Aquaman Shrine Interview with Kurt Busiek - 2010

Now that we've concluded our look at the first ten issues of Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, I thought why not talk to the man behind it, writer Kurt Busiek?

Busiek's comic book credits are numerous: Marvels, Astro City, as well as runs on The Avengers, Spider-Man, Superman, Conan, JLA, and many, many more. He was generous enough to take time out of his busy schedule to talk to the Shrine about his time writing Aquaman--both of them:

Aquaman Shrine: How did the creation of Sword of Atlantis come about? Did you have this concept in your mind before DC wanted to do an Aquaman reboot?

Kurt Busiek: I really didn't, not all together. When Dan Didio asked me to take on Aquaman, he knew they needed something that was a dramatic change, because the series had already been canceled and he was looking for a way to reverse that. A number of more traditional approaches had been pitched, and they'd all been rejected by the people upstairs.

He had an idea for the series that I thought about, but didn't think I wanted to write, so we just talked shooting the breeze, talking about Aquaman, what had worked, what hadn't, over the years. The two things I mentioned that Dan responded most strongly to were, first, the idea that the undersea setting could be a fantasy setting as rich and strange (stranger!) as anything in Tolkien or Robert E. Howard, full of exotic kingdoms and gorgeous visuals, even more of a fantasy approach than what we'd seen in the comics before. And the other idea was that I thought Aquaman had gotten less and less human over the years, with fewer ties to the surface world--he'd started out as a human being with science-created powers, then was retconned into a half-human/half-Atlantean, then retconned into a full Atlantean, with no human side left at all. And I thought that might have distanced the character, made him harder for readers to connect to.

Dan suggested I do something with both ideas, so I combined them, reworking the undersea world into a more sprawling fantasy setting, and essentially starting over with a new Aquaman built on his original origin. And I knew I had the real Aquaman in the cast, and it'd be a major storyline element to restore him, and King Shark around to add to the mix.

A secret behind the series revealed: I forget the details of Dan's idea, but it involved Aquaman, Arion and some monster character I can't recall, as a kind of sly nod to Marvel's Defenders--a sea prince, a sorcerer and a monster. So I kept that bit, using Arthur Joseph as my "sea prince," the Dweller as my sorcerer and King Shark as the monster. I even had Arthur Joseph meet a young surfer named "Silver" a few issues in. I'm pleased to say nobody caught it.

We were doing something so different from a traditional super-team set-up that it really wasn't anything more that a minor nod, but it was fun.

AMS: How familiar were you with Aquaman beforehand? Had you been much of a fan of the character?

KB: Sure. I'd started reading comics regularly in 1974, and I picked up on Aquaman a couple years or so after that, right around the end of his second Adventure run and his return to his own series, though that didn't last long. So I was paying attention from then on, and since I became a huge Jim Aparo and Nick Cardy fan, I went back a ways in Aqua-history, too.

I have to say, for all that I like the Silver Age Aquaman, and have liked what others have done with him, like Peter David's run, I think my favorite period for Aquaman is the Jurgens/Epting run. If that hadn't come at the tail end of the series when sales were already low, but had been done as the launch of a new series after waiting a bit, I think that'd have been a hit. Dan had a really majestic take on Aquaman, and gorgeous art from Steve.

AMS: I agree with you on that--I think that's a very underrated take on the character. What was your collaboration with Butch Guice like? He did some amazing work on the series.

KB: Speaking of gorgeous art! Yeah, he sure did. Butch is a fan of classic adventure strips like Terry and the Pirates, and he really likes drawing natural settings over cities and buildings, so a looser, more adventure-oriented approach, and all that seafloor and ocean waves and such was just perfect for him. And he did a sensational job.

We probably talked the most when we were designing he characters and talking through what the series approach would be like. After that, I wrote the scripts and he'd draw them and all I could do was be amazed.

AMS: Arthur Joseph's origin is reminiscent of the one used for the Golden Age Aquaman--a son developing powers through experiments by his father. Was this at all intentional?

KB: Oh, sure. It was very deliberate, going back to the very beginning but putting a modern spin on it. It was a way of getting back to an Aquaman with more ties to the surface world, connections we could use as the series went on--even ties back to that lighthouse in Maine. We never did get to use them much, but that's what it was for.

AMS: Sword of Atlantis was much more a fantasy/sword-and-sorcery book than a superhero one. Was it your intention to keep the book on this track, or would it have become a little more superhero-y as Arthur Joseph fully accepted the heroic Aquaman mantle?

