The Truth Behind Aquaman And Wonder Woman's Romance

When people have known each other as long as the original members of the Justice League, it's not too surprising for those involved to consider each other romantically. Two of the most common "ships" involve Wonder Woman dating either Batman or Superman, but one of the most rare pairings connects Diana with Aquaman, the King of the Seven Seas. 

Though a relationship between these two might seem odd at first, they actually have a lot in common. They are both members of royalty who hail from long-lost kingdoms of Ancient Greece, and their long history with the Justice League shows that they clearly share similar values of truth and, well, justice. Suggested to mainstream audiences for the first time in the 2017 release of Justice League, Diana Prince and Arthur Curry are one of the few pairings within the Justice League that actually makes sense — but tragically, it might simply be doomed to fail. 

Though Wonder Woman and Aquaman aren't a common pairing in the comics, many viewers were introduced to the idea in Joss Whedon's Justice League movie in 2017. In one of the final scenes before the film's final act, the five heroes (Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Cyborg, and Wonder Woman) are flying to Russia aboard Bruce Wayne's Flying Fox troop transport. 

While preparing to confront Steppenwolf and his parademons once they arrive, Jason Momoa's Aquaman takes a seat on the hood of the Batmobile and begins baring his soul to the entire team unprompted. He confesses his doubts about their chances at actually defeating the villains and tells each teammate why he doesn't trust them. When he gets to Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, however, he sings a different tune, telling her that she is gorgeous and incredible and expressing his great attraction to her. 

About this time, the team notices something glowing beneath Arthur's leg and point it out to him. He reaches down, pulls it out, and discovers that he has been sitting on Diana's golden Lasso of Truth the entire time. 

The humorous scene in 2017's Justice League was not the last time that the pairing would be mentioned in the DCEU. James Wan's Aquaman would address the idea one again it released in 2018. Though the film spends a great deal of its runtime building up a growing relationship between Arthur and Mera, it takes a brief moment in its mid-credits scene to make sure DC's viewers didn't get the wrong idea about Aquaman's previous confession. 

The mid-credits scene begins with one of the film's antagonists, Black Manta, waking up after being rescued out at sea and brought to a scientist named Dr. Stephen Shin. Dr. Shin has been studying Atlanteans his entire life and wants desperately to find out more about them and discover where they live. It's his life work, and Black Manta is more than happy to oblige — as long as Dr. Shin tells him everything that he knows about Aquaman. 

This is communicated when Manta throws a knife into a group of newspaper clippings that have been stuck to a wall. The knife lands in the middle of an article asking, "Who is Aquaman?", and just below it is a different article titled "Wonder Woman Nixes Aquaman Dating Rumours." 

Even though Wonder Woman and Aquaman are not a common pairing among fans or within the pages of DC's comics, there are several reasons the relationship could make sense. To start, Arthur and Diana were both born of royal blood. Arthur is the son of Queen Atlanna of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis. She came to the surface world and fell in love with a fisherman named Tom Curry and gave birth to Arthur before she was forced to return to her subaquatic domain. This made Arthur her first-born son, making him the rightful ruler of Atlantis despite his mixed heritage. 

Wonder Woman, on the other hand, is the daughter of Queen Hippolyta of the Amazons. Depending on the version, Diana was either fashioned out of clay by her mother and granted life by the gods or was the result of brief love affair between Hippolyta and Zeus, the king of the Olympian gods. Either way, Diana is the daughter of Queen Hippolyta and is thus the Princess of the Amazons and heir apparent to her throne. 

This shared background has formed the foundation of most attempts to explore their romance. The idea of a king and princess from far off, mythical lands getting together is reminiscent of the fairy tales many readers grew up hearing, and this shared upbringing gives the pair both common ground to connect over and, in some instances, a reason to get together in the first place. 

In addition to their royal heritage, Diana and Arthur both hail from hidden, esoteric kingdoms with long and storied histories. The Amazons of Themyscira have existed for several thousand years, living out their immortality in peace and prosperity while developing numerous advances in both science and magic to ensure their safety and happiness forevermore. 

The Atlanteans, by contrast, have also been around for centuries untold, but their history is far less peaceful. The Atlanteans are typically described as a warlike and superstitious race who are slow to trust and quick to attack. They hate outsiders, even if those outsiders are sea dwellers like themselves. 

