10 Harmless Comic Book Heroes Who Became Total Badasses

Despite being immensely popular since the 1940s Aquaman suffered a fall from grace that saw his own series of comics actually end during the 1980s.

His powerset hasn't always been the most impressive. In spite of how advantageous breathing underwater and communicating with sea creatures might seem, it didn't stop Aquaman becoming a much-lampooned figure in popular culture. The costume never did him many favours either.

So how do you transform the Doctor Dolittle of the Seven Seas into a glorified badass? Make him a hook-handed, bearded, and morally questionable sea-pirate of course.

Aquaman was already on his way back to the glory days of old after a revival in the early nineties, but it wasn't until scribe Peter David created Aquaman's longest ever run in 1994 that we saw the King of Atlantis make both his glorious return, and acquire that very neat hook-hand. King Arthur Curry received this weapon after having his hand get bitten off by piranhas. Painful, but yes, also badass.

This run focussed more on the struggle of a man torn between his duty as a King and a hero. Fighting off alien invasions, an attempted coup by his own son, and taking Atlantis out into the world quite publicly for the first time in thousands of years. Aquaman even went so far as to annex some surface islands into his territory in a pretty tyrannical move for the ocean-dwelling hero.

Despite that rather controversial last point, this has all contributed to the redemption of a character that had long been written off amongst the comic book community, leading to a box-office smash in 2018.