But how does he look with purple contact lenses?
TV Insider has revealed that the DC Universe series Titans has cast Drew Van Acker as Aquaman's protégé Garth, better known to DC Comics fans as original Teen Titans member Aqualad! Aqualad will make his debut sometime during the show's upcoming second season.
Meanwhile, DC Universe provided this official description for Aqualad -- "Garth is a founding member of the Titans and was Aquaman's eager sidekick known as Aqualad. Also born in Atlantis and a member of the royal court, young Garth was trained by Aquaman as a protector of life above and below the ocean. He would eventually step out from the shadow of his mentor to become his own hero as a Titan along with many other former sidekicks."
Van Acker, 33, is best known as Jason DiLaurentis on ABC Family series Pretty Little Liars and as Detective Tommy Campbell on the 2017 CBS police drama Training Day. His other television appearances include episodes of Tower Prep, Devious Maids, Hell's Kitchen, Greek, and Castle.
Created in 1960 by Robert Bernstein and Ramona Fradon, Aqualad first appeared in Adventure Comics (vol.1) #269 as Garth, the son of the Idyllist King Thar and Queen Berra, the reigning monarchs of Shayeris, the capital of The Hidden Valley of colonies from Atlantis. Thar had inherited the throne and access to ancient magical energies that his brother Zath, a powerful magician in his own right, believed to be rightfully his. Zath practiced dark sorcery and necromancy and was eventually banished from the Hidden Valley. Zath's body transformed into a disgusting half-human form, and under the new name of Slizzath, he returned to Shayeris twenty years later with an army of the undead. He planned to invade the Hidden Valley and transform it into a necropolis he would rule.
King Thar knew of this and assembled an armory of robots and weapons to stop his demented brother. The Idyllist radicals killed him and banished his pregnant wife Berra back to Atlantis. Before Thar was killed, however, he was able to cast a magical spell that trapped Slizzath in an other-dimensional prison. Unfortunately, this spell was linked to a magical ritual which would give his offspring access to incredible mystical powers and accessing that ritual would give Slizzath the energy required to break free of his prison. So word was sent out that all babies born with purple eyes, the Idyllist mark of power, should be banished and killed, lest they try to perform the access ritual and accidentally free Slizzath and his undead army. The Idyllists also claimed that Thar had gone insane to hide their complex, fearful plan.
In Poseidonis, one of the domed cities of Atlantis, Queen Berra gave birth to her son, Garth, who was born with purple eyes. The Atlanteans claimed Garth had been born genetically inferior and sentenced him to death on a seabed leagues away from Atlantis. It has been speculated that with the assistance of Aquaman's father, the Atlantean sorcerer Atlan, the young Garth not only survived but thrived, learning language and survival rituals to keep the young boy from going feral as he scavenged his way through the undersea. Garth developed an intense fear of schools of fish, however, which haunted him into his teens.
Eventually, Garth encountered and rescued Aquaman and became his sidekick, Aqualad. As Aqualad, Garth and Aquaman shared many adventures, but after Aquaman married Mera, and had his own son, Arthur Jr., adventuring with Aqualad became less important to him, leaving Garth feeling unsure of his role in his mentor's life. Looking to help to other teens in trouble, Garth became one of the founding members of the Teen Titans after meeting the first Robin, Dick Grayson, and the first Kid Flash, Wally West. Still shunned by many Poseidonians despite his heroics on their behalf, Aqualad was sent away to be schooled in Scotland, at a school on the shores of Loch Ness.
After being forced to defend himself in a life or death struggle against Aquaman over the survival of Arthur Jr., Garth stayed in the Hidden Valley to search for links to his identity, eventually finding out he was the lost prince of the Idyllists. However, it would be several more years before he learned the truth about his father's murder and his mother's complicity in his exile at the hands of the Poseidonians.
During this time, Garth met and fell in love with Aquagirl (Tula), the impetuous and feisty Atlantean ward of Aquaman's predecessor, King Juvor. They dated for years, aiding Aquaman as defenders of the undersea realms, until Tula's death at the hands of Chemo during the event known as Crisis on Infinite Earths. Grief-stricken, Garth left Atlantis, rejoined the Teen Titans on a number of occasions, and saw his relationship with Aquaman become violent and strained.
As Garth entered his twenties, he encountered a band of shark-like merpeople who attacked the hero with a kind of "mystic water." Garth vanished and reappeared in another dimension, where Atlan waited to train him. Atlan taught Garth to use powers the young Idyllist didn't know he possessed, including elemental powers which allowed him to heat and cool water and create whirlpools, as well as fiery purple blasts of energy from his eyes. Toward the end of his training, Garth was scarred in a ritual, leaving two pronounced scars over his right eye which healed into "tattoos" once he had conquered his inner turmoil. Atlan told Garth that the final part of his training was to complete the ritual that would grant him full access to his ancestral magical power, and thus Garth had to return to Shayeris, in the Hidden Valley.
Garth returned to our dimension at nearly the same time he left, although he was approximately three years older upon his return. When Garth, alongside Atlan, returned to Shayeris, he found the city overtaken by undead creatures. Completely unaware of his own history or his uncle's powers of necromancy, Garth was ill-prepared for the sudden return of Aquagirl, risen from the grave. Together with a shark-warrior named Letifos, Atlan, and Aquagirl, Garth descended into Shayeris. Just the sheer proximity to the ancient pool of ancestral magic allowed Garth to tap into the power, and charged with the purple energy, he recreated his costume out of the Idyllist red and black flag and renamed himself Tempest.
Tempest found his father's sanctum and performed the magical ritual which would give him his power. The false Aquagirl, a magical conduit for Slizzath, attacked Tempest and channeled that power into Slizzath, releasing the monster from his other-dimensional prison. Using his stolen power, Slizzath captured Tempest and Atlan, raised an enormous undead army, and finally transformed the Hidden Valley into the necropolis of which he had long dreamed. Tempest eventually broke free of his prison and found the remaining Idyllists, hiding in Thar's old armory. There, Tempest was reunited with his mother and the truth—that the fearful Idyllists were so terrified of the release of Slizzath, they lied about Thar's sanity and saw to it that Garth was banished as an infant. Disgusted, Garth took control of the armory and a small number of Idyllist warriors and attacked Slizzath. Tempest destroyed the Aquagirl zombie that had seduced him and, using his full range of powers, sent his uncle back into the other-dimensional prison void, sealing the portal forever.
Van Acker will be the first actor to portray Aqualad in live-action, although the character has appeared in various animated projects, including The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure (voiced by Jerry Dexter), the Teen Titans animated series and Teen Titans Go! (voiced by Wil Wheaton), Batman: The Brave and the Bold (voiced by Zack Shada), Young Justice (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal), and DC Superhero Girls (voiced by Jessica McKenna).
Titans is expected to return to DC Universe for Season 2 sometime in Fall 2019.
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