It's fair to say that most non-comics readers didn't care about Aquaman until last year's film released with Jason Mamoa in the title role, but to say that the character wasn't 'cool' beforehand would be to erase one of the best redesigns in DC history - the one seen during Peter David's Aquaman comic from the nineties.
King Arthur Curry lost his hand and proceeded to do what any upstanding underwater king would do in that situation, and replaced it with harpoon. Curry would retain his prosthetic for a good decade after, eventually wielding it on the small screen with the Justice League on the DC Animated Universe cartoon. The Atlantean would ditch his trademark gold and green outfit for that outing, and - when combined with the hook - it was something to behold.
Warner Bros.
The ensuing years would see DC once again adopt silver age Aquaman as the standard, but with Mamoa's likeness now influencing aspects of the character in the comics, one can only hope the harpoon makes a comeback.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
