Written by: Jeremy Adams
Art by: Daniel Bayliss
Colors by: Rex Lokus
Letters by: Dave Sharpe
Cover art by: John Timms (cover A)
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: February 11, 2026
First Impressions
Closing this issue, the big feeling is irritation more than awe, because the emotional swings hit hard but the logic holding them together is hanging by dental floss. The core pitch, Mera racing to stop her mother from weaponizing Arthur as a battery to erase Atlantis, is strong and occasionally lands with real punch. The problem is that every good moment has a little asterisk attached, so you keep thinking about the missed potential instead of the win.
Recap
In the prior issue, readers watched Mera relive her childhood in Xebel, an isolated prison kingdom sealed behind an invisible barrier where wrecked ships and drowned bodies were the local scenery. Present-day Mera returned to find Xebel devastated, with King Nereus traumatized and raving that a red-haired woman who looked just like her had promised freedom and revenge, handed out pearls that turned Xebellians into Atlanteans, then vanished with them. As Mera and Nereus fought through transformed attackers and realized Atlantis had been caught in the same trap, the story cut to Aquaman feeling his connection to the sea twist, Andrina leading undersea forces against Parademons, and a mysterious Mera lookalike demanding fealty from all the underwater rulers in the Hall of Kingdoms. The issue ended on a chilling hint that this imposter was tied to Mera’s own past, capped with an echo of “Mother” that made it clear the real threat was coming from inside the family tree.
Plot Analysis (SPOILERS)
The issue opens in the Hall of Kingdoms, where the Crimson Queen, revealed as Lolanna Merana Challa, declares herself the destroyer of Atlantis while effortlessly shutting down Arion’s magic and claiming the power of the Blue as her own. A caption page lays out the stakes in blunt terms, explaining that Mera escaped Atlantis to Xebel only to discover her mother, long believed dead, is alive and plotting to dethrone Aquaman, forcing Mera to make a final stand while Arthur is stuck in the K.O. tournament. In the kelp forests of Xebel, Mera and Nereus confront a crone who launches into the full origin of Xebel, revealing Lolanna as the rebellious daughter of Grand Vizier Thule, who used forbidden soul magic to exile her and her followers, creating Xebel as a prison for enemies of the crown. The flashback runs through Lolanna’s rage, her eventual love and the birth of Mera, and her discovery of a Tide Jewel from the sea god Dagon, who promised freedom and revenge in exchange for her help in dealing with a prophesied avatar of the Blue.
Dagon’s scheme unfolds across the narration as he turns Lolanna into stone via the pearl, then later uses another pearl to shift Xebel’s barrier onto Atlantis, trapping Atlantis in Xebel’s bonds and giving Xebel the illusion of finally living as “real” Atlanteans. The plan is to lure Arthur into the Blue where Dagon can kill him, with someone he loves helping sell the lie, but the narration notes that the world is too full of heroes and that Dagon is ultimately killed, leaving Lolanna to pivot to a new strategy. Back in the present, Mera demands to know how the creature telling this story knows so much, and it calmly explains that Lolanna herself explained everything and left instructions to kill any Atlantean who found a way out of the barrier and started asking questions, specifically Mera. At the same time, in the Hall of Kingdoms, Lolanna monologues about a smaller Tide Jewel she gave her “father” to wear in the tournament, siphoning the Omega energy from Arthur through the jewel directly to herself as the dead pirate distraction finally pays off.
Lolanna announces that as the Omega energy grows in Arthur, it feeds her, and she openly states that if he loses his power or dies, that is fine, since Xebel’s promise has always been to kill everyone in Atlantis and their king. Pulling power from Arthur and the ocean, she raises the titanic “Sepulchre of the Sea” from the depths, shaking the undersea kingdoms and hauling the Hall of Kingdoms to the surface to serve as the launchpad for her new empire. Meanwhile, back in Xebel’s kelp forests, Mera and Nereus are ambushed by the creature that told the story, and Nereus is mortally wounded while insisting Mera leave him and stop her mother, acknowledging his love for her and giving her a final, bittersweet goodbye. Mera leaves Nereus behind with his blessing and vows to find Lolanna before her mother can reach Arthur, pushing herself toward the inevitable confrontation.
