Here’s Why Aquaman Is Bulletproof (In Both Comics & Movies)

Despite being mocked for the majority of his existence, Aquaman proved himself to be one of the most powerful superheroes in DC. Arthur Curry controls the majority of Earth’s surface; he can pit devastatingly big sea creatures against you and commands ancient magics and weapons. Don’t get me started on the fact that he is also faster than Flash (in water), but this is not where his repertoire of superpowers ends. As it turns out, Aquaman is also bulletproof (to a large extent), and today, we’re going to explain why. 

The origin of Aquaman’s incredible durability in the comics

Aquaman’s origin story is well known to pretty much all fans of the character, and the most notable thing about Arthur Curry is the fact that he isn’t exactly human. His mother was Atlantean royalty who fell in love with a human lighthouse keeper, and this is how Aquaman came to possess such amazing powers. 

Being able to breathe underwater, lift incredible weights, and swim amazingly fast naturally separated him from other humans. But even among his own kind, the Atlanteans, he was superpowered when all things are considered because he was always able to endure more on land; he was always faster, stronger, and more durable than the rest of them. 

Being a hybrid with a regular human, one would think that Aquaman would be weaker than your average Atlantean, but that wasn’t exactly the case. The mechanisms on why Aquaman is so much more powerful are unclear, but it was explained that it’s due to his dual nature and his royal heritage. 

The fact that he is part human means that he can also spend more time outside of water, which is all things considered quite useful when you need to negotiate peace with the surface world every few centuries. 

Aquaman has to adapt to incredible pressures

Aquaman does have superhuman durability and incredibly tough skin, but it makes sense when you take into consideration his home realm. Atlantis is underwater, and such places are usually bound to have incredibly high pressure. It’s estimated that Atlantis is subject to around 15,000 psi, and a regular bullet produces around 3,000 psi of pressure, meaning that Aquman can tank bullets in no time. 

In the comics, we witnessed that Aquaman can resist small arms fire with only minor injuries but survives an RPG blowing in his face with also minor injuries. 

If you’re going to live in the deepest, most excruciating depths of the ocean, you better make sure that your skin is as tough as it comes. 

Aquaman is also resistant to scratches, bites of sea monsters, and bladed weapons to a large extent, although it is possible to injure him, perhaps even lethally, if bladed weapons can produce enough pressure, and the weapons in question have to be made out of Atlantean steel which is by default not like our own steel and has magical properties. But it’s hard to find a superhero that is completely resistant to magical or space metals and that can completely negate the powers of enchanted weapons. 

The verdict is that Aquaman’s skin is bulletproof to a large extent, and even when high-caliber bullets are concerned, he can survive them due to the fact-acting healing factor that allows him to heal most injuries before lethal damage could occur. It takes a lot more to kill him than man-made weapons. His only known devastating weakness is dehydration, like with almost all other Atlanteans. 

Aquaman is largely bulletproof in DCEU as well

The general public sort of came to take Aquaman seriously when Jason Momoa started playing him in the DCEU, and the first Aquaman movie is, to this day, one of the most successful in the Cinematic Universe. In DCEU, Aquaman is a total badass with over-the-top powers, durability, and a larger-than-life personality. But? Can he survive bullets? 

Yes, he most certainly can. In DCEU, Aquaman effortlessly resisted sharp blades, high-caliber bullets, explosions, blasts, hand grades, small arms fire, and naturally, extremely high underwater pressure, which leads us to the conclusion that his physiology is near-identical to what we’ve seen in the comics. 

He did, however, avoid rifle and shotgun fire in large measure, meaning that armor-piercing ammunition might harm him, although this wouldn’t make all that much sense since that kind of ammo cannot produce the same kind of pressure that Aquaman is able to tank daily while living where he lives. 

Like in the comics, Aquaman proved to be vulnerable to Atlantean Steel and to Orm’s blasts, once again proving that man-made weapons aren’t that much of a threat for him, but enchanted ones can prove to hurt a lot and deal significant damage. 

Is Aquaman invulnerable?

Now that we’ve summarized that it’s difficult to hurt Aquaman (at least if you’re human), that begs the question of whether he is invulnerable completely. He is not, at least not on the surface world. The longer he is without water, the less potent his powers become, and that includes strength, durability, speed, magic, marine telepathy, and pretty much everything. Dehydration can hurt him more than any other weapon can. 

Underwater, Aquaman is nearly invulnerable, but on the surface? Not quite so much. Which makes him even more interesting if I’m being honest. 

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