Sub-Mariner (1968) #50

The mention of Llyra in the previous post about Spider-Man served up a handy suggestion for a good hopping-on point to the Sub-Mariner series. Let's give a look at the extra special 50th issue of Namor's series. Don't take it from me, though. It says so right on the cover!

We join Namor as he's asking himself the very questions stated on the cover. Reading this out of order, we have no idea what caused his memory loss but that just helps us relate to his condition. His "curtain over clouded memories", if you will.

Namor asks if he's a man like the others while wearing green scale shorts. Maybe he hasn't seen his own pointy ears yet or the wings on his ankles.

But he does take that lady's advice to go jump in the ocean, figuring that either he'll find peace in the ocean or die and be relieved that way. Can't...argue with that logic.

And while he's finding out which one will turn out to be true he also happens upon a breathing corpse. Or something.

Well, obviously you care a little...

He rescues her and this is what he gets for his trouble.

Spak! Save someone from drowning and next thing you know, you get uppercutted and called a perv. Don't do it for the glory, y'all!

Turns out that's Namorita, his second cousin, so yes, that's kind of gross, but at the time no one knew that.

There is a lot flowery language in this book and while it starts out kind of dramatically comical, it gets old fairly fast.

Holy cripes, man...Bring it down a notch...

At this point, he's felt drawn south and when he reaches that spot, he immediately gets attacked by a bunch of crab dudes led by this guy...

I remember this Atlantean Colonel Mustard from some Avengers books. A crossover with Alpha Flight or something. I'll need to dig them up.

Anyway, Byyrah and his crab dudes actually have Namorita hostage and are attempting to use her to make Namor obey them. Namor swears to tear them apart with his bare hands when the REAL leader reveals herself.

Double swerve! There's Llyra, as advertised. And apparently, they read Congreve in Atlantis.

Namor justifiably tosses her in an oil pit in short order and takes off with Namorita to have a chat.

This Shakesperean tale was both written and drawn by Bill Everett which is pretty cool since he invented the character. He created Namorita, for that matter, and this book is notable for featuring her first appearance. It would perhaps not be to everyone's liking, but it is certainly a must for fans of either character and/or their creator.

Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #214

I have about 20 books on my Comixology Wish List specific to Namor The Sub-Mariner, ready to be purchased at a moment's notice. When choosing which one to read today, how could I pass up such an intriguing solicitation as the one for Amazing Spider-Man 214?

Thanks to the Wizard, Spider-Man must rescue the tenants of his building from a burning rooftop. But passed-out Wino Charlie wasn’t aware of the danger! Can Spider-Man save himself, and Charlie, from a certain, fiery death?

Being that the book has a cover date of March 1981, it probably won't spoil it for anyone if I say that...Charlie made it! That whole bit was done in five pages.

That burning building was Peter Parker's place of residence. It isn't clear (to the reader, or Peter Parker) why that particular building was chosen for arson, aside from an attempt to bring Spider-Man out. But of all buildings to torch...

Anyway, Parker has to shack up (at the insurance company's expense) at a fancy hotel with his hot neighbor from down the hall and some dude who sings country music too loud. That's the kind of "every man" situation that made Parker so relatable, you know?

Elsewhere, Sandman and The Trapster (hey, wasn't he Paste-Pot Pete before?) are busted out of jail by the Wizard and an unknown (at this point) ally who appears to be in charge.

Ah, but Namor suspected something was up! He had someone keeping an eye on things.

The above Atlantean heads home to give his report and in no time we're all...

Right on.

Now for some reason, Namor thinks Peter's hot neighbor is the one plotting against him so he goes straight to the hotel in which she's staying.

Being that his spy was tailing someone else altogether, I don't know how Namor concluded he should go to that specific room on the ninth floor. Atlantean instinct? Namor appeared in issue 211 of this series as well, so perhaps this lady is our villain in disguise and it's just not made clear here.

We ignore that and enjoy a pretty good scrap in which Spider-Man mostly has the upper hand until he thoughtlessly spears Namor into...one of those pesky water storage tank that was in every rooftop in New York-based comics of the time. Smooth move, Ex-Lax.

So a soaked Namor gets his mojo back and just as he's questioning web-head...

Hugging a rope is good advice?

Our villainous mystery woman reveals herself.

And now we're all caught up!

Seriously though...a caption box points out that Llyra was last seen in Sub-Mariner #50. I looked it up, that book came out in the spring on 1972, almost nine years earlier. I would think that if you're going to keep an air of mystery around someone for a big reveal later, it would be a character that most people would care about and/or recognize. You do that with Doctor Doom. I'm not sure that Llyra generates the same reaction.

Nonetheless, this was an entertaining read even if it took a while to finally get my Sub-Mariner fix and I dig that the primary villain is an Atlantean. The Frightful Four take down Spidey/Subey and the story continues in the following issue.

This one was by Denny O'Neil with art by John Romita Jr., Jim Mooney and Bob Sharen.

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #527

Dud.

This issue is part two of a story called The Five Lights. While searching for Namor appearances, I found out I had the first part of Five Lights already yet had no memory of purchasing it. It wasn't until I came across a character based out of Vancouver, BC, Canada that I remembered that I'd bought it for my blog about Canadian super-heroes.

So what the hell? I went ahead and bought the second part. The cover seemed promising. The cover date is October, 2010.

