Aqualad (Earth-16)

**Kaldur'ahm** (Atlantean **Kαλδυρ'αμ**) is the former protégé of Aquaman, operating as **Aqualad** by his king's side and as first leader of the Team. He worked under deep cover as the loyal lieutenant of his father, Black Manta, to bring down the Light and their Partner. Following his extraction from the operation, he was reinstated as leader of the Team.

## Personality

Aqualad is a naturally calm and level-headed person. he always thinks things through clearly and puts others first. He is a natural leader and like a big brother figure to most of the Team.

When he went undercover for the Light, he put on an image of a ruthless character who cared very little for his former teammates, even willing to nearly kill them by blowing up their headquarters.

## Physical appearance

Aqualad is an Atlantean with light blond hair cut at the bottom, brown skin, pale green eyes, high cheek bones, and a lean build. He possesses black, eel-like tattoos that run across his back and along his arms and glow a bright blue when using his powers. The visibility of the tattoos is due to the fact that Aqualad dropped out of Sorcery school before progressing to an advanced level; with more advanced sorcerers, the tattoos are only visible when used. Aqualad also has webbed hands and feet and possesses a set of gills that allow him to breathe underwater. The set of visible gills is a trait not shared by most Atlanteans from Poseidonis, but common among the residents of Kaldur's hometown of Shayeris.

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 waterpack that holds twin Water-Bearers and water.

Off-duty, he usually wore a blue and black jacket with a high collar to hide his gills and tattoos, black pants and black sandals.

After leaving the Team and joining Black Manta, he wore armor similar to that of his father. It had a disc-shaped helmet with two large, daunting red eyes that also allowed him to shoot lasers; there were small tubes that connected from the back of the head to his shoulders. The hands of his suit were webbed; the suit also sported fins on each of his legs. Hidden in his suit were compartments that allowed him to shoot missiles. He has also shaven the bottom half of his head.

## History

Aqualad came from the Atlantean city of Shayeris, where he was raised by Sha'lain'a, a native of that city, and Calvin Durham, a henchman of Black Manta who was genetically altered to infiltrate Atlantis. However, his actual father was Black Manta himself. He completed his education and began mandatory military service at age 12. At 14, he was transferred to the Conservatory of Sorcery in Poseidonis.

One day, the villain Ocean-Master attacked Atlantis, causing Aquaman to battle with him. During the fight, Aquaman was defeated, but was suddenly helped by the combined forces of Kaldur'ahm and Garth. Using a combination of Garth's magic and Kaldur's fighting abilities, the two attacked Ocean-Master. Though they were easily defeated, this allowed Aquaman precious time to recover and defeat Ocean-Master. After the victory, Aquaman offered the boys the opportunity to become his protégés. Although Garth declined the offer and returned to his studies, Kaldur jumped at the chance to serve his king as his sidekick. He became a superhero two years before his tour of the Hall of Justice.

He has an impressive knowledge of the people or factions he encounters and has identified many such as Guardian, Sportsmaster, the Cult of the Kobra and Professor Ivo.

### 2010

Aqualad, along with Robin, Kid Flash, and Speedy all believed that they were being inducted into the Justice League. When it became apparent that this wasn't happening, Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash broke into Cadmus Labs where they discovered the Genomorph project, as well as Project Kr, aka Superboy.

After a quick quarrel with Superboy, the trio convinced Superboy that they were on his side and could show him things that he never would've seen in that pod. Superboy helped them to take down Blockbuster, the former scientist who locked him up in the pod. Superboy, Kaldur'ahm, Robin, and Wally told the Justice League that they refused to be sidekicks any longer, and were gifted a headquarters and a new member for their covert ops team.

Red Tornado agreed to be the Team's supervisor, while Black Canary agreed to be their trainer.

Artemis joined the Team just before they were assigned a mission by Red Arrow, formerly Speedy, to protect a scientist who was forced into making a weapon called the Fog for the League of Shadows.

