Kaldur'ahm, also konw as Aqualad and later know as Aquaman, is one of the main protagonists of Young Justice and is featured prominently throughout the series.
He is voiced by Khary Payton who is best known voicing as Cyborg from Teen Titans.
Personality[]
He is portrayed as the most mature member of the group. The episode "Downtime" reveals that he and his friend Garth had saved Aquaman's life during a battle with Ocean Master. Aquaman offered to take on both teens as his proteges, but Garth chose to remain in Atlantis to continue his studies in sorcery, while Kaldur chose to travel with Aquaman and become Aqualad. He also had an interest in a girl named Tula, who became involved with Garth after Kaldur left Atlantis.
History[]
Aqualad was first seen as the protege of Aquaman. He was later unanimously elected by the team to be their leader after their first mission together, as he was perceived as having good leadership skills. In the second season of the series he uncovered he was in fact the son of Black Manta.
In season two, titled Young Justice: Invasion set five years later, Kaldur is working undercover with Black Manta, for Nightwing to find out who the Light's partner is. In the episode "Depths," Black Manta sends Kaldur and the Manta Men to disrupt a satellite launch at Ferris Aircraft, where he and Nightwing fake Artemis' death to put her undercover as Tigress. In "Darkest", Aqualad, Tigress, and a team of super villains track Impulse and Blue bettle to Mount Justice, captures them, along with Beast Boy, and destroy Mount Justice with a bomb. It is later revealed that he secretly gave Nightwing a tracking device (which corresponds to a tracker that he injected Lagoon Boy with). In "Before the Dawn", Miss Martian confronted and mentally attacked Aqualad as revenge for his supposed killing of Artemis, but drops into a state of guilt when she learns about his and Artemis' undercover mission. Artemis arrived, shocked by what Miss Martian had done, and escapes with a catatonic Aqualad. Artemis manipulates Black Manta into capturing Miss Martian to repair Kaldur's mind. After Miss Martian succeeds, Aqualad pretends to remain catatonic to keep Black Manta from killing her and arrange for her to escape. Later, during a summit between the Light and the Reach Ambassador and Black Beetle, Artemis's and Aqualad's cover is revealed and Miss Martian, disguised as Deathstroke, fakes their deaths. Aqualad subsequently reveals the Light's enduring betrayal of the Reach via a hologram and he and Artemis and Miss Martian reveal their play. During a substantial conflict between the Light, the Reach, and the gathered forces of the Team which had infiltrated the Light's foot-soldiers, Aqualad defeats Black Manta and it is soon after revealed he had also been the one to defeat Deathstroke. He is made leader of the team again by Nightwing, who soon leaves in the wake of Wally's death during the defeat of the Reach in the season 2 finale.
Powers and abilities[]
Jackson Hyde has been shown to possess the ability to breathe under water as well as enhanced strength. He can adapt his eyes to see in the darkest of ocean bottoms. He features gill slits on the sides of his neck presumably allowing him to extract oxygen from the water. He also appears to demonstrate hydrokinesis, the ability to increase the local specific density of water and then manipulate its shape, similar to Mera and other citizens of Xebel. He is later given a pair of "Water Bearers", weapons which allow him to focus that power, creating shapes and weapons with the water. In addition, he is able to discharge powerful bolts of electricity from his fingertips in a manner similar to that of an Electric eel.
Gallery[]
Images[]
.jpg "Aqualad (Kaldur'ahm).jpg (32 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Because the character was originally created for the animated series before being brought into Brightest Day, he has a different origin from his comic book counterpart, including being a citizen of Atlantis who developed his powers in a year studying Atlantean sorcery. Though he still maintains the birth name of Kaldur’ahm, he does not use the Jackson Hyde alias created for the comics.