Justice League: Analyzing Mera's Costume

Generally speaking, when comic book movies or TV shows release a first look at a character in costume, there's quite a lot to observe about it.

In the case of Mera, Aquaman's queen, there hasn't been a ton of analysis of Amber Heard's look -- partially becuase she's not exactly a character with whom most fans are incredibly familiar.

We'll do our best to give a quick rundown of the things we noticed about Mera's look here in the film.

Certainly worth taking a look back at some of Mera's looks through the years before we get started.

The first and most obvious observation, frankly, is that the costume resembles the current interpretation of the character in the comics.

Ever since Blackest Night and Brightest Day, Mera has been not only prominent in Aquaman, but throughout the DC Universe. A favorite character of DC Chief Creative Officer and President Geoff Johns, Mera has quickly become one of the publisher's most visible female characters.

Over the years, Mera's look has stayed fairly consistent -- the green bodysuit that's either scales or armor but pretty much always shiny -- so it's no surprise that they managed to get a pretty comics-accurate look to it. That said, the big, open neck and the "necklace" look more at home with the Brightest Day version of Mera -- her final look just before 2011's The New 52 reboot -- than with what was going on in the comics at the time this movie was in production.

The concept art above, for instance, has those straps around her neck which don't appear in teh photo below. That's something that we saw in her New 52 redesign, which had more revealed flesh as well.

Mera's headpiece feels very similar to Wonder Woman's, which is interesting since rumors have indicated that the Amazons and Atlanteans have a relationship in this movie.

It's entirely possible that it's just a matter of having a visual consistency throughout the DC Extended Universe -- certainly it's been observed elsewhere that all of Marvel's superhero costumes except Iron Man share a common visual feel -- but the fact that it speciflcally feels like Wonder Woman's tiara is curious. There are a lot of similar textures between Wonder Woman's armor and the armors worn by the Atlanteans we've seen so far in Justice League, but that could be more about practicality than storytelling.

Something that feels like it ties into the feel of the headpiece is the flares/spikes on her shoulders. That design element was most recently seen when Mera was briefly a member of the Red Lantern Corps, and had her "angry costume."

...Ahh, good times.

As noted above, there are a number of similarities between Mera's costume and Aquaman's.

While he's far more exposed to the elements, you can see design elements in Mera's armor that call back to Aquaman's tattoos -- which are in and of themselves symbolically important since they're Pacific Islander iconography. Mera doesn't look ethnically like a Pacific Islander, but obviously since she lives in the ocean that's a culture that would "make sense" to Atlanteans.

The materials used in her costume also "feel" Atlantean. They might not be exactly the same kind of armor that Aquaman uses, but it's notable that the coloring and the sheen make them feel a little "organic," giving them a similar feel to the "seashell armor" often seen in use by Atlanteans in the comics.