Captain America: Sentinel Of Liberty (1998) #3, "Descent Into Madness, Chapter Two: Sins Of The Mother"

We've seen a lot of Captain America lately but carrying on with the theme of Namor team-ups with core Avengers members, we're going to continue a story begun here.

We are in 1942. Following the events of the second issue, Cap has been jailed in Atlantis for three days but, when he could, he used the edge of his shield to chip away at his chains. Atlanteans have no respect for we land lubbers so they arrogantly left Cap's shield within arms reach. Dumbasses.

So Cap escapes, takes out a few Nazis and makes his way to the "air-filled hyberbaric" lab in which the Nazi scientists who reprogrammed the (Jim Hammond) Human Torch do their work. He also finds a "death chamber" full of human guinea pigs that those same scientists were planning to experiment on. Oy.

Cap sets off to find Namor who is having a chat with his mum, Fen, current leader of Atlantis under Nazi influence. It's not going particularly well.

Cap shows up and does his best Dr. Phil. He tells Namor that he (Namor) was brought up to hate surface dwellers because Fen hates herself for breaking the rules and doing the deed with Namor's dad years prior.

Hm. Not sure how well that meshes with past material but let's ride the wave for a while and see where this goes.

One of Fen's guards tries to harpoon Cap from behind for having a big friggin' mouth but Namor will have none of it.

Damn right.

The Nazis get kicked around so they unleash the brainwashed Human Torch on our heroes in an effort to turn the tide, as it were.

The strategy backfires when Fen begins to realize that the Torch is not the threat the Nazis made him out to be. Also, Cap snaps the Torch our of his brainwashing by showing him the death chamber horrors being perpetrated by Torch's "side".

The jolt brings Hammond back to his usual naive, gentle self. With his head back on straight, Torch recalls that he was studied, poked, prodded...and evidently duplicated. In a desperation move, one of the scientists yanks a door open and lets loose...

And that is it for part two! This team-up ultimately turned into an Invaders reunion so we'll probably conclude this thing the next time that team gets the spotlight.
 

Avengers (1963) #4: "This Monster Unmasked!"

Marvel is having a massive Avengers sale for the next few weeks so we're going to take advantage of that. I plan on checking out books in which Namor appeared with core members of that team over the next few posts.

But first, let's check out a very early meeting between Namor and Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

After battling the Avengers to a draw in the previous issue, Namor's in a bad mood. He takes to the ocean but can't find the peace he craves, we are told.

He comes across an "isolated tribe of eskimos" worshiping an ice cube. This irritates him all the more so he chucks their chunk of ice into the drink with a deft over-under move.

And wouldn't you know it, the Avengers happen to drift by in a submarine. They recover the floating form only to find out it is Captain America and head back to New York with him.

As they arrive in the Big Apple, the Avengers are greeted by paparazzi and suddenly turn to stone. Only the captain avoids that fate as he was hanging back and the media wasn't aware of his presence. Long story short, he investigates and tracks down this dude.

Mr. Meaningless rats out Namor, claiming that the submariner approached him with an offer of help getting his ship out of the ocean if Meaningless turned the Avengers into rock. Cap counteroffers; turn the Avengers back to normal and we'll get your ship out for you.

Namor somehow knows all this and flip his lid. In yet another crazy coincidence, he happens across a troop of his former elite guard who are still loyal to him. The combined forces attack the Avengers together just as that team has succeeded in freeing Meaningless' ship.

They go on like this for a while until an earthquake hits. Namor assumes it will destroy the Avengers so, once again, he bails.

In actual fact, it was caused by Meaningless' ship taking off now that its been freed from the bottom of the ocean. In a great show of gratitude by the alien, he nearly killed everyone nearby.

Speaking of gratitude, as a result of this encounter, Captain America was offered Avengers membership. In creating the threat that caused the Captain to save the team, you could argue that Namor was instrumental in making that happen. Beyond inadvertently freeing the Captain from the ice, that is.

