Aquaman
Aquaman, known as The King of the Seven Seas and King of Atlantis, first appeared in DC Comics’ More Fun Comics #73 in 1941. With incredible strength and energy, combined with the ability to breathe underwater, the aquatic hero, who is also known as Arthur Curry, is a member of both the Justice League of America and The Others.
In the motion pictures Justice League and Aquaman, the role of Arthur Curry/Aquaman was played by Jason Momoa. The announced sequel Aquaman 2 is currently scheduled for a 2022 release.
Aragorn
A prominent figure in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn (also known as Strider, Elfstone, Elessar and Aragorn II) is the son of Arathorn and a descendant of the lost line of the ancient kings of Men, fated to one day claim the empty throne of Gondor. A mighty warrior in defense of Helm’s Deep, he earns the respect and admiration of Théoden, King of the Rohirrim. Aragorn’s journey forces him to face several challenges that will determine the fate of Middle-earth, on his way to being crowned King Elessar Telcontar.
In the Peter Jackson cinematic trilogy, Aragorn is portrayed by Viggo Mortensen.
Arda
The name for Earth in its prehistory, according to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings saga.
Area 51
Officially acknowledged by the CIA in August 2013 as a testing site for the government’s U-2 and OXCART aerial surveillance programs, Area 51 has been a topic of fascination for conspiracy theorists and paranormal enthusiasts since reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) began to emerge from the Nevada desert in the middle part of the 20th Century. About 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas, its name has become synonymous in popular culture with government secrecy, UFOs and aliens. In 2005, a map of the legendary area and other documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archives as part of his continuing study of aerial surveillance programs.
Arecibo message
The most powerful broadcast ever deliberately beamed out into space, the Arecibo was sent out from Puerto Rico following a major upgrade to the Arecibo Radio Telescope in 1974. The transmission included a simple pictorial message aimed roughly 21,000 light-years from Earth. The message consisted of 1,679 bits arranged into 73 lines of 23 characters each, and it was transmitted by frequency shifting at the rate of 10 bits per second. The message included a stick figure of a human, a representation of our solar system, and the make-up of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
ARG
Arkham Asylum
Located in DC Comics’ Gotham City, Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane houses a great number of Batman’s archenemies in need of treatment. Due to his talent for escaping, The Joker is one of the most frequent patients.
Arthur, King
“Artificial intelligence”
Coined in 1956 by John McCarthy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), the term refers to an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to behave as though they have human intelligence, and to perform operations such as learning and decision-making. Also known as A.I.
Artoo-Detoo
See R2-D2.
Asgard
In Norse mythology, among the Nine Worlds created by Odin and his brothers, Asgard (from the Old Norse Ásgarðr, or “Enclosure of the Aesir”) is the dwelling place of the Aesir gods and goddesses, comparable to the Greek Mount Olympus. Asgard is located in the sky (in a spiritual rather than physical sense) and is connected to Midgard (“Middle Enclosure”), the world of humanity, by the rainbow bridge Bifrost, which is guarded by the god Heimdall. The great wall around Asgard, which was built by the frost giant Hrimthurs, protects a dozen or more palaces (also known as halls) belonging to the gods, with Odin residing in great hall called Valaskjalf.
Asimov’s Corollary
See Clarke’s Laws.
Asterion
See Minotaur.
AT-AT walker
Short for “All-Terrain Armored Transport,” the four-legged combat vehicle was first seen in Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Standing over 20 meters tall with blast-impervious armor plating, these massive constructs are used by Imperial ground forces as much for intimidating psychological effect as they are for tactical advantage.
Augustus
The first historic Roman emperor was born Gaius Octavius Thurinus on September 23 in 63 BC in Velletri, 20 miles from Rome. He was known as “Octavius” in his youth, then as “Octavian” following his 44 BC adoption by his great-uncle Julius Caesar. In 27 BC, the Roman Senate conferred on him the name Augustus, which means “the exalted one.” Though Augustus never claimed the title of “emperor” for himself, he led Rome’s transformation from republic to empire during the tumultuous years following Caesar’s assassination.
