Sub-Mariner: The Depths (2008) #1

This will be a brief review but not due to a lack of quality. Quite the opposite. This book's art, by Esad Ribic, is beautiful and the premise is plenty interesting. There is just little to no Namor content to discuss.

The gist of the story is that in the 50s, a notoriously skeptical researcher named Randolph Stein is called upon to search for Atlantis. More specifically, he is to retrace the steps of an earlier explorer named Marlowe. It seems Marlowe might have actually found Atlantis on his second attempt (that's him in the above image) and if so, the American government doesn't want those dirty reds beating them to it.

Namor, throughout this whole issue, is treated as an urban legend and so his presence is peripheral only. He doesn't appear directly, at least this early in the series.

That approach is well executed but it clashes with Namor's history. Namor was an ally during World War Two. Marlowe's first exploration is said to be in 1939.  If the Americans are concerned about the Russians finding Atlantis, that would suggest that the second expedition took place no earlier than 1948 or so. By then, Namor should have been well-known and not believe to be a creature of myth.

Setting that aside and just enjoying the book on its own merit is easy enough, however. This is well-crafted product which makes Namor "feel" legendary and if you're a fan of the character, you have to appreciate that.

Namor, The Sub-Mariner (1990) #61

All right, the other day we looked at the second issue of Namor's 1990s series. Today we'll look at the second-to-last issue which is also the second part of the Atlantis Rising event.  The first part was reviewed here.

There is an awful lot going on in this book, and quite a few players involved.

When we last saw our hero, he had been impaled on a sword wielded by the villainous Blood Wraith (ah, the 90s...). His soul was sucked into the blade. He tries to fight this but the evil souls also contained therein swarm him. As he begins to become overwhelmed by them, he is saved by...

Together they, at least briefly, dispatch the various other ghosts and what-not.

Meanwhile, the lady oceanographer is planting explosives on the ocean floor, unbeknownst to her male partner. When she gets back on the boat, she gives him some attitude and shoves his ass overboard.

Sap.

That blast is felt all the way down to the Building of Knowledge in Atlantis.

Prince Llyron?? Who the hell is this guy? Some friggin' poser? I'm going to have to fill the gap between issues two and 60 faster than I thought.

But what of Namor's soul? Namor and Black Knight join a lady named Victoria Bentley and some sickly dude named Sean Dolan. They explain to Namor that, long story short, every time Dolan draws this sword, he becomes Blood Wraith (lol...) and a battle is waged in the sword's blade between the forces of good and evil for Dolan's soul. That must suck.

They're a small team, but they reveal that they occasionally have help from one of Namor's ex-wives who was killed with that very same sword.

Drive just one sword through her skull and she won't ever let you forget it.

Meanwhile, on the beach, Blood Wraith (lol...) is giving Andromeda all kinds of trouble.

That clearly-possessed Vivian lady who blew up her lab partner earlier interrupts the battle, allowing Blood Wraith (snicker!) to deliver a killing blow in the battle. Andromeda, then, finds herself drawn into the sword as well.

What? So it's not really her? Aw, drag.

The next part is rather nonsensical. Namor follows the band of light that brought Andromeda down back to the real world. He brings Marrina back with him and releases her soul.

So it WAS her? Whatever, she's gone now.

Then Andromeda returns to life as well, for no reason that is explained in this issue, although she refers to herself as Genevieve Cross. I don't know what that's about yet.

And finally, Vivian's possession is complete as the villainess behind all this...villainy...reveals herself.

Oh, that's Triton from The Inhumans back there. He didn't really do anything.

Whew! Exhausting issue!

There's no question that the story advanced plenty though. The merging of Avalon and Atlantis is an interesting idea and Morgan Le Fey as an antagonist is a nice change from brutes like Tiger Shark and Attuma.

The next issue of Namor's book would be the last one and then Atlantis Rising would really take off, involving several books for a couple of months, annuals, and so on. We'll get back to it before too long.

