Hello guys thanks for reading this article and joining me when I dive into my own dream of my ideal DCCU. I previously posted five parts on this site,and you can read them here:
Part 1 Background and Wonder Woman
Part 2 Green Lantern
Part 3 the Flash
Part 4 Batman
Part 5 Justice League
I have just finished “Phase 1” of my dream DCCU, and this Aquaman movie, which I would describe below, is the first one in “Phase 2”. Now I would like to do something bold: I would make an Aquaman prequel, telling the tale of how he got his throne, got Poseidon’s trident, and became the barbaric king we saw in Justice League 1 the movie.
Now I know superhero prequels were done before, X-men Origins: Wolverine and X-men First Class are examples. I would try to differentiate this Aquaman prequel from the other superhero prequels by making this movie a story about how Aquaman got what he has. Obviously we all know Aquaman survives through this movie, how else would he be in the Justice League movie? Why would the general audience pay to see a movie they already know how it ends?
I have two selling points for this movie: Aquaman’s journey, and special effects. I would put Aquaman in trials and hardships so tough that he would be enticed to give up regularly; I would convince the audience that seeing Aquaman succeed in the end, something they know will happen, is rewarding; and I would utilize the surroundings of ocean to bring the “wow” factor. The technology to produce special effects of underwater movement and scenery are almost ripe, it would be perfected in the foreseeable future. James Cameron’s Avatar sequels which would take place under water are a testament to the maturity of such effects. The best case scenario would be WB releasing an Aquaman movie, with nice effects, before Avatar 2; second best would be getting James Cameron to ditch Avatar 2 and make Aquaman (which is unlikely); the worst case scenario would be Avatar 2 getting released before Aquaman, and Aquaman has it thunder stolen by Avatar 2 for the effects.
All right, enough BSing, let’s dive right into Aquaman’s first movie.
No pun intended.
One of the few things I know about Aquaman is that his origin was retconned several times; therefore I decide to make a bold move and change his origin in my movie. He is pure Atlantean, and it is his bloodline, his genes if you will, that gave him his powers, the powers to bend water and communicate with sea creatures. (If this change has adverse effects on the lore/ is equivalent of making Black Panther a white guy, such as change the character’s motivation or something serious, do please let me know, because I am not aware of the importance of his half-Atlantean half-human heritage.) The plot would be loosely based on Hamlet/ The Lion King and Thor. What I would show in this movie would be:
-How he got his throne (it would be a long journey)
-How he got his trident
-How he got his barbaric attitude
-How he mastered controlling water and sea creatures
We start off with Orin (Aquaman) and Orm (Ocean Master) being born (they are twins), and their father, the king of Atlantis is happy. We then see a few scenes of the two sons growing up, and we got the back-story of how Atlantis came to be in these scenes.
Atlantis was a city which was standing since the dawn of human civilization, and the centre of magic-using. Its prosperity relies on the flow of magic around. When the “surface-dwellers” begin to learn science and philosophy, they adapted a knowledge system of reason and logic, which contradicts with the basics of magic. Therefore, Atlantis lost its importance. Before long, Atlantis experiences disasters such as tsunamis and invasion because the flow of magic weakens, and because the outside world sees Atlantis as a place that is the anti-thesis of philosophy and science. Seeing that the trend of recession is irreversible, the king back in the days made a pact with Poseidon, the god of the seas, and sunk his land into the bottom of the sea. In return for Poseidon’s help, any magical energy Atlantis can afford to spare was instilled into a trident, which was given to Poseidon as a gift from Atlantis.
