They say you can get a measure of a man by canvassing his enemies. That's especially true in comic books, where a superhero is only ever as good as their villains. Batman especially has a colourful rogues gallery of bad guys that are almost as famous as the Dark Knight himself. If you know Superman, you probably know Lex Luthor too. Aquaman is less blessed. Even Spider-Man has Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom... Aquaman, meanwhile, has no nemeses that you'll ever have heard of. And with good reason. His main antagonist is a guy called Black Manta, who has artificial gills and a goofy mask and is literally a black man underneath. Besides that, almost every Aquaman villain is sea-themed. Batman gets clowns, scarecrows, luchadores, whatever Mr Freeze is. Aquaman gets a succession of enemies that are just like him, only less powerful, with goofier names: The Fisherman, The Scavenger, Aquabeast, Devilfish (yes, these are all real).
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