KB: I wanted to keep it mixed together--to present the undersea civilization as always caught between threats from the abysses, where dark and dangerous fantasy threats oozed up, and threats from the surface, where corporate interests wanted to get their hooks into this world that was largely unseen by the rest of the surface. That'd be more of a source of superheroic stuff, while the abyss threats would have been more fantasy.

AMS: Were there any particular fantasy books or comics that were influences on Sword of Atlantis?

KB: Probably Arthurian legend and the work of David Gemmell, more than anything else. Tolkien and Howard were the ones most often mentioned by the fans, but I wasn't really thinking about those.

AMS: Sword of Atlantis #43 opens with Arthur Joseph talking about how unimpressed he was with the original Aquaman growing up, sounding a lot like many comic book fans ("He talks to fish!", etc.). Was this your attempt at taking the "Aquaman is lame" meme head on?

KB: A little bit, in a humorous way. I was preparing what we'd get into later, which was that Arthur Joseph couldn't talk to fish, but he could sense their emotions, and see through their eyes, and he'd learn how cool that way. Plus, it was a bit of characterization--for a boy doomed to spend most of his life underwater, Aquaman isn't the hero he'd latch onto, because he doesn't think of breathing underwater as cool. It was the flying heroes, the ones who could go where he couldn't, that would make him dream of being like them.

So it was characterization, it was a bit of foreshadowing, and it was a gag.

AMS: Sword of Atlantis #s 46 and 47 feature a flashback tale starring the original Aquaman and Mera. (In terms of the context, it reminds me a bit of the story you wrote for Justice League of America #240, which was a "classic" JLA tale not too long after the debut of the new Detroit-based iteration of the team.) Do you plan this from the beginning, to feature the original Aquaman so prominently?

KB: When we started on the series, we didn't have any lead time, so we knew we'd need to get Butch some breathing space. So we planned for that two-issue story to happen right after the first arc, to help the schedule and to show readers more of the way we wanted to handle the fantasy setting. Plus, since we had Orin stuck as the Dweller, it was a chance to showcase him in his glory days, to show that we liked him and were happy to star him in stories, even if he was in troubled shape in the present. And as usually, we were planting stuff--the mystery of the Thorny Crown, a history between Orin and King Shark, all stuff we could use later.

As it turned out, Butch left the book, so a schedule-saver wasn't strictly necessary, but we didn't know that when we started.

AMS: You used a couple of many of the original Aquaman's supporting characters and villains--Mera, Vulko, Ocean Master, the Fisherman, etc. Did you plan to keep these characters around but with Arthur Joseph in the center, or did you think you'd eventually phase them out?

KB: Mera and Vulko would have been important recurring characters, at least--I didn't want to get rid of anyone, but to built a big sprawling cast of characters who could come in and out of the series as needed. The long-term plan would have wound up with Orin and Mera on the throne of a restored Atlantis, with Arthur Joseph as the young adventurer with ties to Atlantis but also ties to other places and characters, and both Orin and Arthur Joseph would be the lead, depending on the story.

Ocean Master would be a recurring master villain, with ties to surface interests that wanted to exploit the undersea civilizations, and I wanted to do a lot more with the Fisherman, after having given him that new, much creepier origin. He was tied in with Lovecraftian "fishers from outside," and exploring them through him would have been fun.

Plus, we'd have seen a lot more of Windward Home, characters from Sub Diego, and lots more.

AMS: Why did you end up leaving the book after issue #49?

KB: I'd pitched the series that would become Trinity, and DC wanted me working on that. I couldn't do that, Superman and Aquaman all at once, so something had to go. Had Butch stayed on Aquaman, I might have stayed too, but with no regular art team, sticking with Superman felt more urgent. And then, of course, the minute I was gone from Aquaman and Tad was installed, Countdown got approved and Trinity got delayed a year. And when I did get started on it, it was so much work that I couldn't stay on Superman either, so there you go.

I'd love to have had a long run on Sword of Atlantis, but it just didn't break that way. And I still want to do something with a lot of the ideas I had for the series, but things got changed so much after I left, I'll probably do it outside the DCU somewhere, with a new character.

AMS: The original Aquaman is back in current DCU continuity, but Arthur Joseph is still out there, somewhere. Would you like to see him come back in some form? Surely, the DC Universe is big enough for two Aquamen!

KB: I'd give him a new codename, at this point, but sure, I'd like to see him back. I love the costume we designed for him, so if he stuck to that (maybe with new colors, to give Orin clear ownership of the orange and green), I'd think he could be a useful and interesting character.