Augustus’ autocratic regime is known as a principate because he took on the title of princeps, or “first citizen.” He overhauled practically every aspect of Roman life, and combined military might, institution-building and lawmaking to become Rome’s sole ruler, laying the foundations of the Pax Romana (or Roman Peace), a 200-year era of durable peace and prosperity in the Greco-Roman world. This was the dawn of the Roman empire, which lasted, in varying forms, for nearly 1,500 years.
Augustus’ father was a senator and governor in the Roman Republic, and his mother Atia Balba Caesonia was Caesar’s niece. He was raised in part by his grandmother Julia Ceasaris, Caesar’s sister. At age 16, Octavius donned the toga – the Roman sign of manhood – and began taking on responsibilities through his family connections. In 47 BC, he left Rome for Hispania (modern-day Spain) to fight alongside Caesar. Shipwrecked along the way and crossing enemy territory to reach his great-uncle, Octavius impressed Caesar enough to inspire the ruler to name him his heir and successor in his will.
Octavius, then 17, was at Apollonia (in present-day Albania) when the news of Caesar’s death arrived. In his will, Caesar had adopted him as a son and made Augustus his chief personal heir. Caesar’s allies rallied around Octavian against their powerful rival Marc Antony, but after Octavian’s troops defeated Antony’s army in northern Italy, the future emperor refused an all-out pursuit of Antony, preferring an uneasy alliance with his rival.
In 43 BC, Octavian, Antony and Marcus Aemilus Lepidus established the Second Triumvirate (the original of which Julius Caesar had been a part of before declaring power over all of Rome). The power-sharing agreement divided Rome’s territories: Antony was given rule over the East, Lepidus Africa, and Octavian the West. Historians mark the dawn of Octavian’s rule at either 31 BC, the year of his military victory at Actium, or 27 BC, when he was granted the name Augustus. Over his 40-year reign, he expanded the Roman empire by conquering territory in Europe and Asia Minor, as well as forging alliances that gave him control over geography from Britan to India.
Augustus married three times. His first marriage, to Antony’s stepdaughter Clodia Pulchra, was never consummated. His second wife Scribonia bore his only child, Julia the Elder. He divorced Scribonia in 39 BC to marry Livia Drusilla, former wife of Antony’s ally Tiberius Claudius Nero. Augustus had his stepson Tiberius briefly marry his daughter, and then adopted Tiberius outright as son and successor in 4 AD.
Augustus died in Nola (near Naples) on August 19 in 14 AD. Like Julius Caesar before him, the Roman Senate officially declared their departed emperor a god.
In the HBO series Rome, the young Augustus was portrayed by Max Pirkis, and the adult ruler was played by Simon Woods.
Auntie Entity
As portrayed by Grammy-winning recording artist and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Tina Turner in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Auntie Entity was, according to Auntie herself, a “nobody” before the final apocalyptic world war, but got her chance at becoming a “somebody” once the dust settled. A true survivor with a warrior mindset, she founded Bartertown in the wastelands of Australia and, as part of the town’s disciplinary system, invented Thunderdome with the ominous slogan: “Two men enter, one man leaves.” When “Mad” Max Rockatansky (as played by Mel Gibson) reneges on their deal after facing Blaster, the brawny half of Master Blaster, in Thunderdome, the crowd begins calling for his death. But Auntie Entity gives Max something of a chance, eventually sending him into the desert gulag to face certain death on his own. Even after Max and his companions kidnap Master and take out a good amount of Auntie’s people, she lets him live at the end, showing respect for her worthy adversary.
Austin, Steve
Created by Martin Caidin in his 1972 novel Cyborg, Steve Austin was a test pilot who was flying an experimental aircraft when it malfunctioned and crashed, severely injuring Austin. After the loss of his left eye, right arm and both legs, Oscar Goldman of the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) recruits Dr. Rudy Wells to replace Austin’s missing limbs with bionics – the replacement of damaged human body parts with mechanical prosthetics capable of not only replacing the lost function, but enhancing it to superhuman – in the hopes of reducing field agent casualties by creating a cyborg super-agent.