On a rocky shoreline, Lolanna declares that from this vantage point she will summon every monster from the abyss and every oppressed being from below to crash against the shores of their enemies, but she needs one more spectator for her grand opening. Using her power, she pulls Arthur out of the K.O. tournament, where he was mid-fight, and drops him into her new staging ground with Andrina and water-construct hostages frozen in place nearby. Arthur quickly senses something is wrong and sees his allies immobilized, while Andrina tries to speak, but Lolanna cuts in, speaking through Andrina’s body and explaining that she is not his daughter, that the real Andrina is trapped just as she once was, and that this is payback for being caged by his line. She mocks Arthur’s “foolish little games” and reveals that the Omega energy he cultivated in the tournament, plus the Blue channeled through the Jewels of Lyonesse, has already been transferred to her as part of the longer con.
Lolanna, wearing Andrina’s face, announces she has summoned him here to end the line of kings and traitors for good, then unleashes the combined power of Omega and the Blue in a single, devastating attack. As Arthur is overwhelmed and dragged back into the Blue, Lolanna leans in with a taunting “kiss,” ordering him to understand that he has been definitively defeated and proclaiming that the rule of Atlantis has ended. Mera arrives too late and erupts from the surf, screaming in rage and demanding to know what Lolanna has done to her husband and her king as the confrontation finally reaches a personal boiling point. An epilogue montage closes the issue on a poetic note about life and death rising from and returning to the Blue, ending with a blond boy washed onto a beach and a teaser that “Emperor Aquaman” is next.
Writing
The script is packed with lore, and that is both the selling point and the main drag on pacing. The crone’s exposition dump about Xebel, Thule, Dagon, the Tide Jewels, and the barrier swap is detailed enough to map out on a whiteboard, but it turns a big chunk of the issue into a lecture rather than a tense mystery. On the plus side, the structure cleanly alternates between Mera’s investigation, the Hall of Kingdoms, and Arthur’s abduction, so you always know where you are and why the scenes matter to the big con Lolanna is running. Dialogue lands best when it leans into blunt fury, like Lolanna explaining that she is fine if Arthur dies because Xebel’s oath was always to wipe out Atlantis and its king, or Nereus quietly confessing his love as he bleeds out, which gives the drama some honest weight. Where it stumbles is in the villain monologues and epic narration that spell out every beat of Dagon’s plan and Lolanna’s pivot, which robs the story of some suspense and makes you feel like you are hearing the writer talk more than the characters.
Art
Visually, the issue sells scale and emotion better than it sells clean geography. The flashback pages of Lolanna’s rebellion and Xebel’s creation have strong compositions that layer figures, ruins, and magical effects in a way that feels mythic without losing the core action, and the stone transformation sequence is especially striking. When Lolanna raises the Sepulchre of the Sea and hauls the Hall of Kingdoms toward the surface, the art pushes hard into widescreen spectacle, with the ocean tearing itself open and the structure looming like a floating fortress, which absolutely delivers the “event” energy the script is chasing.
The color work shifts from cold, murky greens and blues in the kelp forests to searing energy whites and blues around Lolanna, giving her scenes a harsh, almost surgical brightness that fits her “weaponized god-power” vibe. That said, some panels around Arthur’s sudden appearance and the frozen water constructs read a little cramped, so you have to stop and parse which blob of energy or water is doing what, which undercuts the immediate impact of the big betrayal reveal.
Character Development
Mera comes off as the emotional anchor, but she is oddly passive for long stretches. Her most meaningful beats are her panic over her mother’s crypt, her angry interrogation of the crone, and the goodbye with Nereus, and all of that tracks with a queen who is carrying trauma and responsibility at the same time. Arthur, meanwhile, feels like a prop, a very pretty battery that gets yanked out of the tournament, manipulated, and thrown into the Blue so Lolanna can flex her new level of power, which might frustrate readers who wanted more agency from the title character in his own book.
