Lorena Marquez was just a normal teenage girl who went to the zoo with her family when something astonishing happened and changed her life. She was created by Will Pfeifer and Patrick Gleason to become Aquagirl, debuting in Aquaman #16 (May 2004).

Lorena was visiting the San Diego Zoo when a massive earthquake sent it deep into the sea, killing many people, including her family. During life and death experience, Lorena survived by developing the ability to breathe underwater. It was revealed that scientist Anton Geist had experimented on the people of San Diego by putting some of Aquaman’s DNA into a serum and tainting the water supply. Then caused the earthquake to submerge the city in water and turn residents into ocean dwellers.

Lorena became Aquagirl and joined Aquaman in trying to help survivors of the sunken city in the newly dubbed Sub Diego. Following a successful encounter with Ocean Master, she investigated several murders that were committed by Chandra Abbot, a former police officer now living in Sub Diego.

She joined the Teen Titans during the 52 event, helping Steel to infiltrate LexCorp and save Natasha Irons who had been kidnapped by Lex Luthor. In the Terror Titans series, Lorena was kidnapped by the Terror Titans and she was forced to fight in the Dark Side Club. Aquagirl and the other captives were eventually saved by Miss Martian and taken to Titans Tower to recover.

At Titans Tower, she bonded with Static and told him about how much she liked working with the Teen Titans. While there, Wonder Girl asked Lorena to rejoin the team and she accepted the offer.