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).