Captain Marvel (1968) #4, "The Alien and The Amphibian"

When the Black Panther movie out came out last year, I reviewed a few of the books in which Namor fought alongside (or against) that character.

I don't have the slightest interest in the Captain Marvel movie and Namor has shared very little page time with Carol Danvers. He has, however, guest-starred in an issue of the original Captain Marvel's book from 1968, and it is this one that we will check out today.

We join Mar-Vell is in his hotel room, agonizing over his mission. He is, it would seem, a Kree soldier tasked with spying on humanity but he has become somewhat attached to we earthlings and his conscience is getting the better of him. Well, that's nice.

His soul-searching is interrupted by a message to get his (or technically his alter-ego's, Walt Lawson, missile expert) ass to The Cape. And once there, he's brought up to date with the day's plans.

See the lady in the background? That's the current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers in one of her first appearances. She knew from day one that there was something off about this Walt Lawson guy. 

The missile is launched as planned, but...it turns around sharply and crashes into the ocean (see where they're going with this?). How could that happen?? Well...

The rocket is still set to release its bacteria. This Yon-Rogg dude wants Mar-Vell to ensure that happens but Mar-Vell wants no part of it.

And of course, as the navy arrives and everyone converges on this rocket, Namor happens to swim through on his way to visiting the Fantastic Four. He is spotted by the navy.

And so they fight!

Quite a few punches are thrown but Captain Marvel orchestrates things so that in striking Namor, the sub-mariner falls backwards and trips a self-destruct mechanism in the rocket. The rocket explodes and apparently that resolves the bacteria issue.

So Captain Marvel looks like the hero to the general public for preventing the bacterial spread yet avoids being perceived as a traitor by his superior, Yon-Rogg.

Namor looks like a would-be mass murderer, but that was already kind-of-sort-of out there after declaring war on the surface world and all that.

As an added bonus, the following issue's splash page features a replay of the scrap. So while Namor does not guest-star as such, he helps launch the story.