Aquaman is a fictional character, superhero in DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in More Fun Comics # 73 (November 1941). Initially a back-up feature in DC's anthology hero titles, Aquaman later featured in his own title multiple times. Nearly two decades later, during the superhero-revival period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books, he was a founding member of the Justice League of America. Later still, in the 1990s-present Modern Age of Comic Books, Aquaman's character became more serious, with storylines depicting the weight of his title.

Aquaman has also appeared in animated and live-action TV shows. In pop culture, Aquaman has been the victim of satire and mockery for his powers, which are often portrayed in such situations as useless or irrelevant.

Starting in 1959, Aquaman's backstory and character were revised, with various new supporting characters added and several adjustments made to the character's origins, powers, and persona.

In Adventure Comics #260 (May 1959) and subsequent Silver Age comics, it was revealed that Aquaman was Arthur Curry, the son of Tom Curry, a lighthouse keeper, and Atlanna, a water-breathing outcast from the lost, underwater city of Atlantis. Due to his heritage, Aquaman discovered as a youth that he possessed various superhuman abilities, including the powers of surviving underwater, communication with sea life, and tremendous swimming prowess. Eventually, Arthur decided to use his talents to become the defender of the Earth's oceans, first starting a career as "Aquaboy," and meeting Superboy (Earth's only other superpowered hero at the time) on one occasion (Superboy #171, Jan 1971). When Arthur grew up, he called himself Aquaman.

It was later revealed (in Aquaman #29) that after Atlanna's death, Tom Curry met and married an ordinary human woman and had a son named Orm Curry, Aquaman's half-brother. Orm grew up as a troubled youth in the shadow of his brother, who constantly bailed him out of trouble with the law. He grew to hate Aquaman not only for the powers that he could never possess but also because he knew that their father would always favor Aquaman. Orm disappeared after becoming an amnesiac and would resurface years later as Aquaman's arch-nemesis, Ocean Master.

By the late 1950s, Aquaman's ability to talk with fish had been expanded to full-fledged telepathic communication with sea creatures even from great distances, but in Adventure Comics #256 (Jan 1959) he was also retroactively given a specific weakness akin to Superman's vulnerability to Kryptonite or Green Lantern's vulnerability to the color yellow: Aquaman had to come into contact with water at least once per hour, or he would die (prior to this story Aquaman could exist both in and out of water indefinitely). This problem was later explained as a characteristic of all Atlanteans .