Spoiler warning for Aquamen #5
After years of clashes with his father, Black Manta, DC’s newest Aquaman finally embraces his villainous legacy in Aquamen #5. Jackson Hyde only recently stepped into his role as Aquaman after spending time as Arthur Curry’s sidekick, and for much of that time he fought against the stigma of being Black Manta’s son. Now, Jackson is learning to use his anger and his relationship with his father to be an even stronger hero—and Aquaman—than he was before.
Jackson Hyde debuted as Aqualad in 2016, just as DC’s line-wide reboot Rebirth began. Though he’s spent time with both the Teen Titans and Young Justice, lately Jackson has been training and working closely with the Aqua-Family, especially Mera and the original Aquaman, Arthur Curry. Most recently, Jackson and his father, Black Manta, each starred in their own mini-series—Aquaman: The Becoming and Black Manta respectively. After the events of those series—including Jackson exploring his mother’s complicated history undersea, culminating in her current comatose state, spurring much of Jackson’s subsequent anger—Jackson graduated to the role of Aquaman. Now, in Aquamen, both Aquamen and Black Manta have teamed up to defeat a horde of Atlantean sleeper agents around the world.
In Aquamen #5 by Brandon Thomas, Chuck Brown, Sami Basri, Vicente Cifuentes, Adriano Lucas, that team-up and battle comes to a head as the entire Aqua-Family—now including their former nemesis, Black Manta—works together to combat the sleeper agents. Jackson, after months of anger stemming from his mother’s coma and his father’s villainous history, finally embraces Black Manta’s legacy. First, as he and Mera build a water-based broadcast tower, he admits to Mera that his anger (like his father’s before him) makes him stronger, and so better able to help people. Second, in a visually striking moment, Jackson uses Black Manta’s black trident to anchor a collapsing broadcast tower all by himself—but only after Black Manta encourages his son to “be Aquaman” and save everyone.
DC has been emphasizing its legacy characters across the line in recent years, especially as they continue to roll out the ongoing Dark Crisis event. Jackson Hyde as Aqualad and then Aquaman is chief among these legacies, but what makes him stand out from other legacy characters like Nightwing and Jon Kent is how he struggles with his parentage. Now, with Jackson embracing his father’s anger and his trident in order to use them for good, the new Aquaman proves that accepting one’s past and one’s darker emotions are essential to being a true hero. Meanwhile, DC seems to be taking Black Manta himself in a new direction. He doesn’t not appear to be the same true villain he once was, especially as he continues to encourage his son to be the best Aquaman possible. Black Manta might just be DC’s newest—and one of its most complex—anti-heroes.
Despite his parentage and his personal struggles with anger, Jackson Hyde is taking a stand as DC’s new Aquaman—even if he is also the son of Black Manta. Soon readers will see Jackson and the rest of the Aqua-Family struggle with Arthur Curry’s death, especially as Jackson continues to be featured as the new Aquaman in Dark Crisis. After this issue of Aquamen, though, fans must know that Jackson Hyde is worthy of the name Aquaman, and even changing what it means to be the son of Black Manta.
Check out Aquamen #5 available now from DC Comics!
