Aquaman s lovely wife, The Queen of the Sea, Mera.

But she is far more, in reality an alien and the subject of many powerful storylines over the years since she first appeared in Aquaman #11 (1963), created by Jack Miller and Nick Cardy.

Here she is captured beautifully as she rises from the ocean in the latest Cover Girls statue from DC Collectibles. Mera was ranked 81st in Comics Buyer s Guide s "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.

Once understood to be the Queen of Dimension Aqua, Mera is now known to be the 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, unable to send more than one soldier at 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.

However, the plan backfired when Mera fell truly in love with Aquaman, deliberately choosing to maintain her cover story as her real past to avoid frictions with him.

Mera appeared in the 1960s Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure television series, voiced by Diane Maddox. Actress Elena Satine portrayed Mera in an episode of the final season of Smallville. Today she is one of the major players in DC s new 52.