Mera: Tidebreaker is a graphic novel written by Danielle Paige and illustrated by Stephen Byrn. Mera is teenage royalty, heir to the throne of Xebel, the other not-so-lost colony under the sea. But Mera is destined to wear a different crown, that of Atlantis. When the inhabitants of Xebel plot to overthrow their homeland of Atlantis, Mera is sent to kill the heir to the throne, Arthur Curry. As the unrest between their colonies grows, Mera and Arthur unexpectedly fall in love...will Arthur Curry be the king at Mera's side in Atlantis, or will he die under her blade?

Mera: Tidebreaker is a young adult graphic novel, but sometimes feels like it is slanted for a younger audience. Mera is the expected princess that wants more that what she sees ahead of her, she wants to make a difference, so she breaks the rules and breaks away. Things do not go as planned, because they never do. Some of this worked for me, I enjoyed the artwork and thought the colors and style were perfect for this particular story. However, some of the scenes ended abruptly and parts of the relationship buildng of the story just did not flow for me. Perhaps it is because I am so far from the target audience, but I read a good deal of middle grade and young adult materials so I am not sure if that is the problem. I was kind of hoping to get a better understanding of some of these characters, since I am behind on my DC universe lore, and in some ways I did that, but it did not really help me like them any more.

Mera: Tidebreaker was a mixed bag for me. I think there is certainly an audience for it and the art is very well done, but I think I was expecting more.

I came across this book in ARC form to read and give my honest opinion. I give this book a 3.5/5 stars. I loved the graphics of this book. It’s really beautifully put together. The storyline I also enjoyed.
Mera:Tidebreaker is an origin story of Mera. We learn that she dislikes the Atlantans and is part of an arranged marriage. Mera doesn’t want to be married instead she wants to rule by herself and wish her father could see that. Mera over hears her father talking about killing Arthur/future Aquaman. The teenage rebel that Mera is she wants to prove to her father that she doesn’t need a husband to be a great ruler and decides to leave home and kill Arthur herself.
Although the graphics are AMAZINGLY done I couldn’t get past the insta-love. She started out her story hating the man but then after showing some kindness she is in love? I feel like this just seems a little off for Mera’s character. Especially since she was passionate about being taken seriously as an independent warrior and future ruler.

Actual rating 2.5

First I'd like to say thanks to NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

I've been loving this whole superhero trend that's been going on lately with all the ya adaptions and graphic novels that have been coming out recently. I was really looking forward to Mera: Tidebreaker because life under the sea is absolutely fascinating. My knowledge of Mera and Aquaman is limited to whenever they were on the WB show Smallville (aka one of my favorite shows of all time) so I was really interested to know more about them.

This was a bit of a miss for me though. It had the set up to be a good story if it was fleshed out a bit more. In the beginning Mera was going on about how she hates Atlanteans and that they control everything but because my knowledge of her whole story is very limited I was left wondering why. I couldn't understand her peoples dislike of them because they hadn't done anything in the story besides be present. Later on in the story there is a bit of an explanation but I think it would have benefited the story to clue those of us who are newer to her storyline. Also Mera and Arthur went from 0 to 100 real fast on the love train and I feel like there wasn't enough between them to make that leap. It was like two days of him taking care of her and they didn't talk that much and then a couple days of her following him around looking for the opportune time to kill him.

I did really enjoy the art style and some of the plot points, it just didn't tie together well enough for me.

Strong female characters are always a favorite of mine so I definitely enjoyed diving into Mera's world!

This was a fantastically written and depicted graphic novel about Queen Mera BEFORE she was a queen. I hadn’t really been into anything other than Batman as far as DC goes before I watched the Aquaman movie, but once I got the ARC of this comic and finished it, I wanted to read more about Mera and her world in particular.

This is a great introduction to the world of Aquaman without being too cheesy or cliche!

A great look into a character gaining popularity due to the new movie. An interesting reimagining of the starts of Arthur and his future queen.

Mera: Tidebreaker is the prequel-ish graphic novel to how Mera and Arthur meet. This was a fun read, but not MCU friendly. Arthur has no idea who he is and Mera is more of a warrior than the princess we met in the movie.

