Lagoon Boy

Lagoon Boy is a fictional superhero published by DC Comics. His name and appearance are references to the title character from the classic horror feature film ''Creature from the Black Lagoon''.

Publication history

Lagoon Boy first appeared in ''Aquaman'' vol. 5 #50 (December 1998) and was created by Erik Larsen.

Fictional character biography

No writer has yet provided an origin story for Lagoon Boy. In his first appearance, he is allowed into Atlantis as part of an attempt by Aquaman to make Atlantis more open to those living outside the city by granting them citizenship. His presence is met with protests by many elitist Atlanteans. Lagoon Boy comes to the citizenship ceremony on the day of Aquaman and Queen Mera's marriage. While there he befriends Blubber, a humanoid whale with a genius IQ, and his assistant Sheeva the Mermaid. ''Aquaman'' #54 reveals that the three characters have begun calling themselves "The Land-Lovers" as they were underwater creatures who were fascinated with the world over water. Blubber creates a device which allows Atlanteans to view television from the surface world, and the trio head up to the surface world in order to explore and compare it to the television broadcasts they had seen. Their appearance creates a huge disturbance and the Coast Guard is quickly called. Aquaman rescues the Land-Lovers from persecution and sends them back to Atlantis.

After Erik Larsen's run on ''Aquaman'' ended, the Land-Lovers did not reappear in the title. Lagoon Boy was used shortly before the end of Larsen's run by writer Chuck Dixon, who wrote the ''Young Justice Special'' #1 (No Man's Land) story. In the story, the male members of Young Justice (Superboy, Robin and Impulse), head for Gotham City and meet Lagoon Boy. They join together to stop Kobra. Lagoon Boy reappears in ''Young Justice: Sins of Youth'', where he is aged to adulthood. He helps Young Justice against Klarion the Witchboy and Black Manta, and he assists the JSA, JLA and the Titans in ending the wild mixture of science and magic which had been causing the transformations.

Lagoon Boy later displays the ability to command, or at least enlist the aid of, humpback whales in order to cause a riptide on the shores of the rogue nation of Zandia, aiding Young Justice in the process. Robin and Lagoon Boy team up to stop a sea monster from damaging ''Gotham Harbor'' and force its return to the sea. Lagoon Boy was briefly shown in ''Infinite Crisis'' when The Spectre wreaks havoc on the people of Atlantis. He is shown fighting the Spectre alongside many Atlanteans and their allies. Lagoon Boy is one of the few survivors after Spectre squashes the city.

Over a year after Young Justice disbands, Lagoon Boy is recruited alongside several other obscure teenaged heroes as part of a Teen Titans spin-off team known as the Titans East. He and the rest of the Titans are severely injured after being attacked by the children of Trigon on a routine training exercise.

In a scene taking place just hours prior to the events of ''Blackest Night'', Lagoon Boy's former teammate Hawk II visits Titans Tower and angrily tells Cyborg that Lagoon Boy is still in a coma.

In 2011, DC Comics rebooted the DC Universe in "The New 52". Lagoon Boy appeared as a member of the Teen Titans five years in the future.

During the "Heroes in Crisis" storyline, Lagoon Boy is seen at Sanctuary where he is dealing with the trauma of the deaths when a mysterious assailant massacred his teammates in the Titans East team. He is among the heroes who were killed by a mysterious assailant and was found with a knife in his chest.

Powers and abilities

Lagoon Boy is an amphibious boy. He is small in stature, but strong, quick and durable. His body is covered in green scales and fins and he has sharp claws and teeth. When excited, Lagoon Boy also has the ability to blow up like a puffer fish, which makes him appear to be much larger and more intimidating, making him physically more powerful and develop quills that can cause great pain to other opponents who cross his path.

Lagoon Boy discovers a conch horn that allows him to call out to his Spotty, a monstrous animal from the undersea trench called the ''Devil's Deep''. Lagoon Boy has also displayed the ability to command humpback whales. At this point, it is unclear just how much control he has over them. He could also conjure and mold water into any shape he saw fit, using it as a jettison device to reach a flying Powerboy.

While not a superpower ''per se'', he also has access to wealth acquired from submerged ships and cities.

