- I'm just gonna say it,
Aquaman is one of the most underrated heroes
of all time.
His New 52 stuff is amazing,
and he's easily my second favorite comic book
superhero after Spidey.
Aquaman, like many heroes,
as had plenty of different looks over the years,
with one of the most noticeable
and drastic changes in appearance being his hand,
or lack thereof.
- I'm a monster!
(screaming)
(upbeat rock music)
Welcome to Comic Misconceptions, I'm Scott.
And Aquaman was first introduced
in More Fun Comics number 73 from 1941.
He's half-human and half-Atlantean,
which gives him all kinds of powers
like super strength, and speed,
and durability, and of course,
the ability to live under water
and command ocean life.
He does not talk to fish.
I wanna get that out of the way right up front.
We'll cover more about that in a bit,
just have that in the back of your mind.
You'll notice that for most of Aquaman's history
he has both of his hands.
The loss of his hand didn't happen until
the great comics era of the '90's,
or as I like to call it "STAHP", stop it.
The '90's were all about trying to make heroes more edgy,
I guess is what they were going for.
And in Aquaman's case, it was actually kind of literal.
The first time Aquaman lost his hand,
which would be a ridiculous phrase to say
if weren't talking about comics,
happened in Aquaman volume 5,
number 2, from 1994.
Our hero is captured by an otherwise forgettable
super villain slash international terrorist
named Charybdis, who wants to destroy all life
on the planet simply because he's nuts.
In order to achieve this mad goal,
Charybdis needs to use Aquaman's
power over ocean life to get whales
or something to raise up sunken nuclear subs
from all over the globe to the surface,
where they will detonate and kill everything.
He uses a device that drains Aquaman of his powers
and allows Charybdis to absorb them.
But Charybdis doesn't quite get how
Aquaman's powers work.
As I mentioned earlier, Aquaman does not
talk to fish.
Stop saying that Aquaman talks to fish.
He does not.
And he's explained on more than one occasion
that he just suggests or commands ocean life,
and they choose to respect him.
Just wanted to get that out of the way.
He did, however, command a water buffalo once,
simply because it had the word "water" in the name,
but let's just overlook that one.
It's kinda counterproductive to my point.
But back in the story, Aquaman ends up escaping,
and brings the fight up to the surface
where he's still depowered.
Charybdis pins him down
and forces Aquaman's hand into a river full of piranhas
that quickly and painfully chew away at his flesh.
But thanks to an assist from Aquaman's friend Dolphin,
Charybdis falls into that same river,
and gets completely demolished by those hungry piranhas.
However, because this is comics,
he did eventually come back
under the new name of Piranha Man,
but it's not really important.
What is important is that Aquaman
is now sans hand.
After being hospitalized and experiencing
some trippy dream sequences,
he decided that he was going to use this
to his advantage.
He figured it'd be the perfect time
to give himself a symbol,
something like Superman's S emblem
or Green Lantern's ring,
or Batman's bats.
He attached a harpoon on his arm
that doubled as a symbol both to sea dwellers
that he is of the surface,
and to surface dwellers that the sea
can turn their weapons against them.
It also helped further represent the idea
that he belongs to both worlds.
However, this rough job was never meant to be permanent.
He would very quickly get some upgrades
that would make his non-hand a powerful weapon.
A few issues later, Aquaman would battle a fiery
villainess named Corona who would melt
his mighty metal mitt, rendering it pointless.
Do you get it?
Do you get?
Puns are so dumb.
But fear not.
In issue number 9 of that series,
he would be gifted a brand new,
state of the art golden harpoon prosthetic
courtesy of the fine folks over at S.T.A.R Labs.
The key feature was its ability
to now launch the harpoon at his enemies.
Plus, it could also collapse in on itself
to reduce the risk of accidental injury.
It had the additional benefit of being linked
to Aquaman cybernetically, so all he needed to do
to activate any of its features,
was simply think, and it complied.
This new golden arm lasted for a few years,
until Aquaman battled Noble,
the king of another underwater race
called the Lurkers, who led an attack
on the Atlanteans simply because
they were partying too loudly.
That is not a joke.
Noble confronted Aquaman with his
overaggressive noise complaint,
and ripped off his harpoon hand completely.
Aquaman then attached yet another,
even higher-tech device in its place,
a golden, morphing prosthetic hand
that Atlantean scientists developed for him.
It can still transform into a harpoon,
but now it can function like a normal hand as well.