A painful, if familiar, pattern with Aquaman is one of unfulfilled promise. Even when blessed with a top-flight writer full of ideas and an equally top-flight artist (as Aquaman was on Sword of Atlantis), Aquaman--whoever wears the mantle--never seems to quite get the chance to show what he can do.

Like I said when I first started the Sword of Atlantis recaps, it took me a little while to warm up to the whole concept of a new Aquaman, but eventually I got on board and came to find I enjoyed the series quite a bit.

I really appreciate Kurt Busiek taking the time to talk to the Shrine about his days writing Aquaman. Thanks Kurt!

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #49 - April 2007

Sword of Atlantis Friday "Dreams of the Fisherman" by Kurt Buisek, Mike Manley, and Ricardo Villagran.

This final issue of Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis written by Kurt Busiek opens with some disturbing, dream-like imagery:

As Arthur is being pulled into the Shadowed Gates by the mysterious creature, he hears some messages in his head. He sees where they are coming from: the villain we know as The Fisherman, about to deliver a knockout blow.

We then are back inside the head of The Fisherman, seeing slices of his existence, which seem to come from more than one person.

Arthur wakes up, trapped in the same dank cavern as the Dweller, King Shark, and members of the Sharaia. The Fisherman returns, demanding to know if Arthur has what he's looking for.

Arthur, not knowing what The Fisherman is talking about, is dismissive: "Oh, great. More leftovers from the first guy." The Fisherman for his part isn't kidding around, belting Arthur when he won't give The Fisherman the answer he wants.

We then go back inside The Fisherman's head, and we see that his helmet is some sort of sentient being, hopping from person to person and taking control. We see flashbacks to when The Fisherman was under the thrall of Kobra, and took on the original Aquaman:

As The Fisherman wanders off, doing some grisly work, Arthur breaks free of his chains, and helps free his fellow prisoners:

Arthur finds The Fisherman, and they engage in a swordfight--at first. The creature that's been grabbing all the Sharaia springs forth from The Fisherman's back, and tries to grab Arthur.

He cuts himself free, and The Fisherman senses that its Arthur who possesses what the voices in his head tell him they need. But the man whose body the helmet has taken over resurfaces for a moment, recalling his young daughter. The mental confusion is tremendous, and the helmet forces its host to make one more strike against Arthur:

...to be continued?


A creepily-unresolved ending to this story, with The Fisherman's helmet creature thingy still out there, looking for another host...

I enjoyed Busiek's updated take on a generally silly character, even if it is a little on the grisly side (although thankfully you don't see all that much gore). The idea of the silly helmet being this malevolent force is cool, and gives the character a little more dramatic heft.

I also liked Manley and Villagran's visual reference to Jim Aparo's cover to Aquaman (Vol.1) #58, featuring The Fisherman. As a reader, if you don't know that original story, it still works as a way of showing these two have battled before. If you do, its a nice nod to a memorable chapter in the original Aquaman's history.

As we all know, this was Kurt Busiek's last issue on the book. As I've said for the last several Fridays, this series didn't really click with me until a ways in. And even though I never fully accepted the idea of a new Aquaman, reading these issues over again makes me realize there was a lot more potential here than I first thought.

I'm happy to announce that we'll get to hear from the man himself on Monday, as the Shrine presents a brand-new interview with the first writer of Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, Kurt Busiek!

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #48 - March 2007

Sword of Atlantis Friday "Here Be Monsters" by Kurt Buisek and Ricardo Villagran.

This issue opens a year in the past, with a familiar...er, face:

The Dweller shows Arthur a map of the seas, to give him an idea of where they've been, and where they're going. The Dweller tells him that they will follow the sea's currents, looking to help those who need it.

They eventually find their way to a small village, and meet some of its citizens, creatures named the Sharaia. They are unsure of this young man who calls himself Aquaman ("A new Aquaman? I do not like the sound of that"), but the Dweller reassures them.

The Sharaia tell them what is plaguing them--a monster of no fixed form or shape, but who comes and takes anyone it can find--young, old, men, women. They know where it comes from, and they take our heroes there:

That night, back in the village, one of the Sharaia talks to Arthur privately, asking him to please help find her mother and brother, who were both taken by the creature. Arthur promises to do his best.

On the trip back to the monster's lair, Arthur seems troubled, and the Dweller asks him why. Arthur reveals this situation reminds him of when he was a child, and he promised a young girl that he would rescue her father, trapped in a bathysphere after a big storm.

