Precinct1313 Recommends: Mera – Queen Of Atlantis #1

Welcome back to our Women’s History Month extravaganza, where we commemorate and celebrate the important contributions of Women throughout Human history… a special event set up by the scintillating and sensational scribe, and bombastic blogging buddy – Cupcakes and Machetes.

And, whilst you’re here, why don’t you join me in basking in the illuminatingly illustrious illustrations of the nuanced and non-comparable Nicola Scott! Nicola truly is an absolutely astonishing artist and is one of my personal favourite illustrators in comics today, her recent work on the Wonder Woman Rebirth series, alongside fellow artist Liam Sharp, was seriously breathtaking… as is her cover for Mera: Queen Of Atlantis #1, a new six issue mini-series from DC Comics.

Unfortunately Nicola’s involvement in the comic itself stops at the cover… fortunately, interior artist – Lans Medina is a rather wonderful penciller in his own right, so the visuals throughout are great.

Writer Dan Abnett has been absolutely killing it with his fantastic run on DC’s Aquaman recently, which makes him the obvious choice as lead on Mera’s first ever solo series. Aquaman has beautifully blended both political intrigue and action, which now sees the once King of Atlantis removed from his throne and leading a resistance force against the tyrannical and despotic new leader. Mera because of the coup finds herself cut off from her Atlantean people, ostensibly a Queen in exile, and to add insult to injury, due to magical intervention, she also finds her powers weakened and has seemingly lost her innate ability to survive underwater.

As the  brutal Atlantean civil war rages on, Mera finds herself thrust into the position of keeping the peace between the surface world and Atlantis as the newly anointed Queen in exile. But when Aquaman’s brother Orm, a.k.a The Ocean Master, learns of the fate that besets his homeland, he will let nothing deter him from returning to Atlantis as it’s King and saviour.

Dan Abnett and Lans Medina present a tense and action packed first issue, with some lovely art, great pacing and an intriguing protagonist. Mera is long overdue her time in the limelight. So with this six issue mini-series and her recent small but momentous role in last years Justice League movie (with the Atlantis Queen ably portrayed by actress Amber Heard) plus the fact that we’ll be seeing a lot more of Amber’s take on the Atlantean with a significantly larger part in December with DC’s Aquaman movie hitting the big screen, you could say the tide has finally turned for Mera, she’s really started making waves… (sorry!)

Mera is copyright: DC Comics