Soon after, the Team went on a mission in Bialya, where they encountered Psimon and had their memories of the previous six months blocked. Miss Martian, along with the help of Superboy, broke the locks on their minds and defeated Psimon.

Mount Justice was later invaded by androids created by T.O. Morrow, the creator who made Red Tornado. Artemis succeeded in freeing the rest of her teammates and defeating Red Torpedo and Red Inferno. However, Red Tornado was overridden and knocked the Team unconcious and saved his "siblings". The Team was informed that **Aqualad** knew there was a mole the whole time, and everybody believed that Red Tornado was the mole. The whole team was upset at Aqualad, even making himself question his actions. However, by the end of the next mission, the team realized the reasons for Aqualad lying and action resumed as normal.

The Team was introduced to Zatanna and went on an unauthorized mission with her to find Red Tornado. The team discovered that Red Tornado had not actually betrayed them, and that he had convinced Red Inferno and Red Torpedo to turn on their evil brother, Red Volcano.

The Team was put under a training simulation by Martian Manhunter where the world was ending and being invaded by aliens. When Artemis died in the simulation, Miss Martian took over the sim and everything went wrong. The simulation was meant to be impossible to beat, and ended tragically, with Robin and Wally sacrificing themselves to destroy the mothership, for several more to fly down.

Aqualad was put under therapy like the rest of the Team, where he said that he felt ashamed for acting like a soldier rather than a general by sacrificing himself, leaving the remaining heroes without a leader. Aqualad even offered to resign before realizing there was no other suitable candidate. On a mission to Bialya, the Team saved Marie Logan and her son, Garfield Logan, by injecting Miss Martian's blood into him, giving him the power to transform into any animal.

The Team came back to the cave from a win against the Injustice League, only to discover that Red Arrow was actually a clone and was the mole the whole time, his keeper being Sportsmaster. The team succeeded in freeing the Justice League of the Light's control. When it hit midnight and it was a New Year, Rocket gave Kaldur a peck on the cheeks.

### 2011-2015

In 2011-2014, Aqualad maintained leadership of the Team as its ranks expanded to include Aquagirl, Tempest, Lagoon Boy, Bumblebee, Batgirl, and Beast Boy.

In 2015, Aqualad discovered that Black Manta was his father. Disgusted by Aquaman's lies, he seeked more truths.

Later, when Tula passed away when she sacrificed herself, Aqualad left a message for Nightwing about his grief that would fuel his motives for going on a deep infiltration mission that was left in absolute secrecy so nobody would discover it. Not even Aquaman was informed.

### 2016

Kaldur was on a deep infiltration mission that only he, Kid Flash, Nightwing, and Artemis knew about. To make the defection from the Team seem legit, Kaldur was forced to take extreme measures, such as capturing team members Blue Beetle, Impulse, and Beast Boy temporarily, as well as blowing up the Cave while taking the chance that Team members could still be inside of it.

Kaldur played part in faking Artemis's death, being the one who appeared to kill her. In fact, her death was faked and she was given a Glamour Charm to change her voice and appearance in order to help Kaldur on his mission under the identity of Tigress.

Kaldur was put in charge of the security during a Light-Reach meeting, where he allowed members of the Team to be put in in disguise as soldiers. When Ra's al Ghul noticed Artemis's true identity, they realized she was in cohoots with Aqualad, causing Deathstroke to shoot both of them in the chest. After a hologram played revealing that the Light was in fact playing the Reach the whole time, the two sides clashed, only for Aqualad and Artemis to reveal themselves to still be alive.

The Team defeated both sides, and ultimately captured a few villains while others escaped. Leadership of the Team was returned to Aqualad, right before he as well as 39 heroes disabled 20 MFD's set by the Reach. However, Blue Beetle's scan missed a 21st MFD in the North Pole. Aqualad and fellow Team members arrived in the North Pole just in time to watch Wally sacrifice himself to destroy the MFD.

