Prior to the release of James Wan’s Aquaman, the title hero had become something of a running joke among the comic book community, with his abilities and powers the subject of widespread ridicule and mockery. Of course, that all changed in a heartbeat when the underwater epic went on to become the highest-grossing DC Comics adaptation of all-time.
Jason Momoa’s feature-length first outing as Arthur Curry made more money than any movie to feature Batman, Superman, the Joker, Wonder Woman, or any other of the sprawling universe’s heaviest hitters, and yet there’s a lot of people out there who are still refusing to put Aquaman on the same pedestal as the likes of the Trinity and the Clown Prince of Crime.
The evidence is right there in cold, hard, cash, but a recent tweet from journalist Erik Davis referring to the Dark Knight, the Man of Steel, Diana Prince, and the King of Atlantis as the franchise’s “core four” has stirred up a surprising amount of contentiousness..
While it may be fair to admit that Aquaman hasn’t had the same impact on pop culture as a whole as the other three over the decades, it’s a questionable call to fly in the face of logic and facts by claiming that a superhero who headlined a $1.148 billion global phenomenon shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman.
Let’s not forget that Aquaman remains the one and only entry in DCEU canon to cross the ten-figure threshold, something the aforementioned trio have only managed to accomplish twice in all of their big budget outings combined.