Mera (DC Comics)

Mera is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Jack Miller and Nick Cardy, the character first appeared in Aquaman #11 (September 1963) as a queen of the sea. Mera was ranked 81st in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.

Character Biography
Mera is the former Queen of Dimension Aqua (Xebel), Queen of Atlantis, and wife of DC Comics superhero Aquaman. Mera also has a twin sister named Hila.

In her first chronological appearance, Mera is shown to be fleeing the criminal Leron, who seized control of her kingdom, when she arrives on Earth and meets Aquaman and Aqualad, who vow to help her. Leron captures them, imprisoning Aquaman and Mera in Dimension Aqua. Aided by the water spirit known as Quisp, Aquaman manages to free Mera and defeats Leron. Mera abdicates the throne of Xebel to Queen V'lana, and returns to Atlantis to marry Aquaman. Soon after, they had a son named Arthur Curry, Jr., also known as Aquababy. A few years later, Black Manta kidnapped Aquababy and trapped him inside a translucent tank designed to suffocate him. Desperate to save her son, Vulko sends Mera on an ambitious crusade to her homeworld to find the scientist Xebel, who has the components for a special healing device that could save her son. When she arrives, she discovers that her kingdom has been taken over by the traitorous Leron, who has taken Sebel hostage, casting him and the artifacts into the Great Pit. Mera braves the pit and defeats Leron and his elemental monsters in order to retrieve the device. Sadly, she returns to Atlantis too late, finding her son dead.

Although their son's death created a rift between Aquaman and Mera, they tried relocating to a flooded city on the East Coast to start a new life together. It was during this time that Aquaman left to reform the Justice League in Detroit. Becoming more unstable with grief, she was committed to an asylum in Atlantis. Shortly afterwards an alien force of sentient giant jellyfish took control of the city. During Aquaman's battle to free them, Mera escapes and savagely attacks him, blaming his "weak genes" for their son's death.

While defending himself, he accidentally pushes her on an upturned piece of metal. Believing her dead, he has her placed inside a coffin and taken to the royal palace. However, she survived, due to her alien physiology. Rising from her coffin, she bitterly reminds Aquaman how little he really knew of her. No longer seeing any reason to remain on Earth, Mera leaves Atlantis and returns to Dimension Aqua.

New origins
In Brightest Day, Mera's origin is revisited with new revelations, expanding upon some elements and writing off others as deceptions and lies fed to Aquaman by Mera herself. Instead of being the Queen of Dimension Aqua, Mera is now the older princess of Xebel, a forgotten extradimensional penal colony for an ancient group of separatist Atlanteans, banished behind a sealed portal in the Bermuda Triangle. Trained since birth, along with her younger sister Siren, Mera was sent by the King of Xebel, who was unable to send more than one soldier at a time through a small fissure in spacetime to the main universe. They were to confront the current King of Atlantis and kill him in retaliation for the exile of their common people. However, the plan backfired when Mera fell truly in love with Arthur, deliberately choosing to keep claiming her cover story as her real past to avoid frictions with him.

However, on several occasions, like Aquababy's death, Mera's deep-seated hatred for Atlantis and its royal family was re-ignited, sparking the bouts of apparent insanity and angry lashing at her husband for his "weakness". It is also hinted that Black Manta had a long-lasting feud with Xebel's people; despite Aquaman believing for years to have been the cause of Aquababy's death, Mera still thinks that her son was killed to get back at her birth family.

During one of the several attempts to escape en masse from the Bermuda Triangle portal, the people of Xebel are ordered to capture and experiment on several land-dwellers, including the future Black Manta. During these grueling experiments a young hybrid, son of Black Manta and an unnamed woman, was born. While Mera's father wanted to experiment on the child, using his hybrid nature to escape from the barrier, Mera took pity on little Kaldur'ahm and, adding a new reason of friction between herself and her birth family, kidnapped Kaldur'ahm to give him to a caring family on the surface. Mera didn't meet Kaldur'ahm again for many years, until a now adolescent Kaldur'ahm was discovered by the Xebel army, forcing Mera to return in his aid.

Return of the Queen
During Peter David's Aquaman run in the 1990s, Mera is revealed to be in the hellish dimension called the Netherworld, where she is brainwashed by Thanatos, an old enemy of her husband. Time passes differently in the Netherworld and she has apparently had a second son whom she refers to as only "AJ". AJ appears to be about 8–10 years old and it is not known if his father is Aquaman or Thanatos. Eventually, Mera and AJ break free of Thanatos' control, but find that they cannot stay on Earth due to AJ's accelerated aging. Mera and AJ again leave Earth for parts unknown. When next shown later in the series, Mera and AJ are on Oceanid, a waterworld that is being exploited by aliens for its resources. Mera and AJ team up with Aquaman to defeat the aliens and Mera chooses to stay with her former husband in Atlantis, while AJ remains behind on Oceanid to act as its protector and champion, assuming the role of Aquaman.

