The DCEU gets deeper, both literally and figuratively, with the release of Aquaman, a two-hour-plus
plunge into the murky abyss that is undersea politics, reluctant beefcake princes, and
wet and wild superpowers.
What's left to take away, now that the Atlantean prince's journey of self-discovery and his
rise to power is over?
According to Aquaman lore, Atlantis fell into the ocean because Atlan, the king of Atlantis,
got too greedy with his power.
He places his powerful Trident into an unknown device, an explosion happens, and all of Atlantis
gets wrecked.
But what, exactly, could possibly cause a catastrophe that would destroy an entire,
ultra-advanced civilization?
We never find out.
Sure, it's probably all just magical mumbo jumbo, but as the most powerful ruler on the
planet, what promises were made to tempt Atlan towards even greater power?
While you don't really need to explain the mechanics of mystical powers in a fantasy
world, we're talking about the world's biggest magical accident here.
Exploding the known world warrants a little more explanation.
Some of the tridents possessed by Atlanteans have certain powers, although we see early
on that trident magic is poorly defined.
Sometimes, Atlanteans can even do all kinds of magic without swinging around pointy weapons.
Aquaman can communicate with fish, and Mera can control the flow of water, and both are
skills that aren't common to all Atlanteans.
So, the rules of wet magic are pretty loose.
So, what exactly can Atlan's Trident do?
"In this Trident resides the power of Atlantis."
We know that his trident is a legendary symbol of unity for all of the people of the Seven
Kingdoms, and that it somehow caused the fall of Atlantis.
But aside from granting Arthur Curry the power of spontaneously golden, scaly pecs, its powers
are undefined.
Maybe the Trident amplifies Aquaman's power over marine life...though he didn't really
seem to have all that much trouble with chatting up crabs before.
Has the power been inside Arthur Curry all along?
Did his heart grow three sizes that day?
We just don't know yet.
Much of DC's cinematic world depends on the fact that humans just aren't that observant.
Themyscira is hidden in the middle of the ocean by a magical veil that only a few people
have managed to see through, and Atlantis is well-hidden because about 80% of the Earth's
oceans remain unexplored.
But even within Atlantis is yet another hidden world that nobody seems to know about: the
unnamed, dinosaur-filled world of the Earth's core.
Readers of DC comics know that there's a canonical inner Earth called Skartaris that appears
in DC Comics' Warlord series, and that land is accessed via a hole in the North Pole.
That sword-and-sorcery world of Skartaris bears a striking resemblance to this inner-Earth.
But going even deeper into comic lore, within Skartaris is a city called Shamballah: an
ancient Atlantean city, not unlike where Atlan's corpse is found.
Warlord's small collection of dedicated fans need to know: did we just get Skartaris on
the big screen?
Perhaps one of Aquaman's biggest unanswered questions is…pretty much everything about
Black Manta.
David Kane seems to be a technological supergenius to rival the likes of Tony Stark.
He can steal experimental stealth submarines from the government, but he'd rather just
be a pirate instead of doing something financially fulfilling with his genius.
He's also in communication with Orm, though we're never told just exactly how Manta and
Orm made their love connection, despite Orm's distrust of surface dwellers.
Maybe they met on the Love Boat?
Manta's one and only goal is to kill Aquaman, which aligns with Orm's aims perfectly.
Manta not only gets a squad of fish-men to command, but his very own experimental Atlantean
tech.
While this underwater tech is the only way to really take down Aquaman, Manta wandering
around with this stuff on the surface seems like a loose end that Orm would never want
to leave dangling… and that's exactly what happens.
If there was some kind of failsafe against humans using Atlantean tech against Atlantis,
we never find out what it was.
Atlantis, Xebel, The Trench, The Desert, the Fisherman, and the Brine Kingdom make up most
of the tribes of Atlantis… but what's the seventh kingdom?
Early posters for Justice League featuring Aquaman bore the slogan 'Unite the Seven',
but once Justice League actually came out, there were only six heroes.
Aquaman revealed only six of the seven kingdoms that broke off from ancient Atlantis by name,
so there's a missing kingdom somewhere.
It's possible that this missing kingdom is the Earth's core, also known as the Hidden
Sea.
But it's also possible that perhaps the missing kingdom is, in fact, the surface world, given
that Aquaman is destined to 'Unite the Seven,' and both he and Atlan's Trident are powerful
symbols of this unity.
"You could unite our worlds one day."
It's also possible that DC is saving a seventh kingdom for a sequel.
Bizarro World, anyone?
"Not even close."