Fantastic Four - Atlantis Rising #2: "Assault on Atlantis"

After yesterday's post about an Avengers book in which Namor is prominently featured on the cover but not in the interior, I thought I'd move on to a book in which he should be far more involved. This seemed like a safe bet.

But I was wrong.

The book is exactly as the title suggests. The heroes who have gathered (Namor, Thor and The Fantastic Four minus Reed Richards but plus Ant-Man) take the battle to Morgan Le Fey and Atlantis. Sue Richards uses her force field abilities to crack open Le Fey's defenses and the heroes throw down against a number of Inhumans.

Therein lies the problem. Between the Inhumans who are not members of the royal family and the Fantastic Force group, there is an army of little-known and uninteresting characters in this book. It become difficult to keep track of everyone's abilities, affiliation and motivations.

At least in Namor's case, he scraps against the better-known royals. In the previous installment of this story, he tossed Black Bolt around. This time, he tangles (pun intended) with Medusa.

Wow! Somebody has NOT been missing leg day!

Namor compares her hair to tangling with the tentacles of a giant squid. One of my favourite aspects of his character is his uncanny ability to sweet talk women. Go on, you old honey dripper!

Gorgon gets into the scrap as well but Namor continues to hold is own.

He's not much involved going forward. Long story short, the risen Atlantis is basically destroyed but most of the heroes get out with the help of Sue Richards' force field though some are unaccounted for. The gang regroups on a nearby beach but Namor has no time for hugs and handshakes.

Thus ends Atlantis Rising, for all intents and purposes.

An issue of Fantastic Four Unlimited followed which served as an epilogue anthology. We'll get at that down the road sometime but at this point all we know is that Namor's supposed son, Llyron, intended to find a new location for Atlantis that Namor would never find. I think we know how that worked out.

Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising #1

Many, if not all, of Marvel's 1995 annuals were tied into the Atlantis Rising story. I own a few and I would really like to get into them soon so I'm going to have a look at the true starting point of Atlantis rising then "fast forward" through a couple of the issues in which Namor is barely, or not at all, involved.

Namor the Sub-Mariner issues 60-62 was all set up to the Fantastic Four Atlantis Rising one-shot. Those were reviewed earlier. You can check that out by clicking the link under the "Story Arcs" heading at right.

The cover above is the one displayed on Comixology these days. I have seen reference to a wraparound cover but I'm not certain if it was a variant, a gimmick, a future edition or what.

I'm also not too interested in finding out, frankly. My guess and vague recollection is that it was an acetate cover. Whatever the deal, here is a look at it in all its 90s garishness.

Back cover treatment only for our guy. That's actually appropriate because he has relatively little involvement in this book. His role begins with taking the Inhuman Triton to the hospital due to a nasty wound suffered at the end of Namor the Sub-Mariner #62. Sean Dolan, carrier of the Ebony Blade (tm) comes along for the ride.

As they deliver Triton, United Nations police attempt to apprehend Namor but the avenging son will have none of that.

He takes Dolan's Ebony Blade in order to prevent the young man from unleashing its curse again and takes off with it.

As Namor returns to the newly-risen Atlantis, he is knocked out of the sky (causing him to drop the sword in the ocean) by...Mjolnir. Morgan Le Fey, responsible for Rising Atlantis in the first place, has taken control of Thor as well and he is now protecting her new 'hood for her. But Namor is done dicking around.

Thor gets his licks in but then makes the mistake that just about everyone seems to make; he takes the battle underwater. Why, why, why?!!

Naturally, Namor takes advantage.

Thor gets his head out of his ass and takes the battle back to the sky. As the two continue their scrap, a ship of Inhumans flies by. They have left their residence on the moon to investigate Atlantis as they feel they can lay claim to its "ownership" as well. Unsure as to Namor's motivations now that the prince has seen his city brought to the surface, they shoot him out of the sky.

That's the last we see of Namor in this issue. Being that he fights the Norse God of Thunder, it may appear that he has a large role but that is not the case. Out of 44 pages or so, Namor only appears in about a quarter of the book.

The story continues in Fantastic Force #8. Thankfully, Namor does not appear in it at all. It is followed by Fantastic Four #401 and it is in this book that we find out what happened to him after his plunge.

He is found by a handful of Atlantean soldiers looking for survivors. They consider killing him since this is one of those many times when he's been exiled from Atlantis but they consider this behaviour to be dishonorable (go figure) and instead hatch a different as-yet-unstated plan.

Once again the story shift to the Fantastic Force book but Namor is nowhere to be found. He will be a larger part of Fantastic Four #402 and we'll check that one out at some point down the road.