## Powers and abilities

* **Atlantean sorcery:** Before becoming Aquaman's sidekick, Aqualad was trained in the mystical arts by Queen Mera. While he was in the top class along with Tula, his skills have fallen somewhat behind those of Tula and Garth due to focusing his studies as a hero, but his water-bearers compensate somewhat.
	+ **Electricity generation**
	+ **Hydrokineses**
	+ **Hard-water constructs**
* **Atlantean attributes:** Atlanteans, although Human, have through scientific and sorcerous means developed several abilities which allow them to live comfortably under the sea:
	+ **Underwater breathing**
	+ **Temperature resilience**
	+ **Durability**
	+ **Strength**
	+ **Toxin resistance**
* **Expert hand-to-hand combatant:** Aqualad is extremly skilled in combat able to hold his own against Cheshire alone. In 2016, his skills seem to have improved incredibly as he could take down Superboy with no effort.
* **Multilingualism:** Aqualad can speak Atlantean and English. Likely as an extension of his home language, he has some fluency in Ancient Greek and Modern Greek.

## Equipment

* **Water Pack:** A black metallic backpack that holds an unspecified amount of water that Aqualad can use. It also holds his Water-Bearers.
* **Water-Bearers:** Twin hilts that can hold onto water which Aqualad then uses to create his hard-water weapons. They are also used as a type of water gun to shoot water from his water pack and can be used to help manipulate sources of water.
* **Stealth-tech:** Technology that is integrated into a piece of clothing and can shift the color of that clothing from the original color to a darker color. Aqualad can access it by pressing the "A" belt buckle on his waist, his "blend" color is dark gray/blue and green.

### Former equipment

* **Black Manta armor:** After defecting from the Team, he joined his father and received an armor like Manta's. It has a laser blast in the helmet, and a rocket launcher. Since rejoining the Team he has discarded this armor in favor of his original suit.
* **Helmet of Fate:** Due to desperation, Aqualad wore the helmet to help the Team survive their fight against the Injustice League. Thanks to Kent Nelson, Nabu freed Aqualad and let him take off the helmet.

## Weaknesses

* **Dehydration:** because his natural habitat is underwater, Aqualad is weakened when exposed to high temperatures and dry conditions.

## Background in other media

Kaldur'ahm was developed specifically for *Young Justice*, rather than using the existing Aqualad, Garth. There were several reasons for this. In the comics, Garth had stopped using the name Aqualad and started going by the name Tempest. Furthermore, Garth had been killed off during the event *Blackest Night*, so the character was not current at the time of development. A new character also provided an opportunity to add more diversity to the cast. Kaldur'ahm was therefore created, inspired by characters such as *Cal Durham*, as well as the DC series *Arion*, in which it was revealed that not all Atlanteans are Caucasian.

During production of the series, Geoff Johns saw the designs for Kaldur'ahm and decided to transfer the character into the mainstream DC Universe as the new Aqualad (replacing Garth). Johns's Aqualad has a slightly different background to Kaldur'ahm: rather than being raised in Atlantis, he was raised as a human in New Mexico and he goes by the name Jackson Hyde rather than Kaldur'ahm. He lacks Kaldur's obvious Atlantean physical traits, but retains Kaldur's eel tattoos and powers (in the TV series, the tattoos were given to Kaldur by the Conservatory of Sorcery; in the comics, Jackson Hyde was born with them). Jackson Hyde first appeared in *Brightest Day* #4, which preceded the pilot movie of *Young Justice* by five months.  Jackson became an important character in the *Brightest Day* series, and promotional art revealed that he was intended to become a member of the Teen Titans.  However, due to the events of *Flashpoint*, this did not come to be. His status in the New 52 remains unknown.

Aqualad's physicality is based on American Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps. His costume combined the aspects of the Aqualad in the comics, as well as the full-body suits used by Olympians in the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics.

## Original Article

1. ↑ http://youngjustice.wikia.com/wiki/Aqualad