Lolanna’s motivation, revenge on Atlantis and the royal line after centuries of exile and betrayal, is clear and even understandable, but the script paints her so broadly as a smug, all-knowing mastermind that there is not much nuance beyond “angry sea witch with receipts.” Nereus gets a small but effective arc as the regretful king who loves Mera, recognizes the scale of the threat, and chooses to die buying her time, which quietly does more character work in a few panels than Arthur gets in the whole issue.
Originality & Concept Execution
The core concept here, a queen’s mother weaponizing cosmic sea magic and tournament Omega energy through Tide Jewels to rewrite the power structure of the ocean, is not subtle, but it is big and bold. Using Xebel’s prison history, Dagon’s prophecy game, and the Blue as a sort of metaphysical energy market gives this arc its own flavor compared to standard Atlantean politics. However, the body-swap twist with Andrina and the “dad betrayed me, now I betray you” mirroring between Lolanna and Arthur’s line feel like riffs on familiar superhero family-drama beats more than something genuinely new. Execution-wise, the story does manage to tie the tournament, the Xebel lore, and the Crimson Queen reveal into one unified play, but it does it by explaining the plan at you instead of letting the pieces click into place organically. The cliffhanger with the blond boy and “Emperor Aquaman” hints at a weirder future status quo, yet this issue itself reads more like a dense lore packet plus a big boss cutscene than a fully satisfying chapter.
Positives
If you are here for high-drama Aquaman family chaos, this issue delivers that in spades. The Xebel origin and Dagon backstory give you a clear, concrete map of how we got from “hidden prison kingdom” to “Crimson Queen pulling Omega juice out of Arthur like a plug-in generator,” which at least respects the reader enough to explain the moving parts. The scenes of Nereus sacrificing himself so Mera can go after Lolanna provide rare, grounded emotion in the middle of all the cosmic power talk, and his last lines give Mera a strong emotional shove into the next act. Artwise, the big spreads of the Sepulchre rising and the Hall of Kingdoms being dragged upward are the kind of shots that make the issue feel worth flipping through again, even if you already know the beats. For readers who want their Aquaman tie-in to feel like a real event rather than a throwaway crossover chapter, the way this issue escalates the threat and knocks Arthur off the board does make the story feel consequential.
Negatives
The cost of all that lore is that the middle of the issue reads like a textbook that happens to have tridents in it. The long exposition sequence about Thule, Lolanna, Dagon, and the barrier swap swallows page real estate that could have been used to actually show Mera solving problems, reacting, and making choices instead of just listening. Arthur’s entire presence is reduced to “energy source and target,” so if you came for Aquaman acting like a protagonist, this chapter gives you a king who mostly stands there, gets lied to, and gets erased. Lolanna’s big villain speech about jewels, tournaments, and siphoned Omega energy ticks all the boxes on the plot diagram, yet it does not do much to deepen her beyond “patient mastermind,” which dulls what should be a terrifying mother-daughter clash. Worst of all, the issue ends right when things finally get personal, with Mera confronting her mother over Arthur’s fate, which means your money here mostly buys setup and a smack of frustration heading into “Emperor Aquaman.”
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
Follow @ComicalOpinions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TwitterThe Scorecard
Writing Quality (Clarity & Pacing): [2.5/4]Art Quality (Execution & Synergy): [3.5/4]
Value (Originality & Entertainment): [1.5/2]
Final Verdict
If your pull list is already leaning heavy, Aquaman #14 is the kind of issue you buy only if you are locked into the K.O. storyline and need every puzzle piece on the board. The lore dump does important work for the larger myth arc, and the visuals go all in on scale, but the actual reading experience sits in that awkward space between “important” and “fun.” Mera fans will find enough here to justify the time, especially with Nereus’s farewell and the promise of a brutal confrontation with Lolanna, but Aquaman himself feels like a supporting character in his own title.
7.5/10
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