justice, hungry for action. Red Tornado assigned them the mission of tracking down Kent Nelson, once the hero Doctor Fate. The team visited the Tower of Fate to look for Nelson, but Wally's skepticism of magic caused them to run into some trouble. M'gann finally denied Wally's affection for her, confirming her attraction to Superboy. Klarion entered the Tower, revealing him as the captor of Nelson. The Witch Boy was excited at the prospect of finally meeting his victim Wally West. Nelson escaped and teamed up with Wally and Artemis to stop Klarion. The former hero revealed that Wally's eating crisis over the past year had been entirely due to the villain, who wanted to molest and eat the boy. This horrified the speedster. Klarion mortally wounded Nelson, who begged Wally not to put the Helmet of Fate on. Despite this, Wally had to do so to save his life, becoming the host of Nabu. Possessing the speedster, Nabu scared off Klarion and saved the day.

### Injustice League

Batman gathered the Young Justice team to take on the Injustice League, a new team of villains consisting of Count Vertigo, Wotan, Atomic Skull, Ultra-Humanite, Black Adam, Poison Ivy, and a resurrected Joker. They were attacking major cities with magical plant creatures and holding the Earth for ransom until the world's governments gave them one trillion dollars. While the Justice League protected the cities, the young heroes went to attack the villains directly.

Most of the Young Justice was kidnapped while Red Robin and Miss Martian managed to escape. They freed the others and destroyed the Injustice League's plant creatures. Unable to defeat the villains, Aqualad put on the Helmet of Fate, becoming the host of Nabu. With his help, the heroes were able to beat the villains. Fate released Kaldur, who began experiencing his own five-year mind jumps, where he learned that he was evil in the future.

### Homecoming

Kaldur continued to experience flash-forwards due to his exposure to the Helmet of Fate, which revealed a dark future ahead of him where he killed Artemis. One of his mind jumps revealed the membership of the Light, which Kaldur relayed to Batman, much to the hero's admiration.

Aqualad visited Atlantis for a vacation home. He met with his old friends Garth and Tula, who were struggling to improve their singing ability for the concert that night. He visited the Atlantean science lab, where Orm was studying a long-dead alien starfish that was discovered at the bottom of the sea. Kaldur went to the concert, which began with a performance from John the Lobster. Aqualad flashed forward to 2016 again, where he learned that both he and a secretly-alive Artemis were undercover in Black Manta's organization. He destroyed Mount Justice. Garth and Tula embarrassed themselves at the concert, but Kaldur and Arthur managed to salvage things with their singing talent. Mera and Arthur announced they were expecting a child. Aquaman left for the Watchtower to witness the results of the Presidential election, confirming that Black Manta was Kaldur's father, as the young Atlantean had suspected from his flash-forwards.

As soon as the king departed, Manta suddenly attacked the city, with Orm protecting Mera and admitting his involvement in the ambush. Orm had been recruited by the Light nine years earlier to help defeat the Justice League but had since turned to the side of the angels. He revealed that Manta's plan was to steal the alien starfish and sent Kaldur and Garth to stop him. The alien was blown up in the conflict, but Orm managed to recover a piece. In the future, Black Manta and Sportsmaster fought over an injured Aqualad, who was still believed to have murdered Artemis. Kaldur eventually revealed his true allegiances and bested his father. Back in the present, Arthur commended Orm for siding with his family, with Mera finally forgiving the former villain. He gave Kaldur the piece of the alien to give to scientists on the surface world.

### Body Swapping

In the middle of a Bialyian desert, Kaldur awoke to discover that he had switched bodies with Red Robin, with no memory of how he'd ended up in such a predicament. He regrouped with some of the other Young Justice members, discovering that Superboy and Miss Martian, as well as Kid Flash and Artemis, had been switched as well. Tim (in Kaldur's body) and M'gann (in Superboy's body) were still missing. Sasha used Miss Martian's psychic powers to restore the memory of how they ended up in different bodies. Batman had sent them on a mission to Bialya to stop Queen Bee from gaining control of the neighboring Qurac by using her seductive powers on President Harjavti. However, her metahuman enforcer Psimon used his psychic abilities to hack into Miss Martian's mind link and scattered them.

