http://www.killermovies.com/forums/f98/t492197.html

I’ve been a pretty avid reader of this character and some Aquaman lore and it’s pretty notable in various forums that many mistake this character and his abilities to begin with. After a bit of digging, I found this respect thread has been a source of misconception one way or another.

One issue is that people can’t get a clear distinction of his power level and I see in battle forums that many assume he is usually “amped”, which is not the case. Both Pre and New 52, He has operated under his own power though there’s context to consider.

First and foremost; Arion’s powers revolve around pulling from a source. From Warlord #55 - Arion, Lord of Atlantis #10 , this source is usually defined from being of stellar (solar) sources. During this period, he is only amped in issue #8 of Arion, Lord of Atlantis from Calculha’s crystal ball in which he destroys in the same issue. Also to note; some of his power was in flux in Warlord early on as Calculha’s test of his worthiness of assuming his place among gods (retconned to be a test that has him chosen as an agent of Order).

Between #9-#33 in his solo and a few outside appearances, Arion is nearly completely depowrered and is reliant on his father’s crystal shards, chant-based spells, his gemstone, and pulling from esoteric sources or godly sources (An entry from Who’s Who defines he can pull power from all kinds of sources) though he struggles consistently throughout the series to sufficiently energize his power.

From #33 to his special, Arion operates at full power and is expressed to be more powerful than his earlier appearances at full power, now pulling from Darkworld (there’s misinformation stating that it’s his mother’s dimension, which it is not; Darkworld is a dimension created by a cosmic being’s dream. The dreams were powerful enough to generate magical energy and spawn its own gods; those Gods included Calculha, Chaon, Deedra, Jheryl, etc. Majistra wanted to adopt Darkworld’s magic as her own and pull from it as a source. She’s actually a goddess born on Earth). However, changes in Darkworld left him depleted again for 45,000 years.

In the modern era (Arion the Immortal #1 onward in both his limited series and outside that like Aquaman and Wonder Woman), he regained the power he had from Arion #33 onward and operated under his power until his death. He was NOT amped by Morgana Le Fey (an issue in Wonder Woman only showed her to place him in mind control) and I wouldn’t even count most of Mordru’s showing in his body. He does use a spell of Arion’s creation while in his body to sap away Fate’s own prior to taking his power (Onyx Hunger) but that’s about it.

The past version of Arion that fought Superman originating from the 1600 chronologically falls under after Arion lost his power until Arion the Immortal #1 so he’s depowered and is reliant on objects providing magic to cast spells. He’s not amped since he relies on items to operate at that point. There is a level of prep involved because of it though.

Tldr; Arion’s power is being a leech of sorts and is depowered consistently. It’s not often his character is actually amped like people believe in threads I’ve read.