About

Garth was initially known as Aqualad, Aquaman's teenage partner, and like many other such 'kid sidekicks' popular in the Silver Age, his powers originally varied very little from his mentor. Aqualad was a founding member of the Teen Titans.

Garth's origin is similar to that of his mentor. He is an amphibious humanoid who was left to die because of ancient Atlantean superstition and prophecy. Tempest is the prince and heir to the throne of the Idyllists, a colony of Atlanteans who settled in the Hidden Valley 4,000 years ago. There, nestled in the capital city of Shayeris (formerly Crastinus), the pacifist Idyllists became rabid builders and collectors, architects and artisans, and eschewed physical violence at all costs. The Idyllists were also practitioners of magic and kept an extensive library of mystical texts and scrolls.

Approximately four decades ago, King Thar and his wife Queen Berra became the reigning monarchs of Shayeris, the capital of The Hidden Valley of colonies. Thar had inherited the throne and access to ancient magical energies that his brother Zath, a powerful magician in his own right, believed to be rightfully his. Zath practiced dark sorcery and necromancy and was eventually banished from the Hidden Valley. His body transformed into a disgusting half-human form, Zath, renamed Slizzath, returned to Shayeris twenty years later with an army of undead. He planned to invade the Hidden Valley and transform it into a necropolis he would rule.

King Thar knew of this and assembled an armory of robots and weapons to stop his demented brother. But the Idyllist radicals killed him and banished his pregnant wife Berra back to Atlantis. Before Thar was killed, however, he was able to cast a magical spell that trapped Slizzath in an otherdimensional prison. Unfortunately, this spell was linked to a magical ritual which would give his offspring access to incredible mystical powers and accessing that ritual would give Slizzath the energy required to break free of his prison. So word was sent out that all babies born with purple eyes, the Idyllist mark of power, should be banished and killed, lest they try to perform the access ritual and accidentally free Slizzath and his undead army. The Idyllists also claimed that Thar had gone insane to hide their complex, fearful plan.

In Poseidonis, one of the domed cities of Atlantis, Queen Berra gave birth to her baby boy, Garth, who was born with purple eyes. The Atlanteans claimed Garth had been born genetically inferior and sentenced him to death on a seabed leagues away from Atlantis. It has been speculated that with the assistance of Aquaman's father, the Atlantean sorcerer Atlan, the young Garth not only survived but thrived, learning language and survival rituals to keep the young boy from going feral as he scavenged his way through the undersea. Garth developed an intense fear of schools of fish, however, which haunted him into his teens

Tempest possesses superhuman strength, allowing him to lift about 8 tons on dry land.[9] He can survive at depths of up to 3,400 feet below surface level. His body contains fluids that adjust to give him buoyancy at varying depths. His body also produces gases that push out against the ocean pressures as heavily as they push in, preventing him from being crushed at great depths. His body is also highly impervious to physical injury. His bloodstream is filled with an amino acid that keeps his body from freezing in the ocean depths, although his own temperature is naturally quite high, allowing his muscles the heat they need to swim at such high speeds. Tempest can swim at speeds of 73.86 knots (or 85 MPH or even 136.79 km/h). Tempest has excellent close range vision and he can see particularly well in low light. He is partially color blind, almost unable to distinguish between black, green, and blue. His sense of hearing is particularly acute, although, because the rate sound travels on dry land is different than beneath the water, his hearing is directly linked to his vision. He also has a powerful sense of smell. Tempest breathes by extracting oxygen from the water through tiny pores in his skin.

Tempest also has magical abilities; he can project powerful purple energy blasts from his eyes; he can manipulate water currents (e.g., he can create whirlpools) and can boil or freeze vast bodies of water. His powers also include sensing magical energies, postcognition, telepathy, dimensional travel, limited telekinesis, demonic summoning, and astral projection. Tempest's powers are so great that he was once able to teleport the entirety of Atlantis into the past during the Imperiex War; further, the villainous Darkseid used him as a conduit to