Fantastic Four (1961) #102: "The Strength Of The Sub-Mariner"

What better way to start my little project than with a Fantastic Four book written by legend Stan Lee and drawn by other legend Jack Kirby?  It's even called "Strength Of The Sub-Mariner". Can't go wrong here. The cover date on this thing is September 1970. Joe Sinnott also gets credit as an "embellisher".

After a comedy bit based around The Thing having a cold (I lol'ed), Namor first shows up at the bottom of page three. He and a few of his men are investigating a "mysterious shockwave" detected by Atlantis. The trail leads to a "primitive isle" crawling with "ancient reptiles".

I'm no Marvel Comics expert but I can only imagine that's the Savage Land, even if its name is not used. Namor sees a lone survivor and tells the pterodactyls and what-not to piss-off in his usual charming way.

Damn right, Imperius Rex!

The lone survivor was actually Magneto (!!), stranded there after a defeat at the hands of the X-men in issue #63 of that book. This is back in the day when Marvel actually made an effort to respect its own continuity, apparently.

Magneto is an asshole so he begins to plot to trigger war between Atlantis and the surface world. Each side is made to think that it being attacked by the other.

Namor, being on the hotheaded side, falls for it hook, line and sinker, as the expression goes. To be fair, Ben Grimm does launch a "warning shot" of sorts in the form of a concussive missile aimed at Atlantis on behalf of the Fantastic Four. Way to go, jackass.

What's a highly protective, and evidently quite confident, prince supposed to think?

And so Namor readies to...crush the entire human race. Harsh but fair.

It's on! Atlantis would invade the surface world, not for the first time, and certainly not for the last.

I have to admit...This was a blast. Whenever I considered collecting this character's adventures, I would look over some of the available print material, particularly the more recent stuff, and put it off because frankly it looked lousy. I'm sure I'm going to stumble into some duds along, but overall I think I'm going to enjoy collecting this way; picking at bit and pieces and different eras.

The only thing I found myself missing with this story were notable citizens of Atlantis. There are some soldiers and such but no one that appears to matter. That's a minor criticism, being that this is a Fantastic Four book, not a Sub-Mariner book. But I do look forward to finding out more about Marvel's Atlantis specifically.