Mera

34 years ago - Mera is born the princess of Xebel, an alternate dimension created thousands of years ago to imprison Atlantis's ancient enemies.

31 years ago - 3-year-old Mera begins training in her people's ancient magic.

12 years ago - 22-year-old Mera's dimension in the Bermuda Triangle is breeched by Arthur Curry in an attempt to free the Idylis colonists, creating a weakness her people can exploit to escape.

11 years ago - 23-year-old Mera, the only Xebelite skilled enough to pass through the dimensional barrier imprisoning their people, leaves Xebel on a mission to assassinate the King of Atlantis. She attacks Arthur Curry, but when he doesn't kill her in retaliation she joins their crusade. She falls in love with him, and helps him take the throne.

9 years ago - 25-year-old Mera marries Arthur Curry, and becomes the Queen of Atlantis. She meets Tom Curry, Arthur's father.

8 years ago - 26-year-old Mera battles La Sirène la Bailene when she attacks Atlantis, and recognizes her magic as Xebelite.

7 years ago - 27-year-old Mera gives birth to Arthur Curry Jr., Arthur Curry's son. Orm Marius escapes Atlantis and begins amassing followers.

6 years ago - 28-year-old Mera is horribly injured when Orm Marius and Black Manta attack Atlantis. Her last memory is of Manta taking Arthur Curry Jr.

5 years ago - 29-year-old Mera recovers from her coma, and attacks Atlantis & Arthur Curry in a blind rage at the loss of her child Arthur Curry Jr until she discovers that he is still alive. She goes into seclusion with Nuidis Vulko's help, where she can focus on helping the people of the city rebuild.

3 years ago - 31-year-old Mera becomes an instructor for the Atlantean Sorcerers where she mentors Kaldur'ahm and teaches him her watershaping technique. She stops La Sirène la Bailene from stealing a Xebelite artifact from Atlantis while Arthur Curry is on the Watchtower, heralding her return to the throne, with Nuidis Vulko serving as regent. They begin teaching Arthur Curry Jr to one day take the throne.

now - 34-year-old Mera & Arthur Curry cross into Xebel when Nuidis Vulko discovers that the barriers are weakened. They discover that the Xebelites are preparing to invade

As the long-time love interest of one of the most constantly changing characters in DC, Mera has obviously undergone quite a few changes herself. Crafting a definitive story for her has depended largely on first nailing down exactly what we want Aquaman's story to be, but once that was done we were able to find some really wonderful stuff to build on. The core of her story comes from understanding that, while Mera is the love of Aquaman's life, she's also often also depicted as a truly tragic figure; a Guinevere to his King Arthur. At times, she's even almost an antagonist. Telling her story means finding the balance between her place at his side, and at his throat.

While her role as an agent of Xebel casts her as an insurrectionist and a master of a magical art unknown to the rest of Atlanteans, it's her rage when she awakens and believes her child murdered that has her at her most dangerous. This is meant to mirror the times when she would often be depicted as insane in the comic without weakening the character. Her subsequent penance is to withdraw and serve the city, and to teach her particular waterbending art to Kaldur'ahm, paving the way for the introduction of the new Aqualad.

Mera is finally getting her due in the current Aquaman comics, and we're excited to show that she was always that awesome.

Of all the characters on this website I've gone back to redo since they were originally added, Mera might have seen the biggest change to her public profile. When I originally wrote a page for her, She was just starting to be featured more prominently in Aquaman's New 52 stories, and I sincerely hoped that people would start to recognize how cool a character she could be. Since then she's become one of the core characters in the modern DC lexicon, considered to easily be as important and powerful as Aquaman himself. She's a featured character in several DC properties highlighting their female cast like DC Bombshells and DC Super Hero Girls. Aquaman comics have consistently depicted her as a co-lead in the series and made her the sole ruler of Atlantis several times. She was a secondary main character in one of the most successful of the recent slate of live-action films and the source of major controversy regarding her casting. She is one of the most common modern subjects of fanart & cosplay. When I talk to younger readers, they seem genuinely shocked that she has only recently been considered a full member of the Justice League, as though a time when the hero's love interest would be regularly sidelined doesn't even seem possible.

In short, Mera's rise to prominence is a very, very cool thing. She is of course still a part of Aquaman's cast and we are still making sure all those characters are in service to that central narrative, but hopefully we've done so in a way that highlights the unique journey she's taken.

