Avengers (1963) #268: "The Kang Dynasty"

Writing up a post yesterday about an early team up between Namor and Hercules reminded me that I still have a few Avengers issues from the 80s to read. The two characters were both team members during that run but egos got in the way and they didn't always get along so well.

Let's see see if they get chummier as the story progresses.  For that matters, let's see if Namor even shows up because he was not a big part of the previous two or three issues (the recaps for which can be found by clicking the "Avengers (1963)" tag at right). 

The team is split in two at this point. Time-hopper Kang has abducted a few members (specifically they are The Wasp, Black Knight and Hercules) and dropped them in limbo in an elaborate scheme to control the various alternate timelines.

To the rest of the team (Namor among them), they seem to have vanished without a trace. By analyzing the machinery the abducted members were using at the time, they are able to deduce that Kang is the kidnapper. 

Hm. That conclusion was reached rather quickly...

The book then cuts to Kang's captives for a while as they find their way to his lair in limbo but upon our return to the real world, we find Jarvis watching protests, and counter-protests, surrounding Namor's Avengers membership. This has been going on for a while now so clearly they're going somewhere with this and I'm eager to see where that is. 

Namor doesn't care about all that noise, at least at the moment, because his segment of the team is working on a time machine of their own so that they can find and assist their teammates. It proves to be frustrating work, as you might expect time-machine building to be, and Namor is not the most patient dude around.

They do get it to work though, of course. When they arrive in limbo, they struggle to find their teammates until they get a huge clue, literally.

Hercules seems like the most likely suspect so they head in the direction from which this android emerged. They find the other members in no time and help subdue Kang, but another Kang takes the entire team down. 

Ha! I love that next title...

Not bad, we moved along a fair bit, which is good because this series has had a tendency to drag at times. I don't blame writer Roger Stern for that, I think he had to pace around that awful Secret Wars II mini series that ran at the time but it was good to get back to a normal pace. Namor is starting to fit in better and his difficulties in doing so were an interesting aspect of Stern's handling of him. I suspect this story concludes in the next issue so we'll probably get to that fairly soon.

The Avengers (1963) #267: "Time...And Time Again!"

The previous issue of this series was reviewed recently and in terms of Namor content, it was basically a throwaway. This one is as well so we'll get through it and move on to something else for a while.

Kang likes to screw around with time and in doing so has created a number of alternate timelines. As a result, he has also created copies of himself in those timelines. He is now attempting to destroy those copies and be the one and only.

What does that have to do with Namor? Precious little, I'm afraid. But the issue starts to hint at things to come for the Atlantean monarch.

Back in issue 263, a couple of cops showed surprise at seeing Namor with the Avengers. You try to destroy the surface world a few times and some people just can't seem to let it go.

Writer Roger Stern provides us with a reminder of this attitude by the general public towards Namor as The Wasp arrives at Avengers manor to be greeted by protestors.

Namor doesn't give a carp's ass though because he's out with Captain America and the Captain Marvel of the time, Monica Rambeau. They're testing out the team's new sub so of course he'd prefer to hang with them.

Cap suggests that being an Avenger will help bring out Namor's good side as opposed to his ego and arrogance. Gad, let's hope not! He also recognizes that Rambeau doesn't quite trust the avenging son. That might be a little nugget to file away.

The other team members have been abducted by Kang and thrown into his scheme so presumably this bunch will head off for the big rescue in the next issue, but for now that's it for Namor. Hopefully he starts throwing some fists in the next one, I can only read about the Wasp and the Black Knight so much!

The Avengers (1963) #266: "...And The War's Desolation"

We move forward in Namor's first stint as an Avenger today, finally reaching the conclusion of the pointless interruption that was Secret Wars II.

Namor's presence is minimal in this book. The Beyonder's demise in the Secret Wars II mini series caused damage to the earth's crust and the planet is in danger of falling apart as a result. This is not the type of situation to which the Avenging Son is best suited.

There is one moment of heroism though. During the earthquake, the Black Knight, tool that he is, sent plunging towards lava. Namor with the quick, selfless rescue!

But...This book had a tendency to want to bring a little humility to our favourite undersea monarch so while Namor makes the save, he needs one, too. 

That's right, the Fantastic Four have just shown up.

That's about it for the prince. As the cover suggests, the Molecule Man is talked into saving the planet but Namor's involvement from here is reduced to the occasional comment or thought bubble during a larger conversation. The end.

But it is a welcomed end and sneaking a peek ahead, it appears that Namor will be much more involved before long.

The Avengers (1963) #265: "Eve of Destruction"

We've had a look at the Invaders, Fantastic Four and quite a bit of Defenders of late so let's look in some more on some of Namor's early days with the Avengers.

