Super-Villain Team-Up #2, "In The Midst Of life...!"

I am at times surprised at how some books that you expect to be significant in a character's history turn out to be duds while some that seem to be little more than brainless distractions actually have far more impact. This book belongs in the latter category.

Part of the reason for my enjoyment of the first issue of this series was that Namor was the most prominent character. The opposite is true in this issue but it's quality over quantity.

Following the breakdown of the very brief union between Namor and Dr. Doom, the Atlantean prince returned to Hydrobase only to find it under siege by a number of his past villains; Attuma, Tiger Shark and...Dr. Dorcas. Well, the first two would be bad enough...

That's Betty Dean-Prentiss walking us through the graphic above. See, Dr. Doom has been watching the proceedings from a camera inserted in a robot fish (it actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it).  He had been seeking an opportunity to make Namor indebted to him and he sees one here.

So Doom shows up at Hydrobase and encounters Betty, a long-time friend of the sub-mariner, who gives him the scoop. With her guidance, Doom breaks his way into the lab in which Namor is chained up.

The villains were expecting them though. They're all gloating and stuff when Betty gives them a verbal middle finger. Chicken-shit that he is, Dorcas backhands her one across the face which wakes up the Avenging Son.

Dorcas, being a chicken-shit and all, figures he'd better deal with Namor ASAP. He plans to shoot Namor dead while the prince is an easy target but he can't even do that much right.

Good job, asshole. You have legit badasses Tiger Shark and Attuma ready to go and you pull this stunt.

At least you inadvertently created some awesome. The book concludes on the panel below.

I've been reading a lot of books from that era. They tend to be filled with melodramatic, overstated, verbalized internal dialogue. I would have expected something along the lines of "The fiend killed someone who was very dear to me and I will not rest until he has been brought to justice! So swears the prince of the blood, the avenging son, the one true sub-mariner, Namor of Atlantis!"

Instead, writer Tony Isabella and artists Sal Buscema / Fred Kida rely on the simple act of looking up, silently. Everyone in the fictional room, and reading this book, knows that hell will be unleashed in short order. If I'm a kid reading this in 1975, I can't friggin' wait to get the next issue.

Betty Dean was a not huge deal in the "current" Marvel era. But during Namor's adventures of the 40s and 50s she was a regular presence. They did eventually incorporate her into the silver age continuity and she served as a guardian of sorts to Namorita to the point that Namorita took on Betty's last name of Prentiss.

So Dean meant something and she was killed off in the second issue of a long-forgotten book. Ah well. We can't all go out in a blaze of glory.