Mera's Comic History

Mera's first appearance is in 1963 in Aquaman #11, a series created to give this Golden Age character new Silver Age adventures. She's immediately a way more exciting possible love interest than the usual faire; she's a lost princess of an extradimensional kingdom currently being usurped by her arch-nemesis Leron. Just the fact that she HAD an arch-nemesis in her first appearance really speaks to just how much more complex she was. She is also introduced right away as having an incredible water-bending ability, something that was absolutely unique to her.

She returned to her home dimension at the end of the adventure, but it was very clear that we'd be seeing more of her. Under the Comic Code of the era, superhero comics often tended to try to depict their characters in traditional family units, and it wasn't long until Aquaman, Mera, and Aqualad were joined by Aquababy and their very intelligent pet octopus Toro... creating the very familiar family dynamic comics of that era were after.

Generally, most observers of the comic industry will say that comics started to get 'darker' in the 80s, taking advantage of the newly created direct market to tell more mature stories, but I would argue that that trend actually began in 1977, right in the middle of DC's Bronze Age, in Adventure Comics #452. The death of Aquababy feels like a reaction to similar moments over in Marvel, like the 1973 death of Gwen Stacy, but the juxtaposition of seeing that death in such a classic anthology-style DC story is, I believe, the very beginning of those children-oriented comics starting to lose footing to the rising trend of stories aimed at an older audience.

For her part, Mera actually discovered that he child died in her own backup stories in the Aquaman main series. This death loomed over almost all Aquaman content published at least for the next decade, right through the Crisis, as the character had his entire narrative realigned. The (completely understandable) divide between Arthur and Mera led to a lot of interpersonal drama and to some interesting evolution for Mera, as she was no longer just the supportive love interest but a character in her own right. As Aquaman's story evolved through the 90s and 2000s under the pen of Peter David Mera was often practically a dramatic antagonist.

This persisted right to the New 52 in 2011, which dramatically enhanced Aquaman's popularity with a new, simpler story that heavily featured his relationship with Mera. Since then they've delved into making her a much more independent character, but she's become a hugely important part of that mythology, going so far as to briefly serve on the Justice League in Arthur's absence!

Our Mera Story

Mera's role in Aquaman's story is a pretty complex one, because Aquaman has been reimagined so many times. Despite the variety of approaches, however, at its core is this idea of an epic rise to power of an exiled king. That's the story we've focused on with Aquaman, and therefore that's the narrative we want Mera to focus on as well. It becomes an exercise in finding elements of her varied appearances that both serve Arthur's story, while also giving her an epic narrative of her own, always remembering that she is easily one of the most powerful characters to exist in this story.

We've chosen to focus on the idea that she is actually a sworn enemy of Atlantis and of Arthur, won over by his cause and by Arthur himself. This is a fantastic fantasy trope, even evoking classic and Shakespearian fiction with Theseus & Hippolyta. It creates room for Mera to be almost unprecedentedly powerful because she might actually become a threat to Atlantis. It also makes their love story a classic enemies-to-lovers arc, and I don't think I have to explain to any modern readers how great those are.

This is one of the longest-lasting couples in comics, and we tried our best to depict that long history in a way that didn't undermine their underlying relationship. Their circumstances might continually challenge them, but in the end they find their greatest strength together.

Mera's Future

As we finish our timeline, Arthur and Mera are about to set forth on a new adventure together, traveling into her home dimension of Xebel, which is preparing to invade Atlantis. This is obviously a very Mera-focused story, letting her backstory actually drive the narrative, and while we talked about using this as a way to introduce some of the more magical Aquaman abilities, I actually imagine the opposite might be true of Mera. She doesn't need any sort of catalyst to become a more physically intimidating character, but this can be a cool place to highlight those abilities she's had the whole time. I imagine the story will also let us really draw attention to the fact that Mera actually is the heir to an entire throne of her own.

Once they are back in Atlantis and the aftermath of that story is playing out... Arthur and Mera will be like a lot of heroes of their generation, focusing on raising their child. I do, however, imagine that even as Nightwing and his generation become the new premiere heroes of the time, Arthur's generation of heroes will likely have some sort of organization that might bring them together occasionally. I think it would be very cool if, when that happens, it's actually Mera who answers that call.

Related Characters

Vulko