With the advent of DC Comics' New 52, de facto head writer (and DC Entertainment chief creative officer) Geoff Johns took on the unenviable task of reinvigorating DC's underwater superhero Aquaman. After nearly two years, Johns and his various collaborators have done so with aplomb, and it looks like with November's landmark 25th issue they're bringing back a long-lost character to the Aquaman mythos.

The beard.

As seen in the cover to the forthcoming Aquaman #25, Johns and series artist Paul Pelletier are resurrecting the sea king's salty beard for the conclusion of their "Death of a King" story-arc.

The usually clean-cut Arthur Curry first took up the beard in the mid-'90s after he withdrew from society following some revelations about Atlantis. This original beard wasn't the neatly manicured fuzz we see on Aquaman #25, however, but rather a scraggly longshoreman-like beard.

In those 1990s stories Aquaman went down a dark path once he took up that beard, at one point losing his ability to talk to sea life -- and even losing his hand. We may not know the path Johns has planned for Aquaman in 2013 and beyond, but hey ... he's rocking his beard again.

Here's a look at the Aquaman #25 cover in full.