Paul Norris was alright but Mort Weisinger is all wet!

Chapter Fifteen: Marine Marvels

Place: Offices of DC Comics, New York City

Year: 1986

All the staff arrived the next morning and after a brief brunch continued their meeting. Jenette Kahn admitted that nobody had any major ideas for Flash and hoped that the next writer would be able to make things up as he went along. "So, any ideas for Aquaman?"

"If it aint broke don't fix it."

Peter David sighed at the words of the last man. "I believe what Neal Posner is trying to say is that we should continue with what we've been doing: build on existing stories instead of deconstructing them. We've been talking and I have a few ideas. By your permission my Kahn."

She raised an eyebrow. As long as it gets results. "Well, what do you have to say for Aquaman? If I like it, I'll give the go ahead."

"Right." David cleared his throat and scanned his mind. "Well… the whole of idea of Crisis was to clean house and take advantage of our 50th anniversary rejuvenate our heroes and universe for another fifty years. That includes Aquaman. If you look closely and compare him to other heroes, you'll see he is the reverse of other Silver Age revivals. Hawkman, for example, went from reincarnated Egyptian prince to an alien space cop. Aquaman, on the other hand goes from a young man endowed by his scientist dad with sci-fi super powers to being fathered by a lighthouse keeper on a mermaid. This has real potential and can take him past the Superfriends stereotype people have of him."

"And what's wrong with Superfriends?" E. Nelson Bridwell asked huffily.

On seeing the look on the old man's face Kahn stepped in. "Listen Bridwell, let's just agree to disagree for now. Continue David."

He looked across the conference table and said, "Sorry Mr. Bridwell I was just trying to say we need to improve the character and that people have… underestimated the cartoon's version of the him." After a nod and an apology accepted he continued. "We need people to take Aquaman more seriously and this is how we're going to do it. By your leave my Kahn."

"Oh but of course!"

"One of the earliest mentions of Atlantis occurs in Action Comics #17, in a 'Zatara the Magician' story. We actually got to see the city in the next issue. Until the Silver Age and even through it, writers saw no need for continuity between the different versions of the lost continent. I was doing research and I even saw old Mort the war—" He stopped when he saw the look on Schwartz' face. "…the editor tell off a fan who asked why was it Atlanteans in Superman were mermaids like Lori but Atlanteans in Aquaman stories were humanoid."

David pulled out and checked a paper from his folder. "It was the Adventure Comics #264 letter column and guess what Mort, Aquaman's own creator, essentially told the kid who wrote that letter? The kid's name was John Beach—and no, I didn't make that name up—and he told him screw you. Quote, 'we publish fiction and documented history,' end quote. Mort said each character had his own continuity but DC had no intertitle continuity in order for writers to have maximum freedom. While continuity should never get in the way of a good story… things have since moved on since Mort wrote that.

"My dream is a series called Atlantis Chronicles that would combine every, seemingly contradictory, story we've ever told about the lost continent into one narrative. It would tell of the fall of the lost continent, how it sunk beneath the waves, how its people learned to breath underwater, why Lori Lemaris and her fish tale Atlanteans are different from Aquaman's humanoid Atlanteans, and all that stuff"

Kahn raised an eyebrow. And I'm not the only one doing so, she thought after scanning the room. "That's very… ambitious David but listen... Aquaman's a b-list character and giving him a maxi series—because that's what this is going to be—that's not even about him is iffy. I didn't even give Superman a twelve parter for his 'how he grew up from Superboy to Superman' story."

"But Miss Kahn you just did! Remember you gave Maggin and crew the green light after hearing their pitch. You gave them their chance, now give me mine."

She patiently smiled. He had her there. "Alright Clubber Lang, what do you have for me?"