But when Arthur made it to the bathysphere, he found the young girl's father dead, crushed when the hull buckled. Feeling awful for promising something he couldn't deliver, he never forgot that moment.

As Arthur and the Dweller talk, they don't notice a creature reach out and snatch King Shark. They arrive at the chasm where they believe the creature is:

...to be concluded!


After tangling with Ocean Master, Aquaman fans would have every right to expect Black Manta would be the next Classic Aquaman villain to show up, but Busiek throws us a (slight) curveball by making it the Fisherman--and a seemingly tougher version, at that.

When I said last issue was Butch Guice's last on the book, that wasn't quite true--he did this issue's excellent cover, as he would for the next one.

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #47 - Jan. 2007

Sword of Atlantis Friday "Coral Song" by Kurt Buisek, Phil Winslade, Karl Kesel, and Butch Guice.

Part Two of the "Crown of Thorns" flashback story, Aquaman is hot on the trail of King Shark, who he believes might be involved in a plot against an ancient holy order known as the Crown of Thorns:

Reef's End emissary Jesset reveals that King Shark has returned, captured Vulko, and taken off.

Aquaman demands the owner of the Dragon's Den, Ptero, come with him. Ptero agrees, but does so to reclaim his "property"--in this case, the girl known as Nenomi--rather than to follow his king.

In a abandoned ship, King Shark is questioning both Nenomi and Vulko. Turns out that it is a plot--King Shark's father commanded him to kill six of the priests to bring about the prophecy.

Shortly thereafter, Aquaman sees who the thinks might be Nenomi, and follows her to the wrecked ship:

King Shark throws Aquaman into some coral, and when some of Aquaman's blood is spilled, it drives King Shark into a murderous frenzy. For Aquaman's part, he's finding it hard to concentrate, because of the powerful "reefsong" emanating from the magical coral. Ptero watches this from afar, refusing to help.

Just as King Shark is about to strike again, the reefsong gets into his head, too, and causes him immense pain. Aquaman uses that moment to free himself and deliver a knockout blow:

Later, we see Ptero telling his customers a story about he freed Nenomi and Vulko, and how Aquaman assisted him in defeating King Shark! What?

He goes back inside his bar, and Aquaman and Mera are there. Aquaman has allowed Ptero to claim to be a hero, in the hopes that having a moral example so close will help clean up Reef's End a bit. Also, Nenomi is no longer Ptero's property, something he agrees to. Members of the Thorny Crown also have arrived, ready to take King Shark with them.

Nenomi mentions that she did not lead Aquaman to King Shark's hideout, so who was it that Aquaman saw? Everyone else brushes it off, claiming the coral "plays tricks on a man."

But as Aquaman, Mera, and Vulko take off, we see a female-looking being, hidden among the coral. She folds her arms, and is slowly absorbed into the coral, until she disappears...

Meanwhile, back in the present:

Even though this issue's final panels lead directly into the next issue, this story is an ending, of a sort. It features Butch Guice's final work on the book, which is too bad--I thought he did superb work on Sword of Atlantis, and I hated to see him go.

That said, Phil Winslade did excellent work on these two issues--his Aquaman is heroic and tough, simultaneously regal and rough around the edges. His fight scene with King Shark is dynamically staged and beautifully rendered.

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #46 - Dec. 2006

Sword of Atlantis Friday "Crown of Thorns" by Kurt Buisek, Phil Winslade, Karl Kesel, and Butch Guice.

This issue opens with the Dweller watching as Arthur--now fully accepted his role as Aquaman--doing a little battle training with King Shark:

...yes, this issue (and the next) will be a bit of a change of pace. This is, as the splash page promises, "A tale of the classic Aquaman."

Aquaman, Mera, and Vulko are paying a royal visit to a faraway corner of the Atlantean kingdom, a trading post called Reef's End.

They are met by Jesset Clesion, Reef's End official emissary. Jesset is a little thrown by this unexpected visit, and Aquaman--after some niceties--gets down to business. He wants to discuss Reef's End state of security, since there are only a small band of Atlanteans there to keep order.

Jesset assures Aquaman everything is fine, but is forced to admit there's been four murders in Reef's End just this week, at the watering hole known as The Dragon's Den.

We see the owner of the place, a tough-looking customer named Ptero, assuring his customers that once the body is cleared away, the Den will reopen for business. Aquaman interrupts, asking to see the crime scene, and Ptero is sarcastic and insolent to his king.

