Up next, we’re going to talk about
Kaldur’am, aka Aqualad. I’ll be doing this one slightly different than normal.
Why? Because this version of Aqualad was created specifically for the
television series Young Justice, and the TV series Kaldur bears only a
passing resemblance to Jackson Hyde, his comic book counterpart, and Kaldur is
the one I want to talk about. I’ll also go over Jackson, but in the more
heavily summarized section that I usually use for out of comic appearances.
Also, like most of my character profiles, I’ll talk about his history in his
chronological order not necessarily by how the events transpired in the show.
Have I explained my madness well enough? Sure! Let’s get to it.
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| This is his serious face. Get used to it, he uses it alot. |
Aqualad aka Kaldur’ahm, or the
simpler Kaldur to his friends was born in the Atlantean city of Shayeris, where
he was raised by his mother Sha’lain’a and his dad Calvin Durham. His dad was
originally one of Black Manta’s henchmen, whom was genetically altered to have
an Atlantean physiology as part of a plan to infiltrate and destroy Atlantis,
but he eventually gave up his mission upon meeting Sha’lain’a. Kaldur was
trained from a young age for combat, joining the Atlantean military at 12 as
part of his training and mandatory military service. He spent some time
training at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Poseidonis to further expand his
skillset. One day, Atlantis was attacked by Ocean-Master, and forced his
brother Aquaman to battle him. During the battle, Aquaman was wounded and at
his brother’s mercy. Kaldur and his friend Garth leapt up to protect their
king, using Kaldur’s fighting skill and Garth’s magic. The boys were pretty
easily defeated by Ocean-Master, but they distracted him long enough for big
brother Aquaman to recover and defeat him. After Ocean-Master scampered,
Aquaman offered both boys the chance to work under him as his sidekick. Garth
refused and went back to studying, while Kaldur took him up on the offer,
becoming Aqualad.
Oh, and I should note that he’s
played by Khary Payton, known for playing another popular DC character, Cyborg.
He served under his king for two
years before the start of the series. On July, 2010, he helps Aquaman battle
the villainous Killer Frost as she attempts to freeze Pearl Harbor. They defeat
Frost, and Aquaman is finally able to get Kaldur to admit he’s excited for
their next appointment. What appointment? The induction of the “sidekicks”
Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash and Speedy into the Justice League. They’re brought
into the Hall of Justice, where things are pleasant until Speedy learns they
aren’t actually getting to see anything more than the opposite side of the
glass of a tourist trap. Speedy leaves in disgust, as he isn’t interested in a
glorified backstage pass. The others, meanwhile, learn about a fire at Cadmus
Labs, a lab that Batman had been suspicious of. When the League is called away
on a more pressing mission, the boys decide to investigate Cadmus on their own
initiative.
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| So... from nearly shaved head to mop-top? How odd. |
On the way in, Kaldur helps several
scientists escape the blaze with his water manipulating powers before the group
travels deeper into the lab. They find a highspeed express elevator and miles
of underground lab and genetic monster wandering around. As they dodge around
the creatures, Genomorphs, they discover Cadmus’ biggest experiment, project
KR, the Superboy. Cadmus’ head scientist Dr. Desmond discovers their
infiltration and uses Superboy to capture the teen heroes. While Superboy does
capture them, the boys are able to convince Superboy to switch teams and escape
with them. They’re able to battle their way through Cadmus Labs and stop a
mutated Desmond just before the League arrives. Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash,
Superboy and Matian Manhunter’s niece M’gann M’orzz agree to join a new covert
ops team. A team that they never seem to name. Sorry, years later and it bugs
me their group is never officially called Young Justice.
After fending off an attack by the
evil Mr. Twister on their new base, they go on their first mission to Santa
Prisca. The Team has issues, as they aren’t used to working as a unit. Well,
four of them aren’t. The other issue is that Robin is so used to working with
Batman that he expects the others to work without him actually giving orders.
