Uncanny X-Men (2011) #12

When choosing which issues to pick up and review during the recent sale on X-Men digital books, the one below was pretty much a no-brainer.

This is only my second foray into the Avengers vs X-Men story. The first was issue #1 of the VAC: VS mini series, reviewed here.

Looking back, while I recognized at the time that the AVS:VS book acknowledged its own pointlessness, X-Men 12 underscored it in spectacular fashion. AVS: Vs #1 was published one month before the above issue in which the same two characters were going to throw down anyway. Again, it may be that greater exposure to the story as a whole makes VS more worthwhile but that isn't the sense I get right at this point.

But enough about that. What about this book?

Well, Namor gets plenty of face time, which is good. It's not particularly good quality time though.

The X-Men are looking for a character named Hope that I know next to nothing about. They are split into teams which leads to this exchange.

Okay...Not only is artist Greg Land notorious for tracing his art from pornography, it appears that writer Kieron Gillen is determined to play along because this sort of thing keeps coming up (double entendre not intended) throughout the issue.

Around the same time this little group arrives at Tabula Rasa, whatever the hell that is, so does an Avengers teams of Luke Cage, She-Hulk and The Thing.

Evidently, the Avengers didn't feel the need to diversify this group's power base. It's all physical strength and, well, that's about it.

Namor uses one of his lesser-known "abilities" to try to track down this Hope character.

Yeah, that's just gross, I don't care how many boobs she has.

Anyway, they do encounter the Avengers and waste no time attacking them. Namor pounds Cage into the ground and tosses him into the nearest body of water which, unlike the one above, is sort of brick-coloured.

Land must have traced that from some porn actor who has no fingers.

Namor uses Cage's unconscious form to knock She-Hulk unconscious and just like that, we're on to our main event.

The scrap, however, is unimpressive, short-lived and interrupted by some kind of alien thing that resides in this joint.

Seriously, Gillen, what the hell is wrong with you? As lazy as Land can be though, The Thing's expression there is kind of funny.

Hope having been located, everyone just heads home. So we followed the team that did NOT find Hope.

Really then, this book is just as pointless as AVX:VS. It just gives the illusion of having a story attached to it.

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #6, "Sub-Mariner Joins The Evil Mutants"

Our X-Men theme got off to a bummer start so let's see if going back in time to issue #6 of the original X-Men book can get us on track.

His shorts are red so we're off to an auspicious start...

It is interesting to note that this book is part of a tradition of guest-appearances by Namor in the early issues of other Marvel series. The most famous famous is of course Fantastic Four #4, but he appeared in Avengers #3 as well and even the 7th issue of Daredevil. Marvel took no time to learn about cross-promoting.

In this issue, the X-Men are having dinner when Professor Xavier is inspired by that day's newspaper. Jean Grey speculates as to whether there are other mutants around to which the wise mutant father figure responds...

And at that very moment, "as fate would have it"...

Thus...

That's...New to me. Has he done that since?

When Magneto arrives at Atlantis, Namor is in a rage about Reed Richards repeatedly cock-blocking him in regards to Sue. So Magneto instead tries to manipulate some nobody to do his bidding.

That dude plants a thought into Namor's head that Magneto as a "fellow mutant" (nod nod, wink wink) might be best suited to assist Namor in the prince's battle against Mankind. Intrigued, since it had never occurred to Namor that he might be considered a mutant, the avenging son seeks out Magneto at the latter's hidden island.

Why would Namor need an undersea racer?

Once on the island, Namor is not too impressed by what he sees. Magneto tries to use the Scarlet Witch as a lure, which seems to be working to some degree. But when the X-Men also arrive at the island and attack, Magneto has harsh words for the Witch and Namor will have none of it.

With Namor turned against them, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants retreats but leave the Scarlet Witch and her brother, Quicksilver, behind. Those two are no friends of the X-Men either so Namor still finds himself at odds against the mutant team. Professor X attempts to restore order, successfully, but Namor has had enough of their drama.

Magneto takes one more shot at Namor from a distant location but to no avail. And so Namor returns to the ocean, once again annoyed by the surface-dwellers.

Man, I left an awful lot on the table with this one. I found I had to ignore some material from this issue to avoid having the blog post be too long.

It was a good problem to have after reading a Brian Michael Bendis book last time I updated the blog. If Bendis were re-writing this book today, it would be a 12-issue mini series.

Secret Invasion: Dark Reign One-Shot

Comixology had a sale on X-Men books. I've been curious about Namor's involvement with that team so this seemed like a good opportunity to educate myself.

Thus far, I'd only reviewed one X-Men book which featured Namor on the cover. It turned out that the Prince was barely involved in that issue so the the experience was underwhelming.

But this one is worse!

I failed to notice that it was written by Brian Michael Bendis and therefore was unprepared for the amount of filler I would be facing. On the flip side. I've enjoyed Alex Maleev's art in the past so I looked forward to seeing that. And initially, Maleev's work is quite gorgeous, as seen here when Emma Frost is having dream vision of some sort.

There is another city scene early on that I enjoyed quite a bit so I was optimistic.

That is, until Namor actually shows up.

When I laid eyes on this, I thought this was a "Dark X-Men" type of deal in which the characters were being impersonated. No way could this bum, who looks like he woke up in a dumpster behind a pub, be "the" prince of the blood, the avenging son, the savage sub-mariner! But no, that's him all right!

Following that greeting, Namor tries to flirt with Emma Frost, she tells him he smells and the normally proud, arrogant, hot-headed monarch just sits there dumbstruck. Terrible.

The deal here is that Norman Osborn has called in Dr. Doom, Namor, Frost, Loki and some clown called The Hood to offer an alliance of sorts.

