It's time to admit that Aquaman is DC's hottest superhero hunk

collage of Jackson Hyde and Arthur Curry

(Image credit: George Marston)

As unlikely every bit information technology may seem given his history every bit the butt of whole schools of jokes well-nig talk to fish, fans are thirsty for Aquaman - and I skilled parched.

image of Jason Momoa as Aquaman — (Image credit: DC)

Since Newsarama poor give voice of DC's impending Aquamen event (apt to be a team-up between classic Aquaman Arthur Curry and newly comate Aquaman Jackson Hyde), fan reaction has beyond question been excited - and not antimonopoly for the inside information of the story.

Partially of the playfulness of fandom for many folks is the stylized, idealised, and yes, sometimes even sexy nature of superheroes.

And judging by the attending some Aquamen get - and the flirty nature of many of the about enthusiastic reactions to news of their team-heavenward - it seems Aquaman is passing from dud to stud as a comical book sex symbolic representation for fans WHO appreciate not bad hair, swimmer's shoulders, and what the kids birdcall 'drip' (gold scale maille and undersea treasures count for that, just?).

But Aquaman's big secret is that he's just about always been the Justice League's resident himbo, the squad's unassailable, silent, beefcake badass - with a little to a fault such inherent goofiness to match the report of a stoic superhero like Batman.

Aquaman is swimming in oomp

In a way, the mind of Aquaman as a total lump is baked directly into his character - it's nobelium conjunction the original Aquaman is a blonde, blue-eyed, babe with broad shoulders and perfect hair.

At the time of Aquaman's creation in 1941 (which DC is celebrating this twelvemonth, partially through the announcement of Aquamen), some of the most popular athletes, both in terms of physical public presentation and wind up appeal, were Athletic competition swimming champions - several of whom transitioned their good looks and charisma from endorsement deals to movie stardom following their Olympic glory.

Johnny Weissmuller, the record-breaking Olympic multi-gold medalist who set the standard for competitive male swim in the 20th century, is the most well-known example of a natator-turned-celebrity, atomic number 3 the star of over a dozen film adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan the Aper-Human fictitious character.

image of Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon — (Image credit entry: Universal Pictures)

Only it's one of Weissmuller's contemporaries, Dude Crabbe, that may take in had the most impact connected Aquaman's portrayal. Crabbe, though not as monocled Eastern Samoa his boyfriend Olympian medalist Weissmuller, had a many versatile screen career later on his competitive days. After opening out in his have version of Tarzan, Crabbe went on to portray sci-fi heroes Flash Gordon and Buck Carl Rogers in their respective movie serials.

(Weissmuller and Crabbe even starred together in few movies - that's how proud their act upon was).

Though it's ne'er been expressed outright, Crabbe was almost certainly an influence on the creation of Aquaman, who came to the page just A Crabbe's star was rising, and he was becoming one of the premiere Hollywood hunks working in genre films at the sentence.

With his dead coiffed blonde hair, muscular natator's physique, and especially in more or less of his more outlandish Flash Gordon costumes, Crabbe is practically a spitting image for the Blest Age Aquaman, to the point where artist Craig Hamilton used Crabbe's likeness as the inspiration for his portrayal of Aquaman in the lineament's redefining 1986 limited series.

Aquaman is a savage overseas king

After that limited serial, Aquaman's early '90s portrayal took things in a different direction for the subaquatic uber-lump. Writer Peter St. David and artist Jim Calafiore redefined Aquaman both in his flavour and his attitude, giving him a beard, sesquipedalian, barbaric hair, and a filch hand, while also replacing his classic garish scale maille with sleeker, many gladiatorial armor that showed off a lot more skin (including his ocean-forged washboard abs).

This more savage, almost barbaric look for Aquaman is the costume that most directly inspires Jason Momoa's portraying of the character in his have film franchise - though information technology's invulnerable to say the fact that Momoa's been rocking a version of Arthur Dress's ruggedly handsome style for some time is a strong indicator of why the actor was matched with the character in the beginning.

And of course some Momoa and Aquaman himself are what Twitter loves to call 'Wife Guys,' meaning they'rhenium both in dedicated relationships with loving spouses (comrade thespian Lisa Bonet, in Momoa's case, and fellow hero Mera, for Aquaman) WHO they support and stand-by - extremely attractive qualities for monogamousness-minded fans.

Queerly enough, Momoa - whose own indisputable hunkiness is without doubt a Major factor in bringing Aquaman into the Black Maria and fantasies of fans across the seven seas - has his own history American Samoa a swimmer, sort of.

Momoa got his outsize break as an worker starring American Samoa the maverick lifeguard Jason Ioane in Baywatch Hawai'i (the vamp of the mega-popular show that notoriously jumped the shark) well earlier he was sporting his burly beard and weeklong, dreamy locks - so in a way of life, the tradition of Aquaman resembling the hottest, hunkiest celebrities and athletes of his earned run average has continued in real time into the modern day.

Aquamontero

And of course in that respect's Arthur Curry's counterpart, the newly christened Aquaman (and former Aqualad) Andrew Jackson Hyde, whose own style couldn't comprise more of a dramatic going away from the original Aquaman's Screenland-heteronormative handsomeness.

Originally introduced in the animated Young Judge show before coming into court shortly thereafter in Direct current comics, Jackson Hyde (Atlantean name Kaldur'ahm) is overmuch more reflective of a modern vision of masculine hotness than the classic portrayal of Arthur Groom.

Though he's been roughly in the pop music acculturation consciousness much thirster, it's hard non to comparability Jackson Hyde's current look to hip hops superstar Lil Nas X, whose unapologetically queer and outrageously outlandish fashion makes him look something like a superhero himself, and have already found their room into the visual lexicon of else pop culture - including recent Apex Legends video secret plan fictitious character Seer, who is practically Lil Nas X's doppelganger.

still from Lil Nas X 'Sun Goes Down' music video — (Image credit: Psycho Films)

Once again, we're non claiming a direct correlation with the fresh upgraded Aquaman - aft all, Hyde's been rocking his bleach light-haired hair for longer than Lil Nas X has been charting.

But much like with Baby buster Crabbe, whose soma and sweptwing back down haircut were dead ringers for the original Aquaman, Hyde's latest look resembles the style of the young, fashionable, fans who clamor for more of his adventures in a room that shows artist Diego Orlotegui of Hyde's current form of address Aquaman: The Becoming has his finger on the pop culture heartbeat.

As you can see, it's more than a little ironic that Aquaman has ofttimes been seen as a bit of a jest. Maybe we can blame his off-kelter 'fish talking' powers, Oregon his colorfully clashing orange and green costume - simply we in spades give the axe't place the onus of Aquaman's unsteady popularity on his hunkiness, as that's been cooked into World Health Organization he is from the word go.

A imperial load-bearing, a badass attitude, and an almost effortless take down of hotness are just as much a part of who Aquaman is as his abilities to put across with sea lifespan and breathe subaqueous.

And today that he's moving foster and further away from his stereotypical Super Friends portrayal as the hero who's just a cut supra mascot characters like Wendy, Marvin, and Inquire Dog thanks to his outside blockbuster celluloid enfranchisement and the combination of mythology and fantasy politics that has defined his recent comic book adventures, the world is finally waking aweigh to the fact that Aquaman - in fact, the Aquamen, both Arthur Curry and Jackson Hyde - might just be the hunkiest heroes in the entire DC Universe.

If you're in the mood for a carload of historical hotness, tick off unstylish the best Aquaman stories of all time!

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general amusing book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comedian conventions much as Comic-Bunko International: San Diego, Empire State Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the creative person of many an weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)