When we think of DC Comics’ superheroes, we often think of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern. Perhaps other important figures come to mind aside from these folks – The Joker, Cyborg, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Robin, to name a few. However, there is one hero that often gets short shrift: Arthur Curry, the Aquaman. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger in 1941, it was not until the famed ‘Silver Age’ of comics in the 1950s and 1960s that Aquaman became a founding member of the Justice League. After this brief stint in the Silver Age limelight, Arthur Curry faded into relative obscurity as a supporting member and companion for other heroes, at least until the 1990s when Aquaman was brought back into the mainstream DC line-up with his Arthurian-inspired storylines and homages. Rather than fade away after the 1990s, Aquaman's Arthurian connection only grew, spreading through the 2000s and the 2010s, creating a newfound publicity for Aquaman.

Comics writer Geoff Johns had arguably one of the most famous runs of DC's Aquaman title in 2013 – in fact, Johns's run was the inspiration for 2018's Aquaman film starring Jason Momoa, on which Johns himself served as a writer. Arthur Curry, the titular hero and King of Atlantis, had previously been derided as a second-rate, low-powered hero without a compelling backstory or link to any serious subject matter. Geoff Johns, and Rick Veitch and Peter David before him, changed all of that with an Arthur Curry who draws from the most obvious source material presented to the half-human, half-Atlantean king, that of the other – and perhaps more famously celebrated – King Arthur. While Johns drew from the Arthurian mythos as a whole rather than any one specific textual rendering of the legendary King of the Britons – save, perhaps, Sir Thomas Malory’s, a possibility which is revealed via Johns's title for this story arc – the Atlantean King Arthur is confronted with an Arthurian return, a Mordred-like figure, a courtly betrayal and a ‘final battle’ for the kingship just as his namesake is in the many accounts of the famous British king.