Other versions

Earth One

In '' Teen Titans: Earth One'' Vol. 2, Lagoon Boy is a new member of the Titans. ''Teen Titans: Earth One'' Vol. 2

In other media

Television

* In ''Teen Titans'' animated series, a character named Tramm is based on Lagoon Boy. Debuting in "Deep Six", he was called by Aqualad to fix Cyborg's T-Ship. After fixing it, both Aqualad and Tramm were made Honorary Titans. Because he was a young hero with gifted powers, Tramm was targeted by the Brotherhood of Evil. In "Calling All Titans", Tramm was sent to aid Aqualad when he was attacked by Plasmus and Trident. He was eventually subdued by XL Terrestrial, but defeated him and went to find Aqualad. Trident fought Aqualad, while Plasmus took on Tramm. Both heroes were defeated and added as a flash-frozen trophy in the Brotherhood's base in Paris. In "Titans Together", Tramm was seen alongside Aqualad when Mas y Menos freed the captive Titans, but wasn't actually seen fighting. After their victory, Tramm socialized with other Titans in the Titans Tower and was seen next to Aqualad, ready to capture Doctor Light.
* Lagoon Boy (La'gaan) appears in the ''Young Justice'' episode "Downtime", voiced by Yuri Lowenthal. He is shown as a student at the Conservatory of Sorcery alongside Lori Lemaris. In "Happy New Year", it is shown that Lagoon Boy has joined the Team and is also in a relationship with Miss Martian, calling her "Angel Fish". Lagoon Boy often goes out of his way to make romantic overtures towards Miss Martian in the presence of Superboy, her former boyfriend, causing friction and rivalry between the two boys. When he encounters Aqualad in "Alienated", he is the only one who does not show him sympathy, opting to attack him for betraying his friends. He is prone to use Atlantean slang or euphemisms in regular conversation, usually "Neptune's Beard!" In "Depths", Lagoon is captured by Black Manta's forces defending a satellite where he was knocked out by Aqualad. Aqualad orders Black Manta's men to deliver Lagoon Boy to the Light's new partner; this is later revealed as an attempt by Aqualad (who is only posing as a traitor as part of an undercover operation) to keep Lagoon Boy from being killed without blowing Aqualad's cover. In "Before the Dawn" he is experimented on by the Reach, who explain that despite his physical differences, he is technically human and therefore a viable metagene candidate. He is freed along with Beast Boy and Impulse and later saves Blue Beetle from drowning after the latter is blown from the Reach's ship. Following his rescue however, Miss Martian begins to pull away and avoid Lagoon Boy and grows close again with Superboy after the ordeal on the Reach ship, causing Lagoon Boy to become jealous. In "The Fix", he attempts to confront Miss Martian until they are ambushed by Deathstroke and Tigress (secretly Artemis in disguise), who are targeting Miss Martian on orders from Black Manta. Despite his best attempts to protect her, Lagoon Boy is defeated and his leg badly injured and alongside Superboy learns the truth about the deep cover mission from Nightwing. He reappears in "Intervention" where his leg has recovered and is reunited with Miss Martian. However, Miss Martian breaks up with Lagoon Boy, having come to the realization that she was merely using him as her rebound boyfriend and that she is still in love with Superboy. Lagoon Boy assists the Team in their attempt to capture the Light in "Summit" and then to stop the Reach's doomsday weapon in "Endgame". For this, he is paired up with Aqualad who had revealed his true colors and rejoined the Team. At first, Lagoon Boy was not happy about it until Aqualad explained that he had hoped that Lagoon Boy would take his place on the Team in his absence, thus repairing their friendship. Between seasons 2-3 during the two year time skip, Lagoon Boy left the Team, returned to Atlantis and joined the royal guard. In season 4, he is revealed to be bisexual and in a three-way polyamorous marriage with Coral and Rodunn with a baby. He takes part in the mission to locate Ocean Master and later accompanies Kaldur, Wyynde and Delphis to search for Arion's lost crown. During this time, Lagoon Boy expresses his regret and remorse over his unfair treatment toward Superboy upon his death and feels badly for Aqualad and Miss Martian's pain and grief over losing him. Lagoon Boy is later elected to join the Justice League as the third Aquaman alongside Orin and Kaldur.

Miscellaneous

* Lagoon Boy appears ''Teen Titans Go!'' #52 as an alternate alias of Robby Reed. Unknown to both Robby and the Titans, his H-Dial borrows power from any hero who's in close proximity to him, and thus becomes Lagoon Boy when Aqualad is close by.
* Lagoon Boy appears in the fourteenth issue of the ''Young Justice'' tie-in comic.

References

External links

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{{Erik J Larsen
Characters created by Erik Larsen
Comics characters introduced in 1998
DC Comics Atlanteans
DC Comics characters who are shapeshifters
DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics LGBT superheroes
DC Comics superheroes
DC Comics television characters
DC Comics telepaths
Fictional bisexual males
Fictional empaths
LGBT characters in animated television series
Young Justice (TV series)