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.