What's This? Aquaman's home town.
The facts: The sunken city of Atlantis was a genre trope before there WERE comics, but IN comics, both Marvel and DC have had major heroes spawned out of Atlantis. DC even had two versions, as it was clear the mermaids of Mort Weisinger's Superman comics could only be distant cousins of the definitely legged Aquaman (and thus the two cities in the entry). Its first DC appearance, if you must know, what 1939's Action Comics #18, which had nothing to do either with Arthur nor Lori Lemaris. By the time Who's Who was published, some of its history had been written thanks to Arion Lord of Atlantis (50,000 years in the past), but a lot of the details of the modern day culture would be fleshed out after this, most notably by Peter David in both his Aquaman series (which still owed something to various post-Crisis mini-series and series that came before) and in Atlantis Chronicles.
How you could have heard of it: It was one of the eye-popping elements of the Aquaman movie, but really, the benefits of a classical education should have clued you in.
Example story: Atlantis Chronicles #2 (April 1990) "The Vanished Sun" by Peter David and Estaban Maroto
Each chapter of this 7-part mini-series had 40+ pages of story, with beautiful fantasy art and perhaps surprising to Aquaman fans of the time, some measure of nudity. Early issues hid nipples the usual way (with convenient obstacles in front of them), but by the last issue, it was no holds barred, ass shots, nipples, and even an acrobatic underwater sex scene. I picked issue 2, which is still reasonably demure, for what I consider some very important events and evocations for the modern Atlantis that will be.
Issue 2 begins a year after Atlantis has sunk under the waves, protected by a dome that religious zealots say was the whole reason for the flood - y'all angered the Sky Goddess with your scientific hubris (man, this could almost have been written today). King Orin (a name that will live on through Atleatean history) is struggling with a population that's going stir crazy living in a claustrophic bubble where day and night are artificially created. And eventually, the powder keg blows and there's riots in the streets. So here's the plan, citizens, we'll send half a dozen submarines to the surface to see if there's still a world out there and if it's worth escaping the sunken city. But counter-plan, says Orin blond brother Shalako, me and my followers are gonna take the tunnels to Tritonis, which also sank (on the same massive "island") and see if we can't make a go of it there! To avoid a civil war, Orin agrees and lets Shalako and his "believers" go. Shalako meditates every night during the journey, and when the not-exactly-solid tunnels start to flood, his gods give him the power to control water and keep his people sage inside an air bubble. But can that be sustained on an entire city when they get to Tritonis? Only if they make a human sacrifice. So Shalako, your wife...?
What I find especially interesting is the color design by Eric Kachelhofer, as these people are meant to be Aquaman's ancestors. One in green, the other in orange, Aquaman's colors. And yes, they already have a son who can carry on the line, the equally blond Dardanus, and he saw the whole thing. But you can't argue with results, I guess, and a fearsome dome of solid water envelops Tritonis.
Three years pass, and back in Poseidonis, primeval sharks and such are constantly battering at the dome because they're attracted to the light and there are losses trying to fend them off. Orin's been working on something, however...
Seadogs! No, but seriously, what if they developed a serum to give themselves water-breathing and pressure-surviving ability? It's crazy enough to work. And if Salty 1.0 can do it, so can a human being. Orin makes himself the first test subject and walks right into the watery membrane that acts as an airlock, to his subjects' shock and surprise. But perhaps no surprise, given where this is going, it WORKS!
Cue Rocky montage with Atlanteans cuing up to get their shots and lifting big sea shells to build up the strength to swim under extreme ocean pressures. As the Chronicler writes: "Never in my recollection had an entire nation made a unanimous decision to get in shape." That done, Orin goes out to Tritonis to offer his brother and his people the same opportunity. Righteous dude! But Shalako is like nope! Getcher dirty science away from here, we don't need it. The people don't agree though! Freedom at last! So he says fine, do what you want, but he goes off to pray to the Elder Gods again, this time to curse the Tritonians who have spurned him. When they wake up the next day, the new serum-takers find themselves transformed...
Over time, these will become fish tails, so there you go, "Shalako's Curse" is how we get mermaid Atlanteans in addition to bipeds. Dardanus takes his revenge on his murderous dad by blowing the whistle on his cavorting with the devil, and right now, the Tritonians have enough legs to run after Shalako and kill him. Of his court, only his son escapes their anger.
That's Peter David ensuring the history of Atlantis echoes the story he's telling in the Aquaman series, i.e. one of feuding brothers (Aquaman and Ocean Master, the other Orin), a cycle that repeats across the Chronicles. Though Aquaman as King of Atlantis is not really where the hero is most engaging for me, if you're going to do Atlantis, then you could do worse than an artist like Maroto who has a beautiful fantasy style, but for the comic nerd, it's how David reconciles the different takes on Atlantis, like he did in this issue, that make it worthy of your attention.
Who's Next? A diminutive hero.
How you could have heard of it: It was one of the eye-popping elements of the Aquaman movie, but really, the benefits of a classical education should have clued you in.
Example story: Atlantis Chronicles #2 (April 1990) "The Vanished Sun" by Peter David and Estaban Maroto
Issue 2 begins a year after Atlantis has sunk under the waves, protected by a dome that religious zealots say was the whole reason for the flood - y'all angered the Sky Goddess with your scientific hubris (man, this could almost have been written today). King Orin (a name that will live on through Atleatean history) is struggling with a population that's going stir crazy living in a claustrophic bubble where day and night are artificially created. And eventually, the powder keg blows and there's riots in the streets. So here's the plan, citizens, we'll send half a dozen submarines to the surface to see if there's still a world out there and if it's worth escaping the sunken city. But counter-plan, says Orin blond brother Shalako, me and my followers are gonna take the tunnels to Tritonis, which also sank (on the same massive "island") and see if we can't make a go of it there! To avoid a civil war, Orin agrees and lets Shalako and his "believers" go. Shalako meditates every night during the journey, and when the not-exactly-solid tunnels start to flood, his gods give him the power to control water and keep his people sage inside an air bubble. But can that be sustained on an entire city when they get to Tritonis? Only if they make a human sacrifice. So Shalako, your wife...?
Who's Next? A diminutive hero.
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