The problem, as you can probably see,
is that with every new replacement hand that he gets,
Aquaman moves further and further away
from his initial idea of using a harpoon
specifically as a symbol.
Well, with this next one,
it seems that he completely forgot about
that whole concept.
In the early 2000's, it was revealed that Aquaman
was responsible for sinking Atlantis.
Long story.
His punishment for literally the worst crime
ever committed against the Atlanteans
was to be removed from water
and left up to dry on the surface world.
He escaped, but was injured on the way out.
Losing blood fast and becoming incredibly dehydrated,
Aquaman stumbles around hoping to find water
of some kind that will replenish him.
Luckily, he finds a lake.
Unluckily, he collapses right at the shore,
unable to move any further.
At this moment, he was once again using
the S.T.A.R Labs harpoon arm
with the hook shot feature,
but it stopped working.
Frustrated that it broke the one time
that he really needed it to come through,
Aquaman uses his last bit of energy
to angrily throw the useless device into the lake,
when a mysterious hand pops out and catches it.
Magical maidens arise from the waters
and drag a defeated Aquaman in
so that the lake's healing properties can restore him.
The hand that caught the harpoon is revealed to be
none other than the Lady of the Lake,
the very same Lady of the Lake from Arthurian Legend,
which is quite fitting because Aquaman's name
is actually Arthur.
She bestows him with a gift of a magical water hand,
which was meant to be used more
defensively than offensively
thanks to it having similar healing properties
as the lake that revived him.
The harpoon symbol thing, at this point,
is just completely gone.
And that takes care of all the major prosthetics Aquaman
has gone through, but we still have a few more stories
to talk about.
There's a point in the comics where Aquaman
mutates into a magical being
known as the Dweller in the Depths.
It's super confusing,
so I'm just gonna skip over the how and why there.
All you really need to know is that he gets stabbed
to death, and remains dead in the comics
for a few years until the 2009
DC comic event Blackest Night.
In this story, many dead heroes and villains are resurrected
by the power of White Lantern light,
including our boy Aquaman,
who for some unexplained reason
now has both of his hands again.
No need for any magic water hand
or harpoon prosthetic anymore,
he's back to how he was initially.
However, in the follow up story, Brightest Day,
he gets his hand cut off once again,
but this time by his arch nemesis Black Manta.
This isn't really worth mentioning,
since he got his hand back just a few issues later
in a story that's very difficult to succinctly sum up,
but I'm gonna try anyway.
Basically, Aquaman was used as a guiding essence
for the element of water,
along with other heroes representing the elements
of earth, fire, and air.
They all were then absorbed by Swamp Thing,
who would battle an evil Swamp Thing
in a pretty cool fight.
And once it was all over,
the good side won, and Aquaman was released
from Swamp Thing, and once again had his hand.
Told ya that was complicated.
Either way, the two handed Aquaman
was back for good.
Even now, in the New 52, he's got both of his arms.
And because I know a lot of you would bring it up
in the comments if I didn't mention it here,
there is a slightly different story that's played out
in the Justice League cartoon that I like a lot.
Aquaman was betrayed by his brother Orm,
who wanted the throne for himself.
So Orm kidnapped Aquaman and his infant son,
chained them to a rock,
and left them to die as they
quickly raced towards scorching magma.
Aquaman frees one arm from his shackles,
but the other remains chained.
He tries to use his sharp belt buckle to break free,
but time is running out.
He knows the fastest way to escape
and save his child is to make the sacrifice
and cut off his own hand.
He later has that classic harpoon attached to his arm,
and goes after Orm for his revenge.
And there you have it,
the stories behind how Aquaman lost his hand,
as well as a brief history of the prosthetics
he put in its place.
I like seeing the gradual transition
from science-y hand to magic hand.
I think the magic suits his character a little bit better.
But what do you guys think?
Which one of Aquaman's fancy prosthetics
do you like the most?
Or do you prefer the classic two handed version
of the character best?
Would you like to see him lose a hand
in the New 52, or even in the movies?
Let's talk about it all in the comments.
If you wanna know the answers to more comic book FAQs
like this one, check out this video we did
about whether or not Wonder Woman can fly
because if she can, then why does she need
the invisible jet?
You can discover the answers to these
very important questions by clicking right here.
And if you want more of my face,
I was on The Show With Issues this week,
talking about Spider-Man,
and whether or not he actually has
serious brain damage.
It was a lot of fun to work on,
so go check it out by clicking right here.
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Once again, I'm Scott, and I'll see you right here
on Friday for another video.
See ya.