When Mera hears about a chance to earn her right to the throne, she decides to take it. But, what happens when she meets too good to be true Arthur? This was a fun and fast read. I do wish the font was a bit different, it made the digital version kind of hard to read, almost like it was out of focus.

This was a great start to DC's new YA line -- DC Ink, and a great way to get introduced to unfamiliar characters. I loved the art too!

I don't read graphic novels or comics as often, but with all the movies, I've started to find that I do enjoy the stories. This is one of those. While it's definitely YA and for the teen crowd, I enjoyed reading Mera's story, and seeing this adaptation. I enjoyed the artwork, and the story is easily one that YA readers would enjoy. I know there seems to be a push for 'older' characters and situations in YA lately, but this one tends to fall back more to the YA when it started to really get noticed, and I loved the somewhat simpler style that tells the story that teens can read and enjoy without being asked to grow-up too fast.

This story wasn't ground-breaking or overly complex, but was still enjoyable and one I can recommend to readers from ages 9-19 without worry, and can also seeing adults enjoying it as long as they don't try to compare it, and instead are willing to accept it for what it is, a YA teen story about a girl trying to find her place.

Mera is a mermaid princess who is overlooked as just a pretty face who can only talk about dresses. But what she really wants to be is a warrior and what she really wants to talk about is her kingdom’s future. So in order to get respect, after overhearing her father and his general talk, she decides to go on a mission to kill the prince of a rival kingdom.

I really enjoyed the pacing of the book and the plot. It was fast, but almost a little too fast. I felt as though the author jumped around a little too much from conversation to conversation and same with the action. A little of the dialogue was cheesy, but not too bad.

The art was gorgeous and I loved the blue-toned of it and how Mera and her father’s hair really popped orange.

Although it wasn’t a main focus, I also really enjoyed the bit of romance we got. I also think she did a good job of setting up future conflicts and fun bits for a future novel.

I read this comic in one sitting. I liked it, but I didn't loved it. It's fast paced, and I loved fantasy part of it, but contemporary thing was totally dumb for me. I hate insta love, and this one has that. I hoped there will be more action. But, I loved tge universe and Mera is such a badass. Artwork was good, but I hated that everything was green. All in all, a good comic, but it's not what I thought it will be. At the end it was teased there will be more comics about Mera and I still want to find out what happened next. I would recommend this to young adults who just watched the Aquaman and want more of that world.

Given the popularity of the Aquaman movie, most readers will be aware of Mera as an undersea princess, but it’s refreshing to see that here, she’s also a warrior, willing to fight for her people. While navigating history, birthright, and expectations, Mera learns to decide her own fate in this rewarding read.

Xebel, her father’s kingdom, is ruled by Atlantis. Mera’s father has two plans: to marry her off to his chosen successor, and to choose the winner by seeing who can assassinate the missing heir to the Atlantean throne, Arthur. Mera, meanwhile, is worried about living up to her mother’s legacy as warrior queen and steamed that her father doesn’t even consider her to take the throne as his heir.

Mera sets off to the oversea world to complete the mission herself, but once she meets Arthur, things don’t go as planned. Arthur, not yet Aquaman, here has the amazing-nice-guy demeanor of Superman or Shazam, which gets him further than the ability to talk to fish. Similarly, the emphasis is on Mera’s abilities and training, not any kind of superpowers (although she can make water blasts).

Events move briskly, keeping the reader interested in an epic story. Although a lot happens, the story has room to breathe, with large-sized panels to punctuate key moments. The faded color scheme, grey with hints of light green, makes the book almost resemble a black-and-white independently published comic. The tones evoke both filtered undersea light and the haze of memory. It also allows Mera’s red hair to pop, drawing the reader’s eye to her as lead on whatever page she’s on.

It’s convenient that the framework is familiar to many fantasy stories, allowing the reader to focus on Mera’s motivations. There’s a solid amount of action, but more importantly, there’s a realistic depth of characterization that establishes Mera as someone worth spending time with, someone more than Aquaman’s girlfriend. Although classically formulaic, evoking star-crossed lovers and those buffeted by fate and constrained by royalty, the journey here is deep and satisfying.