Mera and Arthur eventually reconcile, living in Atlantis and continuing to have adventures together, including a trip to Skartaris, where they team up with Travis Morgan, The Warlord. They appear to form a true royal family along with Tempest (Garth of Shayeris) and his wife, Dolphin (Aquaman's former lover). Mera participates in the delivery of Garth and Dolphin's son, Cerdian, during this peaceful time. Unfortunately, the Aqua-family's happiness is cut short due to the events depicted in DC's "Obsidian Age", Infinite Crisis, and "One Year Later" storylines.

Following these events, Mera is shown leading a rebel faction in the rebuilding of Atlantis, which was destroyed by the Spectre in Infinite Crisis. Mera appears in the Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis series during which Aquaman (having been transformed into the Dweller of the Depths during DC's World War III mini-series) appears to perish. Members of the JLA visit Atlantis to give their condolences and Mera is not referenced in DC comics until the "Prelude to Blackest Night" story in Titans #15, where it is revealed that she is in mourning for Arthur. This story also reveals that Dolphin and Cerdian died during the destruction of Atlantis.

The New 52

In The New 52, the 2011 relaunch and retcon of DC Comics' entire superhero line, a greatly disillusioned Aquaman, distressed by the rejection faced from his fellow Atlanteans and his poor standing as a superhero, often ridiculed because of his shortcomings and less than glamorous superpowers, decides to return to Amnesty Bay. Mera follows him, helping her husband try to find a new place in the world, despite being saddled from the same ill reputation as the almost useless "Aquawoman". It is shown that Mera has difficulty adjusting to society on the outside world and severe problems controlling her anger. She also aids Arthur and The Others in trying to uncover the mystery behind the sinking of Atlantis and fights against Black Manta, who tries to obtain the ancient artifacts of Atlantis.

Following the Throne of Atlantis storyline, Mera is approached by the police force to arrest her again for violent assault following an outburst of temper in town. Mera and the police officers discuss civic virtues and she is confronted by Officer Watson (who knew Aquaman when they were at school) who reasons with her and tells her to stop being hostile. She also tells her that she needs to respect the law and society on the surface. As Mera concedes, she and the police officers are attacked with the winter storm by the Dead King who demands her to lead him to the Xebel location. The Dead King drags Mera to the Bermuda Triangle and opens the Xebel barrier, but Mera manages to escape from the Dead King. When Mera returns to her previous home of Xebel to warn them, it is revealed that she was betrothed to Nereus, who is the current king of Xebel.

He asks Mera "Where the hell have you been?". Nereus is angered when he discovers Mera is on the side of Atlantis and Aquaman's lover. Mera and Nereus are frozen in ice by the Dead King. Aquaman arrives to free Mera and confronts the Dead King, who turns out to be the first king of Atlantis who plans to rule the Seven Seas once more. During the fight, Mera frees Nereus and Xebel soldiers to help Aquaman against the Dead King, but Nereus and Xebel soldiers are bowing to the Dead King, claiming he is the true king of the Seven Seas.

When Mera and Aquaman escape from Xebel soldiers and arrive at Atlantis, it is under attack by Scavenger and his men. Aquaman tells Atlantean to fall back using his physical force ability to summon the Kraken that attacked Scavenger's men. However, Aquaman is unconscious when the Dead King and Xebel soldiers arrive. Aquaman revives with Vulko on the surface world, but Vulko reveals to him that he has been in a coma for six months. Aquaman asks what happened to Mera after six months; Vulko said he saw Mera was facing the Dead King.

Later, Mera is imprisoned by the Dead King and Xebel soldiers are controlling Atlantis. Mera refuses to marry Nereus and warns that she will kill him if she is released. Aquaman arrives to free Mera and the Atlanteans, and they battle the Dead King and Xebel soldiers. When the Dead King is destroyed, Nereus and Xebel soldiers retreat, and Mera reunites with Aquaman and decides to remain in Atlantis.

Powers and Abilities
Mera has the unique ability to form "hard water" objects, as well as super strength and powers related to her adaptation to live under water. She has been shown to be powerful enough to control, albeit briefly, huge amounts of water, enough to pull an entire army out to sea. Due to her intended role as an infiltrator and a killer, Mera received extensive training in Xebel, becoming a formidable opponent on her own.

Weaknesses
Earlier stories placed some limits on Mera's abilities, such as susceptibility to lead. However, her main weakness was her struggle with mental insanity, made more apparent after A.J.'s death. Once suspected to be the lingering effect of the psychotic breakdown suffered for the loss of her only son, with Mera blaming Arthur for his shortcomings.