Vulko examines the body--which is missing a head--and asks how this came to be. Ptero explains the man was cheating in a card game, and the biter has since gone upstairs to indulge himself:

Aquaman tackles King Shark, and their battle takes them outside. King Shark is one tough customer, absorbing many of Aquaman's punches. But, luckily for him, King Shark has also been drinking--just as he's about to pounce on Aquaman, he passes out. Aquaman comments, "That's the meanest drunk I've ever seen..."

He chains up King Shark, and is told by Jesset that Vulko needs to see him immediately. Turns out that the victim has a mark of a priest--he was a member of the Thorny Crown, a group that was thought to be long gone, at least officially.

There's talk of a prophecy about the Thorny Crown, about how its dissolution would bring about the birth of a being born of the coral--the exact kind of coral Reef's End is built on!

Aquaman wonders if the murder isn't part of a plot, but Ptero insists it was just a gambling dispute gone wrong. Jesset arrives, saying King Shark has awakened and freed himself:

Meanwhile, the woman King Shark was with, Nenomi, is visited by Vulko to find out if she knows anything relevant.

Nenomi applies her feminine charms to Vulko, who is a bit startled. But before he can compose himself, King Shark returns:

...to be continued!


This two-parter was probably my favorite of Busiek's Sword of Atlantis issues, and I'm sure a huge part of that has to do with it starring Classic Aquaman and Mera. But, on top of that, the story is really good, and Phil Winslade's art is superb. It feels like this is the kind of stuff that Aquaman was doing when he missed JLA meetings.

Structurally, though, it sort of works against the series as a whole--just as Arthur Joseph accepted the mantle of Aquaman, he's sidelined for two issues while Classic Aquaman takes center stage. It reminds me more than a bit of Justice League of America #240, which was a flashback story starring the original JLA, right as the JLA Detroit team was trying to get off the ground (ironically, that one issue was written by...Kurt Busiek!).

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #45 - Nov. 2006

Sword of Atlantis Friday "Watery Grave" by Kurt Buisek and Butch Guice.

Last issue ended with Ocean Master delivering what looks like a fatal blow to Arthur Joseph, as an all-out battle takes place around them:

Mera uses her hard-water powers to create a wedge which helps burst open one of Orm's army of robot attackers, but the effort nearly exhausts her.

King Shark hands the wounded Arthur off to the Dweller. The blood is the water is driving King Shark crazy, so he heads back into battle. Meanwhile, the Dweller uses his powers to help heal Arthur:

The Dweller's effort is successful, and he tells Arthur to wait and recuperate while he rejoins the fight. But of course Arthur doesn't listen--he finds Dane Dorrance of the Sea Devils and comes up with a plan.

Moments later, he has everyone follow him into a nearby chasm. Orm thinks this is will leave them trapped, and he's all too willing to follow and kill them there.

Orm's team seemingly has Arthur and the rest trapped, and is about to fire upon them. At that moment, Arthur radios Dane to set off a series of explosive charges--good plan, except Orm has gotten them from the now-unconscious Sea Devil!

But somehow the chasm walls fall anyway, trapping Orm's army and leaving only a few unarmed henchmen. Orm, knowing he's beaten, is carted off by his monstrous pet.

Later, Arthur asks how the walls collapsed if the explosives weren't set off. Dane says it was a school of whales that suddenly appearaed and battered the walls with incredible force. Dane assumed it was Arthur using Aquaman-like powers.

Arthur at first says he didn't do it, but he notices the amulet he wore that allowed him to speak undersea languages is gone. Yet, he stills feels its power, inside him.

Meanwhile, Mera and the Dweller share another private moment:

Mera takes off, just as King Shark arrives. He talks to the Dweller, who asks why King Shark chooses to stick around. We see what King Shark is thinking, as he flashes back to a vision he had of his father, who told him to stay close to the young hero--for now, at least, until his father will tell King Shark "to strike, and kill him without warning."

King Shark keeps all this to himself, of course. Arthur meets up with them both, having made a fateful decision:

Meanwhile, far away, we learn that Arthur's father is, in fact, alive, and a prisoner of something called Tri-Dent Industries!

...to be continued!


Nice to see, after several issues of denying his forced-upon heritage, Arthur Joseph accept his role and call himself Aquaman.

Sure, I still wish this was the original Aquaman, but Busiek teased this out long enough that when the moment it happens, it has real dramatic impact (ably assisted by Guice's art).

There are a couple of other nice, more subtle moments. After the Dweller heals Arthur, he calls him "Minnow." And when Dan Dorrance tells Mera about their plan, she doesn't just go along, at first referring to it as a "krill-brained scheme." Somehow I missed a lot of these little bits the first time around!