The Secret Wars II crossover event in the 80s sucked huge quantities of ass so I was reluctant to even get this books, but ever the completist...

The Beyonder is one of those annoying characters that could reshape reality with a blink yet never chooses to. All he does is threaten to do it, repeatedly.

The action gets underway immediately as the Avengers are caught in a sudden twister. We are told that The Beyonder trapped the team in it in Secret Wars II #8 to keep them occupied as he abducted Captain America. He could have teleported them to the other side of the globe but he chose strong winds instead.

Each member takes his or her turn to attempt to break the tornado's hold.

Ultimately, Hercules stops it by...Clapping his hands together. Apparently the concussive force does the trick. Sure, okay. #ComicBookScience

When thoughts turn to rescuing Captain America, and Namor instinctively takes charge, he and Hercules have words again, as they have since Namor has joined the team.

That's the Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel there, the only one we ever needed. She takes control of the situation and orders Namor to recover the crashed Avengers aircraft from a nearby pond. The Black Knight, who never seems capable of minding his own business, suggests that Hercules should lend a hand.

Ha ha ha ha! What a strange insult...

Naturally, the team manages to track down where the Beyonder is holding Captain America captive. He could have taken him to Jupiter but instead he shelters in a cave near Denver.

As the two are chatting, Namor shows up.

Ah, but the Beyonder isn't as stupid as the complete misuse of his powers would lead you to believe! He knows Namor is faking all this and when he catches the other Avengers attempting to free Cap, he loses his mind! And even though he could obliterate them with a thought, or fire them into space, he...throws rocks at them.

Well, that's dumb, but at least it brings up this tender moment.

The Beyonder does defeat them in short order though and the story continues in Secret Wars II #9, which I'm not getting any time soon.

Writer Roger Stern did the best that could be done with the situation he was handled. A lot of this issue felt like filler to get us through SWII so that we could get back to our regularly-scheduled programming. The interaction between characters made the book enjoyable enough though.

The Avengers (1963) #264, "Sting and Sorrows"

Since we've fallen off our usual pace of late, I'll quickly add another (very) brief appearance by Namor in an Avengers book.

The Marvel Universe was in the midst of its massively shitty Secret Wars 2 story which affected most of its titles. The book feels like a filler issue to bridge us over to the inevitable crossover. Most of it is pointless.

Namor's appearance amount to little more than a page in which his self-doubt is reiterated.

This leads to a cameo by Susan Richards for the Fantastic Four. Namor, as usual, crushes on her, but Franklin shows up to spoil the mood.

Oh, you will!

Namor's confidence issues in this book are actually kind of a refreshing contrast to his bluster in other books. He's been on other teams before so in a way it's out of place but he was often the most powerful and/or a founding member. As a newcomer on a team with Hercules perhaps it's not so strange after all.

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.

Avengers (1963-1996) #263: "What Lurks Below?"

A glance at the labels to the right side of the page made me notice that very few of the books I've read were from the 80s so...Here's one that is! January 1986, to be precise.

One of the few 80s books reviewed to this point was Avengers #262 in which Namor became a team member officially for the first time. In this book, we see how he fits in and how his presence affects the team's image.

The issue's opening pages are dedicated to a plane that crashes into Jamaica Bay. When we first see the team, Namor is the topic of discussion.

Cap and Wasp reassure their liason and in doing so, we find out that Whitman (the Black Knight) might be starting to crush on the Wasp a bit. Whatever.

When Namor finally does appear, Hercules and Captain Marvel (the Monica Rambeau edition) are showing him around the Avengers mansion. Namor comes across a bedroom that he favours but it happens to belong to the Olympian demi-God in attendance.

After bailing, a blast of light emerging from Jamaica Bay draws Rambeau to the location of the downed plane where she is brought up to speed on the day's events.

As the dude in the hard hat finishes his sentence, the divers are thrown out of the water. One of them explains that he heard a voice under water then was tossed away. Rambeau tries to investigate in her light form and she does find a cocoon near the crash site, but she is similarly ejected from the water, so she calls in her buds.

I like that. The reaction makes sense in light of how often the sub-mariner has attacked the surface world.

The team plans some strategy to approach the cocoon but the prince of the blood has no time for that jibber-jabber. He makes his own attempt at investigating, but it doesn't go so well...

...and the team is not shy about pointing it out to him.

Piss off, Whitman. Friggin' D-list loser....

Sadly, it is not the end of Namor's journey through humiliation because when they reach the cocoon and attempt to resist its repelling effect, Hercules is better able to withstand it and actually makes progress whereas Namor...

That's rough.

