WB Failed Aquaman In 4 Different DCEU Releases & Set Him Up For Disaster

Jason Momoa’s Aquaman has a hard time being cool in Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, and the DCEU’s own film-making teams are partly to blame. Despite being a motorbike riding, whiskey and Guiness-guzzling, heavy metal superhero, Arthur Curry is largely upstaged by his brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) in the 2023 sequel, and Momoa’s performance edges on the goofy. Naturally, it doesn’t help that there are no less than 3 different pee jokes in just over 2 hours, and the punchline each time is that it goes on Aquaman’s face.

The de-cooling of Aquaman is something Jason Momoa himself actually warned about, and something that has always bubbled under the surface for the character. Family Guy famously had a gag at his expense, reducing his powers to an ocean-based limitation for the Justice League. Comedian Pete Holmes, whose hilarious Batman skits skewer the self-conscious grit of Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, also recently did a whole bit on Aquaman being fired because his powers sort of suck. It’s something that hangs around the DC icon like a bad smell, and unfortunately, the DCEU leaned way too hard into the meta-gags and hurt The Lost Kingdom‘s box office performance.

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4 Different DCEU Releases Insulted Aquaman

Aquaman Is A Joke In The DCEU… Literally

Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom‘s opening has to go out of its way to try and reclaim the character from the joke: a fourth-wall breaking monologue says, actually, talking to fish isn’t all he does. When a superhero has to do that so consciously, you have to question how we got to this position. Looking back at DC’s own releases, it’s painfully simple to see how it happened: the DCEU made Aquaman a joke, and then expected his cool factor to make those pot-shots redundant. The problem, of course, is they didn’t. At all.

Justice League‘s Aquaman introduction undermines him even as Ben Affleck’s Batman turns up to recruit him. The DCEU Batman bristles as the two macho egos clash and Aquaman slams him into a wall; infamously, he resorts to insulting the Atlantean: “I hear you can talk to fish”. The moment may have been brief, but even Aquaman actor Jason Momoa knew where it could end (as he told Entertainment Weekly in 2018):

“I’m like, ‘Don’t put this line in there, because that’s all people are going to say. Do you want me to make him cool or not?”

He was right, and WB’s creative teams didn’t listen. Peacemaker followed up Batman’s jab with an even lower blow. In James Gunn’s pilot episode, “A Whole New Whirled,” John Cena’s anti-hero mocks Aquaman, suggesting he doesn’t just talk to fish, but he also has sex with them. The post-credits scene doubles down on the same joke, involving Ezra Miller’s Flash. Shazam!‘s post-credits scene then had the titular hero mock the value of being able to talk to fish, and then questioning whether it was even cool:

In 2023, The Flash then added to the pile-on, this time avoiding the easiest joke and turning Aquaman into a bumbling, drunken fool for no apparent benefit in the misguided post-credits scene. It’s all terribly lazy, repeating the same joke and seemingly attempting to fulfill Momoa’s prophecy that Aquaman’s cool factor would be horribly undermined.

DCEU’s Aquaman Insults Set Up The Lost Kingdom’s Disaster

Jason Momoa Was Right…

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is the sequel to the 2018 film that sees Jason Momoa reprise his role as Arthur Curry (AKA Aquaman.) In the film, Aquaman is forced to forge a strained alliance with a new ally to protect his kingdom of Atlantis and the world from total destruction. 

Release Date

December 22, 2023

Director

James Wan

Cast

Jason Momoa , Amber Heard , Patrick Wilson , Dolph Lundgren , Yahya Abdul-Mateen II , Temuera Morrison

Rating

PG-13

Runtime

124 Minutes

Even without considering the harmful impact of the DCEU’s long-announced end on general interest in The Lost Kingdom, DC’s anti-mythologizing of Aquaman is a fascinating mistake. Like Momoa questioned around the time of Justice League‘s release, what exactly was taking aim at Aquaman’s powers hoping to achieve? Superhero movies should be about building up the mythology of the characters, particularly when there’s a shared universe to consider: to repeatedly insult one of the key players is baffling at best. The Justice League was only ever as cool as its individual members, and the self-sabotage here should be a case study for the future.

In short, even before Momoa’s first solo appearance in the DCEU, his credentials were being questioned. One pithy insult by a sardonic Bruce Wayne when a metaphorical knife to his throat could be forgiven, but to then add 3 other snide insults has to have had an impact. In combination with Momoa’s dude-bro performance as Arthur Curry, it was difficult to take him seriously. Add in the context of the DCEU ending, and the stakes of The Lost Kingdom were massively eroded even before anyone got any idea of its actual story. And it’s pretty clear where the blame lies.