Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #211, "The Spider and the Sea-Scourge!"

I usually plan a review around a movie release so let's do a Namor appearance in Amazing Spider-Man in light of the Far From Home flick coming out recently.

Namor not only gets the splash page to open the book but he barks out an Imperius Rex right off the bat! Nice!

Namor here is demolishing an experimental power generator, something he's apparently done a number of times (presumably between issues and off-panel). He makes sure that its operators survive, however.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man can't sleep so he's swinging around town, bored off his ass. Apparently, a couple of issues earlier, he (as Peter Parker) promised a young lady named Debbie Whitman that he would check in on her uncle for some reason. So he does that.

Turns out his timing is impeccable. Uncle Whitman was getting pushed around by some sailors he hired that no longer want to honour their contract out of fear of what Namor's been doing. So Spidey bails him out.

Punk. That's basically what got your uncle killed.

A chat with aunt May straightens him out, so Spider-Man joins Whitman at sea. The rebellious sailors feel safer with web-head around so they agree to do the job they signed up for.

And once at sea, it doesn't take long for the guest-star to appear.

Spider-Man's attempts at stopping Namor do not go well, initially.

Ha! I love that line.

Spider-Man does take Namor down by keeping him from the ocean to gradually weaken him and webbing up his ankle wings to cause him to crash to the deck.

As they grapple on the deck, Namor explains that the power generators that are being placed in the ocean are messing with Atlantis' own power. This is why he's been wrecking them.

When Spider-Man claims innocence and ignorance of all this, Namor suggest a more productive location for the generators which won't affect Atlantis. As the land-lubbers discuss this, Namor takes off.

Oh boy. That dude with the glasses is in for disappointment over the next couple of decades...

Namor showed up again a few issues later, in #214, and that was the first part of a two-parterso for a few months in late 1980, he was a semi-regular character in Amazing Spider-Man.

Captain America (2004) #46, "Old Friends and Enemies Part 1 of 3"

I reviewed an Alpha Flight issue for Canada Day and had intended to do the same for Captain America but didn't get the time to. We're going to do that now with issue #46 of the 2004 series.

Unfortunately, the rather exciting and dramatic cover does not reflect the contents of the book. Namor contributes fairly little to the story.

But first, a recap.

The story then opens with Chin in his lab speaking to a mysterious, unnamed ("old friend" is as much as we get) man in a hat and long coat. They appear to have the unconscious body of the Human Torch (the Invaders version) in a large tube. Interesting!

We then cut to this version of Captain America (Bucky Barnes) and Namor aboard the old Atlantean ship the Invaders used to ride around in. Barnes states point blank that he felt he had to do the job with Namor. During their conversation, the Avenging Son can't help but throw in a shot at the surface world's tendency to waste and pollute (he's not wrong), as well as a sort-of approval of Barnes in the Captain suit, until remembering his old frenemy.

Writer Ed Brubaker has his personality pretty well, in my humble estimation.

We spend the next few pages in flashback/backfill. The first is an Invaders scene in which Chin's wonder at the Torch's power first took place, the second is the Winter Soldier's botched attempt at killing Chin in 1968. During said attempt, Barnes instead killed Chin's fiance. Yikes.

In the meantime, The Black Widow has supplied Barnes with a general location for Chin, in Taipei City. Captain America gets the jump on the lab's armed guards but when more appear and open fire on him, Namor makes the timely save.

And that's where they part ways, as Barnes prepares to break into the facility. So for all that Barnes said he did not want to complete this mission without Namor, he basically used him to bum a ride and clear his conscience.

The Invaders flashbacks and continuity were cool and based on the solicitation for the next issue, Namor will continue to appear at least in the second part of the story. Here's to old friends and enemies.

Alpha Flight (1983) #15, "Blind Date"

I ended by Canada Day weekend by reading an Alpha Flight issue because that just seemed appropriate. Let's have a look at that now.

The Defenders tend to be referred to as a non-team but Alpha Flight, in many ways, was even more worthy of that label. Very rarely during Byrne's initial run was the team actually together for any length of time. Rather, the book would follow the lives of the various members.

In this case, Namor is connected to one of the pair below in particular. They are the two newest members of the (non) team, Marrina and Puck. We join them as they begin to look into a creature that has killed people on Lake Ontario near Toronto.

Famous last words?

Marrina dives off and, told over the course of a few pages, ultimately follows a scent to a hidden cave. When we see her next, she's a lot less friendly.

Puck does his best to avoid Marrina's attacks and to come up with a way of stopping her without hurting her, but things become even more complicated for him.

Teratologists. What do they know?

As is often the case Namor, who was with Marrina when she was summoned by Alpha Flight in the previous issue and had been following her since, jumps in swinging. That's bad news for one "miniature thug", to use Namor's own words, in particular.

The added "u" in "Imperious Rex", thereby spelling it the Canadian way, is the sort of detail that helped make this book great back in the day.

It takes little time for Namor to realize that Marrina is...not herself. As the battle wears on, she rakes him across the eyes, blinding him.

This dude applied a similar nerve pinch on Puck while Marrina and Namor fought. Who is this mysterious stranger??

Oh, it's that guy.

This was part of a valiant effort at making TMOTW Alpha Flight's version of Doctor Doom but it never really panned out no matter how often he's appeared in that team's various titles. I never perceived him as any kind of threat and I doubt that merely hearing his name would chill Namor to the marrow but nonetheless, it was a decent cliffhanger for the conclusion next issue.

Same time next year?