The problem is that as time went by, when Atlantis tried to expand its boundaries, the magical energy was not enough to sustain a larger city, and Poseidon was not willing to return some magical energy to Atlantis to facilitate the expansion of Atlantis. As a result, Atlantis stayed the same size for centuries, and as the population of Atlantis grew, overcrowding and other urban-planning related problems began to surface. The kings of Atlantis since the problem of magical energy shortage had made the solving of such problem their top priority. As those who had royal blood were the only ones who are able to breathe in water and venture out of Atlantis onto “the surface”, there was a time where a large number of royals were sent out of Atlantis so that they could do whatever they could to supplement Atlantis’ magical energy, be it finding magical objects or asking other magical users out of Atlantis (Homo Magi) to cast spells for Atlantis. That period ended when monsters under the sea attacked Atlantis, and due to most of the royals were away, a large portion of Atlantis was destroyed before the remaining royals defeated the invading monsters.
As a mixed blessing due to part of Atlantis being destroyed, the magical energy now was sufficient for the remaining part of Atlantis to use. Therefore, the king decreed that no more royals were allowed to journey out of Atlantis. The king thought that the magical energy left for Atlantis was more than enough for the time being, and it was unwise to send the royals away and left Atlantis defenceless. That decree stood for a few more centuries, and we come back to Orin and Orm learning their history lessons.
(I have yet to figure out how to integrate the back-story into the movie.)
After getting that out of the way, we can establish Orin loves his people the Atlanteans, and he hates seeing Atlantis inferior to its former glory; and Orm loves himself more than other things, in other words, he is selfish. Also, their father, the current king, decided that since they are twins, the one who have achieved more for Atlantis would get the throne. Orin starts helping the residents and researching ways on how to restore Atlantis to its former glory. But Orm sets up a trap that convinces everyone, Orin included, that Orin committed for some crime, something like in The Lion King, and Orin is banished from Atlantis. The banishment scene has to be sad and frustrating. Orin has to be sad because he thinks he committed a crime; the crowd has to be sad because their favourite prince has fallen from grace; the king, Orin’s father, has to be sad because he has to sentence his son to exile. Alternatively, the king originally had to execute Orin, but then, using whatever authority the king has, Orin is exiled instead.
Now, before we continue, let’s go over the list of things I want to show in this movie:
-How he got his throne (Obviously he would get it back from Orm in the end)
-How he got his trident
-How he got his barbaric attitude
-How he mastered controlling water and sea creatures
The later three would be accomplished in Orin’s journey.
As Orin has royal blood, he swims out of Atlantis and begin roving the seas. We see him initially trying to spend his days by guarding the seas near Atlantis and gaze at Atlantis. Then he is forced to leave Atlantis by guards working for Orm (though he thought those are the king’s guards). He tried getting odd jobs such as lifeguards in beaches where he is treated harshly because of his lack of identification (something like those in The Terminal) and lack of human interaction knowledge. Then, one fateful, he gets caught by someone and is taken to Poseidon’s palace. (Now let’s guess how he gets the trident.)
Accused of trespassing into Poseidon’s palace, Orin is taken to the court; Orin pleads not guilty in the court, and the act is seen as defiance by the judge, resulting in Orin’s imprisonment. During this time in prison, Orin gets himself involved in a lot of trouble because of his royal demeanour, and as time goes by, he develops a personality of using brute force and savagery to scare fellow prisoners, and hence he got the barbaric attitude here. [Check]
During his time in the prisons, he is often forced into doing labour, and at times he can see Poseidon and his fellow (and lesser) gods do god stuff (try and make it legit and not a plot device later), and Orin memorized their moves and he secretly analyses and practices what he sees. To his surprise, he began to develop a whole new set of powers, with the help of a fellow prisoner named Vulko. The set of powers is unique from what he saw from the magic users in Atlantis and from Poseidon and his gang. Atlantean magic users can change objects from one form to another, Poseidon can make water waves and other naturally-occurred weather-phenomenon, and command sea creatures to do his bidding; and Orin can control/ bend water and he can communicate with sea creatures. In other words, Orin developed a set of powers that is the amalgam of what the Atlantean magic users and what Poseidon can do. [Check]
During Orin’s stay in Poseidon’s prison, we see Orm gaining power in Atlantis, and he is getting out of hand. We see the king, Orin and Orm’s father being upset with his legacy: he lost a son and his other son is a douche. When the king considers getting someone else to rule Atlantis with his council, a mole working for Orm in the king’s guard tells that to Orm. Orm murders the king and the council not long after that (Gladiator/ Arthas from Warcarft style). He then proclaims himself king, and he sends out letters announcing his enthronement.