This review will be rather short, as the GN was a quick read. I have never read any of the original comics, so I was going in with only the movie, mythology love and mild general knowledge of who Mera is, and the "story" of Aquaman.

I instantly loved the idea of a bad ass underwater princess/queen. I am a sucker for the Princess saves the day trope, and adding any kind of water to that - I'm sold. Mera was an interesting character. She was immature to be sure, but that was true to her age. She was also brave, headstrong and full of kindness, potential and heart.

I don't feel like that the story lines are as in depth and complicated in this tale as it is in a typical novel. The story revolves around Mera, who is now in the Queen in Exile, and her

journey from under the sea, to the land, and back. There is a constant feud between her people of Xebel and Atlantis, so of course we have a star crossed lovers trope in there, for good measure. If I'm honest - I really didn't care. Arthur and Mera are a favorite of just about everyone, so the over used trope is easily overlooked and forgiven.

The main characters are likeable, but Arthur can be very over the top at times - Mera puts him in his place a few times during the story. This made them more relatable for me. Boys can be dumb, and girls can be leaders. It was refreshing to see this antic play out between the two chracters.

The writing was what I expect of Paige, though it did feel a bit more middle grade dialogue at times, instead of the YA we are used to. I actually enjoyed this aspect - as comics and GN should be accessible and easily understood for the younger age range.

The art was beautiful, and by far my favorite part of the book. The characters were drawn well, without the over sexualization. Bryne did a wonderful job bringing them to life for a younger audience, and I will absolutely be adding this to my classroom reading list!

This is part of DC's initiative to have YA authors write graphic novels aspart of the DC Ink imprint. This is very much a YA approach to Mera's origin. The basics are all there. Mera is still from Xebel and can control water. She's been sent to kill Arthur. Now there's something of a love triangle and some angst with her father built in. But in a very YA way, she falls in love with Arthur over the course of 2 days. Personally I think they could have just left that part out and just have her realize he's a good person and decide not to murder him without bringing in the romantic angle, saving that for a future book.

The star here is really the art. I love Stephen Byrne's crisp clean lines and muted sea foam coloring. It's absolutely gorgeous with the only pop of color being Mera's hair. My only complaint would be why did they change Arthur's hair color. Aquaman has always been blond except for Jason Mamoa and the Arthur depicted here looks nothing like Mamoa. If the whole goal is to get new generations interested in comics, wouldn't you want to make your characters as familiar as possible?

I love this book and have had a few conversations with savvy teens and their parents about how they should read it!

DC Ink continues to introduce younger readers to comic book characters. Danielle Paige does a satisfying job of introducing Mera and her role in the larger Aquaman story. While the plot has enough action and quippy fun for even casual fans, there is a lack of depth to Mera and Arthur's relationship and characterization that might leave some readers wanting more. Overall I enjoyed the art style and think many teens will as well.

I loved getting the back story of mera. The art style and writing were phenomenal. This is a must read if your a fan of aquaman.

It had good potential, but fell victim to some bad cliches. If you can look past them, it's enjoyable, but if not?

This graphic novel bridges the gap between the adult Mera we see in the Aquaman movie, and a teenage Mera. It isn't a direct link to the movie because in this story Mera meets Arthur as a young teen. Mera is trapped in several gilded cages in her life. She is the princess of a community under the heel of Atlantis.
Mera hears of a plot against Arthur being planned by her father and her potential betrothed. She devises a plan to kill Arthur herself and possibly carving out some freedom for herself.

Things don't go the way Mera wants. She is injured and ends up being rescued by Arthur. As she gets to know him she doubts her mission and only together can they possibly create a future that leaves them both free. I loved the art on this book but the story lagged in a few places. It truly is a teen story and I think I'm a little to connected to the adult Mera because I found some of her choices in this story challenging. A great read for first time readers stepping into the Aquaman universe.

I thought this was very interesting. The art was beautiful and the story was easy to follow. Mild language.