As a kid, I knew that Namor had chucked a frozen Captain America into the water and freed him from suspended animation but I always believed he had done so with full knowledge of who was trapped in the ice. Namor didn't find out until 1985 when Captain America returned the favour and made him an Avenger.

The thawing out is replayed in Captain America #100 (and no doubt many other places).

It is the only page on which Namor appears in this book. But it's a significant one! And his throwing motion is much improved.

Tales To Astonish (1959) #71, "Escape...To Nowhere!"

Let's put the multiple book crossover theme to rest and check back in with a quest first discussed here last October.

In Tales To Astonish #70, Namor embarked on a search for Neptune's trident. Krang had stolen the throne of Atlantis from Namor by dastardly means but recovering the trident would prove to the people of Atlantis that Namor is truly the only amphibian for the job.

At the book's conclusion, Namor had found the first clue in a seashell but was trapped in a cave with an angry giant squid! #71 picks up right from there.

Namor uses the shell to defeat the squid...

This releases an apparition from the shell. It is of Neptune and the old king gives Namor his next set of instructions in order to locate the trident. The Submariner must face his next peril in the "Forbidden Deeps".

But first he has to make his way out of the cave and to do so, he uses his power of...burrowing.

Yeah, I don't know about that one...

What he finds are a couple of Krang's soldiers, those who blocked the cave and were unaware of Namor's incredible drilling prowess. He deals with them easily and continues his quest. And when he reaches the (not-very-well) hidden (and forbidden) deeps...

That...Doesn't seem so bad. But it actually is.

Why don't you just drill through it?

I kid but this whole quest thing is pretty fun. As you read you find yourself wondering what madness Stan Lee will come up with next. When we get around to #72, we'll see how he tops Seaweed Man!

Namor The First Mutant (2010) #2: "Royal Blood, Part Two"

Curse of The Mutants was not universe-wide, to the best of my knowledge, but it hit several X-Men books, ran for more than half a year, and spawned a number of tie-in mini-series.

It also launched another Namor series, the first issue of which was reviewed here on February 1st. We now move on to #2.

Following the events of the first issue, Atlantis now has a pronounced vampire problem. Namor is discussing manpower with one of his military men, Jian, who makes his first appearance in this book.

Jian announces that for a variety of reasons, including a lack of trust in Namor's leadership, he can only round up 36 warriors to battle the vampires. To his mind, that is enough to wipe out the vampire horde (Aqueos). I like the cut of his jib.

The two men receive a visit from other members of the X-(Wo)Men, being Emma Frost (the White Queen) and Loa whom we met in that Fear Itself: The Deep book I read earlier. Good to see her. She seems nice.

Me too. Well, I questioned it, anyway. I guess we're building up to something.

That conversation is interrupted as well, this time by Husam and Abira of a group called The Tridents. They tell Namor of a vampire attack on their own reef.

Writer Stuart Moore does a neat thing here. While the characters are chatting, the panel will occasionally switch to some Atlantean getting wiped out by one of the vampire creatures.

It creates a good effect of danger and trouble circling and tightening around the good guys and it offsets the tedium of watching a bunch of people just talking. Pay attention, Bendis.

See the old lady at bottom right, there? That's the Oudvrou and she is has some history with these underwater vampires. She is the third person to interrupt a conversation in this book.

When Namor asks her to share what she knows, she tells a seemingly pointless story in which Namor looked like fool as a youth. In effect, she humiliates him publicly.

While Namor deliberates her fate the power goes out. Upon investigating with his fellow Atlanteans, the danger that had been closing in earlier is now made clear.

Husam and Abira head off to turn the power back on while Namor and Jian have their backs. Namor is telling Jian that he is starting to connect the various clues around the Aqueos and their goals when Husam and Abira return to vanquish the vampire army with a powerful light.

Namor doesn't quite finish his thought. Instead he vows that four hours hence, they are becoming the hunters rather than the prey.

We're not particularly more knowledgeable about the Aqueos at this point then but they are further established as a legitimate threat. Onwards to #3.