Orin’s abilities eventually is noticed by Poseidon, and when Orin finally reveal his identity as the prince of Atlantis, and not some ordinary trespasser, Poseidon is amused, and he produces a letter from Atlantis which states that Orin has no connections to Atlantis, and the news of Orm succeeding his father as king is also in it. Realizing that he was framed for the crime (because of some reason I have not come up with yet), Orin says he must return to Atlantis. Poseidon asks Orin why he thinks he has a chance of returning to Atlantis when he is imprisoned in Poseidon’s palace. Orin replies, saying he has proven that he has not trespassed, and he deserves to be freed. Poseidon remarks that Orin is not likely to be able to retake Atlantis with his abilities, spectacular the abilities may be. Orin, remembering something, challenges Poseidon to a duel. If he wins, he goes back to Atlantis and Poseidon forfeits his trident to Orin; if Poseidon wins, Orin remains in his prison and serves Poseidon till he dies. Poseidon’s men jeer at Orin for his ridiculous challenge, stating that Poseidon has nothing to gain in this challenge. Incredibly, Poseidon agrees. After the fight (make it glorious), Orin wins, and Poseidon hands him the trident, containing all the magical energy Orin wants. [Check]
As Orin leaves, Poseidon telepathically communicates with him. Poseidon tells Orin why he lets Orin take his trident. He received a message from his brother Zeus, saying that he had spotted a race of hostile aliens living in a far-off planet. That planet is so far away that the only way to go to the planet is by a transporter made on that planet. Zeus speculated that those aliens would be a match for the Greek gods. Poseidon decides to give Orin the trident because he believes humans with powers can be more useful and resilient than gods of the old, when those aliens do attack the Earth, just like the demi-god heroes in the past. (I am of course referring to Apokolips and Darkseid.)
Orin returns to Atlantis. He initially faces guards who try to arrest/ kill him, and he takes them down without harming them. Orm is surprised, and when Orin tells everyone that he is framed for the crime, Orm loses it. Orm drains all the remaining magical energy that sustains Atlantis, and proceeds to attack Orin. Horrified, Orin has to use the magical energy stored in the trident to sustain Atlantis while fighting the mad Orm. They fight for a few scenes. Then Orm, seeing that he is not winning even when Orin is not using his full strength, begins destroying Atlantis to distract Orin, make Orin spare more magical energy to protect Atlantis, so that Orm can land some lucky blows and defeat Orin.
Orin, on the other hand, is enraged both for the perils he faced for a cimre he did not commit, and for the destruction Orm makes during their duel. After growing fed up of Orm’s madness, Orin decides to unleash his full potential. Using his water-bending abilities to protect Atlantis, and ordering sea creatures to save any Atlanteans caught in the crossfire, Orin uses the trident to slay Orm. (The fight should be like the final fight in Man of Steel underwater, building up to how despicable Orm is, and finishes with Orin slaying Orm and everyone in the audience clapping.) Orin quickly uses the magical energy in his trident to restore Atlantis, and the citizens rejoice. Orin proclaims himself as the King of Atlantis AND the seven seas. [Check]
That’s how I imagine Aquaman’s prequel story should be. I know this is a little but choppy, and I changed several things in the comics. Please let me know what you think. Do you think this is good? Terrible? Generic?
Please stay tuned as I present to you the World’s Finest Movie, which would be released after Aquaman, and it directly follows Justice League, that is, in an alternate reality where my dream DCCU movies get made.