JUSTICE LEAGUE: THRONE OF ATLANTIS (2015)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological, sociological*

In JUSTICE LEAGUE WAR, the League's DTV cartoon just prior to THRONE OF ATLANTIS, writer Heath Corson wasn't able to make anything of the sow's-ear of the Geoff Johns comic-book story but another sow's-ear. However, the 2012-13 "Throne" by Johns is much improved by Corson in the animated adaptation. The comic-book original takes place some time after Aquaman has become acquainted with his Atlantean origins. However, Corson takes the rudiments of the "Throne" continuity and blends it with an Aquaman origin story, one which probably owes something to both AQUAMAN issues written by Johns and to previous takes on the origin-tale, possibly (according to Wikipedia) the 2001 episode of the JUSTICE LEAGUE teleseries "The Enemy Below." Parenthetically, these various origin-tales provided the main source of the storyline for the 2018 AQUAMAN.

Given that WAR presented the heroes of the Justice League as a bunch of quarrelsome infants, THRONE is a considerable improvement. Green Lantern still has an inexplicable animus toward Batman, and he's given some unexplained antipathy toward all things mystical (like the story of Atlantis), but some of the friendly banter between Lantern and The Flash is palatable. Superman and Wonder Woman are in the midst of their first date, a trope which I imagine didn't last long, as I don't remember seeing this Great Romance in any of the DTV films that followed. However, it was pleasant to see Shazam prodding Cyborg to make a date with the cute lady scientist Cyborg works with. And though Batman remains an impatient martinet, even he has a couple of clever lines. They all spend a logical amount of time investigating the slaughter of a US submarine by subsea dwellers, whom they eventually learn are denizens of fabled Atlantis.

In the original "Throne" comic Aquaman's mother has passed away, but in this THRONE she's alive and ruling Atlantis (which is concealed from the surface world by magical safeguards, just like Paradise Island). She's served by her bodyguard Mera, who is implied to be a denizen of Atlantis but not a noblewoman destined to marry Atlantean royalty as she is in the 2018 AQUAMAN. Atlanna fears that her rule is threatened by both her son Orm, the Ocean Master, and his aide Manta (not billed as "Black Manta," and implied to be an Atlantean rather than a surfaceman). Atlanna sends Mera to find her elder son Arthur Curry, whom Atlanna spawned with a surface dweller, because the queen suspects she must appeal to the law of primogeniture to keep Orm away from the throne. 

Mera finds Arthur Curry and reveals to him his true history, but Orm has learned of his competition, and he sends berserker monsters to slay both Mera and Arthur. The Justice League comes to the rescue of both, and then all of them descend to Atlantis. However, before they get there, Orm realizes that his mother is blocking his rise to power, and he kills her, thus inheriting the talisman of her power, the Trident of Neptune. With this magical weapon Orm subdues Arthur, Mera and the Justice League, and then launches an invasion to conquer the surface world. Naturally, the heroes escape their bonds and show up to ruin the villains' plans. (During combat Manta, who's usually rated as the quintessential Aquaman villain, tells the Marine Marvel that he stage-managed Orm's revolt and Atlanna's death, thus taking primary credit for all the evilness.)

In a feature of less than ninety minutes, there's not much time to establish the character of the pivotal hero, but this version of Aquaman is in some ways more sympathetic than the bruiser of the live-action film. Scripter Corson finds interesting ways to work in a lot of Aqua-motifs, such as his discovery of his power over fish and his romantic flirtations with Mera. Corson even does a shout-out to the BATMAN: BRAVE AND BOLD characterization of the hero by having the THRONE version use the BOLD version's catchphrase, "Outrageous." There are also an assortment of cameos: John Henry Irons appears, apparently before he assumes his heroic ID of "Steel," and a coda not present in the comics-original has an imprisoned Ocean Master visited by Lex Luthor. I suspect that this suggestion of an alliance yielded no more follow-ups than the interaction of Luthor and Deathstroke at the conclusion of the theatrical JUSTICE LEAGUE movie.