Captain America (2004) #635.1

The specifics for this issue are a little hard to track down. Comixology lists it as part of the 2004 to 2011 Captain America series, yet it was released in August 2012. That series ran to issue 50 until modifying its numbering to 600.

As of #620, "& Bucky" was added to the title. Guest-stars became a regular occurrence from #629 on, with the likes of Hawkeye, Iron Man and The Black Widow joining the Captain on his adventures.

And Namor, for one issue.

There's always a concern that the guest-appearance will be limited to just a few pages but not in this case. The book opens with Namor reluctantly facing some sort of gathering in an unknown location in 1942.

So...Why are you there at all?

The spokeswoman for the group explains that the weapons of Atlantis have been pillaged and Namor's people are being used for a "cross-purpose". 

That cryptic message delivered, we move to an air battle over France. Cap-Am jumps from a troop-carrying plane onto an enemy fighter and is joined by The Avenging Son, who more or less happens to be passing through.

Once back on solid ground, the Captain follows Namor to the latter's target, a group called The Thule, described as... 

Namor accurately points out that Captain America wasn't dragged into a damn thing. While Cap-Am self-monologues over Namor's apparent lack of willingness to make friends, the villain reveals his secret weapon.

Release the Kraken!

That thing is made of dead Atlantean(s) wearing a Medusa-like skull mask which gives it magical abilities. The Prince Of The Blood will not stand by and see his people treated this way, even the dead ones, so it's on.

Yeah, that, and the wings on his ankles also remind me that he's more than human.

I enjoyed this. It was very much Captain America AND Namor as opposed to the Sub-Mariner showing up long enough to toss a few punches.

The story (by Cullen Bunn) was a "one-and-done" though I suspect regular readers picked up on a few hints of back-filling. Namor's arrogance was on display, there were a couple of interesting inclusions among the covenant that Namor was talking to prior to meeting Cap and the art was gorgeous. I'm not sure the images above spotlight its quality adequately.

This was not a key appearance in Namor's history by any stretch but its a welcome addition to the collection.

Namor The Sub-Mariner (1990) #1

John Byrne is one of those creators for whom I need to separate the person from the art. There are many aspects of his personality that I dislike and that make me want to avoid supporting him but I can't deny that his work was often outstanding.

There is also little question that he enjoyed and appreciated this character a great deal. Carving out Byrne's contribution to the Sub-Mariner legend undeniably diminishes it greatly.

I reviewed one issue from this series already (#60, if my memory is sound) but at that point Byrne was long gone. Let's go all the way back to the beginning and see how Byrne launched it in the first place.

Byrne chooses to tell this story in prologues and epilogues which is a little strange at first because you wonder if you haven't missed something.. This would have made a great zero issue but I'm not sure those were a thing in 1990.

We begin six months earlier as a father/daughter team of marine biologist or researchers or something named Alexander are...researching...when suddenly...

Apparently at this point in his history, Namor is believed by the rest of the world to be dead, making this sudden appearance all the more surprising for the Alexanders.

The Prince Of The Blood lands on an island in the Pacific. For a moment, it appears that he may have lost his memory yet again, but he shakes it off. He comes upon some primitive tribe. When said tribe treats Namor as an intruder and attacks, he kicks their primitive asses.

Ah, he's in one of his "cursed to be alone" phases!

The Alexanders track him down and convince to come back to their boat.

Once on the boat, the gentleman pointlessly tells Namor's origin story. As if Namor needs to be told that he's half-human and half-Atlantean (and therefore technically the first mutant, see). But I suppose we have to think of new readers.

On the flip side, I don't believe that Namor's mother has been seen very often and in this book, she looks great (the 40s version was hideous).

The old man does introduce Namor to a theory to the effect that an oxygen imbalance causes the Prince's rage. Too little oxygen when Namor's underwater, too much when he's on land. What's a brother to do? But evidently anticipating that one day he might meet Namor, the geezer has built a machine which regulates the oxygen balance. So...good for that.

The encounter causes Namor to run off to think. He comes back some time later with a treasure chest and a plan.

Oh look, an old dude putting the moves on a significantly younger lady. This must be a John Byrne book. It's not out of character for Namor to play the smoothie on occasion though. At least there's that.

The book concludes with a wealthy brother/sister combo talking business just after the lady stopped her brother from shooting himself in the head out of boredom.

Can you guess?

Namor's plan is basically to save the planet (read: the environment) through the business world by flexing the vast amount of wealth to which he has access.

That is certainly a new spin on a character that to this point was usually more interested in doing away with the surface world altogether. So while portions of the book felt like filler, its premise is (was) certainly intriguing enough to continue reading.

Avengers (1963) #3

The fourth issue of the original Avengers title is famous for bringing back Captain America. Its popularity should, of course, pale in comparison to the previous issue which guest-starred The Avenging Son but inexplicably, that is not the case.

Seriously, Namor was absent for several years prior to returning in Fantastic Four #4 so Captain America's return in Avengers #4 is quite appropriate.

The book is kind of fun but it took forever for Namor to show up. I was starting to think his appearance would be limited to just a couple of pages. I should have paid closer attention to the splash page as they state point blank, right in the middle, where he shows up in the story.

The first 14 pages are devoted to the Avengers attempt at finding the Hulk in the first place by calling on Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four in cameo appearances. Then when they do find him, with the help of Rick Jones, Hulk completely outsmarts them several times (think about that) to escape and finds a deserted island to chill on.

But not so fast, green genes!

Bow before royalty!

Naturally, when heroes meet, they fight. But after the obligatory dick swinging, a deal is more or less struck.

 

Notice the proper use of pronouns by The Hulk? None of that "Hulk smash!" stuff here. He didn't refer to himself in the third person at the time. Presumably he became dumber in later issues. The Avengers should still be ashamed of themselves for getting played by him, but maybe it isn't as bad as it first appeared.

The powerful duo challenges the Avengers to a fight and the team accepts, of course. Namor does most of the heavy lifting here.

Hulk dicks around trying to take Thor's hammer away until he begins to turn back into Banner. It seems odd for that to happen in mid-fight, but there you have it. So Namor is now badly outnumbered.

And he uses that new strength to...fly off in retreat. In a nice display of respect though, when directed by The Wasp to knock Namor out of the sky, Thor refuses on the basis that Namor has earned his escape through valor. Solid, symbolic fist-bump between two heavyweights there.

Namor appears in the more celebrated fourth issue as well and we will give that a look another day but this issue was your standard Stan lee/Jack Kirby silly fun.