"Atlantis Chronicles will open in 1941 where we'll see Aquaman swimming about a sunken ruin. From what we pick up we'll see that he's not Arthur Curry, he's the Golden Age Aquaman who name is finally revealed to be Arthur Joseph Perkins son of oceanologist Phillip Perkins. Mort's origin stays; AJ Perkins' dad found an underwater city, assumed it was Atlantis, and then used his super science to give his son superpowers. AJ then used his power to become a superhero and he spent the 40s fighting Nazis, smugglers, and pirates. I've also talked to Roy Thomas about this and he says that he can even mix in Edgar Allen Poe's Gordon Pym and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea into AJ Perkins origin! The prologue ends when this Aquaman comes across an Atlantean history scroll and begins reading it.

"Atlantis was, of course, the first known civilization on Earth and in the beginning it was very different from its current descendant. Founded 1,000,000 years ago Atlantis referred both to the continent and to its vast empire, which spread across the Earth. They colonized the world and were living like gods whilst the rest of humanity was still living in caves and wearing animal skins; they were also the first to uncover magic.

"Most of that magic came from the Earth itself, which has inherent magical powers. The ancients built twelve major city-states over each confluence of ley lines to tap this power and each city-state was ruled by sorcerer-monarch. About 500,000 years ago the long-lived and peace loving Calculha, first and greatest of the wizards, was seduced by wicked Majistra of Mu, the only other civilization. They had two children together: Ahri'ahn (the elder) and Garn Daanuth. They divorced soon after the boys' births and raised them separately.

"By 50,000 BC, science dominated the twelve great cities and Atlantis remained a glorious civilization. At the same time, it was a shade of the wonder it had been before then and dark times were upon it. It was the time of the Ice Age and the Atlantean confederacy looked for other places still warm and green.

"Some explorers headed south and found a portal to an underground world. Earth was found to be hollow and it was a tropical paradise; there was only one thing preventing a mass migration of Atlanteans. The jungles of Skartaris, as they named the land, were warm enough but there were all those pesky dinosaurs. The king of that time sent colonists to establish a foothold and they succeeded but they eventually lost contact. I'll leave the rest of Skartaris' story in the capable hands of Mr. Grell."

Warlord's author nodded

"A couple of Muvians even left Earth in an ark-like ship. When they returned to reclaim the Earth in the 20th Century, they would clash with the original Justice League of America. It was in JL of A #88. Who knows maybe the reason that so many aliens look human was because Atlanteans flew off in their space ships to colonize other worlds!

"A side effect of these colonization efforts is that Atlantis, the cradle of all civilization, leaves its influence on the entire world. Over in Arion: Lord of Atlantis letter column, Paul Kupperberg or his editor said the same thing. In America, North Africa, Mexico, Europe, Scandanavia and India there are names for the fabled land—and they all beginning with the letters 'At-'. This all led to a widespread Atlantean influence but as time passed many of these city states and colonies lost all ties with mighty Atlantis. Some survived and some didn't; this means that every great white hunter whom we've had 'discover Atlantis' can honestly say he did."

"Wait a minute," interrupted Perez, "are you forgetting Venturia and Aurania?"

"What?"

"When I did research for Wonder Woman, I read one of her Golden Age stories was her fighting Queen Clea of Atlantis. Clea controlled only the city of Venturia and she wanted to retake the city state of Aurania."

"I could use that," responded David. "Thanks George! You know… I'll be using the gods. Can I count on your help when we get there?"

Perez smiled. "Sure Peter!"

After checking his notes, David said, "It's at this time that the quasi immortal Arion, becomes a great hero and champion of his people. He and his friends go on many sword and sorcery, high fantasy adventures across a prehistoric Ice age world meeting barbarian cavemen and civilizations future men would call lost in a Conan-the-Barbarian-esque romp through Middle Earth."

Kahn nodded. "You have my attention. Keep going!"

"Right boss." I got it. I got it! "Now we've discussed Arion. His story is still on so maybe he'll save the world maybe he won't. If he fails, we'll see that only a part of Atlantis was destroyed. Even if just an archipelago, Atlantis survived. The capital city of this new Atlantis was Poseidonis and its nearest neighbor was Tritonis. They grew and survived above water for over 30,000 years.