Anyway, of course they manage to recover the cocoon and take it back to the mansion. It will eventually lead to the first of what feels like dozens of resurrections of Jean Grey of the original X-Men and to the creation of the X-Factor team but this is the extent of the Avengers' involvement in their own book.

While I find Namor's "humbling" an interesting approach, I'm not sure about how much sense it makes. He had been on teams before this one (Invaders and Defenders) so it doesn't seem like fitting in should be such a difficult task but it creates an interesting dynamic early on. I don't recall what ultimately leads to his departure from this version of the team but now I'm curious as to whether his personality was a significant factor. I guess I'll find out down the road.

Avengers (1963) #3

The fourth issue of the original Avengers title is famous for bringing back Captain America. Its popularity should, of course, pale in comparison to the previous issue which guest-starred The Avenging Son but inexplicably, that is not the case.

Seriously, Namor was absent for several years prior to returning in Fantastic Four #4 so Captain America's return in Avengers #4 is quite appropriate.

The book is kind of fun but it took forever for Namor to show up. I was starting to think his appearance would be limited to just a couple of pages. I should have paid closer attention to the splash page as they state point blank, right in the middle, where he shows up in the story.

The first 14 pages are devoted to the Avengers attempt at finding the Hulk in the first place by calling on Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four in cameo appearances. Then when they do find him, with the help of Rick Jones, Hulk completely outsmarts them several times (think about that) to escape and finds a deserted island to chill on.

But not so fast, green genes!

Bow before royalty!

Naturally, when heroes meet, they fight. But after the obligatory dick swinging, a deal is more or less struck.

 

Notice the proper use of pronouns by The Hulk? None of that "Hulk smash!" stuff here. He didn't refer to himself in the third person at the time. Presumably he became dumber in later issues. The Avengers should still be ashamed of themselves for getting played by him, but maybe it isn't as bad as it first appeared.

The powerful duo challenges the Avengers to a fight and the team accepts, of course. Namor does most of the heavy lifting here.

Hulk dicks around trying to take Thor's hammer away until he begins to turn back into Banner. It seems odd for that to happen in mid-fight, but there you have it. So Namor is now badly outnumbered.

And he uses that new strength to...fly off in retreat. In a nice display of respect though, when directed by The Wasp to knock Namor out of the sky, Thor refuses on the basis that Namor has earned his escape through valor. Solid, symbolic fist-bump between two heavyweights there.

Namor appears in the more celebrated fourth issue as well and we will give that a look another day but this issue was your standard Stan lee/Jack Kirby silly fun.

Avengers (1963) #262

This was a very pleasant surprise.

I own a few issues of this series from that time period and I don't remember being blown away by them. This one had a slow start but was a good read overall.

The Avengers need a storage space for the Quinjet and become aware of a place called Hydrobase, essentially a man-made island. As it seems ideal, they decide to check it out.

As luck would have it (wink wink) the people running the place are old buds of Namor. He drops by for a visit.

Kind of like dropping by a friend's house unexpectedly with a frozen turkey...

There's some tension at first, based on past meetings that didn't go particularly well, but Namor is polite and quiet. "Subdued" is the word used by Captain Marvel (the Monica Rambeau version). Diane above points out, very spoilerifically, that the High Council of Atlantis has asked Namor to give up his throne so he is now a man without people and country. Pricks.

Namor's sad puppy face irritates Hercules though and so he attempts to get The Avenging Son out of his funk.

Good one!  But Namor don't play that.

The two scrap for a bit, hurling boulders about and uprooting trees, until the Avengers come to settle them down. It is at that point the Hercules reveals his genius master plan.

Namor actually finds this hilarious, which is a nice change, and out of gratitude, he organizes a clam bake.

No, I'm serious. It's better when you actually read it.

Namor and Captain America take a moonlit walk on the beach during which Cap offer "No-More" Avengers membership. Namor is reluctant as he feels that those times he attacked the surface world might work against his image. That's a fair point.

But Cap reminds him of a time years ago when Namor broke up an Eskimo worship service.

I hope to come across that story at some point because even if it turned out well, tossing the totem into the sea is still kind of dick move. I'm not sure I follow Cap's reasoning fully here. My guess is that Namor didn't do that out of the blue and there's a good reason behind it, but he does have a tendency to fly off the handle. We'll figure it out some day.

Regardless...How about that? I'm not sure if it's still considered part of continuity that Namor wasn't aware of this but it's a good way to further connect two characters who have known each other for decades. Clever, if that was the first time it was ever revealed.

Namor accepts the offer above and begins his first official stint as an Avenger.  The book was written by Roger Stern and drawn John Buscema and Tom Palmer and published in late 1985.