Sub-Mariner (1968) #29: "Fear Is the Hunter!"

Namor's rivalries with other strongmen such as The Thing from the Fantastic Four and with the incredible Hulk are more celebrated, but in reading his adventures across the Marvel universe, I've come to enjoy his interactions with Hercules as well.

The Olympian demigod and the Avenging Son met up in the latter's own series in the early 70s. It would have been among their first encounters (they met earlier in an Avengers book, Hercules even makes mention of it in this issue) so we're going to check out how that went.  

Namor had spent the previous couple of issues on land and he's on his way home, however...

See that staff he's holding? The Huntsman has been tasked by Zeus to bring Hercules home as Zeus feels Earth is no place for one of Hercules' stature.

Huntsman uses the staff to call sirens to enchant Namor to do the Huntsman's bidding. 

It takes very little time for Namor to reach the island and therefore Hercules. And of course it also takes little time for them to come to blows because as Herc ponders whether he can ever have some "me" time, we go all FKOOM and BTOK...

Their titanic clash causes a huge boulder to crash down towards the town. Namor is able to fly down towards it and destroy it and in doing so, clear his head of the mind-control spell cast by the sirens.
 

The Huntsman knows his control over Namor has broken so he uses his magic staff to call upon three huge monsters to destroy the two heroes. Namor and Hercules waste no time mounting an offensive.

That's interesting. I wonder if this inspired the "Fastball Special" that Colossus and Wolverine of the X-Men used to do?

Anyway, they battle the monsters for a while but Huntsman strikes Hercules down.

Namor seeks to help his fellow warrior and achieves greater success than he'd anticipated. One of the monsters is made of stone. Namor chucks one of its fragments at Huntsman, separating him from the staff. 

Separating Huntsman from the staff causes the massive creatures to disappear. Hercules is preparing to beat Huntsman senseless when his dad pops in.

Namor impressed Zeus. Not bad at all. There's a reason Namor is so arrogant. As the man said, it ain't braggin' if you back it up!  

So Hercules goes home, Namor busts up Zeus' staff and heads back to the sea and we conclude our little one-and done!

It was a little hard to perceive that goofy-looking Huntsman as a credible threat, even with that magical staff, and I wish more panel-time had been devoted to the scrap between Namor and Hercules. When Namor goes to encounter Hercules, he passes Atlantis in what is a largely pointless scene. That page space could have been better used to expand the battle the two heroes but aside from those two minor criticisms, that was an entertaining read. 

Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner #6: "...And to the Vanquished...Death!"

It's been over two years since I reviewed the issue prior to this one so it's about time I got around to the second part of the story.

At the end of #5, Tiger Shark had laid out Namor. Thinking he had killed its prince, Shark turned his attention to the throne of Atlantis, as so many seem to, but Dorma lures him away.

This is a rare occasion of seeing Dorma make herself useful. Every little bit helps!

Tiger Shark's sister, Diane, brings Namor back to consciousness and he sets off against his enemy and his true love but he fails to catch up to before the pair reaches Atlantis.

Once there, Shark decides he's going to run the place, but a brave warrior named Seth steps up to challenge him. Seth appeared briefly in the previous issue as well.

The fight is brief, as Seth's weapons are useless against Tiger Shark's powers.

The council of elders ask Shark to spare the young soldier if the villain wants them to acknowledge his victory. Seeing an easy path, Shark agrees. 

When Namor reaches Atlantis, his people are glad to see despite having exiled him earlier. They're a hell of a lot nicer when they need something. Namor and Tiger Shark come to blows, naturally...

Ah, but Namor refuses to murder Tiger Shark despite the opportunity to do so. His victory, as well as his show of mercy, convince the council of elders to restore him to the throne of Atlantis. And so in no time, Tiger Shark is incarcerated and Namor, well...

Nice! I...don't recall much about this "Destiny" Namor refers to but obviously it won't be long until he comes up again. He was in this issue earlier but because his presence was not relevant to this story, I glossed over it. We'll get to him later.

Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner (1968) #23: "The Coming of...Orka!"

Ah! Orka! Not a character I'm terribly familiar with but he does appear to be a challenging foe for our favourite prince. Bring it on, whale man!

Namor is on his way home when he happens across a horde of killer whales. He fears that they might pose a threat to Atlantis and especially so when he notices a giant dude riding one of them.

That escalated quickly.

Namor understimates his new foe's strength and speed. Orka pounds on him a couple of times and Namor finds himself trapped on the side of a collapsed mountain.

He frees himself from the rubble and tracks Orka to "some awesome undersea fortress". He sneaks his way in and comes across Orka again but this time is better prepared for him.

Orka is sent flying during the battle and when Namor chases after him, he comes upon another old foe.

Nooo! Come on, man! How often am I going to stumble into this loser??

Dorcas, in an attempt to avoid a severe beating, shows Namor that there are several Atlanteans trapped in a bubble outside and surrounded by hunger-crazed sharks.

Dorcas, of course, has the ways and means to dissolve said bubble if Namor doesn't cool his gills. And also of course, there is one prisoner in the bubble that is of particular interest to the prince.

Again, Dorma is in the shit. At some point Namor has to ask himself if she's worth the trouble, honestly.

Orka's cobwebs are starting to clear and he prepares to start round three with the sub-mariner but he is stopped in his tracks by the real boss.

Sure, since we're all here.