"It was about 10,000 BC that the last inundation came to pass. There had long been fears that one day Atlantis would fall beneath the waves. Scoffers said it would never happen. They were the first to die when it did. Before, I've been retelling other people's stories. From here, it's my game.

"This is the time when the Titans still ruled the world. The Atlanteans' old gods were no more and they looked to Chronos and his people to be their divine patrons. When King Orin took the throne, he even pledged his loyalty to the god Atlas and invited him to plant the Garden of the Hesperides on Atlantean soil. It's worth saying that however cruel they might have been to their children, the Olympian gods, the Titans actually did care about their mortal worshippers; they at least never treated mortals like play things. It wasn't a perfect life but it was a good one. Chronos led the mortals of the land that would one day become Italy into a Golden Age and Atlantis flourished under Atlas' protection.

"And it all went to Tartarus when Zeus emerged from hiding and raised up armies against the Titans and their followers. In these wars, science loving King Orin would use his laser cannons and robots against the Cyclopes and hundred handed giants Zeus sent against him. His brother, Shalako, on the other hand, was a religious zealot and called upon Hecate, Titan goddess of magic, to strike at the monsters. After this, Orin ordered the erection of a transparent dome over the capital city of Poseidonis for protection. It wasn't built a moment too soon because Zeus eventually decided that Atlantis had to be destroyed.

"Now, Atlas was general of Chronos forces so it was only natural that his people be struck down—though to be fair they were actively helping out Atlas out of gratitude for all his good deeds. If Zeus had any remorse over ordering the equivalent of a nuclear strike, he rationalized it on the idea that the ends justified the means. Besides, the Atlanteans were only human so who'd mourn them? Atlantis met its final fate when the last archipelago of a mighty continent was cast down to the bottom of the sea. The only reason it was spared complete destruction was thanks to Atlas and his grandfather, the sea god Oceanus, who was neutral in the struggle, using their combined power to reinforce the dome."

He smiled. "That is of course Mr. Myth gives the ok."

Perez laughed. "I'd be a fool not to!"

"Thanks George. Needless to say, Atlantean society was thrown into chaos. The dome, reinforced by their Titan gods, had saved the lives of the Poseidonians, but tensions continued to mount between Orin's Technocrats and Shalako's Shalakites. Orin held faith in the gods, not the Olympians of course, but knew that there had to be gods out there who would be their symbols, that would help them in time of need. Shalako went in a far different direction.

"With their oldest gods forgotten and the Titans they had loved—Atlas and Oceanus—gone, there was nothing left for Shalako to believe in. Oh there were the Olympians but he only spoke of them to blaspheme them. There wasn't even his beloved Hecate for she had betrayed the Titans to serve Zeus. Shalako instead turned to mysticism and magic. Perhaps he might accept Oceanus and Atlas if they are returned but barring that, he would not call on any god. Ever. With strong enough magic, men would become their own gods.

"He and his followers rejected Orin's rule and left to colonize the abandoned city of Tritonis. With their magic, he and his followers created a 'hard water' dome over the city and restored its glory. Shalako was made king of course and his first decree was on matters of faith. Tritonis was to possess a state religion of faithlessness. He knew the gods existed but would permit no worship of them in protest of their cruelties. With how Orin continued to supplicate the gods, any god, in hope of getting a deity's help, hostilities between Poseidonis and Tritonis began almost immediately.

"The adjustment to underwater live was not easy and Orin assumed that Atlantis was all that remained alive on Earth. His scientists soon invented a way to allow Atlanteans to breathe underwater and the good king offered it to his brother's people. By then Shalako had come to distrust science as it required you to accept scientific laws that were put there by whatever god created reality. Better magic which allows you to reject the reality the gods had made and lets you create your own. Shalako was, of course, outraged when his Tritonians ultimately accepted the serum and cursed them to lose their legs and grow fishtails. The Tritonians responded by lynching Shalako.

