Aquaman #1 has arrived, and despite setting up a new status quo for the King of the Seas, that’s all over by the end of the first issue of DC’s new comic book. Spoilers past this point, but not only is the entire population of Atlantis gone, but Aquaman himself has traveled somewhere entirely new… Through a giant Omega symbol, aka the mark of Darkseid.
“That conversation around Darkseid is going to infiltrate a lot of different books,” writer Jeremy Adams teased to Comic Book Club. “It’s definitely going to infiltrate mine. It’s going to have to deal with a prophecy, an Atlantean prophecy, and what connection that might have, and what that might mean for Arthur in the future…”
To find out much more about the issue, including whether Arthur is heading to the Absolute Universe (he’s not), when the teased character Dagon will show up (TBD), and why Adams set up a new status quo for Aquaman only to wreck it by issue’s end… Read on.
Comic Book Club: What can you tell us about the Omega symbol at the end of the issue? That seems pretty bad, is my expert opinion.
Jeremy Adams: Yeah. In the DC All In Special, when Darkseid showed up on the Watchtower… You’re going to see a lot of… That conversation around Darkseid is going to infiltrate a lot of different books. It’s definitely going to infiltrate mine. It’s going to have to deal with a prophecy, an Atlantean prophecy, and what connection that might have, and what that might mean for Arthur in the future…
That’s the intrigue. [He] went through this thing, [he] went through this gate, and then, holy crap, that’s bad. But also, in a broad sense, I don’t want to spoil too much, but in a broad sense, you have the Alpha and the Omega. You have the beginning and the end. There’s an aspect of the Darkseid of it, but there’s also an aspect of it being the end of things, too. So, yeah, that’s all I can say.
I don’t know if you can answer this, but I’ll just straight up ask because I was curious at the end of the issue: is he heading to the Absolute Universe?
No, that would have been too smart, and that would have been kick-ass. Honestly, no, he’s not going to the Absolute Universe. It has more to do with The Blue, which is connected to the Confluence and all these things in the Aquaman universe. That water links everything together, and all life. And much like The Red and The Green, my feeling is, without water, none of it exists. There’s something primordial and magic about it that connects everything, but something’s gone terribly wrong in that.
I thought it was an interesting choice to set up this new status quo for Arthur, where he’s once again balancing being a king, in the Justice League, and his new powers, etc… And then wipe most of that away by the end of this issue. What led to that choice?
It’s this thought in my head about duty and obligation, and all of us have it to a certain degree. As a father, a writer, whatever, I have it to a certain degree. There’s a mortgage that needs to get paid. My wife, she works, she’s a mom, etc. I have all those responsibilities. We all have responsibilities. Arthur’s have compounded over time, and I sometimes wonder if he wanted them.
He’s a superhero, but he’s a king, but he’s father, but he’s a husband. And that can be a lot. And so part of the story came from a place of him finding himself. Because sometimes we get stuck with all these monikers over time, and you have to play to them.
The best way to describe it is, as a writer… I wanted to do other things… I started an animation, and I was immediately siloed into animation. It was like, “You do animation. I mean, it’s just animation.” I’d have my live action brethren look down their nose at me, because it was “just” animation. And then the minute I got on Supernatural, it was such a drastic change in attitude. And people were like, “Oh, you write live action,” and I’m thinking, “it’s the same job.” And then I get into comic books, it’s a different form, but it’s the same. You’re storytelling. And people underestimate that.
In the same way with Aquaman or any of these characters, you label them and then you shove them aside. And I think those labels can be really empowering. As an animation writer or even television writer, more people have seen my stuff in those genres, but it wasn’t until I did comic books that suddenly there was a weird level of attention. There were less people, because it was so niche or whatever. And I think about those monikers, and I think about how much we don’t get to decide, necessarily, like, “You’re the King of Atlantis.” It’s like, “oh, I am?” Or like, “what does that mean? I don’t want to be here for that. I would much rather go superheroing.”
I’m really going to try to explore his internal thought life, because I also think of him, as a kid, as a lighthouse keeper’s son, what that must have been like to grow up, kind of a free range kid. Does he miss it? Does he miss riding his bike? Does he miss parts of the surface world? So some of that internal life, there’s going to be some emotion in that, and it’ll be interesting. I’m such a nerd, and to be able to get to write these characters, I feel like I’m Jason Lee having a conversation with Stan Lee in Mall Rats. I get to actually explore questions I have about these characters, and you’re paying me for it.
The solicit for issue one teased someone named Dagon, who I don’t believe actually shows up in the issue.
The solicits, like covers, they’re just lies.
Is this a character that shows up eventually? And is it the same one from 1965? Full disclosure, I Googled that.
Yeah, that was you and me both. Will it be the same one that shows up from 1965? I don’t know if it’ll be one for one. I was looking for a character I could hang my hat on, and and if you really dive into Lovecraftian Dagon stuff, it’s very interesting. It’ll be more of a threat than the skinny little fish man from [1965], but it also has that connection to Aquaman, in a way. So it’s not out of the blue.
But yeah, he doesn’t show up in this one, but you will have mention of it soon. Whether or not he shows up soon is a different question. The way that I write is, I’m exploring the story too, which I know that just drives [everyone] above me crazy, because I’m trying to find it and go on the adventure as well. That’s kind of how I write. I’m not a big outline ahead and this is what I want… There’s a little bit of feeling it so I know where I want to go. Just how we get there is, it changes. It’s squirrel-like, ADD behavior. I’ll be writing… But this would be cool side quest!
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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