It's origin time! Krang was exiled but Orka, while a simpleton, was a one of his most loyal subjects. As he sought to generate wealth to plan to retake Atlantis, Krang stumbled into Dorcas' underwater lab. There, he and Dorcas subjected Orka to an experiment similar to what Tiger Shark went through and voila! Instant whale dude!

He's far less intimidating in his underwear though.

When Namor tires of the stories and makes a move towards Krang, Orka has his excuse to drop the gloves again.

This time, he's boosted though. Dorcas designed the belt around Orka's waist so that it saps the strength of the whales nearby and directs it to increase Orka's. So Namor is at a distinct disadvantage.

The prisoners manage to escape, dumbass Dorma included, but Namor is captured and shackled as the book ends.

Orka is established as a credible threat immediately in this one, on par with Tiger Shark, Attuma and the like. I'm only disappointed that his origin so closely resembles that of Tiger Shark but I look forward to witnessing his other throw downs with Namor soon.

Giant-Size Super-Villain Team Up (1975) #1

There had been a bit of interaction between Namor and Dr. Doom in the Black Panther books I read recently hinting a some tense history between the two characters. As a result, I'd been looking forward to reading Super-Villain Team-Up quite a bit but I'm sorry to say it turned out to be rather disappointing.

"Three titanic tales" told over 68 pages for $2 (digital). So far so good. Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Joe Sinnott on creative duties sounds like a win too.

We get a recap of the events of recent (at the time) issues of Fantastic Four which led to Doom plunging from space and into the ocean where he is found, rescued and revived by Namor. Doom's reaction?

Arsehole. I'd have corked him in the chin right there and then.

Instead, Namor chooses to ignore the insult, and Doom's own reminder of a past betrayal, to suggest they are natural-born allies. While Doom contemplates this we flashback to...Sub-Mariner #20. It appears as though the entire issue is reprinted here.

Okay, so in THAT issue...Namor is ranting and raving in the city (presumably New York) following a recent battle. The military is after him so he beats a rare retreat and ends up at...The Latverian embassy.

Doom attempts to recruit Namor to his side to, basically, take over the world. Namor, at this point, had no desire to take over the surface world again, so he bluntly refuses the offer.

Doom, then, orders his henchmen remove every drop of water from the mansion, right down to the ice cubes, in order to keep Namor weak and therefore force him into submission.

You picked wrong Atlantean to pull that trick on, Doom! Namor attacks nonetheless and the two monarchs scrap for a while.

  Doom, of course, has every advantage (including home turf) so Namor turns the tide (so to speak) by starting a fire. The fire department displays incredible response time, Namor gets a good soaking from the fire hoses, and beats it.

And that's the end of the flashback. The book then reprints another story in which Doom had unsuccessfully teamed with another villain, Diablo. Namor does not appear in that story at all.

After all that reminiscing, Doom refuses Namor's offer by blasting him into the wall. You've got to give it to him, the dude has a way of making a point. And so they scrap again.

Doom, claiming he can't be bothered to fight (even though he started it), leaves the ship. Namor lets it all go, reasoning that Doom will go on failing at his own plans and come crawling back to him one day.

And that's about it. The story can be broken down to Namor saying "join me" followed by Doom responding with "screw you". And the logic involved with both the question and the response is questionable.

The reprinted material from Sub-Mariner #20 includes about a page-long cameo of Dorma and Triton of The Inhumans. That was a pleasant surprise.

Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner (1968) #5

Unimaginatively, I attempted to post something more or less Valentine's related yesterday involving one of the ladies in Namor's life.

We recently saw some flirting with Emma Frost and we know he's been pining for Susan Richards for some time but neither relationship seemed appropriate (particularly not the one with the married woman).

He's been married twice that I know of, to Dorma, and to Marrina of Alpha Flight. In the case of the latter, much of the relationship was off panel so difficult to share here so Dorma it is.

I figured the issue below might feature some good lady-in-distress stuff so that's what I settled on. Plus I dig Tiger Shark so I cheated a bit.

Roy Thomas and John Buscema are on the case. And we open with Namor experiencing...memory loss! Again!!

That's twice in just the few books I've read and I know it's part of his history. Dude needs to be checked into concussion protocol.

So you wander into some coastal cave and naturally the first thing that happens is that you get attacked by...

Of course, no tomato can will stop the Avenging Son, scrambled brains or not. He destroys it but the ensuing blast knocks him out. When he wakes up, he's wearing a metallic vest and some lady is about to serve him a pork chop on rice. When he threatens to kick her ass, this guy reveals himself.

Ha ha ha ha ha! Great name, jackass!

Meanwhile, Dorma knows something is up and she seeks to find her missing prince with some encouraging words from her entourage.

While Dorma navigates her way around a giant squid, Dorcas prepares to transfer Namor's powers, and that of a shark (lol...), to a former Olympic swimmer named Todd who lost the ability to swim and would do anything to restore it. End result? Classic Sub-Mariner villain, y'all.

Tiger Shark loses his shit, messes up Dorcas and bails just as Dorma arrives. He threatens Dorma's safety and that's not going to fly. Namor could probably give a shit or two about Todd normally, but don't be threatening his lady love, my bro.

The whole power transfer thing wore out Namor so Shark does ultimately get the upper hand, however. And so we have a good ol' cliffhanger to lead us into issue #6.

Boy, an awful lot of stuff went on here. It was goofy entertaining and while the original plan was to jump around between eras with this character, I may need to conclude this one sooner rather than later.

By the way, I thought this Dorcas guy was a throwaway mad scientist but damned if he didn't appear in future issues of this book and as recently as the Thunderbolts in 2012. Waste not want not, Marvel!