Osborn spends the next 10 or 12 pages or so explaining to everyone why this deal is beneficial and hinting at some threat that can keep them all in line if required anyway.

During this time, we're fed a bunch of "thoughtful" and/or suspicious glances. The image below is actually a full page of material.

As if Bendis' lazy method of "stretch-writing" 10 pages of material into 24 wasn't bad enough, we get another dream sequence towards the end.

Frost is having the same nightmare that she had at the beginning of the book. Now I get that they want it to be clear that it is a recurring dream but they can't be bothered to modify the dialogue or art even slightly. In light of how much space Bendis wastes just on people saying hello, duplicated art feels even more like being given the finger.

This is a one-shot with no resolution to either Osborn's offer or to Frost's dream sequences yet includes a few pages dedicated to a preview of the Secret Warriors book. It isn't particularly good use of available resources.

I haven't read much from Bendis (for which I'm now thankful). I knew he had his detractors but now I understand better why he does. At least I got that much out of this book. Otherwise I paid $1 and didn't get my money's worth.

The Invaders (1975) #4

This is the last of our "part two" themed posts. Invaders #3 was reviewed here and now we look at Namor's impact on issue #4.

It takes him a while to show up. At the conclusion of #3, Namor (with as assist from Captain America sidekick Bucky) punked out his Invaders teammates and took off to do battle against U-Man. U-Man is a fellow Atlantean and therefore Namor considers him to be his responsibility. The first few pages of this issue, then, are dedicated to Namor's Invaders teammates commandeering a plane to chase him.

U-Man's target is Winston Churchill and a reporter (referred to as an "ace war correspondent") named Betty Dean has the scoop about Churchill's arrival at a battleship which will take the British Prime Minister home. Evidently she has a past relationship with Namor though I admit that I only know her vaguely.

Oh, she's quick this one. Not only does she identify the murder attempt, she is able to piece together that the blue-skinned amphibian is from...Atlantis! Small wonder Namor digs her.

She escapes their villainous clutches and is able to warn the plane carrying Churchill of the danger that threatens the PM. U-Man is nothing if not determined though so he hops onto the departing aircraft right around the time that Namor shows up.

Namor yanks U-Man off the plane and they scrap for a while...

...but then something weird happens and it isn't explained particularly well. This weird vortex starts sucking all the nearby planes and ships towards it. Namor has to prevent Churchill's plane from being drawn into it and U-Man takes the opportunity to escape.

Namor has quite a few back-breaking poses in this issue...

So what caused this vortex? No idea. We are told that we would know if we'd read the Skull The Slayer series of the time. If you're one of the 20 people who read that book in the mid-70s and know what that was all about, by all means write to me to share. If it's any help, here's a look at the cover of the issue that came out in the same month (January 1976).

Marvel Knights: 4 (2004) #9

Today we conclude the Frozen storyline which took place in the Marvel Knights: 4 book that ran from 2004 to 2006. The first part of the story was reviewed in this post in February.

It took me a little while to determine why I didn't find this issue (and the previous one) as enjoyable as I could have. I recall that Marvel was criticized a while back (and might still be, I truly don't know) for its "decompressed" storytelling. These issues very much have that feel. This story could have been that single issue that transitions you from one major story to another but it feels like it was stretched into two.

That's one reason and I'm going to lead into another. In #8, Namor showed up to put the moves on Sue Richards for the umpteenth time. There was no apparent trigger for that action that I could pick up on. The issue ended with Reed Richards being fed up with Namor's advances towards Sue and the prince's general arrogance. Naturally, a fight ensued. Issue #9 picks up from there.

First, Susan Richards interferes in the fight...

Then Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, does.

But the Torch is there to stop the fight, not jump in. He needs help, you see.

The Human Torch is helping a lady look for her son who is believed to have fallen through the ice in the river. Conveniently enough Namor, who you may recall is in town for no particular reason, now has a purpose for being there. He finds the kid's corpse and...that's it. I suppose he goes home.

There are a few personal moments throughout, one in particular between Reed and Johnny, but this story feels like filler filled with filler. Namor's characterization is solid though. He's proud and headstrong but when called upon to do the right thing, he does not hesitate.

This book was written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and drawn by Jim Muniz.

The Invincible Iron Man (1968) #121

We've recently had a Defenders reunion theme and a solo series theme to the posts added to this blog.

The next one will be a "part 2" theme in which we're going to move forward with stories reviewed earlier this year. We already kind of did that with the Namor series from the 1990s so this will be a natural transition.

We begin with Iron Man #121 which sports an April 1979 cover date. Issue #120 was reviewed here.

Iron Man was drowning at the conclusion of #120 as a result of someone taking over his armour remotely. Of course, no honourable ally, or even opponent, will be harmed when the Avenging Son is around!

His bedside manner kind of sucks, mind you.

Once threats are out of the way, Namor explains that he was defending the old dude on the island (Hiram Dobbs) from the military because Dobbs had saved his life. Namor had come across toxic waste and in burying it, took ill from being exposed to it.

That's because they're not military but actually employees of Roxxon Oil. Roxxon found vibranium (the rare metal which made Wakanda wealthy, I believe) on the island and intend to acquire it no matter what. And so the heroes team-up to stop them.

There's some pretty good stuff in this story. Iron Man's involvement was the result of a completely insane coincidence and Namor's...Well, his was too, actually. He just happened to be swimming in the very spot where vibranium had recently been found. But the story did feed off his dislike for humans and added to his reasons for feeling that way so it's a good addition to the collection.

It seems that Namor appears in the following issue as well although it might just be during the first few pages as he departs the scene. We'll look into that and if his presence is more substantial, we'll have more Invincible Iron Man here before long.