'aqualad filled a void in arthur’s life.'

exer | they/them | garth’s unpaid pr manager --- all blogs are ghostwritten by shakespeare --- on twitter

[cicatricis]

garth of shayeris reading guide w/ recommended issues (doesn’t cover new 52 and after because that garth is basically a whole different character). posted this on tumblr before, but felt obligated to repost a more updated version!

all the issues in text format under the cut

• Adventure Comics #269

• Brave and the Bold (1955) #60, Brave and the Bold (2007) #10, Aquaman (1962) #11, #23 and #33

• Teen Titans (1966) #28 - #30

• The entirety of Aquaman: Death of a Prince, but specifically Adventure Comics #452 - #455 for Garth

• Crisis on Infinite Earths #9 - 10 (mostly for context!)

• Teen Titans Spotlight #10, #18

• Aquaman (1994) #1 - #9 -> Showcase ‘96 #1 -> Aquaman (1994) #20 - #25

• Tempest (1996)

• Teen Titans (1996) #12 - #15

• The rest of Aquaman (1994), but especially #36 - #37, #45 - #47, #49 - #56, #60, #63 - #75

• JLA/Titans -> The entirety of Titans (1999), but especially #1 - #5, #14 - #19, #42 - #47

• JLA: The Obsidian Age; Garth appears in JLA #68 and #75

This isn’t included in the guide, but I recommend reading Rick Veitch’s Garth (/Cerdian) story in JLA/JSA: Secret Files & Origins before reading Aquaman (2003).

• Aquaman (2003) #4 - #12, #32 - #38

• Titans (2008) #15

[pup-pee]

thinking about garth octopus hug saved me @ work 2day

plus other doodles

[cicatricis]

Thinking… imagine the same guards that stopped garth’s mother from saving her baby from an immediate death being the guards that watch garth grow up and eventually become king.

Or imagine being the guy that left him on that seabed in the first place. Never telling garth (or anyone) out of fear and taking that secret with you to the grave…

Tempest (1996) #1

[optichocolate]

I got impatient, have some Garth miraculous designs

I have 0 ideas for this au but I just NEEDED to do some designs. You guys can always check the poll about the fab five here: https://www.tumblr.com/optichocolate/818447715906306048/garth-turtle-protection

[johnnyanger]

(id in alt)

goodnight, fab five 💫

[daily-super-dictionary]

care

[cicatricis]

I just realized that in the flashback of garth’s life before he met arthur in Titans (2008) #15 we can see him swimming with sharks which might seem like an useless detail

Titans (2008) #15

But arthur was the one raised by dolphins!!

Aquaman: Secret Files & Origins #1

They quite literally mirror eachother in every way possible. The sun and the moon if you will (and arthur is NOT the sun)

[cicatricis]

I think the world would improve drastically if we all started drawing garth with earrings. I do not care that he only had them for one issue during the 90s, it was the greatest invention of the decade

The New Titans (1988) #121

[funky-meymey]

Forgetting what that warmth felt like

[discomfortreviseted]

au where garth died insteated of arthur jr

[cicatricis]

Arthur refusing to tell anyone what happened and blaming Black Manta for Garth’s death… Arthur Jr. growing up and becoming the second Aqualad, the name haunting Arthur forever.

Garth dying before he even learned that his name was Garth :(

[scrollbydyby]

guys for my western fab five Thing

[impulsewdc]

roy: when i was 15 i had a crush on a boy in my team & didnt know how to deal w it so I wrote him a letter that just said "get out of my best friend's superhero team"

[embers-writes]

honestly all you need to know about arthur & garth's relationship is that in garth's second ever appearance, aquaman spends the whole issue convinced that garth is evil and interpreting everything he does as plotting against him. bc some old guy they just met prophesised that one day garth would take his place. and meanwhile what garth is actually doing is finding the perfect cave for them to start their new life together in bc arthur said he didn't have a home and then happily collecting bits of ocean scrap to decorate it with.

[cicatricis]

This issue is so funny when you realize that the old guy was right about his prophecy. The creative team predicted an event that would happen 50 years after the release of that issue.

Titans (2008) #15

[margonika00]

Doomed love of the God of Death

🖤💘🖤💘🖤💘🖤💘

[mantaiix1]

Come on!

[foolsocracy]

I know that in reality it’s a mixture of the three, but if you HAD to choose

Arthur and Garth

Brothers

Father-Son

Friends

idgaf about ur guys

Voting ended onJul 26, 2025

[cicatricis]

Seeing father/son sweep the poll is actually heartbreaking.

There is ONE moment where Arthur calls Garth his son, which is after a very exhausting event including Atlantis.

JLA #75

This is the only moment where Arthur clearly states that Garth is his son. In the Aquaman run after this (Aquaman (2003)), they fight and it isn’t even clear what they think of eachother afterwards because Garth (?) dies (?) (he’s at least dead until the end of the run).

Otherwise. HOW WOULD THESE TWO EVER CONSIDER EACHOTHER FATHER OR SON? Arthur does THIS—

Adventure Comics #452

—and makes it very clear that he never viewed Garth as a son before that. Garth could’ve viewed Arthur as a father figure regardless, but keep in mind that Garth had no father figure prior to that, he doesn’t know how a father is supposed to act. After this, Garth continues his search in finding his biological family. And it isn’t out of sheer curiosity.

Adventure Comics #453

He basically had no family now, to himself at least.

I get that with the Aquafamily it gets confusing because of the whole ‘king/prince/heir’ aspect. Otherwise, especially when Garth is Tempest, I think it’s clear that they’re best friends in a way only brothers could be. Constantly disagreeing with eachother (and physically attacking one another a concerning amount of times), but still willing to move the moon for the other.

IDK, they’ve always been more like brothers to me than anything, even though I think giving them one label defeats the whole purpose, it’s the one I’d choose if I had to. This could’ve been longer if I hadn’t woken up ten minutes prior to writing this.

[tempestsgarth]

garth y andy