The DC Comics cosmic zombie vs. superhero
megaseries BLACKEST NIGHT and its sequel BRIGHTEST DAY have thrust several B-list characters into the spotlight.
Chief among these characters is Queen
Mera of Atlantis.
This stunning red-haired beauty has been a supporting player in the DC Universe for almost fifty years.
She is generally known as a footnote in the
Aquaman mythos.
Though after the DC "reboot" in a few weeks there is a good chance that
Mera will be an A-list character in her own right.
Let's take a look at the history of this unique character.
Mera first appeared in
AQUAMAN Vol. 1, #11 (September 1963) as an undersea queen from another dimension. That teen in red and blue is
Aqualad,
Aquaman's original underwater sidekick.
Mera was deposed and exiled to Earth, where she met the king of Atlantis,
Aquaman (Arthur Curry aka Orin).
The two were taken prisoner and after being rescued,
Mera decided to stay on Earth with
Aquaman, as the two began to fall in love.
Within several issues, the two were soon wed in gala ceremony attended by the Who's Who of the DC Universe.
Mera and Arthur enjoyed several adventures together over the months that followed.
She often overshadowed him on the cover.
Within months,
Mera gave birth to
Aquababy, Arthur Curry, Jr..
With junior around, there was now an
Aquaman family.
Things seemed to go along
swimmingly for a while.
The
Aquafamily continued to face unusual rivals.
Presenting: The Fire-Haired Karla!!!
Above is an awesome cover, though this seems to start a trend where
Mera is victimized and
Aquaman must come to rescue her.
See what I mean?
And again.
Oh, here's the incredible shrinking
Aquaman. Unfortunately his comic book series was soon canceled and
Mera was in left in limbo for a few years.
Things took a turn for the grim when
AQUAMAN's title was revived in the 1970s.
Aquaman's nemesis Black Manta kidnapped the
Aquababy (
Aquaman vol. 1 ,#60) and the couple fought against all odds to rescue and save his life. They failed.
Mera appeared in a series of solo adventures in the back pages of her husband's title during this period.
Mera then suffered a breakdown, abandoning her husband and blaming him for the baby's death. Their marriage was dissolved and
Aquaman soon left Atlantis, but
Mera stayed behind.
After a while
Aquaman tried to make peace with
Mera, but she savagely attacked him. In a desperate attempt to defend himself,
Aquaman accidentally impaled
Mera, believing that he killed her.
She in fact survived and later rose from her coffin, eventually leaving Earth.
We later found out that she was captured and held in yet another dimension, having had another son named
AJ!!!.
After this escape she faced some evil sorcerers who stole her powers, forcing her live up on the surface world for a while.
Mera was now part of Arthur's life and adventures once more.
She even had a brief affair with his son (from another relationship)!
Things seems to normalize for a while when
Aqualad (now Tempest) married Dolphin,
Aquaman's ex-lover.
Mera appeared alongside
Aquaman, Tempest, Lori
Lemaris, Power Girl and
Arion the Immortal in a JUSTICE LEAGUE OF ATLANTIS one-shot.
After all this,
AQUAMAN was cancelled yet again and Arthur was thought to be dead for a while.
After a few years, he resurfaced. He was actually in a time warp, and The Justice League managed to rescue him - and he was awarded his own title once more.
After the INFINITE CRISIS,
Mera somehow regained her powers and led a army of
Atlantian rebels - and teamed up with a new sword-wielding
Aquaman. Her former husband, Arthur was
soon transformed into a squid-faced freak and was eventually killed. Again.
In BLACKEST NIGHT storyline, at the request of Tempest (remember him?)
Mera reluctantly allows
Aquaman's Earthly remains to be returned to Atlantis.
However before they can do so, they are attacked by zombie
Aquaman,
Aquagirl (she died during CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS) and Tempest's wife Dolphin (she also died at
some point) who have been brought back to life as cosmic zombies called Black Lanterns.
Tempest is killed by
Tula (
Aquagirl) and instantly transformed into a Black Lantern as well.
Mera manages to escape with the Trident of Poseidon and flees to
JLA headquarters where she begins a cosmic adventure alongside The Atom. During the battle,
Mera is chosen as a deputy officer of the Red Lantern Corps!
In the process she gets a great new red costume and a whole slew of new powers. Following the events of BRIGHTEST DAY and FLASHPOINT, the DC Universe is "rebooted" and a new AQUAMAN series is slated to begin, with Mera as his co-star once again.
Normally, Mera can breathe underwater, possesses enhanced density and muscle mass, granting her enhanced speed and reflexes as seen in his Hostess Fruit Pie ad.
And here she is on a jigsaw puzzle! Aside from comics, Mera's appeared on Filmation's SUPERMAN/AQUAMAN HOUR in the late 1960s. In the 2000s she appeared in three episodes of the JUSTICE LEAGUE animated series. Recently she made a brief cameo as part of Atlantis's royal family on an episode of Cartoon Network's BATMAN: BRAVE &THE BOLD.
So there you have it, the almost 50-year history of Mera in one blog post. She's a real catch!
Courtesy of writer Martin Pasko and artists Jose Delbo and Vince Colletta, this epic meeting of two gay icons could only be rivaled by the year Comic Con and San Diego Pride occurred on the same weekend! The sad story goes like this...singer actress Julie Gabriel is infamous for being late to movie sets and for throwing temper tamtrums–but somehow the people, the fans still love her. Sound familiar?
Her put-upon husband/manager tries to talk her out of quitting her latest gig–a film about the United Nations. She shows him who's boss by downing some pills! Oh no, Julie!!!
After evil fire god Hephaestus (the guy with the flaming fist pictured on the cover of Issue 226) causes chaos on the film set, Wonder Woman shows up and saves the day! Afterwards in her secret identity of U.N. representive Diana Prince, she makes friends with Julie, who invites her for a drink. Suffering Sappho!!!
After a cliffhanger, things pick up in the very next issue as Julie rehearses for her big night at Carnegie Hall with her gay choreographer.
After some gay-bashing humor, Julie gives Diana two tickets for her Carnegie Hall concert!
Diana when pays Julie a surprise visit before her show, she gets accused of being "a little meshugginah"! Then she transforms into WW before Julie's eyes! Oh no, anytime Diana reveals her secret identity to someone, trouble follows!!!
I'm not sure if Julie is wearing pants in these scenes as WW compels Julie to give a mediorce performance! Great Hera!!!
And then the big show begins. 
Diana takes Steve Howard as her date (He's really Steve Trevor, who was recently brought back to life by the gods). JULIE! JULIE! JULIE!
Despite Diana's spell, Julie's fans love her just the same, and they begin to clamor for her to sing her signature tune, "Confetti"...but soon the stage catches on fire thanks to old cranky Hephaestus!
"Confetti" concludes, Hephaestus is captured by WW and poor Julie is reduced to a pile of ashes.
The End. Too bad Julie didn't rise from the dead during BLACKEST NIGHT.