"As generations passed, the Atlanteans grew accustomed to their underwater lives. They flooded their city and began to spread out across the sea. Some underwater colonies were loyal to Poseidonis and some were loyal to Tritonis; the two city states both claim to be the one true Atlantis. It's worth saying that when I do write this the two cities won't call themselves Poseidonis and Tritonis until about 1,500 BC. They'll have called themselves something else but not those two names; I've only called them that for convenience. You see, by that time, Zeus had released some of the Titans and, borrowing a page from Mr. Myth if he allows it…" Perez nodded, "…the gods wanted insurance in case most of their other worshippers turned against them. With how isolated they are from outside influence, why not cultivate worship amongst the Atlanteans?

"And myths accuse mortals of hubris… Do you expect the Atlanteans to give their hearts to the gods who destroyed their world with not even with a 'we punished you because you deserved it' but a 'who cares about you?' They, however, decided to put the gods to the test by asking them for one simple thing: an apology. Zeus, of course, balked and refused to submit himself to mortal judgment and cursed the Atlantean royal family with sterility. With how the royal family had ruled in an unbroken line back to the very beginning of Atlantis tens of thousands of years ago and had been the only thing the Atlantean people had left to believe in, this is was doubly terrible. Most of the other gods followed Zeus lead and walked away. There is one exception though.

"Poseidon apologized. Even if they were serving his enemies, the Titans, the killing of so many innocent men, woman, and even children was… wrong. This was a surprise because as the god of seas and earthquake, he was the one that got the job of destroying Atlantis. He remembered when his son Polyphemus was crippled for life by Odysseus. Even if Athena's minion was justified in blinding the murderous cannibal, that cannibal, Poseidon said, was still his son. Thus, even if those who died in Atlantis were 'only' mortals, every one of them was someone's son or daughter. He swore on oath on the River Styx his sincerity. He said he was sorry.

"His family swore the same oath, both Amphritrite and their son Triton. Triton proved his sincerity beyond all measure when he sacrificed his godhood to undo curse of sterility that Zeus had placed on the Atlantean royal family. Both Poseidon and Amphrtite knew nothing of this and were as shocked as the mortals. What shocked them even more was when crying Atlanteans rushed towards the divine family to hug them tight. The queen of that time, tears running down her face shouted long live Poseidon. Those man-hating Ama-whatsits could keep Athena, Zeus and the rest of the rotten bunch; they were sticking to the sea god!

"As for the now mortal Triton, the Atlanteans made him king by acclimation and he took as bride the Atlantean queen whose sterility he had cured. The dynasty was thus ensured and from that day forwards, every king of the lost continent was dubbed 'Son of Poseidon.' As a token of his affection for his mortal descendants, Poseidon even gave them his trident as a symbol of both royal and divine power. They even renamed their two principal cities Poseidonis and Tritonis in the gods' honor."

Peres snickered. The fish tailed Tritonians named their city after Triton. Nice mythology gag David.

"This in fact was a time of a great religious revival among the Atlanteans. They made peace with the Olympians with their kings becoming the de facto high priests of their new religion. As they spread out across the continental shelves of every landmass in the world, Atlantean colonies embraced local sea gods as their patrons. This also lead to another thing as each group of Atlanteans was remade in the image of the local god—an inevitable result of the curse that Shalako had put on the mutation serum that gave them the power to breathe water. This will be the default explanation for any and all humanoid sea people we've seen through the years.

