Avengers (1963) #262

This was a very pleasant surprise.

I own a few issues of this series from that time period and I don't remember being blown away by them. This one had a slow start but was a good read overall.

The Avengers need a storage space for the Quinjet and become aware of a place called Hydrobase, essentially a man-made island. As it seems ideal, they decide to check it out.

As luck would have it (wink wink) the people running the place are old buds of Namor. He drops by for a visit.

Kind of like dropping by a friend's house unexpectedly with a frozen turkey...

There's some tension at first, based on past meetings that didn't go particularly well, but Namor is polite and quiet. "Subdued" is the word used by Captain Marvel (the Monica Rambeau version). Diane above points out, very spoilerifically, that the High Council of Atlantis has asked Namor to give up his throne so he is now a man without people and country. Pricks.

Namor's sad puppy face irritates Hercules though and so he attempts to get The Avenging Son out of his funk.

Good one!  But Namor don't play that.

The two scrap for a bit, hurling boulders about and uprooting trees, until the Avengers come to settle them down. It is at that point the Hercules reveals his genius master plan.

Namor actually finds this hilarious, which is a nice change, and out of gratitude, he organizes a clam bake.

No, I'm serious. It's better when you actually read it.

Namor and Captain America take a moonlit walk on the beach during which Cap offer "No-More" Avengers membership. Namor is reluctant as he feels that those times he attacked the surface world might work against his image. That's a fair point.

But Cap reminds him of a time years ago when Namor broke up an Eskimo worship service.

I hope to come across that story at some point because even if it turned out well, tossing the totem into the sea is still kind of dick move. I'm not sure I follow Cap's reasoning fully here. My guess is that Namor didn't do that out of the blue and there's a good reason behind it, but he does have a tendency to fly off the handle. We'll figure it out some day.

Regardless...How about that? I'm not sure if it's still considered part of continuity that Namor wasn't aware of this but it's a good way to further connect two characters who have known each other for decades. Clever, if that was the first time it was ever revealed.

Namor accepts the offer above and begins his first official stint as an Avenger.  The book was written by Roger Stern and drawn John Buscema and Tom Palmer and published in late 1985.