The History of Atlantis is filled with legends of wars against the other Seven Kingdoms of the seas, and Zack Snyder's Justice League even added the Amazons to that long list of enemy states. Snyder's film cites an ancient war between the Amazons and Atlanteans multiple times throughout the film, using it as a relatively minor point of contention between Wonder Woman and Aquaman as they attempt to work together on the team.

This shared history could simultaneously provide the couple even more common ground to bond over while also create a conflict for their relationship to overcome. The cultural differences and the animosity between their people could be something they must learn to live with while also providing outside interference as their disparate courts attempt to prevent them from marrying "the enemy" a la Romeo and Juliet.

The Atlanteans and Amazons have far more in common than their comic book history, however, as both civilizations take their inspiration from the Ancient Greeks. The legendary kingdom of Atlantis was an island nation mentioned by Plato in two of his many philosophical dialogues. It was said to be located within the Atlantic Ocean just outside of the Straight of Gibraltar. A prosperous and powerful kingdom, the nation eventually grew corrupt and evil and was swallowed into the sea as a result. 

The Amazons, on the other hand, find their home within multiple stories throughout Greek Mythology. They are said to be a race of warrior women who live at the edge of the known world and often raid neighboring kingdoms. Their queen, Hippolyte, was defeated by Heracles during one of his many labors, and they later fought with Troy against Achilles and Odysseus during the Trojan Wars. 

As a result of this shared background, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are the only two members of the Justice League who commonly fight against monsters and beasts from Greek Mythology. The capital city of Atlantis is sometimes named "Poisedonis" after the Greek god of the sea, and one of Aquaman's most powerful foes is the sea god's son, Triton. Similarly, Wonder Woman is often confronted by the gods or by mythical beasts like the minotaur and the gorgons. 

This shared heritage and history could make a solid bedrock for a romantic relationship between the two characters and would certainly give them a lot to talk about. They could go to Greece for a date, eating frozen yogurt while walking along the Parthenon in Athens and swapping stories of the various Greek monsters they've defeated and of the different times they've met Poseidon.

In the 1994 Aquaman series' first annual, writer Peter David revealed that Arthur Curry and Diana Prince first met long before either of them became superheroes. During their young adult years, while Arthur was still exploring the ocean depths in search of meaning and Diana was watching the horizon and dreaming of the world outside her island paradise, the pair were forced to team-up in order to stop Triton, the son of the Greek god Poseidon, from making Diana his wife. 

Though no match for a Greek god, the pair worked together to stall him long enough for Diana to get away and summon Queen Hippolyta and her grand army of the Amazons, who sent the wannabe tyrant packing. After the fighting was over, Diana and Arthur stole a moment together on the beach but could not share the kiss they both longed for as Arthur was not allowed to enter the island and Diana was not yet allowed to leave it. Forlorn, the pair said their goodbyes, and Arthur swam away. 

Whether they realized it or not, Arthur and Diana were reunited once again years after their first encounter as Wonder Woman and Aquaman. When a race of aliens known as the Appellaxians attempted to invade earth, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and the Martian Manhunter joined forces to stop them and formed the Justice League of America, which all went down in a flashback story in 1962's Justice League of America #9. Together, the Justice League would save the world again and again from the likes of Starro the Conqueror, the Legion of Doom, and Darkseid himself. 

Though it's unclear if they realized their previous meeting at the time, Aquaman would eventually realize that they had met before and write the story down in a private journal he kept within his subaquatic "Aquacave." Despite this, however, neither hero ever acted on any feelings they might have had during this time, and the team would eventually disband before they were ever brave or bold enough to pursue romance. 

They would get a second chance, however. Over a decade after the original incarnation had finally disbanded, the founding members finally decided it was time to join forces as the JLA once again. Wonder Woman and Aquaman were both quite different by now, however. Diana was a battle-hardened warrior who had managed to retain her deep compassion and love for all life, but Aquaman had become a grizzled and jaded loner who despised both the land and Atlantis. He hated the surface world for what they had done to the sea, and he hated the responsibility of needing to be the sole protector of every ocean on earth. 

For some reason, however, he still rejoined the JLA when the time came — and in 1998's JLA 80-Page Giant #1,during a relatively routine mission to rescue a damaged submarine, Wonder Woman found out why. Because other cables had snapped while towing the damaged vessel, Aquaman and Diana decided to use Wonder Woman's unbreakable Lasso of Truth to pull the sub instead. While holding it, Aquaman revealed that he was deeply attracted to Diana and had chosen to remain on the team because of her. 

