Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-24949854-20140526184717/@comment-1038387-20140526190146

Nobody laughed at Aquaman in-universe. The problem is crossovers - once he's out of the water, he's got just a regular power set, with a power limitation of one hour. But everyone is different in crossovers.

That image exists primarily because of the animated series - Super Friends and Filmation - that used a charicature. But they used charicatures of everyone. Aquaman was just a secondary character, nowhere near as popular as the others, so he never shed the image.

Aquaman's had several reimaginations in the 80s and 90s. Blue Camo Aquaman, Not Half-Human but Full-Atlantean instead Aquaman, Hookhand and beard Aquaman... those're some good stories that pretty much shedded the corny image. And then the New 52 happened, where the first issue first reaffirmed all the corny stuff, as if nothing different ever happened.