Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case File #463: Koryak

For whatever reason, the last few entries have covered forgotten Aquaman-related characters.  So, anyway, what’s one more?

Yup, time to talk about Koryak, Aquaman’s Inuit son.

Now, Aquaman famously had a son by his wife Mera.  The baby, alternately called “Arthur Jr” or “Aquababy” (the Silver Age sometimes has a lot to answer for, was involved in the most famous Aquaman story of all time since it’s the only one anyone can remember, and that’s probably because it’s pretty damn dark.  Black Manta captured the baby and held him in air bubble, and Aquaman was unable to get there in time to save the infant’s life.  So yes, Aquaman’s son was killed by his greatest enemy, driving a wedge between his wife and his sidekick Garth/Aqualad.  But apparently, he did have another son.  That would be Koryak.

Koryak first appeared in Aquaman #5 from January of 1995.  Written by Peter David and drawn by Jim Calafiore, Koryak was the rebellious, water-breathing son of an Inuit woman named Kako.  Kako had been a lover of Aquaman when he was a younger man, but she didn’t mention to the Justice Leaguer that she got pregnant and had a son by him until some superhero business brought Arthur back to those waters.  While battling the Apokaliptan Deep Six, Koryak and Aquaman met and discovered they were father and son.  Already something of an outcast, Koryak became even more so when an energy blast killed his mother.

Oh, she came back as a fire elemental.

Anyway, Koryak had a lot of the same powers as Aquaman.  While he couldn’t communicate with sea life, he could solidify water in the form of a harpoon of sorts, a power similar to what Mera had, but she wasn’t in the series all that much back in those days.  With his mother gone, Koryak returned to Atlantis with Aquaman, taking on a political role that would eventually lead to Koryak leading an expedition to the tunnels beneath the city of Tritonis and a run-in with Kordax.

It’s probably worth noting that David’s Aquaman run included a number of concepts of reoccurring problems for the throne of Atlantis, like how blonde hair was considered a curse.  Another was the idea that two brothers often fought for the throne, like Aquaman and Ocean Master.  The series seemed to suggest something similar would happen between the headstrong Koryak and the more laid-back Garth, by that point a sorcerer going by the superhero name Tempest.  When the fight finally came in the form of a duel, it was a short one as Koryak shot off a water harpoon, but then Garth magically froze it and used it like a baseball bat upside Koryak’s head, ending the fight in about three panels.

Anyway, the Kordax business got Koryak banished from Atlantis.  He was forgiven later and allowed to return during the Sub Diego period when he went off to help his father and the new Aquagirl to try and set up a government there.

Koryak would die in the Infinite Crisis when the Spectre, out to destroy all magic, attacked Atlantis, killing many of the people there including Koryak.  He did come back as the amnesiac Narwhal during the Sword of Atlantis period where he was sent to kill the Dweller-of-the-Depths, but he didn’t like being manipulated and swam off, never to be seen again.

I get the impression that could describe a lot from the Sword of Atlantis period.