Sub-Mariner (2007) #2: "Revolution"

I'm shocked that it's been almost a full year since I took the time to review a Namor book. I was sure I'd done so in mid-summer or thereabouts. 

I'm going to want to get things going again with major appearances for a spell, not just guest-appearances or team books in which he's little more than muscle. What better way to do that than with the second issue of his 2007 mini-series and its awesome cover by Gabriele Dell'Otto. 

In a SHIELD crime lab, remains found in Atlantis' throne room are being studied to determine if they are that of Namor, the Sub-Mariner. When the results confirm that they are, Tony Stark ponders who could have done such thing.

We flashback to six days prior to begin to find out. 

Atlanteans are being blamed for an apparent terrorist attack in Kansas, of all places. Namor is trying to find the perpetrators of the crime while SHIELD, including Iron Man, comes to breathe down his neck. 

He is. The plan is to prevent Namor from going to the surface, anticipating that he'd only make things worse. You can certainly make a historical case for that.

But Iron Man gives Namor "one more hour" to find those actually responsible. Okay, then what? You declare war? You arrest Namor for a crime he didn't commit? There's a part of the reasoning that I'm not following here.  

Not one to be told what to do, Namor gets through SHIELD's little cordon and heads for the surface. Meanwhile, in Seattle, a sewer worker makes an unfortunate discovery.

Namor then arrives at his destination which, predictably, is the Kansas town that was devastated earlier. There he finds a jewel in the rubble, apparently a clue as to who actually caused the damage.

Also, we see Norman Osborn out recruiting someone to capture the Avenging Son. It's....An interesting choice! 

Following his discovery, Namor flies to Xavier's school to request some unidentified assistance from the professor. He doesn't receive quite the greeting that he'd hoped for, however.

Well there's a little something to look forward to! With Venom shown earlier, the potential for a highly chaotic scrap is enticingly high with these three. 

The writers, named in the image above have done a very good job of building up anticipation with both issues so far. I thought this mini-series might just be an ultimately insignificant attempt to cash in on yet another Marvel "event" but the first third, at least, has been quite good.

Fantastic Four Unlimited (1995) #11: "The Inhuman Condition / No Man Is An Island"

I was hoping to get into more significant appearances after whiffing on the past couple. I'm not sure this one qualifies. Namor gets a lot more face time but very little is of any significance. 

This issue is an epilogue to the whole Atlantis Rising event but a lot of it is devoted to the Inhumans. Namor does get his fair share of attention, but it's all over the place.

After a lengthy episode about the Inhumans, we finally see the avenging son reviewing the damages caused by Atlantis' rising. In doing so, he comes across a familiar face. 

Ah yes, Llyron. At one point said to be Namor's son, apparently by now we know that's a load. He possesses Mckenzie blood, somehow, according to Llyra, and had his growth accelerated by a geneticist named Vyrra "whose mind had been transferred into a clone" of Namor's ex-wife Dorma. Evidently, Lyrron has Lyrra's memories but Vyrra's mind.

Christ on a bike, that's a lot to take in.

Namor understandably leaves her there to rot. As he continues to assess the state of risen Atlantis, he comes across an Atlantean kid trying to draw oxygen from a puddle. He grabs her and attempts to save her by flying her to water but he's just a little too late. 

I want "Imperius Rex" to be my last words too. 

So Namor's having a shitty day. We cut to see what Llyron is up to and that, basically, is being a dictator. He's led his people away from risen Atlantis and he's come up with a plan to restock the shelves, so to speak.

Wonder if anything every came of that? One to look up. 

Back on dry land, various factions are fighting for the newly-appeared land mass. Namor wants them all to piss off, as he should. 

He does battle with some sort of creature called Man-Of-War brought in by the Portuguese military in case Namor showed up but all that feels like filler. Bottom line, he kicks everyone off the island, crashes into his throne and lets his hair down.

And so ends Atlantis Rising. 

The compilation (at least the digital one) includes all kinds of extras including a biography about Llyron which I might get around to reading some day since his origins aren't clear to me.

It also included this handy, if basic, map about Atlantis' new location. Nice touch. 

I don't recall how this story was received at the time but it is clear that an awful lot of work went into it. Yes, it was full of 90s garishness but it was epic in scale and it did change the status quo. I'm a little sad to reach its end, honestly.

X-Men Red (2018) #4: "The Hate Machine, Part 4 - Small Problem"

Since the earlier review of a Vision and Scarlet Witch issue turned out to be quite brief, I thought I would knock another one off with this X-Men Red offering.

Namor appeared in the first issue of the series but did not show up again until this one, and barely so. But the first panel below at least explains his purpose in this book. 

