The New Warriors (1990) #14, "The breeze of an Underwater Wind"

Namorita's appearance in an issue of the 1990s Namor series that I reviewed earlier this month reminded me that I'd squirreled away an appearance by the Avenging Son in a New Warriors book from around the same time. Namorita was a regular on the New Warriors and arguably one of its most popular characters.

There is very little substance to Namor's inclusion though, unfortunately.

The shirt and tie on Namor should have tipped me off as to the nature of his contribution to this story.

Namorita and Speedball *groan* come upon a bunch of guys emptying a ship of its cargo at an unusual time of night. The natural response is to assume the worst and begin beating on them. They do just that and in doing so, discover that they were hauling Atlantean artifacts. They also meet another crap character from that era.

"Call me your worst nightmare! Call me Darkhawk!"

Dear lord...That dialogue is my worst nightmare.

Namorita is appropriately unimpressed so the two do what heroes do when they first meet. Fight!

Speedball is the voice of reason (yeah, okay...) and breaks it up but the scrap enabled the smugglers to get away. Good job, Warriors.

Namorita goes after them, being the only one with the ability to do so, and encounters our villain-du-jour.

Perhaps as an act of overcompensation, Urchin beats the hell out of Namorita and "scalps" her. In this book, that just means he cut off her ponytail.

This is where Namor comes in, finally. When Namorita's body is found floating in the drink, she is brought to her cousin's place. She explains what happened and Namor just kind of...shrugs.

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow! The guy nearly beats your cousin to death and this is your reaction?

Namorita quite understandably storms out in anger and when Namor tracks her down again...

The custom behind the armour basically abbreviates to "kill or be killed". Namor attempts to prevent Namorita from laying a pounding on Sea Urchin but she tells him off and splits.

The saving grace to Namor's lame behaviour is provided during this segment. Namorita suggests that the treatments begun in the early issues of Namor's own series, which are intended to calm his rash nature, may have taken things too far the other way so now he's a milksop. That's good continuity and explanation, so we'll accept that.

Anyway, Namorita finds and fights Sea Urchin and defeats him but overcomes the urge to kill him, making herself unworthy of the armour.

That's about it. The issue had a transitional feel to it, the kind that is published between two major events.

And while Namor's contribution may have been on the weak side, at least it was better than Darkhawk's. All that poser did was enable criminals to escape.

Fantastic Four: The End (2006) #2

Well this should be fairly quick.

When you find out that Namor appears in an issue of a certain book, it can be difficult to guess how significant his contribution is. This book's selection is a swing and a miss but it sets us up nicely for when we purchase the next issue.

The problem from the perspective of a Sub-Mariner fan is that the team is split up at this point and their stories are told individually. It just so happens that Sue Richards' tale is not a major focus of this particular issue.

When we do meet up with her and Namor, they are swimming about a demolished temple. Richards is contemplating what causes Utopian societies to fall and Namor couldn't care any less.

When he kicks at some debris in disdain, he inadvertently reveals a secret. The Kree alien race has been here. Susan wants to study this further.

I didn't know about the death of her children but no doubt that's been reversed by now.

Whatever the case, their exploration is interrupted by an old foe.

Yay! Attuma!

Sue's portion of the story is about all of three or four pages and ends on the cliffhanger above so that's it for the moment. If the solicitation text is a reliable guide, we should see get far more of this non-couple in the following issue.

As Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm meet on Mars to compare notes, in the deepest portions of the ocean's depths Sue Richards makes a discovery that could change the future of their fractured family.

I'm still glad I got this book because starting to read right into the battle would have felt like I was missing something. As it is, this creates a little eagerness to get at #3 ASAP.

Namor The Sub-Mariner (1990) #4, "Black Water"

A recent post about an Alpha Flight issue put me in the mood for more John Byrne material so today we move ahead a bit in the 1990s series to issue #4.

The book opens with a pair in a submarine attaching a "surprise package" to a much larger underwater vessel. File that away for now.

We move from that to a discussion between Namorita and that Carrie chick that Namor's been flirting with. Carrie has decided that since Namor's romantic history is rather...frightening...she doesn't want to be a part of it. Frankly, it's hard to argue with her reasoning. Nita flies off to tell her cousin, who seems like he couldn't care any less.

He is too preoccupied with attending certain festivities, as are the creepy-ass Marss twins, who happen to discuss the subject because they are still spying on Namor with drones.

Namor doesn't seem like the type to host too many parties but on his way to it with Namorita as his +1, he explains his reasoning.

...He doesn't want to blow it on account of being anti-social and secretive. All right, fair enough.

Namorita finds the party dull as hell until the Marss twins show up. She goes to chat up Desmond. Meanwhile, a disguised Namor also has eyes a guest.

Tony "Iron Man" Stark is in the audience as well, which makes sense as a business big shot. Nice touch. Byrne has always been good at those fun cameos.

But as the "guest of honour" submarine super tanker arrives (that is what Sue Richards is reacting to above), so does the "surprise package" that was attached to it during the book's first couple of pages. And so...

Namor sheds his disguise to investigate the explosion before the submarine releases oil into the water. Things look okay at first, but...

And we end with Namor getting bogged down in the oil, unable to swim or breathe.

Kind of a fun issue. Byrne managed to keep the story moving forward and keep your interest even if it was light on suspense and action until the very end. The lack of a super-villain made for a nice break and the prospect of Namor teaming with several old friends (who have also at times been foes) makes one look forward to the story's continuation.