Both Aquaman and Wonder Woman have the power to communicate with animals, but only the former is mocked for it, leading DC to make him seem hypocritical when mitigating this. Wonder Woman and Aquaman are among the greatest and most iconic superheroes in DC Comics, but unfortunately Arthur Curry is perhaps the most misunderstood hero. Aquaman is often dismissed as being a silly character with superpowers so specific that they’re practically useless, but he’s truly a powerful and noble character with a storied history in the comics and their many adaptations.
Aquaman famously has strength, speed, and durability that are comparable to those of Wonder Woman and Superman, but he can also breathe underwater and communicate with sea life. The latter ability is typically used to rescue people with assistance from schools of fish acting in unison, dangerous predators aiding in a fight, or even microbes eating away at explosives. This power, while potent, will inevitably make some readers wonder what Aquaman eats, however.
The first issue of the New 52 Aquaman relaunch series by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis features a memorable scene early on in which Aquaman visits a seafood restaurant and, to the surprise of its staff and patrons, orders fish and chips. After being pestered by a blogger, Aquaman explains that not only does he eat fish, but he doesn’t talk to them. His powers simply influence their behavior by tapping into their midbrains. By contrast, Wonder Woman, due to her rare ability to truly speak to animals, is a vegetarian, as shown in Wonder Woman volume 2 #195 by Greg Rucka and Drew Johnson. The food served at the Themysciran Embassy in New York is exclusively vegetarian because of this.
Aquaman’s power to communicate with sea life is often the subject of mockery outside of DC Comics materials, but for most of the character’s history, this was truly the case. In the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe, Aquaman’s powers were explicitly shown to be genuine communication with sea creatures, leading to characters like Topo (an octopus) becoming a friend and supporting character in Aquaman’s adventures. In the Peter David era of Aquaman comics, Arthur Curry explains that fish do what he says not out of fear or due to mind control, but out of genuine respect for him as the King of the Seas. With this in mind, it’s safe to assume that in the pre-Flashpoint DC Universes, Aquaman did not eat marine animals, likely relying on other sources of food.
The changes made to Aquaman in the post-Flashpoint DC Universe are understandable, given Aquaman’s under-appreciated and misunderstood status within DC’s pantheon of heroes. Unfortunately, it puts a slightly dark spin on what was once a lighthearted ability that made the older Aquaman stories endearingly whimsical. Back then, Aquaman, like Wonder Woman, communicated with animals, so eating them was most likely not an option for him.