Namor The Sub-Mariner (1990) #2, "Eagle's Wing And Lion's Claw"

After reviewing an issue of Tales To Astonish from the mid-60s, I figured I would continue to look at material in which Namor was the main man instead of a guest-star or a team member. I also want to move forward with some of the storylines begun earlier. In that light, the next two blog posts will feature issues from The Avenging Son's 1990s series.

Issue #1 was reviewed here.

The father/daughter combo that Namor met in the first issue are having a chat about the daughter's possible romantic connection to Namor when the Griffin crashes through the windows and abducts her, wounding Pops in the process.

So Mr. Alexander seeks help elsewhere in the building and finds it in the form of...Namorita!

Always good to see the little cousin.

Namorita goes straight to Namor with the old man's story. Namor happens to be watching a news story about a woman's shoe crashing through a cab window and dicking up downtown traffic.

Namor figures that was probably his new girlfriend's shoe that nearly killed a cabbie. He follows a straight line from the building in which she was abducted to where the shoe incident took place, continues to follow that line and ends up at the statue of liberty where, sure enough...

Nice detective work, your highness. You're a hothead but not a meathead!

And sweet research work, Mr. John Byrne. Unless, it's completely coincidental, since Neptune wielding a trident is common knowledge, Namor's outburst above probably makes reference to the very quest from Tales To Astonish that I wrote about in the previous post. It makes complete sense for Namor to use that expression. Nice attention to detail from the writer/artist here.

As this is going on, a drone of sorts captures the fight for the two creepy siblings with the Lannister vibe from the first issue.

Namor was believed to be dead at this point in comics lore so his presence would be doubly interesting for that reason, no doubt.

Now the Griffin may not be A-list but he's rather powerful nonetheless so rather than fight him on land, Namor takes the battle underwater.

But when his young (they always are with Byrne) lady friend manages to escape from being trapped by Griffin in the statue of liberty and sees signs of underwater turmoil, she prays that Namor is victorious. That doesn't work out so well.

This was a very fun read. Byrne did a good job of building from his first issue. The Griffin was made into a credible threat and seeds were sewn for the challenges that would emerge as Namor's plan began to unfold. It is easy to see with this particular issue why this book got good word of mouth at the time it was released.

Tales To Astonish (1959) #70, "The Start Of The Quest"

Looking back at Defenders reunions has been fun but most of them have been fairly recent. Let's go back in back in time a bit and to stories more specific to the avenging star of this show.

His own series!!!  Which he...shares with the incredible Hulk!

Well, it was still a promotion of sorts. Namor had returned to some prominence in 1962 after being off the radar for about seven years. He showed up in the various team books at the time; Fantastic Four, Avengers, X-Men...He appeared in Daredevil in April 1965 (cover date, natch) and even though it was published four months later (August 1965, obviously), Tales To Astonish #70 takes place immediately after that guest-spot. 

In that Daredevil issue, Lady Dorma tracked down Namor to let him know that one of his warlords, Krang, had planned a coup to take over Atlantis. When Namor reaches Atlantis, Dorma confirms that Krang was successful but because he rejects her advances, she rats him out.

Yet he is ultimately captured and tossed in the dungeons by Krang. When Dorma comes by to visit because "her heart would not permit her to stay away", the imprisoned prince reminds her that there is one way to reclaim the throne even if his people have accepted Krang as their leader.

Wow, Neptune really saw this coming!

Dorma helps Namor escape so that he can begin his search for the trident.

Off he goes to the Cave of Shadows, the location of the first clue in his quest.

But Krang ain't no sucker! He totally anticipated Dorma's actions and let them come to pass thinking that Namor is just going to get himself killed anyway.

At the Cave Of Shadows, Namor promptly finds the clue in a red sea shell. But it is guarded by giant-ass squid!

He finds that the exit from the cave is blocked, blames Krang (irrationally, really, but apparently accurate) and we end on that note.

The story was by Stan Lee and the art was by Adam Austin. The story of the quest would run through issue #76.