Austin debuted as a television character in a 1973 made-for-TV movie entitled The Six Million Dollar Man, which spawned a 1974–78 television series. Lee Majors portrayed Austin in both the movie and series, as well as three post-series made-for-TV movies.
Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
See Voice recognition software.
Automaton
- A mechanism constructed to act as if by its own motive power; robot.
- A machine or control mechanism designed to follow automatically a predetermined sequence of operations or respond to encoded instructions.
Avengers, The
Called “Earth’s mightiest super-heroes,” The Avengers are a team of rotating Marvel Comics characters who unite to battle evil and danger. Created by writer Stan Lee (who liked a huge, soap-opera interconnection between his heroes) and artist Jack Kirby (who liked drawing extended fight scenes), The Avengers #1 was published in September 1963. Lee continued writing for The Avengers until he handed the series off to Roy Thomas in 1966, and artist Don Heck ably took over the penciling reins after Kirby’s 1970 departure from Marvel. Over the next several years, Thomas worked with such notable Marvel artists as Heck, Gene Colan, John and Sal Buscema, Barry Windsor-Smith and Neal Adams. Thomas left the series after issue no. 104 (October 1972), to be succeeded by Steve Englehart. Other writers in this period included Jim Shooter (who created the Korvac Saga, a massive tale involving cosmic forces that spanned the entire Marvel universe), Roger Stern and John Byrne.
On the comics pages, The Avengers were born out of internal conflict: In the debut issue, Thor’s adopted brother, the trickster god Loki, fools The Hulk into fighting the thunder god, but soon other heroes show up. Similar to the DC Comics formula that created the Justice League of America, the heroic lineup would alter a bit from issue to issue. Marvel’s version included an original roster of Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man and Wasp, but Captain America was soon to be added. However, unlike the JLA, the Avengers would include some heroes who began as villains, such as Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. In contrast to the JLA, but representative of most Marvel lines, The Avengers were perpetually susceptible to personality shifts, bickering and traitors. They’re not held together by bonds of family like The Fantastic Four, nor mutual cause like The X-Men. In fact, it quite often seems that the members of The Avengers don’t even like each other.
By the mid-1980s, the New York-based team had reached such unwieldy proportions that a second squad, the West Coast Avengers, was formed in Los Angeles, under the initial leadership of Hawkeye. In 1989, a team of misfits styling itself as the Great Lakes Avengers debuted, but it never achieved official standing with either of the bicoastal teams. The 1990s were replete with Avengers miniseries and additional titles, including Kurt Busiek’s hugely popular 1998–99 time-spanning series Avengers Forever. Busiek chronicled most of the team’s adventures in The Avengers from 1997 to 2002, collaborating with artists such as George Pérez, Stuart Immonen and John Romita Jr., before leaving the series in the hands of writer Geoff Johns. In 2002, writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch collaborated on a reinvention of the Avengers for Marvel’s “Ultimate” line. Titled The Ultimates, the book boasted strong sales throughout its run, but initial critical enthusiasm waned as the series progressed.
The Avengers were depicted in numerous animated films and TV series, then made its live-action film debut in The Avengers (2012), directed and co-written by Joss Whedon, the creator of the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its follow-up TV series. Whedon and cast reunited for the sequel, The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). Joe and Anthony Russo, who had helmed the Marvel films Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Captain America: Civil War (2016), took over in the director’s chair for Avengers: Infinity War (2018), which incorporated the storylines from eighteen Marvel Universe films over the span of 10 years. That massive narrative arc was concluded with Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Azathoth
An H.P. Lovecraft character who is the accursed supreme dark god, known as the Outer God and the Boundless Daemon Sultan. Lovecraft wrote a short piece on Azathoth in 1922, which was published posthumously in 1938.
Azimuth
- The arc or angular distance of the horizon measured between a fixed point (such as true north) and the foot of the vertical circle passing through the center of a celestial object clockwise from the north point through 360 degrees.
- The horizontal angle or direction of a compass bearing or celestial object from the observer, expressed as the angular distance between the direction of a fixed point (such as the observer’s heading) and the direction of the object.
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