When it comes to the Aquaman series in DC Comics, the villain Black Manta kills Aquababy, the son of Arthur Curry Jr. and Queen Mera. Fans are wondering whether the movie Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will follow the same story arc.

DC fans are ready for some dark plot points to be introduced in the new Aquaman movie that debuted its first trailer on Thursday. In the trailer, Arthur was seen becoming a father with a rosy-cheeked boy. In the same trailer, actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was seen portraying the role of Aquaman’s sworn nemesis, Black Manta.

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The following are some of the reactions from fans to the trailer:

However, DC is known to play it safe when it comes to plot points, choosing not to venture into the morbid side of things too often. So there is no way to tell if DC will actually follow through with its original plot from the comics.

Coming back to comics, the death of Aquababy occurs in Aquaman: Death of a Prince, which was a serialized Aquaman saga that began as an Adventure Comics backup feature and eventually grew popular enough to revive the main Aquaman series. The saga was not given a name during its original publication, although it eventually received a collected edition in 2020.

In it, Black Manta kidnaps Aquababy and suffocates him in oxygen while Aquaman is forced to fight Aqualad to the death. He put the infant inside a sphere and slowly filled it with air. As Aquababy was unable to breathe outside of water, he eventually died. After the fight, Aquaman discovered that Aquababy was dead. 

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Aquaman seeks revenge against Manta with the help of a disillusioned mercenary named Cal Durham, although he decides against killing him at the last second. The death of their child also drives a wedge between Aquaman and Mera as she holds him responsible at first. However, they reconcile as they fight Ocean Master together and she remembers that she loves him.

The murder of Aquababy was the watershed moment in the saga that changed the Aquaman storyline forever. Aquaman buried Aquababy at Mercy Reef because it was the same place where he had been left as a child to die. Black Manta would later destroy Mercy Reef.

Aquaman and Mera also end up having a second child later, a baby girl named Princess Mareena. Aquaman ends up being overprotective of Mareena because he doesn’t want her to get murdered like his last son.