I’ll admit, up until very recently, Aquaman was a blind spot for me. I loved the movie and the basic premise of the character, a man of two worlds, but I hadn’t gotten around to fully immersing myself into Atlantean lore until very recently. Thanks to the Aquaman by Geoff Johns Omnibus, I have finally taken the plunge (the puns are endless here) into this part of the DC Universe. And boy, have I been missing out.

Writer Geoff Johns and artist Ivan Reis reinvented Aquaman and Atlantis for DC’s New 52 era, beginning in 2011. Johns loves the character, and wanted to prove to the world that Aquaman was more than just the campy fish boy from Super Friends. This passion for the character clearly shines through in the series, as Arthur Curry feels like a fully-formed character with a personality that sets him apart from the rest of the Justice League.

Unlike Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and most of the Green Lanterns, New 52-era Aquaman feels very personal. Arthur has got a lot of baggage he’s trying to work through. He hasn’t quite nailed down the balance between being a public figure and a man who misses his father. His fights with Black Manta are less in the name of worldwide justice, and more in the spirit of settling an old feud.

This Aquaman doesn’t quite have the brains that we take for granted in superheroes like the Trinity, and there is something charmingly down-to-Earth about that. He is bewildered when regular people ask him for help, innocently asking them questions like, “How did you get this [phone] number?” despite their immense peril. In a way, he’s like the world’s angstiest golden retriever. This is not to say that Arthur can’t tell his right from his left, it’s more that he hasn’t gotten the whole superhero shtick down quite yet. He’s that one friend who really doesn’t know how to do small talk.

Ivan Reis’s art captures this quiet confusion behind Arthur’s eyes perfectly. While Reis makes him just as strong and handsome as you’d expect someone like Aquaman to be, he imbues Arthur with a sense of vulnerability that helps fuel our investment in him as a character. He may be impervious to human weapons like guns, but he’s just as unsure about what his place is in the world as anyone else.

What has surprised me about reading New 52 Aquaman is just how much the 2018 film takes from Johns and Reis’s run. And for good reason too! Johns introduced the terrifying monsters known as the Trench and deepened Black Manta and Aquaman’s long-standing feud. Everything I loved about the Aquaman film is in this run. (Well, except for the scene where Black Manta builds his suit while jamming out to Depeche Mode’s “It’s No Good.” That scene is just pure James Wan magic.)

Seeing so many aspects of Johns and Reis’s Aquaman reflected in the movie makes me appreciate the adaptation even more because of its obvious respect and love of the source material. Fittingly, Johns and Reis’s run clearly set out to do just that—to inspire more respect for Arthur as a character. This makes the film’s adaptation of this run such a pointed decision: they’re not just adapting any Aquaman run, but the Aquaman run that had a mission to change what we thought about the character. And the film is incredibly successful in this area.

Before I started reading Johns and Reis’s Aquaman, my knowledge and experiences with the hero had largely been in silly Silver Age comics where he was a proud father to his son, Aquababy, and called Aqualad “tadpole.” Diving headfirst into New 52 Aquaman has made me realize what makes this character so continuously relevant. Arthur Curry is constantly faced with a question of self-identification, remaining in flux based on the environment he’s in. On the Justice League, he’s expected to be an ambassador to Atlantis, but he cathartically confesses to Batman that he doesn’t see Atlanteans as his people.

In this way, Johns and Reis’s Aquaman has shown me that it’s okay to be grown and still feel unsure of your place in the world. Aquaman’s story reflects the ways in which we are highly social creatures—so much of our identity lies in how we interact with others. This truth is what makes Aquaman such a human and relatable character, even though he’s gifted with immense superpowers. The central question for the character is one that we all have to come to terms with at one point or another.

Aquaman by Geoff Johns Omnibus is available in print or as a digital graphic novel. You can also read Johns’ entire Aquaman run on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.

Jules Chin Greene writes about comics for DC.com, and his work can also be found at Nerdist, Popverse and Multiverse of Color. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @JulesChinGreene.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Jules Chin Greene and do not necessarily reflect those of DC Entertainment or Warner Bros., nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.