When I first met her I was a gawky 5th grader following Aquaman and mooning over Aqualad. I wanted a seahorse instead of a pony. Mera had the coolest superpower I had ever seen (and I had seen many). I tried to imitate it in my imagination, but all I could come up with was shooting jets of water from my fingertips and calling myself Water Lass. I know. Lame-o. But Mera inspired me. She hit my adolescent radar and stayed there.
As a young reader I really enjoyed the adventures of the Aqua Family. Those were innocent times and innocent stories. Aquababy burbled "goo goo ga" and Mera was a loving mommy. If there were any real serious aspects to the stories they went right over my pre-teen head. But I sure noticed the Nick Cardy art! His depictions of Mera are in my memories forever.
Eventually I came to hold editorial sway in the worlds of the Warlord and Arion, but I never got the chance to connect the modern-day Queen of Atlantis with that history. I would like to have given her a crown of great magnitude.
And now Mera has no crown at all. She has given it up to follow a beloved husband who is experiencing a crisis of character. She has more fortitude than I.
Neptune only knows what the future holds for Mera. I'll try my best to follow where her adventures take her. And adventures there will be! She's not the sort to sit and knit seaweed.
--Laurie S. Sutton
A lifelong comics fan turned pro, Laurie S. Sutton has been both a writer and editor in the field. She is currently writing books for Capstone for their DC Superheroes and Supervillains line.
2 comments:
Great post! We'll all follow Mera wherever the tides take her!
Very cool post indeed! I used to think that I was the only little girl reading superhero comics, particularly the "Aquaman" books. It wasn't until college that I ran into other women who had grown up with the same interests and, like me, each of them had become writers who used those wonderful tales from our collective childhood as a springboard to creating our own tales of the sea. The kind and benevolent nature of that era's Aquaman, the innocence of the stories and the focus on family, friendship, valor and duty seemed to speak to female readers in a way that most other comics (save maybe 'Teen Titans') didn't. Yet another great legacy of our beloved Aqua-family.
Post a Comment