Siren
23 years ago - La Sirène la Bailene is born inside the Atlantean penal colony in Xebel. Her magical senses uniquely attune to the Xebelite magic
12 years ago - 11-year-old La Sirène is among the Atlantean refugees freed from Idyllis by Aquaman. She feels a drive to assist in the battle against the corrupt Atlantis.
11 years ago - 12-year-old La Sirène is present during the overthrow of Atlantis. Her magical senses continue to call her to destroy the city.
8 years ago - 15-year-old La Sirène first attacks Atlantis. she is stopped by Mera, who recognizes her magic as Xebelite.
7 years ago - 16-year-old La Sirène battles Garth, attempting to steal his magic. She casts him into an alternate dimension, but is defeated when he emerges several years older.
5 years ago - 18-year-old La Sirène attempts to use her mind control to take Dolphin's place in her marriage to Garth, but is defeated.
4 years ago - 19-year-old La Sirène attacks Garth in Titans Tower, nearly killing him.
3 years ago - 20-year-old La Sirène attempts to steal a Xebelite artifact from Atlantis. She is stopped by Mera, heralding her return to the throne.
While an older, classic character with the same name is starting to see a little more screen time in the current version of the comic, our version of Siren is actually going to be a weirder character that stands out a little bit more. I think we've managed to give a solid role within the mythology of Aquaman. Let us know if you agree!
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Siren's Comic HistorySiren is actually the name of two different characters. The first Siren was Mera's identical twin sister, who debuted in 1965 in the pages of Aquaman #22. The story was a pretty standard 'but which one of you is the real one?" story, mixed with some Sweet Valley High shenanigans. Siren was depicted as more of a teenage troublemaker than anything else, but the stories of that era tended to play in that arena. That's the last time she was used for several decades, only coming back when DC did their Brightest Day arc and started trolling their history for all the dead vintage characters they could find. Siren was brought back in the post New 52 Era, no longer an identical sister but sporting purple hair and now posing a much more menacing threat, which works pretty well given that Mera herself is now a far more formidable character.
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Meanwhile, a second character was created with the same name in the pages of Devin Grayson's Titans series. The book included the creation of a villain team called Tartarus built of characters designed to mirror the members of the classic Titans, and Siren was meant as the foil for Tempest. She was established as a Lwa, or a vodou spirit. She had powers of hypnosis and voice-induced mind manipulation, all stemming from her song.
While the classic Siren has experienced a comeback with the new popularity of Aquaman, we actually really like this version of the character, because well-constructed Mermaid villains are hard to come by. |
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Our Siren StoryIt's hard to deny that connecting Siren to Xebel and therefore making her a villain with clear ties to Atlantis and its various heroes is a great idea, so we decided to swerve away from the idea of her being a vodou spirit (It's just never a great idea to base a characters origins in a religion that actually exists), and instead make her magic a result of being born inside Idyllis. It's well established that many of the denizens of Atlantis are Merfolk, and this allows our version of Siren to bridge the best parts of both concepts without going so far as to actually make her Mera's twin sister. I'm sure there are people that will argue with me, but that sort of storytelling tends to just feel a little silly.
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Siren's FutureWe've wound up using Siren quite a bit in both Mera and Tempest's stories. There are several events in both characters lives that benefitted from a strong, magical enemy, and she just seemed to fit the bill over and over again. When Garth is attacked and sent into an alternate dimension where he learns his heightened magical powers from Atlan, that is Siren. When Mera has to step up and protect Atlantis in the absence of Arthur, signaling the end of her imposed banishment from the royal court... that's Siren. We even used her in the story of Garth's marriage to Dolphin, having her attempt to use her magic to take the place of the bride. She's an evil mermaid, and it just seemed to be the thing to do.
Going forward in the story, the next thing to happen in the story of Aquaman and Mera will be an adventure that involves interacting for the first time with Xebel itself. It would be a huge missed opportunity for this story to not involve Siren in some way. She may even be the catalyst for that story to begin. |
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