Manno the Mer-Man... an oft-forgotten footnote in the history of Wonder Woman. Residing in an unknown part of the Atlantic Ocean, perhaps connected with Tritonis where Lori Lemaris originated... Manno first made his appearance known to the surface world as Mer-Boy with the alternate name of Ronno. It was on his first trip above the waves the he fell in love with the young Princess Diana, affectionately known to her fellow Amazonians as Wonder Girl. The pair had an on-again off-again courtship that precipitated into some startling adventures with one another. Years later, the now adult Diana as the superheroine known as Wonder Woman would fall in love with American Colonel Steve Trevor, although Trevor would find intense competition from Mer-Man who reappeared in his childhood sweetheart's life once more.
Then, through a series of Impossible Tales which were tangentially tied to Earth-One's continuity, Mer-Man would be aided by his younger selves of Mer-Mite and Mer-Boy to aid Wonder Woman with her younger selves of Wonder-Mite and Wonder Girl. Within a couple years of his reappearance, Mer-Man would return to his life in the sea forsaking any future hope of ending up with the Amazing Amazon.
On Earth-Two, the golden age Wonder Woman had far worse experiences with her world's Mer-Men who were ancient adversaries of the Amazons. On one occasion, they kidnapped the Queen Hippolyte of Paradise Island, which led to Princess Diana nearly becoming the new Queen. Thankfully, Diana was able to track down her mother's kidnappers, restoring the Queen to her throne. During another recorded meeting between Wonder Woman and Mer-Men, she faced the deceptive Maqua and his brother, who during a competition with the Amazing Amazon cheated. The malicous Mer-Men's duplicitousness was eventually discovered, with the pair losing in that contest versus the Amazing Amazon.
This was later referenced as to past encounters with this troublesome race that tempered some bitter feelings Diana had for them. Besides being a more aggressive race than were those on Earth-One, the Earth-Two Mer-Men possessed either one or two fish tails, the latter breed adapted themselves in order to compensate for two legs of humans, whereas their counterparts all possessed only one combined fish tail.
Unlike the Mer-Men of Earth-One, who were citizens of a sister-city of Tritonis and this distant cousins of the Atlanteans of Poseidonis, the Mer-Men of Earth-Two were not connected to the sister-cities of Venturia and Aurania that originated on the lost continent of Atlantis. In that reality, the Atlanteans did not mutate into becoming water-breathing humans, but rather resided in submerged caverns beneath the Atlantic Ocean.
Among the residents of Earth-Two, Wonder Woman was a friend of Venturian Queen Eeras, just as her Earth-One counterpart was friends with the Poseidonis Queen Mera, wife of Wonder Woman’s Justice League teammate Aquaman. However, the Earth-Two had a more persistent undersea foe than Maqua, that being Queen Clea of Aurania. Their rivalry would last for decades, and spill out not only in the lost cities of Atlantis but even onto Diana’s Paradise Island.
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