The Invaders (1975) #3

While my original intent was to read and review Sub-Mariner appearances one random issue at a time, a recent sale made the book below impossible to pass up.

Collects Giant-Size Invaders #1; Invaders (1975) #1-22, Annual #1; Marvel Premiere (1972) #29-30; Avengers (1963) #71.

All the books above for $11, if I recall correctly. It would have been foolish to pass that up in order to follow a self-appointed process.

The first part of this compilation (Giant-Sized Invaders #1 and the first two issues of the Invaders regular series) is not particularly good and while Namor has his moments to shine, he seems completely out of character. It isn't until issue three or so that we start to see his impetuousness start to shine and it is for that reason that this is the first issue from the volume to be featured here.

In those early issues, Namor is quick to throw out silly nicknames (particularly for his on-again-off-again rival, The Human Torch), bad puns and cheesy tough guy talk. Captain America is the leader and therefore understandably the more stoic, serious member of the team but such behaviour from Namor still reads awkwardly.

Because it isn't a party until the savage avenging son arrives!

To be fair, Captain America comments on Namor's odd speech patterns and Namor points to his dual human/Atlantean ancestry as a cause. I'm not sure that makes a lot of sense but at least it's acknowledged.

Anyway, the real conflict begins when a German sub is captured. Namor wants to beat some information out of one of their prisoners but Cap-Am explains that that's not the way they do things. So we have a slight disagreement in methodology, a nice change from every character "sounding" the same to this point.

But the big blow up takes place when The Invaders are given their next mission, which is to clear a path for Winston Churchill to sail from Bermuda to England. They are shown a video of a big bastard who is expected to cause trouble.

Being racist assholes, everyone assumes that because he has blue skin, he MUST be from Atlantis (okay, maybe it's not so bad in this case). If that's the case, Namor wants to handle this on his own.

None of his colleagues want him to go alone but instead of just following him and jumping in if he ends up needing help, they fight him instead.

Namor fights them off and, with Bucky's help, flies off in his Atleantean ship to do battle with U-Man. But that titanic battle takes place in issue #4!

After a bumpy start, this feels like the first time that Namor has appeared in this book and I was looking forward to reading the next issue. More on that later!