Background
In the Halls of Justice are the 4 greatest superheroes in the world: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. With Superman’s inhumane strength, Batman’s myriad of gadgets, Wonder Woman’s invisible jet and magic lasso, and Aquaman’s ability to… Talk to fish, these heroes have acted as guardians of Earth for years.
Though his backstory was only lightly touched upon in the Super Friends show and comics, it is known that Aquaman shares the same general background as his mainline counterpart. Born as Arthur Curry to the human lighthouse keeper Tom Curry and the Queen of Atlanta. His mother died when he was young, and his father passed away several years later. Leaving him to discover his aquatic powers on his own.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-27?id=58692#3
The details past this point are sparse, but sometime into his adult life, a collage of villains known as the Legion of Doom formed. To combat their evil deeds, Superman, and the known heroes of the world formed an alliance: The Super Friends. And the rest is history.
Despite a less than stellar reputation in the eyes of modern audiences, and a tendency to job, Super Friends Aquaman has assisted his fellow heroes in protecting Earth, and the universe at large, for a considerable amount of time.
Important things about Super Friends
The actual Super Friends cartoon most people are familiar with is not part of the DC’s comics continuity. However, several spinoff comics were released that made some attempt to align with DC’s Pre-Crisis canon. While the focus of this analysis will be primarily on the Super Friends cartoon, the Super Friends comics will be considered as a secondary source.
Experience
While often mocked for being useless, Aquaman isn’t without his moments of competence in the Super Friends series.
-When trapped in the past Aquaman, pretty cleverly, buried his communicator at the site where the Justice League headquarters would be built, and changed its settings so it would send a distress message in modern times.
(Season 3, Episode 4B, 15:42)
-He showed some reasonable competence when fighting and defeating an invisible opponent. (Season 3, Episode 14, 16:02)
-He showed some pretty quick wits when he lured a living titanic ship into an iceberg (yes, I’m serious). (Season 7, Episode 3C, 6:45)
Equipment
Jet Ski: Aquaman’s main method of transportation. The scooter can submerge into water (Season 5, Episode 2, 16:42), and can be used to keep pace with other Super Friends members (Season 2, Episode 1, 38:44).
Net: A net Aquaman can use to ensnare opponents. (Season 2, Episode 6, 7:40)
Octopus Ink: A cartridge of ink Aquaman used on one occasion to blind an opponent. (Season 2, Episode 7, 6:57)
Portable Heat Ray: A heat ray Aquaman can use to burrow through ice. He’s only ever used it in one episode though. (Season 2, Episode 13, 4:28)
Water Pistol: A water gun Aquaman used once in the Super Friends comics.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-39?id=58723#16
Super Friends Ring & Communicator: A device the Super Friends use to talk with one another. In earlier seasons it took the form of a ring, but seems to have been replaced in favor of a standard communicator. (Season 2, Episode 12, 24:45) Each communicator can send a distress signal (Season 2, Episode 5, 22:05), and has a battery life that can last millions of years. (Season 3, Episode 4B, 15:42)
Abilities
Besides superhuman strength, speed, and durability, Super Friends Aquaman… Mostly talks with fish, but to his credit, has used that and a few other powers in clever ways.
Aquatic Telepathy & Commands: Probably what Super Friends Aquaman is most well-known for. Some important notes about it…
-The communication between Aquaman and sea creatures is 2-way. He can give them commands and get information from them. (Season 1, Episode 2, 5:10)
-It has a range of at least several miles. (Season 1, Episode 2, 31:35)
-Calling on a school of whales to move a nuclear submarine. (Season 1, Episode 1, 30:30)
-He can achieve pseudo-flight by… Calling on a pair of flying fish. (Season 1, Episode 14, 9:23)
-Aquaman’s communication extends to alien life as well, so long as that alien life is aquatic. (Season 2, Episode 3, 26:00)
-It extends to even microscopic water creatures. (Season 2, Episode 15, 34:22)
-Aquaman can use his telepathy to affect the minds of sea creatures to some extent. He once used it to free some sea creatures from mind control. (Season 3, Episode 4, 13:24)
-He has some degree of influence over the emotions of sea creatures as well. He once used his telepathy to enrage a giant crawfish. (Season 3, Episode 7, 7:48)
-It’s worth noting though that while Aquaman has some influence over sea creatures’ emotions, his telepathy is not out and out mind control. Many sea creatures (including the above example) have ignored his commands in the past, and multiple sea entities have continued to fight, threaten, or constrain him.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-14?id=58660#15
-He can summon sea creatures by the hundreds.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-1?id=58651#13
