u/TheDistantWave

I kind of read the New52 runs for Swamp Thing and Animal Man due to the direction of the current Aquaman run and I thought Rotworld would of been an awesome arc to have included Aquaman as a third protagonist during my time reading it.

No telling what Lemire’s story in specific would be, but with the direction of the current run. I think it would be cool to see Lemire pickup stuff from his Animal Man run and have the two crossover. The Bridgewalker stuff could easily be brought back and used as a storyline within the whole Emperor Aquaman stuff assuming that becomes a status quo with the Universe spanning lighthouses.

Be funny to see Arthur don the blue magical camo suit, and Animal Man in his concept unused orange design for an arc. Switching colors.

Overall just my thoughts.

Link to AMA.

https://x.com/dcuworld/status/2072793519664889974?s=46

Was kind of surprised Arthur didn’t get a post on the subreddit today. One of the most dedicated fathers in comics and media.

1st showcased team is The Protectors of The Parliaments, we got Justice League Dark for Magic this is basically “Justice League Nature” potentially Justice League Blue for the Environment

2nd up is a team heavily based off the Justice League on my picks, but the dynamic I think is way too interesting not to see them come together cause the majority of them are wack jobs, egotistical or self serving. I think seeing them interact would be interesting and you got characters like Nova and Forge who would be caught in the mess. Marvel already has The Squadron and Great Society as JL teams, this would be a Dark Avengers the dynamic is different by a lot to have it be its own thing.

A Sungod, A moon knight, An Amazonian warrior, An Atlantean, A speedster, A space cop, and the tech genius.

The 3rd team is a team that’s inspired not based on The JL they’re massively different enough to be their own thing and do have built in connections already among themselves. My World’s Finest being Black Panther and Doctor Strange. My Trinity being Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange, and the overall team also including Medusa and Juggernaut. I like the 5 man aspect cause it feels like enough attention can be spread around. You do get each member kind of in a way parodying the JL.

Black Panther is the Brains, Carol is the cosmic alien, Doctor Strange is the connection to Magic and myths, on the JL you do have Aquaman who shares a Greco-Roman connection with Wonder Woman on this team you have Medusa and/or Black Bolt who share a Kree-Progenitor connection with Captain Marvel. Juggernaut’s powers come from a different dimension similar to The Flash and The Speedforce. Juggs also ties in pretty well with have a mystical lore matching Doctor Strange’s and Black Panther’s. Similar to how Flash and Superman are both tied into Sci-Fi.

I think the last added aspect is I’d try to tie this team together with the core being legacy. The concept overall has Medusa as a Nightmask to Carol’s Starbrand. With the idea of tying in White Hole Singularities to White Events.

I got a write up I’ll include in the comments for Nightmask Medusa The Midnight Queen and The Star Captain Marvel as a Starbrand or Starbrand connected.

My 4th and final team is an OG Avengers based roster, I didn’t really put too much thought into it admittedly. It just felt like something I had to include due to the JL based stuff. But overall you got The Couple, The Patriot, The Tech-man and The God.

Recently created an Arion Powerscaling post if anyone is interested the very few times I’ve seen him mentioned I often see his showings misconstrued or the character downplayed with people typically missing context within the stories of the character being weakened or not having his full kit.

https://www.quora.com/How-powerful-is-Arion-from-DC-Comics/answer/TheOneWhoKnows?ch=17&oid=1477743910393960&share=74d8b9cc&srid=pi39v&target\_type=answer

Enlil could be a cool concept to revisit within the mythos.

Flash hyping out current Aquaman all the way back in the 90s

Sources:

The Flash v2 Issue 66

Aquaman: Deep Dives issue 7

Emperor Aquaman Issue 17

Shoutouts to

Quinze-Pras-Seis on Reddit (Pictures 1 & 2)

The third picture is from Marvel Presents v1 Issue 19

NickFries55 on Reddit (Drew picture 4 finished version picture 7)

OmegaStorm on X (Pictures 5 & 6)

The last image is from the Marvel Tarot book

Let me know what’s the better name for the amalgam. Strange Panther. Supreme Panther. Panther Supreme?

Fanfic I wrote: https://www.quora.com/profile/TheOneWhoKnows/The-Panther-Supreme-Strange-Panther?ch=17&oid=249087313&share=46f6c13e&srid=pi39v&target\_type=post

EMPEROR AQUAMAN #20
Written by JEREMY ADAMS
Art and cover by JOHN TIMMS
Variant covers by DAN QUINTANA and STEPHEN BYRNE
$3.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock)
ON SALE 8/12/26

Aquaman has become so powerful, even the gods have taken notice. Poseidon arrives in Atlantis to humble the lighthouse keeper’s son in a fight that will span the stars and wreck the seas!

DC X SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: METAL LEGION #4
Written by ADAM BRYCE THOMAS
Art by ADAM BRYCE THOMAS
Cover by PABLO M. COLLAR
Variant covers by MIN HO KIM and DANIELE DI NICUOLO
$3.99 US | 32 pages | 4 of 5 | $4.99 US (card stock)
ON SALE 8/5/26

Dr. Eggman and his super-powered Metal Legion are looming unchecked over the Justice League’s Earth! It’s going to take the combined might of the Justice League, Sonic, and his many friends to challenge the mad doctor’s mechanical might! But as their battle rages in space, who is left to stop Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom?

DARK KNIGHTS OF STEEL II #2
Written by TOM TAYLOR
Art by OTTO SCHMIDT
Cover by YASMINE PUTRI
Variant covers by TRAVIS MOORE, GERALD PAREL, and LUCAS MEYER
$4.99 US | 32 pages | 2 of 12 | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)
ON SALE 8/19/26

A sickness has befallen the Els, sending the Kingdom of Metropolis into disarray. But what—or who—could bring true harm to such a powerful royal family? Queen Diana and her Amazonians are intent on finding answers, but what will it cost them? Amidst the chaos, Amanda Waller takes surefooted steps into the vacuum of leadership…but she harbors an agenda far darker and more twisted than anyone yet realizes.

By VillanElliPaolo

I think in terms of design it fits really well. With some of these you can go deeper and find spirituality similarities as well, and/or thematic ones.

Couldn’t think of one for characters like Crystal, and Iso honestly.

Batman has the Batcave, Superman has The Fortress and Aquaman has The Lighthouse.

I think the difference being while Bruce grew up in a mansion and Clark on a farm. Arthur actually grew up on a Lighthouse a symbol that represents how he was raised and what he represents as a person.

Drowned Earth also had a beautiful direction with this with Arthur’s inner journey and we got one recently that lines up well within Emperor Aquaman.

An Arthur Curry hanging out in the lighthouse after giving up due to his defeat by Lolanna. Arthur’s 3 inner selves coming together to find the inner strength to break free of the entrapment in The Blue and returning to defeat Lolanna.

The symbol of consciousness vs chaos was also a major aspect of The Waterbearer arc where Aquaman had to surrender and abandon his violent tendencies to defeat his foe a showcase of inner struggle.

I think Aquaman’s biggest role to come into at this point is as a guide, a beacon of hope across the universe and training the next generation to follow suit as fellow beacons across the universe. The Aqualads and Aquagirls.

AquaGuru

I started thinking with the mentions of Aquaman’s past from Bendis JL run matching up with what Aquaman was saying in Brightest Day as well as The Flashpoint Origin.

Is the Flashpoint Origin the closest we have to current Aquaman’s origin in present day, going off the age of 13.

This makes you wonder is the history between Manta and Arthur also changed now? Did Tom survive and Arthur just visited him when he got the ability to. I was wanting to make a post on another topic but this started lingering my mind about current continuity.