Despite the rather dashing cover appearance, the Avenging Son only appears on two pages, flirting with Emma Frost and making an argument that Scott Summers, Cyclops, is a tool. He's not wrong, but as guest-appearances go, it's a little disappointing.

Oh, he throws some sunshine towards his chef, too, simultaneously taking a shot at we landlubbers. Monarchs need to be able to multi-task.

He eats sushi with Emma Frost which, at first, seemed odd. I suppose surface dwellers eat hot dogs and wiener tots so maybe Atlanteans eating sushi isn't so weird but it initially raised an eyebrow.  I bet I come across something in some other book which contradicts this.

But the fact I'm questioning the act of eating sushi just underscores what a pointless purchase this was. If you were to collect Namor's major appearance only, this is very much one to skip. Not even one Imperius Rex, y'all!

The Invaders (1993) #1

For my second reading, I wanted an issue from one of Namor's solo books. I considered his first series, but it ran in the late 60s/early 70s. That was a little too close in terms of timeline to the book I read last night (Fantastic Four #102 from 1970). I want to avoid John Byrne's 90s series for a bit longer and didn't want to read another guest-appearance. So I opted for a team book.

Namor has been a member of several teams but he is arguably most-associated with the Invaders. Some would debate that the Defenders are that team but I disagree. For one thing, the Defenders, by definition, are not a team and for another, the Defenders have had several line-ups without Namor. That can not be said of The Invaders. Namor almost always appears with them.

So with that said, let's grit our teeth and roll with the 90s. The book is written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Dave Hoover and Brian Garvey. It is cover-dated May 1993.

Well THAT didn't take long...Battle cry on page 2!

We're in New York in 1942. The same New York that Namor had probably attacked several times by then and would numerous times more.

A merchant ship in port gets fired upon so coincidentally, the first two books I buy feature Namor wrestling a torpedo.

And...That's about the extent of his heroics. When the team lands on the submarine, they easily dispatch the soldiers on it but are promptly attacked and, frankly, decimated by a team called Battle Axis. Namor gets punked by a dude named...Strongman.

By Proteus? Is that expressions commonly used by Atlanteans? I'll have to keep an eye open for that.

After suffering that indignity, the team (Captain America and The Human Torch, at this point) heads home to lick their wounds. From page 16 on, the book focuses on two other Invaders, Miss America and The Whizzer (worst name ever) also being attacked by Battle Axis. Whizzer is captured but Miss America manages to escape.

Overall, pretty cool. For a 1990s book, this could have been far worse but you're in good hands with Roy Thomas, who wrote nearly 70 issues of All-Star Squadron. He should pretty well have been anyone's go-to guy for a book written in WW2.

And while Strongman seemed quite lame at first glance, it took no time to find out that he is actually a lesser-known public domain character that Thomas adapted for his story. Presumably, that is true of the entire Battle Axis team.  Neat idea.

Fantastic Four (1961) #102: "The Strength Of The Sub-Mariner"

What better way to start my little project than with a Fantastic Four book written by legend Stan Lee and drawn by other legend Jack Kirby?  It's even called "Strength Of The Sub-Mariner". Can't go wrong here. The cover date on this thing is September 1970. Joe Sinnott also gets credit as an "embellisher".

After a comedy bit based around The Thing having a cold (I lol'ed), Namor first shows up at the bottom of page three. He and a few of his men are investigating a "mysterious shockwave" detected by Atlantis. The trail leads to a "primitive isle" crawling with "ancient reptiles".

I'm no Marvel Comics expert but I can only imagine that's the Savage Land, even if its name is not used. Namor sees a lone survivor and tells the pterodactyls and what-not to piss-off in his usual charming way.

Damn right, Imperius Rex!

The lone survivor was actually Magneto (!!), stranded there after a defeat at the hands of the X-men in issue #63 of that book. This is back in the day when Marvel actually made an effort to respect its own continuity, apparently.

Magneto is an asshole so he begins to plot to trigger war between Atlantis and the surface world. Each side is made to think that it being attacked by the other.

Namor, being on the hotheaded side, falls for it hook, line and sinker, as the expression goes. To be fair, Ben Grimm does launch a "warning shot" of sorts in the form of a concussive missile aimed at Atlantis on behalf of the Fantastic Four. Way to go, jackass.

What's a highly protective, and evidently quite confident, prince supposed to think?

And so Namor readies to...crush the entire human race. Harsh but fair.

It's on! Atlantis would invade the surface world, not for the first time, and certainly not for the last.

I have to admit...This was a blast. Whenever I considered collecting this character's adventures, I would look over some of the available print material, particularly the more recent stuff, and put it off because frankly it looked lousy. I'm sure I'm going to stumble into some duds along, but overall I think I'm going to enjoy collecting this way; picking at bit and pieces and different eras.

The only thing I found myself missing with this story were notable citizens of Atlantis. There are some soldiers and such but no one that appears to matter. That's a minor criticism, being that this is a Fantastic Four book, not a Sub-Mariner book. But I do look forward to finding out more about Marvel's Atlantis specifically.

Welcome to Namor : Avenging Son

Long story short, Namor The Sub-Mariner is among my favourite Marvel Comics characters yet I own very few of his appearances.

Every few days, I shall acquire (probably from Comixology) one of his appearances and review/discuss it here for my own enjoyment and hopefully yours. It may be one of his solo books, a series about a team he belonged too, a guest-appearance, whatever. It could be in the middle of the series, it might be issue one...I'm going with my gut.  Imperius Rex!