My Aquaman was White, My Brother’s Isn’t

My Aquaman was white.

I never really cared for Aquaman. It’s not that the character was a joke or anything. I thought the ability to talk to fish was pretty cool and the science made it clear that if you could live in the depth of the oceans, you probably had some serious durability and strength. I watched every episode of Justice League Unlimited and Aquaman stars in some of my favorite episodes. I knew what it was like being the byproduct of two oceanic folks. I knew what it was like to be part of two cultures unsure where you stand either. My Aquaman’s story sounded strangely similar to mine, but my Aquaman was white and I was/am decidedly not. My mother hailed from the Philippines. She grew up on an islander and traverse the Pacific to be a doctor in the States. My New Jersey-born, Texas raised white father was a captain for the Navy. He was a submariner most of my childhood, gone for months at the time, like Odysseus kind of. I was by born by the Pacific Ocean. I grew up on the coasts and islands as well: California, Hawaii, South Carolina, Washington state, Virginia, and Maryland. I too struggled between two cultures that loved the oceans for different reasons. I too have split heritage, a strange dissociation between two different worlds. Arthur Curry, the Aquaman, should have been the character that resonated the most with me the most growing up. In actually, he was a just another character in the DC Animated Universe roster. A badass character no doubt, long flowing…