WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Challenge of the Super Sons #9 by Peter Tomasi, Max Raynor, Luis Guerrero and Rob Leigh, on sale now.
In the DC Universe, Aquaman is one of the most resilient heroes around. Though once considered a meme, Aquaman has become one of the toughest heroes out there, particularly when portrayed by Jason Momoa in the DC Extended Universe. Simply put, he’s fearless and always ready for defending the Atlantis throne or his Justice League teammates.
But in Challenge of the Super Sons #9, Damian Wayne discovers Aquaman’s greatest weakness, and it forces Arthur out of the oceans he calls home.
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Aquaman’s kryptonite is his daughter, Andy, and wife, Mera. In fact, he’d do anything for both the Atlanteans and surface-dwellers, as he’s a son of both worlds. It’s why he’s found speeding through the oceans to the Hall of Justice for monitor duty, only to be crippled by fear. In a flash forward, as he tells the story to EMTs, fear starts pulsing through his veins like electricity, and suddenly, he just couldn’t be in the water anymore.
He got frightened by the fluid around him, blacking out as his heart raced and his mind felt like it was on fire. Aquaman confesses he had to swim to the surface with whatever energy he had left because he thought he was dying. Arthur got to pier with the fear of the sea paralyzing him and called emergency services. Little did he know, an underwater explosion set all this off. Shockingly, the cause of Arthur’s fear comes from a famous DC storyline: “Tower of Babel.”
In the 2000 storyline. “Tower of Babel” by Mark Waid and Howard Porter, Ra’s al Ghul stole Batman’s files and discovered how to bring his teammates down. The Dark Knight kept these files in case he ever had to defeat his teammates. He kept a version of kyrptonite for each hero: Superman’s being red kryptonite, Flash’s being seizures after a special bullet and Wonder Woman being trapped in a virtual reality. Kyle Rayner was blinded, Plastic Man was frozen solid, while Martian Manhunter was set on fire via special nanites.
As for Arthur, the Bat rendered him rendered him hydrophobic thanks to an altered form of the Scarecrow’s fear toxin. J’onn Jonn’z used his telepathy to help him overcome the effects of the poison gas, but in this case, Damian’s modified version wears off after a few hours.
As it turns out, Bruce’s son stole it from the Bat-cave and poisoned Arthur, all so they could take him out the picture temporarily and defeat the Death Kraken that Vandal Savage and Felix Faust planted for the king from the past. It’s a dirty job — one he even hatched for his own Teen Titans crew in the past — but it’s the only way Robin and Superboy could save the Atlantean royal. While he’s thankful he got better, Aquaman’s left worried as he doesn’t know who left him vulnerable like this and whether another attack is impending.
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