They mean that literally. Certain people are being infected with some nanotech that causes them to be susceptible to mind control directed towards killing mutants. The clothes to which the ladies (the Laura Kinney Wolverine on the left and someone annoying named Gabby who goes by Honey Badger on the right) refer include a dampener that negates the tech's effects.

The X-(Wo)Man named Storm had been earlier affected by it and attacked the always lovely Jean Grey. They certainly don't want Namor turning on them.

So again, that's the extent of Namor's inclusion. His appearances in this book, at least first few issues, tend to be quite brief but they do have some significance. 

Vision And The Scarlet Witch (1985) #7: "Batteries Not Included"

 This is obviously inspired by the release of the Wanda Vision TV Show...

Namor appeared in the previous issue of this mini-series but contributed little more than comic relief. Based on the preview for this issue, it seemed like he played a larger role in this one, but unfortunately that's not the case.

He and Captain America are in the training room at Avengers Mansion when Vision phases through the ceiling and startles them. The distraction causes Namor to get tossed around by their robotic opponents.

That's right, Captain America gets corked by that machine behind him because he's preoccupied by Tony Stark's bottom line. Too bad he let himself be distracted! You can't do that when you're in combat! Jackass...

Vision is there to ask the two of them about the original Human Torch, whose body he inhabits. He is, once again, having an existential crisis of some sort. As a result, we are treated to some brief Invaders flashbacks. 

The information is of little use the Vision, as it turns out, so he takes his search to Project Pegasus. It's a solo thing though, so the former Invaders are not seen beyond these first couple of pages of the book.

I guess that's that. I'd hoped for a full-length guest-appearance but Namor's role was wrapped up by page 5. Bummer. 

The New Avengers: Illuminati #1

When I first started finding out about the Illuminati, I believed that they'd only appeared in specials and "one off" issues of The New Avengers. I later learned that they had a mini series of their own and so I wanted to check that out.

Man, aside from the obvious, I don't really care for any of these characters but I love them together (though I wish Black Panther was around).

The story takes place shortly after the Kree/Skrull war as this bunch decides to flip the would-be invader Skrull the finger one last time. They appear on a Skrull vessel with a terse warning.

The proud Skrull consider it their destiny to own Earth and so they tell Mr. "Fantastic" Richards to stuff himself. In response, Black Bolt demolishes their ship with his hyper-destructive vocal abilities as the team teleports back to their own mode of transportation, all to Namor's great delight . 

Ha ha ha ha! You could easily argue that he's being a complete dick but seen from the point of view of a monarch who has seen numerous invasion attempts against his turf, it seems pretty much on point. 

Of course, it bites him in the ass though as the Skrull won't let them leave that easily.

The Skrull then begin studying the genetic anomalies of their various prisoners, Namor included of course.

Still better than an anal probe...

An armourless Tony Stark escapes the poking and prodding (in rather questionable fashion, in my opinion) and one by one, frees his teammates. 

It is a brief moment but Namor shows the most passion for hitting things when the time comes to free Richards from torture. In light of their many battles, verbal and physical, a certain amount of affection is still evident there. Nice job there by writer Brian Michael Bendis. 

 

The restored team swipe a ship and beat it, handing the Skrull yet another defeat. Or...did they?

Ooh! Cryptic!  

There isn't anything particularly innovative about a story in which the heroes are captured, one escapes and the others are freed one by one, but big action, a couple of personal moments and the low key cliffhanger directly above made for an entertaining debut. I'm on/off with Bendis and don't typically expect much from his books but this was a nice start to a series.

Marvel Two-In-One (1974) #2: "Manhunters From The Stars!"

After spending some time focusing on one of Namor's less common foes/allies, we're going to have a look at a book featuring one of his most frequent in the Thing.

The book starts with an appearance by Namorita, which is a nice unexpected treat. A character named Wundarr falls from the sky into the ocean near Hydrobase where Namor's cousin is conveniently hanging out. She leaps to the rescue.

She gives him mouth-to-mouth and starts to crush on him right away. This Wundarr guy is clearly confused though and when Namor shows up, Wundarr panics and beats it. Namorita knows something's up and begs Namor to help her help him.

Cease your prattling, woman! There are so many such scenes in the comics of the time...

But what IS the deal with this Wundarr fella? We sneak onto a spaceship to find out. Would you believe that is dad was an astronomer who predicted that their planet was going to be destroyed and...

How ludicrous, right? 😐 

We'll ignore the familiarity of all that (I assume it was done with a wink anyway) and see what happens when Wundarr reaches dry land again. He crashes into New York city, wrecking a couple of cars and getting plowed into by a cab. His child-like minds perceives the cab episode as an attack against him and he seeks to defend himself. 

Wouldn't you know it, the Thing is walking nearby. It seems that wherever Wundarr goes, a member of the Marvel pantheon happens to be out chilling. The Thing sees Wundarr freaking out and decides to put an end to it.