"It also led to a Balkanization in Atlantis. In modern times, Aquaman's government can only claim direct rulership of Poseidonis and, to a lesser degree Tritonis. That's nothing to sneeze at since Poseidonis is the Washington DC and Vatican of Atlantis while Tritonis is their New York. The relationship that the Atlantean city states have to the throne is the kind of relationship the Commonwealth countries have with Britain. Same language, same culture, same king but each one has a different government. They have varying degrees of autonomy and the smaller, weaker city states of course are more dependent on Poseidonis, by far the largest and most powerful of them all. Others are completely independent and they see the king as the guy that shows up every now and then to wave at the crowds.

"A good example is seen in 1,000 BC the people of Poseidonis and Tritonis jointly decide to launch a war of conquest against the surface world. A faction calling itself Idyllists object, and leave Poseidonis to form their own city. An explorer learns that life still exists above the waves and King Honsu declares a war of conquest against the untermensch. After all, aren't Atleanteans favored by the gods? Aren't the surface dwellers just animals squatting on lands rightfully belonging to their masters?

"The Atlantean invaders were the invading 'Sea Peoples' history records during the time of Pharaoh Ramses III. However, the water breathers couldn't survive the sun and deserts and the invasion stalled in Egypt. King Honsu ordered his troops to retreat, leaving his son Haumond behind. Haumond had been against the invasion from the start and had participated only out of loyalty to his father and the vain hope of turning his father's heart.

"The Atlanteans continued their conquest in Europe, enslaving the Minoans of Crete and establishing a base on Thera/Santorini. In Athens, Honsu challenged the Greeks to send their greatest warrior against his favored son Kraken. Kraken was defeated by the Athenian champion—who turned out to be Haumond—and their base of Thera was destroyed in a tremendous explosion. (You might remember how conspiracy theorists cite the Santorini eruptions and the subsequent collapse of the Minoan civilization as the source of the Atlantis myth.)

"Haumond returned to Egypt and became one of Pharaoh's courtiers and thus we set the stage for the old Egyptian who told Solon the Greek the story of Atlantis that was passed down to Plato who wrote one small portion of it in Criteus and Timeus.

"On the surface world, empires rise and fall, and the Christian era begins. In time, Atlantis and its people passed into surface world legend. This is, of course, the DC Universe so the belief in mermaids and undersea kingdoms is not dismissed out of hand. Your average sailor stands a good chance of seeing an Atlantean, humanoid or otherwise, at least one time in his life. Even if he doesn't, he'll know somebody who saw a sea monster or mermaid himself. Above all, every air breather knows that when he sails he is only a guest in Poseidon's domain and must pay his respects.

"That's true for Tom Curry who as a young sailor in the US Coast Guard paid mock obeisance to Poseidon when he and his fellow polliwogs crossed the equator for the first time. It's an old sailor's tradition; someone dresses up as Poseidon and orders all sorts of pranks pulled on the new guy and the new guy has to stand there and take it. The captain made a poor sea god—so to say—and nobody took the sailor he chose to play Amphritrite seriously. It was just a cheap joke and to a degree that the point but when Tom Curry kneeled in the sea god's name he fell unconscious and had visions. It would prepare for times to come.

"But I'm getting ahead of myself. Atlantis Chronicles ends in 1940 with Golden Age Aquaman closing the record book and swimming away. I think we can take a break and come back next time for the real Aquaman himself."

Author's Notes: You've probably noted that each title is some kind of reference to each character's history. Superman's chapters were "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" while Wonder Woman's chapters had lyrics from her song. I assure you that Marine Marvel was one of Aquaman's nicknames, albeit a nearly forgotten one today. I just though it would fit the chapter well. ;-)

Its also worth noting that I've begun a new story, Godzilla: The Monster Wars. Rather, I'm reposting albeit with Author's notes/commentary and new material. If you're interested in giant monsters, go on ahead and just go to my profile page!

But on to the letters shall we?

Lord Ultimas: Sorry but it'll be Aquaman next (as you can see from the above!). Your ideas for the Manhunter are nice though. As for Impulse... is it amusing good or amusing bad? -_-;

Wolvmbm: Thanks for your kind words and thanks for inspiring this chapter!