-Aquaman’s telepathy can work through solid objects. (Season 4, Episode 6, 17:45)
-He can utilize eels to make electrical attacks. (Season 2, Episode 8, 7:35)
-Using a saw fish to cut through steel. (Season 2, Episode 14, 30:40)
-Using several sea creatures to make a wave that floods an island. (Season 3, Episode 2B, 9:00)
Aquatic Senses: Aquaman can detect movements in the ocean, with a radar like sense, giving him a potential counter to invisible opponents. (Season 1, Episode 16, 32:00) (Season 5, Episode 5, 19:45)
Whirlpool Creation: Aquaman can make whirlpools in the ocean. One was strong enough to pull in a large amount of leaked oil. (Season 2, Episode 1, 19:28)
Water Absorption: Being King of the Sea, water-based attacks don’t have an effect on Aquaman and just make him stronger.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-14?id=58660#7
Feats
Strength & Destructive Power
-Moved a large boulder. (Season 1, Episode 4, 40:40)
-Moved a large mass of trash. (Season 1, Episode 7, 41:25)
-Broke open a steel door. (Season 1, Episode 11, 6:24)
-Using a group of whales, stopped an escaping space ship. (Season 2, Episode 3, 7:50)
-With some giant squids, destroyed a large rock formation. (Season 6, Episode 4, 5:50)
-Uprooted a tree.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-20?id=58675#13
Speed & Agility
-Swam from the coast of Florida to the northern edge of Maine in under an hour. (Season 1, Episode 4, 27:41)
-Stated to be faster than a barracuda. (Season 1, Episode 6, 20:48)
-Kept pace with a boat moving faster than 40MPH. (Season 1, Episode 16, 15:00)
-Evaded lasers. (Season 3, Episode 6, 10:15)
Durability & Survivability
-Can withstand the pressure of the ocean floor. (Season 1, Episode 5, 14:28)
-Logically speaking, Aquaman’s durability should be comparable to his destructive potential.
Scaling
Who does Aquaman scale to?
Determining who Aquaman scales to is a bit difficult, since there is very little fighting between him and the other Super Friends. And what fighting there is leaves… A bit to be desired.
He for absolute sure does NOT scale to Super Friends’ Superman. He has lost to Superman multiple times, rather casually, and Superman has been stated multiple times to be the strongest of the Super Friends.
-Superman explicitly defeats both Wonder Woman and Aquaman. (Season 4, Episode 3, 9:30)
-Wonder Woman and Aquaman again fail to defeat an evil alternate reality Superman, who has all of regular Superman’s abilities. (Season 4, Episode 5, 18:00)
That said, with some leeway you could reasonably scale him to some of the non-Superman-level Super Friends. He usually keeps pace with Black Vulcan for example. He has also been able to evade and fight with several of the monsters of the week, such as Rokan.
Lastly, in the comics he fights with, and sort-of defeats the elemental Undine (albeit, in the lamest way possible).
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-14?id=58660#16
None of the other elementals are implied to be significantly stronger than the others, so he should safely scale to any of them.
Sylph
-Froze over an oil refinery.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-15?id=58662#7
Rokan
-Flew from the edge of the Milky Way to Earth very quickly. (Season 3, Episode 1, 1:16)
Black Vulcan (Questionable)
-Illuminated the entire moon. (Season 5, Episode 5, 7:43)
Weaknesses
While some of the mockery towards Super Friends Aquaman is a bit overblown, it isn’t… Completely unfounded. Because his primary power is communicating with sea creatures, he’s only really useful if something bad is happening in a body of water. Leaving a lot of situations where he just can’t do anything helpful.
He also has some fairly comical instances of jobbing. Be it getting stopped by Hawkman (Season 3, Episode 8B, 13:00), getting stuck in some dirt (Season 3, Episode 13, 11:53), or doing some hilariously bad stealth. (Season 4, Episode 1, 16:34)
Perhaps worst of all, Aquaman doesn’t just lose most of his usefulness on land, his life becomes endangered on it. If he doesn’t have contact with any water for more than 1 hour, he will die.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-5?id=58745#14
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-12?id=58657#8
Being fair, this specific weakness seems to be exclusive to the Super Friends comics, as I don’t recall it ever coming up in the cartoon. But even without it, there’s a reason Aquaman had almost no presence in the later seasons of Super Friends despite being part of the main cast.
Fun Stuff
-Aquaman tried to stop Swamp Thing the way a pet owner would scold their dog. Spoilers… It didn’t work.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-28?id=58695#14
-A lot of the Super Friends villains seem to invent really cool and useful stuff, the only issue is they’re stupid and use the inventions on random stuff without permission.
-Aquaman can do magic tricks apparently. (Season 2, Episode 12, 37:55)
-Aquaman once got affected by Scarecrow’s fear gas, and as a result became afraid of… A squirt gun.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Super-Friends/Issue-32?id=58708#6
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