They’re able to discover that the Cult of Corba had taken over Santa Prisca and
were producing a new stronger version of the drug Venom. They also determine
that Kaldur should be team lead, as he was the only one working to keep the heroes
working together while everything else was going haywire. Kaldur claims that
he’s merely holding the position until their Team is ready for Robin’s
leadership. Humble fella, is this Kaldur’ahm.
Kaldur leads the team on several
more missions, helping ship the pieces of the Amazo android to STAR Labs,
investigating the disappearance of Kent Nelson aka Dr. Fate, welcoming their
sixth member Artemis, and stopping the League of Shadows from using a weaponize
nanite mist called The Fog.
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| They've learned the 1000 yard stare from 3 masters. For Superboy it must just be genetic. |
A short time later, Aqualad majorly
flubs a mission the Team takes to defeat Clayface. He was distracted by
thoughts of a girl back home. Batman is forced to step in, defeats Clayface and
reprimands Aqualad for his obvious lack of commitment. He orders the team to
take some time off, and Aqualad returns to the sea to visit home. While there,
he attempts to kindle a romance with his old friend Tula, only to learn that
she’d started seeing their mutual friend Garth while he’d been away. His
heartbreak is interrupted by Black Manta attacking Atlantis. Kaldur is able to
help beat Manta back along side his king, and returns to the team with a
renewed sense of purpose.
He leads the team on several more
missions, including battling the Injustice League, battling Red Tornado’s evil
robotic siblings Red Torpedo and Red Inferno and later Red Volcano, and
stopping several Ice Fortress’s from freezing America.
Aqualad is force to lead the Team
against the whole Justice League when all the members of the organization are
mind controlled by the villainous Light organization. They gather their allies,
including Speedy now going by Red Arrow and who was recently discovered to be a
mind controlled plant by the Light, Zatanna Zatara, and Rocket (not Raccoon) to
battle the League. They’re able to stop the Light’s plan, although all their
operatives escape.
We then skip forward five years. In
that time, the League and Team have expanded drastically. Unfortunately, Kaldur
is no longer apart of it. See, in the intervening years, Tula and Garth joined
the Team, which was good, but Tula was unfortunately killed during a mission. And,
to make matters worse for Kaldur, he discovers that his dad, Calvin, isn’t his
Father. No, his biological Father is none other than Black Manta himself. I’ve
yet to discover if his conception was a “happy” encounter or very awful one for
Sha’lain’a. Angry at the death and being lied to for most of his life, Kaldur
joined Black Manta’s forces and quickly became his #2.
Kaldur leads a group of Manta’s men
to stop a communications satellite between Earth and Mars from launching.
During the fight, he stabs and kills Artemis, and the satellite is destroyed.
This turns out to be a fake out, though. Kaldur is just using his familial
connection to Manta to spy on him and the Light and their “new partner.” A
position made even more useful when Manta is promoted to the Light’s ruling
council in place of the captured and disgraced Ocean Master. The Team faked
Artemis’s death to prove his commitment to Manta, and then has Artemis take up
the persona of Tigress to act as his own subcommander.
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| Water swords are so cool. |
Things go well with their plan,
until M’gann catches up to Kaldur during a mission. Seeing the friend that
betrayed their Team and murdered someone they loved, M’gann attacks Kaldur with
a telepathic blast that leaves him catatonic. She unfortunately learns the fact
her friend was on a deep cover mission while shattering his mind telepathically.
Tigress arrives and escapes with Kaldur. Manta attempts to use another Telepath
named Psimon to fix Kaldur, but Tigress disables him and lies about M’gann
leaving mental booby traps to protect her and Kaldur’s mission. Manta then
later capture M’gann and “forces” her to reconstruct Kaldur’s mind. She does
so, with more gusto than she might have having discovered Kaldur’s true nature.
