Secret Empire: Brave New World (2017) #1: "Sanctuary"

While I have not read a Marvel book on a regular basis in several years, I still heard/read much of the criticism surrounding Secret Empire specifically and the various accusations of "character assassination" of stalwart characters like Iron Man, Cyclops, Mr. Fantastic and (in this case, Captain America) in recent years.

This book makes me think that Namor needs to be added to the list, especially since he appears to be a full-blown villain in current books. He has not been represented particularly well in recent years, it would seem and I believe now that it started here.

We begin with Namor fighting off fellow Atlanteans. The very first line of dialogue from him is "Do you KNOW who I am?". Remember that for a moment.

He makes short work of his aggressors.

Some military-looking types happen by and Namor turns the attackers over to those soldiers. Just prior to doing so, he appeared to be about to execute them. That was a bit of a red flag as to his state of mind.

It is pointed out to Namor by one of the soldiers that this is the second assassination attempt on him this month. So to answer Namor's question from earlier, yes, if they were assassins targeting you, they very much know who you are. What a peculiar question to ask.

Namor is in the process of instructing a soldier to enhance security when he is interrupted with news that he has guests. The soldier he had been talking to actually asks if the guests are assassins as well.

Yeah, dumbass, they're at the front door asking for permission to enter to murder Namor. JFC.

These two are at the gates.

That's the Human Torch (Tom Hammond, SHIELD agent) and Toro from the Invaders. They seek sanctuary.

The former is an android. He explains that Hydra's brainwashing techniques on SHIELD agents during their takeover didn't quite work for him.

Toro, meanwhile, is an Inhuman (he is?) and therefore an automatic enemy of Hydra. News to me.

Namor states his position to his former colleagues.

Upon learning that Namor has an alliance of sorts with Hydra, the Torch and Toro come to realize that they made a mistake in going to Atlantis to hide out. They attempt to leave but are prevented by the Atlanteans, including Namor.

The two former Invaders are then jailed with the other "dissidents".

So Namor who, when faced with the Nazi threat in the 40s, joined these two and others to battle that threat now decides he needs to imprison them out of fear of Hydra finding out that they're sleeping in his basement? Bitch, please...

Had he explained that Atlantis has been devastated far too many times to risk even the slightest damage, I might have bought it. Instead, this feels like Namor taking a knee in front of Hydra and there's little in the character's history that would suggest he'd ever do such a thing. Quite the opposite.

This is one story out of three in this anthology book and thankfully Namor is not included in the other two because they are complete time-wasters. They add nothing to this story or to, I suspect, Secret Empire as a whole.

Unfortunately, the Invaders story (if you could even call it that, since it really only features two member against one) continues in the remaining four issues of Brave New World so evidently I'll have to stomach those at some point. It won't be any time soon.

The following image is a variant cover to this book by Chris Samnee.