I would buy a book of nothing but punches drawn by Gil Kane. 

Namor and Namorita and arrive and, for a change, Namor attempts to prevent further fighting. 

The aliens who had been tracking Wundarr feel that Namor's sudden presence will probably make it less likely that the Thing will end up killing Wundarr so they beam down with their robot assassin. For all that their "mortoid" got partial cover treatment, the two heroes dispatch it in a page and a half.

The aliens are impressed by this and decide to beam back to their ships. Namor and Namorita, who was so concerned about Wundarr's well-being earlier, essentially say "okay bye!" and take off as well, leaving the Thing holding the bag, so to speak.

Apparently they can.

 
I had a few of the later issues of this series as a kid and hated them because the Thing was among my least favourite characters. I tended to buy them for the guest star.

This one surpassed expectations and while the panels above may not demonstrate it fully, a big reason for that was Gil Kane's dynamic art, particularly during fight scenes. I've owned this book for months,  picking it up for a buck during a sale at the time, and I'd been holding off reading because I wasn't particularly looking forward to it. If I'd have known Kane had handled its art chores, I would have read it much, much sooner.

Incredible Hercules #122: "Love & War (part two)"

We recently had a look at a Hercules appearance in a Namor book, and a time when they were both members of the Avengers, so let's close out this little theme with Namor appearing in a Hercules book instead. 

Ha ha ha ha ha! I love Namora's expression back there...

See, she and Hercules have been getting on quite nicely of late, and when Namor shows up at the end of #121 in the following manner, Hercules can't help but jump to conclusions.

But it's not about that at all, as Namor makes abundantly clear. 

Namora straightens the boys out, pointing out that they are actually on the same side, since the Amazons have attacked Hercules as well.

Oh. 

So the three gang-up to confront Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, about the whole thing. 

That's Hercules asking for a moment. Namor generously gives him 15 minutes to charm Hippolyta.

Once at Triton, Hercules is instead again attacked, and blinded, by the Amazons. Namora rescues him.

Namor accesses the station through underwater tunnels but finds out the hard way that they were rigged with explosives. 

As Namor begins to tear the place apart looking for Hippolyta, he is surprised to find...

Ah, well, I guess Namor appears in the next issue too. I did not know that. 

That's good news, actually, because I've enjoyed this story thus far. I've criticized the 2005 Defenders series for trying so hard to be humourous and, in my opinion, failing miserably at it. This creative team (Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Clayton Henry) is far better at pulling it off because the humour doesn't dominate the story or reduce the threat.

Also, a character like Hercules lends himself to humour far better than a Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer or, for that matter, Namor, who isn't there for laughs.

Love & War is a five-part story and it wouldn't kill me if Namor was involved throughout, but I suspect he will exit after the next one. Too bad.

Avengers (1963) #268: "The Kang Dynasty"

Writing up a post yesterday about an early team up between Namor and Hercules reminded me that I still have a few Avengers issues from the 80s to read. The two characters were both team members during that run but egos got in the way and they didn't always get along so well.

Let's see see if they get chummier as the story progresses.  For that matters, let's see if Namor even shows up because he was not a big part of the previous two or three issues (the recaps for which can be found by clicking the "Avengers (1963)" tag at right). 

The team is split in two at this point. Time-hopper Kang has abducted a few members (specifically they are The Wasp, Black Knight and Hercules) and dropped them in limbo in an elaborate scheme to control the various alternate timelines.

To the rest of the team (Namor among them), they seem to have vanished without a trace. By analyzing the machinery the abducted members were using at the time, they are able to deduce that Kang is the kidnapper. 

Hm. That conclusion was reached rather quickly...

The book then cuts to Kang's captives for a while as they find their way to his lair in limbo but upon our return to the real world, we find Jarvis watching protests, and counter-protests, surrounding Namor's Avengers membership. This has been going on for a while now so clearly they're going somewhere with this and I'm eager to see where that is. 

Namor doesn't care about all that noise, at least at the moment, because his segment of the team is working on a time machine of their own so that they can find and assist their teammates. It proves to be frustrating work, as you might expect time-machine building to be, and Namor is not the most patient dude around.

They do get it to work though, of course. When they arrive in limbo, they struggle to find their teammates until they get a huge clue, literally.

Hercules seems like the most likely suspect so they head in the direction from which this android emerged. They find the other members in no time and help subdue Kang, but another Kang takes the entire team down. 

Ha! I love that next title...

Not bad, we moved along a fair bit, which is good because this series has had a tendency to drag at times. I don't blame writer Roger Stern for that, I think he had to pace around that awful Secret Wars II mini series that ran at the time but it was good to get back to a normal pace. Namor is starting to fit in better and his difficulties in doing so were an interesting aspect of Stern's handling of him. I suspect this story concludes in the next issue so we'll probably get to that fairly soon.