She eventually restores his mind, but Kaldur plays possum while the try to get
M’gann out of there, as everyone is aware that Manta won’t let her escape alive.
The opportunity arrives when Tigress’ (Artemis) sister Cheshire and their
father Sportsmaster attack Manta’s ship to get payback for “killing” Artemis.
Cheshire from love, Sportsmaster to restore his rep after his daughter’s death.
They use this distraction to extract M’gann, and to further ingratiate Kaldur
to Manta, tricking the villain into thinking that Kaldur’s devotion to his
father was the final piece to freeing his mind.
Kaldur ultimately reveals his
allegiance when he helps the team infiltrate a meeting between the Light and
their Partner, the Reach. The various young heroes attempt to capture as many
of the villains as they can. In the ensuing chaos, Kaldur is forced to confront
his father. He admits to being conflicted with battling Manta and tries to
convince his father to repent. Manta refuses, he’s enraged by this betrayal and
swears to make Kaldur Ruthless, even “if I have to pound (the lesson) into your
Skull!.” Kaldur is forced to knock him out and capture him. They’re able to
capture the Reach’s Ambassador as well. He then helped the Team stop the
Reach’s final contingency plan. He then is given command over the Team again,
as NIghtwing needed some time off.
And that’s all I’ve seen thus far. I
do know that in season three Kaldur officially succeeds Arthur Curry as the new
Aquaman, but that’s about it.
Kaldur’am is a half human-half
Atlantian. He can survive in both the depths of the ocean and on land. He can
swim at incredibly high speeds, breath underwater with his gills, is incredibly
strong and durable, and also largely resistant to poison. He’s also an expert
hand to hand combatant, thanks to his military training. His powers are
enhanced by Atlantean sorcery. He’s not incredibly gifted in that category, but
specializes in using hydrokinesis (manipulating water with magic) and generate
electricity, he generates it through the eel tattoos on his arms. He also uses
two Water-Bearers, hilts that can take water and solidify it into various
weapons. He specializes in making water swords that he can twist, bend and
extend at will. They use this to fake Artemis’ death, as he bent his sword
around her torso close enough to look like it pierced her abdomen. When he
takes up his position as Black Manta’s number 2, he’s given a Manta suit like
his father’s, which includes a helmet beam cannon.
A separate version of Kaldur’ahm
was introduced in the DC comics to coincide with his Young Justice reveal.
This version is Jackson Hyde. Jackson lived in Silver City, New Mexico, where
he was taught at a young age to fear the water. He lived in isolation until he
was tracked down by Aquaman during the Darkest Night event. He discovered his
true parentage, and explored how to use his powers with Aquaman for several
months. He was written out of continuity during the “New 52” continuity, but
returned after the “Rebirth” event.
Aqualad had a non-speaking
appearance in the DC animated movie Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
alongside Garth and Aquagirl as they attack Lex Luthor’s boat and battle
Deathstroke. He’s seen again during the battle of London, but is presumed dead
before Barry could re-reset the timeline.
I loved Kaldur during Young
Justice. He was largely stoic, but that made his occasional emotional
outbursts all the better. He was summed up really well in his first few
minutes, where while battling Killer Frost, he insisted on focusing on the
mission, despite Aquaman’s gentle ribbing about whether he’s excited for the
Justice League induction later that day. And once Frost is finally captured, he
does smile and admit he’s excited. He works hard to keep his team together and
is incredibly loyal. It takes a man of extreme loyalty to play double agent,
especially when the guy he’s working against is his own biological father. I
even enjoyed seeing Kaldur work with Manta in season 2. They made it clear that
while Kaldur’s loyalty to the Team doesn’t waver, that he is torn with what to
do about his father. Makes me assume that his mother’s time with Manta wasn’t
terrible, despite her quick rebound to Kaldur’s Dad Calvin. To each there own. Again,
I really enjoyed Kaldur and hope that he pops up in a few more projects later
to come.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/34433398
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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