'Aquaman' First Look Features Jason Momoa's Superhero, Jason Momoa's Abs

Let's face it: you could cut Aquaman out of Justice League entirely and the movie doesn't change that much. However, the reluctant heir to the throne of Atlantis is getting his own solo movie from director James Wan and the first image from the film is all about showing off Jason Momoa's impossible superhero physique. If you're standing near his personal trainer, give him a pat on the back, please. Thanks.

Entertainment Weekly revealed the image, which finds the aquatic comic book superhero striding through some kind of industrial space, looking very angry. What is Arthur Curry, the half-human, half-Atlantean badass, so perturbed about? Where is he? Where did his shirt go? Why does he appear to have a chain wallet attached to his belt? It's definitely a weird first look, but Warner Bros. knows that they have a very attractive leading man and they're leading with that. After all, the nerds will go nuts for a new shot of Momoa in his Atlantean superhero armor. People who don't necessarily see comic book movies on opening weekend could find something interesting in Jason Momoa's absolutely freaking ridiculous body.

Momoa also spoke to to Entertainment Weekly about the plot of the film, which will apparently feature flashbacks to Arthur's younger days and explore exactly how a kid grows up to be a super-powered ocean man with a bad attitude:

Justice League was only a weekend in Arthur Curry's life. This is a totally different beast. In Aquaman, you see when his parents met and what happened to hem. Then the little boy being raised and finding his powers and going through that and never being accepted on either side. And then becoming this man who puts up all these walls. You just slowly see this man harden up and be completely reluctant wanting to be king and not knowing what to do with these powers he has. I think James Wan just killed it.

While I wasn't won over by Justice League (to be fair, it seems like very few people were), Momoa is a charismatic guy and he radiates movie star energy. While there are days where I feel like this take on Aquaman is too extreme of a course correction from the admittedly square original incarnation of the comic book character, today I'm feeling perfectly okay with him being a scowling, tattooed brawler with the hair of a '90s metal band frontman. Sure. Why not.

Also noteworthy: director James Wan's comments to EW, which could easily be translated as "Nope, my movie is nothing like Justice League, the movie you didn't like! Not at all!" Here you go:

It's going to look very different, it will feel very different — aesthetically, tonally, story-wise — it's my own take. It's a much more a traditional action-adventure quest movie.

I've been a Wan fan for a long time and have watched him graduate from horror movies like The Conjuring and Insidious to blockbuster spectacles like Furious 7 with ease. If anyone is going to make Aquaman work, if anyone is going to make this Aquaman work, it's him.

Aquaman will hit theaters on December 21, 2018.