Feelings were finally expressed, but Arthur was too late. Whatever Diana might have felt for him when they were younger was gone. Though she deeply admired him as an ally and friend, she did not reciprocate his romantic feelings, and the pair went their separate ways with a promise not to speak of this again. 

Fate had other things in mind for them, however. Eventually, their newly formed JLA team would come across a new villain known only as the Queen of Fables in 2000's JLA #47. A magical powerhouse who could shape the world however she saw fit, the Queen transformed New York City into a Brothers Grimm-inspired nightmare forest and pitted the Justice League against the monsters and traps from famous legends around the world. 

While some of the team is busy dealing with the with the witch from Hansel and Gretel, the Flash and Green Lantern discover that Wonder Woman has been placed under a sleeping spell and placed in a bed just like the Sleeping Beauty. While the two debate the correct course of action in JLA #48, Aquaman tells them to step aside as he strides forward. With his royal Atlantean blood, he qualifies as a Prince "Charming," so he and Diana finally share the kiss they had been dancing around for years. Alas, nothing would come of it, as Wonder Woman still felt nothing but friendship for Aquaman, who would soon go on to leave the team. 

One question still remains. If these two heroes were attracted to each other for so long, why didn't they pursue it before it was too late? When they first met, they were literally divided by mystical and cultural forces they could do nothing about, but they could have tried again once they were teammates on the Justice League. The answer is surprisingly simple: for most of their time together, Aquaman was already married. 

Though the Justice League of America was officially created in 1960, Aquaman met the love of his life, Mera, just three years later when she was created in 1963, and the couple would get married just a year after that in 1964. Though this might seem like plenty of time for the pair to have explored a romance, fans have to realize that superheroes dating was pretty rare during that time in comics history — and three years of publishing history is more like only a few weeks of actual in-universe time. 

Mera and Aquaman would remain happily married for years until an unspeakable tragedy destroyed their relationship. In 1974, Aquaman's archenemy, Black Manta, murdered Aquaman and Mera's only son. Though the villain was defeated and though they tried to make it work, they were unable to overcome that loss and eventually separated. Aquaman deeply mourned the loss of his wife and son. He changed dramatically because of it, and by the time he might have been ready to love again, Diana could only see him as a friend. 

There is one famous story, however, where Aquaman and Wonder Woman do pursue a romantic relationship — and it ends so badly that it literally destroys the world. In 2011, DC Comics released Flashpoint (later adapted as an animated movie titled Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox) in which the Flash traveled back in time in an attempt to stop his mother's murder. Doing this breaks time, altering hundreds of pivotal events in history and creating a dark world on the brink of disaster. 

In this altered timeline, Aquaman and Wonder Woman first meet when Diana is stung by a baby kraken. Arthur takes her to Atlantis to be treated, and the pair eventually decide to marry in order to unite their two nations. However, Mera comes between them even here. Though it's unknown if Diana or Arthur could have eventually fallen in love, the fact that Arthur was already in love with Mera seemed certain to keep that from happening. 

The attempt at unity eventually ends in war when an assassin who opposes the two nations' alliance murders Diana's mother at their wedding. Though many people on both sides try to keep the conflict from escalating, any chance the dispute could be settled peacefully ends when Diana kills Mera during an assassination attempt. This starts an all-out war between the Amazons and the Atlanteans that destroys Paradise Island, sinks all of Western Europe, and seems ready to destroy the entire world — when the Flash repaired the timeline.

A romance between Aquaman and Wonder Woman seems ill-timed at best and world-shattering at worst. Like ships in the night, Diana and Arthur seem destined to never meet at the right time, and thus, their relationship has never extended beyond platonic friendship, which will likely remain the status quo for a long time to come. 

Though the idea was teased in Joss Whedon's Justice League and mentioned even more briefly in Aquaman, this idea is most likely nothing more than jokes. Aquaman's movies are poised to pursue his relationship with Mera, and the comics have followed suit, (re)marrying the couple last November in Aquaman #65. 

If that wasn't enough, DC has also been spending time exploring a friendship between Mera and Wonder Woman that has been a welcome sight. The two heroes were instrumental in helping each other survive DC's Blackest Night event, and they paired up again in DC Bombshell's second issue, which revealed that not only had the two been friends since childhood, they were also each other's first kiss.