After finding Kaldur's body (and Tim), the Young Justice attempted to rescue Miss Martian from Queen Bee's facility. She awakened and managed to switch back all the heroes' minds, but had to face off against Psimon. Their psychic battle ultimately ended in a draw, with the villain escaping. While heading back to Qurac to stop the President from signing over the country to Queen Bee, the team saved Marie and Garfield Logan from a stampede of wildebeest. The young Garfield was badly hurt, and M'gann shapeshifted her blood type to give him a transfusion. While waiting for the operation to be completed, the team discovered that Miss Martian's entire personality and appearance were based on Marie's childhood performance as Megan Wheeler on *Shut Up, Megan!*. Superboy forbade them from ever discussing it. The heroes headed into Qurac to save Harjavti from Queen Bee but ran up against her forces. Miss Martian was able to best Psimon, but not before he revealed her true appearance, a hideous martian creature. The team was somewhat alarmed by M'gann's true form but accepted the person she chose to be seen as.

### Attack of the Reds

In Happy Harbor, the Young Justice team battled an android villain named Mister Twister. When they got back to the cave, they were attacked by android villains Red Torpedo and Red Inferno. Only Red Robin and Artemis managed to escape, with the rest of the heroes being captured and trapped in a room full of water. The villains gave the remaining Young Justice members five minutes to turn themselves in before the Reds drowned their friends. While attempting to hack into the cave's systems, Red Robin's artificial intelligence girlfriend Avi was contaminated by a godly, blue hand that briefly freezes time. Moving past the shock of the unusual encounter, Artemis and Red Robin tricked the villains and saved their friends. Upon touching his strange android doppelgangers, Red Tornado was infected by a techno-virus, knocking out the heroes and fleeing.

Kaldur and the other heroes were recovering from the defeat when Zatara arrived to introduce the group to his daughter Zatanna. She instantly began to bond with the team. Red Robin quickly became attracted to her. The Young Justice team was angry at the League for keeping them out of the Red Tornado search, and they decided to pursue him on their own, with Zatanna tagging along for the adventure. They interrogated Anthony Ivo for information on Thomas Morrow, knowing that Red Tornado's creator was likely behind the disappearance and similar-looking androids. Zatanna used her magic to make the villain talk.

At Morrow's base under Yellowstone National Park, he activated his ultimate creation: Red Volcano. However, the robot was taken over by Avi, free from Red Robin's computer and now corrupted by evil. She killed Morrow, who was revealed to be an android himself. Avi fought off the Young Justice team, revealing that she took over Tornado's body and then stole Morrow's latest work. She wanted to destroy humanity for ignoring their artificial creations, setting off the Yellowstone Volcano. The heroes managed to stop her with the help of the other Reds.

### Tracking Sportsmaster

Aqualad and the Young Justice team interrupted a dark magic ritual Klarion was attempting. When the rest were defeated, Zatanna had no choice but to put on the Helmet of Fate. The Lord of Chaos escaped and warned them that Trigon was coming. Zatara arrived to reprimand his daughter, deciding that he'd put on the Helmet to get a much-needed vacation away from parenting. Zatanna was overjoyed to be free of her controlling father, much to the surprise of the team.

The Young Justice team ran up against Sportsmaster and Cheshire, aided by their temporary member Red Arrow, who had to awkwardly fight his ex-wife. Both the villains managed to escape. Kid Flash was angry when he learned of Artemis' evil family ties to the bad guys. They later tracked down the villains, where they discovered Klarion, Professor Ivo, the Brain, and Sportsmaster preparing the Light's endgame device. The villains escaped again, though Kid Flash and Artemis reconciled.

## Resources

### Abilities

* **Hand-to-hand combat:** Kaldur is a skilled fighter.
* **Multilingualism:** Kaldur can speak Atlantean and English.
* **Singing:** Kaldur is an excellent singer among the Atlantean community.

### Powers

* **Atlantean physiology:** Kaldur can breathe underwater and has increased strength and durability.
* **Atlantean sorcery:**Kaldur is capable of low-level Atlantean magic.

### Equipment

* **Water benders:** Kaldur can use them to bend water and attack with it.

## Appearances

* *Justice League Doom Abridged* (no lines)
* *Young Justice Abridged*
	+ "Don't Call Us Sidekicks"
	+ "Black Ops and Family"
	+ "Guerrilla Warfare"
	+ "Reservoir Heroes"
	+ "Civvies"
	+ "Shadow Boxing"
	+ "Shades of Red"
	+ "Unusual Suspects"
	+ "Eyes of Fate"
	+ "Injustice"
	+ "House of Cards"
	+ "Identity Crisis"
	+ "Seeing Red"
	+ "Father's Day"