Move over Arthur Curry; the Aquaman of the moment is Kaldur, the animated character Aquaman in “Young Justice: Outsiders”, DC Universe’s animated show about teenage superheroes, who was revealed to be LGBTQIA.
In season 3, episode 20 of Young Justice, titled “Quiet Conversations”, a montage of loved ones reuniting at the episode’s end showed Kaldur approached by Wyynde – a former member of the Atlantean Purist movement, who sought to remove Arthur Curry from the throne of Atlantis in Young Justice season 1. The scene – albeit short – showed the two young men holding hands and then kissing.
Though it wasn’t stated if Kaldur self-identifies as gay or bisexual, he was portrayed to belong to the LGBTQIA community all the same.
As a background: Kaldur is one of the six teenage sidekicks who originally formed the Justice League’s covert operations group. He was given a chance to become Arthur Curry’s protege after saving the first Aquaman’s life during a battle with Ocean Master. The character was once portrayed to have feelings for Tula, a student at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Atlantis, though this ended when he learned that she had become involved with his best friend while Kaldur was on the surface leading The Team.
Kaldur, however, is not the first LGBTQIA Aquaman. In the Aquaman comic books, the second Aqualad was outed shortly after his introduction in 2010; but the character vanished into oblivion during the New 52 reboot in 2011.
Now here’s to representation that you can still save the world no matter who you date/sleep with.
