The Trench (comics)

The Trench is the name applied to both a fictional kingdom, and its inhabitants as a group, that escaped the destruction of Atlantis in DC comics.

The Trench
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceAquaman Vol. 7 #1 (Nov. 2011)
Created byGeoff Johns

Publication history

The Trench first appeared in Aquaman (vol. 7) #1 (Nov. 2011) and were created by Geoff Johns.[1] In September 2011, The New 52 had rebooted DC's continuity. Johns introduced the Trench into this new timeline, making them antagonists in the Aquaman series.

Fictional biography

The Trench are a race of vicious, cannibalistic, ocean-dwelling creatures that rose from their domain, beneath the ocean floor in search of food and devoured anything that's in their way. With their first attack, they demonstrate a complete lack of empathy, relying on only the primal instinct to feed, even eating their own slain brethren. All the creatures seem to be similar with the exception of one alpha member of the race. When that alpha member marks its food, they others back off. After massacring a boat and local fishing community, the police call in Aquaman and Mera to help investigate. The police divers eventually find what looks to be a cocoon in the water, which contains many creatures of the Trench. While fighting off the creatures' attacks, the alpha marks Aquaman as food to be brought back to the ocean floor, where they originated.[2]

Aquaman fiercely battles the alpha as Mera holds off the rest. The alpha calls for a retreat with their captured food as they dive back into the deep. Aquaman takes one of their fallen to be further examined. Mera and Arthur dive into the Trench to save the townspeople. They discover a crashed Atlantean ship that had been attacked by the creatures. They also find the spawn of the Trench creatures to be sick and dying. Arthur and Mera then discover the throne room/breeding chamber where the Queen and her alpha King are. The Trench creatures were just trying to gather enough food for their Queen's children. Aquaman rips off the roof of the cave containing the cocooned townspeople and heads to the surface. The Trench, their King and Queen follow them as Arthur triggers a volcanic reaction with his trident. The Trench begins to collapse as Arthur seals it with another large rock.[3]

The Throne of Atlantis

During the battle between Atlantis and the surface city of Gotham, The Trench were released from their undersea prison by an unknown player to be used against both sides in the war of the two worlds. Arthur had been investigating involvement regarding the Dead King's Scepter he'd attempted to intercept during an exchange between Black Manta and a mysterious Atlantean convoy who made off with it, only for The Trench to later attack both the surface world and the armies of Atlantis at Vulko's command. The latter of whom revealing himself to have started the whole conflict in the first place using the scepter he bought off of manta.

Which he was using to guide the latter invading force against both Atlantis and the world at large as vengeance, in part against Stephen Shin for outing Arthur for public notoriety and against Atlantis itself for denouncing him after Aquaman bequeathed the throne to his younger brother Orm. After having bested the former king, the Justice League presented a relenting Vulko to Arthur who willingly handed his belated king the sceptre he used to unseal said deep dwellers to aid in his gambit to put Aquaman back on the throne.

But after hearing all of this, Arthur harshly reprimanded his former adviser backhanding him into a ruined street utterly disgusted by Vulko's lack of abandon at his plans which cost hundreds of thousands their lives. With the scepter in hand using it in conjunction with his own psionic capacities, Arthur ordered to trench back into the ocean depths. Awaiting their chance to rise again.[4]

Death of a King

Aquaman uses the Dead King's Trident to command the Trench and help him fight the Xebel and the Dead King, banking on the fact that while the relic itself doesn't directly move them into action but acts as an instinctive imprint relating to subconscious subservience to the first monarch of said kingdom.

Aquaman loses control of the Trench when the Dead King's Scepter is destroyed. It is also revealed that the Trench are one of the three surviving kingdoms of Old Atlantis along with the Xebelians and Atlantians. When Atlan plunged the seven kingdoms of Atlantis into the ocean, the survivors initially believed four of the kingdoms were destroyed, and the other three survived and adapted to their new conditions with 90% of the Atlanteans dying from the event. The Trench were one of the three surviving kingdoms, a mutated form of humans who survived Atlan's destruction of his city decades ago, by mutating into monsters.[5]

Powers and abilities

The Trench have adapted to underwater life like all the Atlantean kingdoms. They can generate bio-luminescent light from their bodies and spit a chemical from their mouth that causes paralysis. The Trench have razor-sharp teeth and needle-tipped claws that can cut through anything.

Known Trench
  • Trench King - The King of the Trench.[6] Killed by Ocean Master.[7]
  • Trench Queen - The Queen of the Trench. She was killed when Aquaman threw his trident into the volcanic fissure under her.[8]

In other media

Film

Live-action
  • The Trench appear in 2018 American superhero film Aquaman. They are one of the known tribes of Atlantis alongside the Atlanteans, the Xebel tribe, the Fisherman tribe, the Brine tribe, the Deserter tribe, and the Forgotten tribe. Atlanna is sacrificed to the Trench for having a half-breed son, but she survived and escaped to the Hidden Sea. Later in the film on their quest to find the lost Trident of Atlan, Aquaman and Mera are attacked by a legion of amphibious monsters identified as Trench. They fend off the attack and reach a wormhole that transports them to the Hidden Sea located at the center of the Earth. Later, Aquaman is seen commanding the Trench along with Karathen and other marine animals in battle against Orm and his followers. The Fisherman Princess Scales made note of it to King Nereus to which he quote is impossible. Some of the Trench are killed by Orm.
  • In February 2019, Warner Bros. announced that a "horror-tinged" spin-off called The Trench was in development. Wan will produce while Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald were asked to pen the script. The movie will focus on the amphibious monsters that Arthur and Mera faced in the film.[9]

Animated

The Trench appears in the animated film Justice League: Throne of Atlantis. A group of them appear to attack Arthur Curry and Mera though the group is killed. They are later seen throwing Mera, Aquaman, and the Justice League to the Dark Trench. Some Trenchers arrive at the edge of Atlantis only to be met by Aquaman and Mera.

Video games
  • The Trench also has a minor appearance in the video game Injustice 2. In Black Manta's ending, a small group of them are seen swimming towards Brainiac's sunken ship when Black Manta says he found a place where Atlantis would be forgotten forever.
  • A Trench member appears in Lego DC Super-Villains. It appears as part of the "Aquaman" DLC.

References
  1. Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 311. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
  2. Aguaman Vol. 7 #1 (Nov. 2011). DC Comics.
  3. Aguaman (Vol. 7) #7
  4. Justice League (vol. 2) #15 (Feb. 2013) and #17 (Apr. 2013). DC Comics.
  5. Aguaman Vol. 7 #25 (January 2014). DC Comics.
  6. Aquaman Vol. 7 #2. DC Comics.
  7. Justice League Vol. 2 #17. DC Comics.
  8. Aquaman Vol. 7 #4. DC Comics.
  9. Kit, Borys (February 8, 2019). "'Aquaman' Spinoff 'The Trench' in the Works (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
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