Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty (1998) #4, "Heatwave"

I meant to follow a Canada Day post with one for the fourth of July but, as I did last year, I went off schedule. No big deal, we'll get to it now with the conclusion of a three-part story from Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty.

Click the tag for this book in the "Titles" list on the right side of the page for the previous two issues. 

We left the three core members of the Invaders (seen on the cover above, being Captain America, Namor and the original Human Torch) having just discovered a bunch of simulations of the Jim Hammond Human Torch as well as a number of POWs locked away in preparation to be turned into more of them. Nasty.

First things first. Captain America recovers the ship he and Namor used to reach Atlantis and applies it to a POW rescue mission.

That whole plan seemed to happen awful fast...Still, as they are taking care of those men, the torch duplicates are unleashed on the world.

Captain America comes up with a plan to defeat them. The three Invaders members allow themselves to be chased, and "trapped" onto on of the ships, abandoned for this purpose. 

Cap had to know that this explanation wouldn't go over very well. He further argues that the fake torches lack judgement and a conscience. They are, in effect, little more than any other war machine such as a torpedo. 

Hammond nearly kills himself attempting to appeal to some sort of moral compass among the "Firebrands" but ultimately, they are all destroyed according to the plan above. 

So what of Nazi-occupied Atlantis? Well, while the heroes were dealing with the fake torches, Atlantis looked after its own affairs. They didn't waste any time either. 

Namor's mum, Fen, is mighty pissed at having been duped by the Germans. She has the Nazis in front of a firing squad and prepared for execution but Namor intervenes.

I didn't realize the relationship between Namor and Fen was so strained. I'll need to get out of the team books and back into his own title. 

The issue book concludes by spotlighting that the adventure strengthened the bond among the three core members of the Invaders but particularly so between Namor and Hammond as they are both outcasts of a sort.  That's a nice touch, and for a book specifically about Captain America, it was very respectful of its guests. That's not always the case so it was appreciated. 

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.
 

Namor (2003) #1

After another run of team books, I'm craving some Atlantean content so let's go back to Namor's childhood through the first issue of his 2003 series.

The art by Salvador Larroca, Danny Miki and J.D. Smith makes this book. That's no knock on Bill Jemas' story and Andi Watson's telling of it but it suffers from Marvel's all-too-frequent problem of dragging things out.

The book begins with a young girl named Sandra playing on a beach in the pacific northwest in the early 1920s and running into a naked prince. They chat a bit and pal around.

Her neglectful but worried mom comes to find her.

Nearby, another young girl gets bit by a jellyfish. Now friendless, Namor leaves for home just as the victim cries about how everything in the ocean is disgusting. All in all, a dismal conclusion to the afternoon what what will become the avenging son.

We're already at page 9, by the way. The next two (quite pretty) pages worth of material are filled with Namor entering the ocean and swimming home. Two panels would have done but this is Marvel comics in the 21st century.

When he gets reaches Atlantis, Namor is greeted by his mother.

Always good to see Fen.

We get a good look at Atlantis at this point as Namor's mum guides him through the market place. On the way through town, the prince is fascinated by a gigantic fishing device called the Neptune Net. Much like Sandra earlier in the day, Namor doesn't listen when his mother calls him back to her side so grandma has to step in and ensure that he of the royal blood is not put in a dangerous position.

Namor's grandmother. That's a new character to me. I have not read ahead but I have a feeling that I should not get too attached though.
 
We skip a few years ahead to Namor now being old enough to assist with the Neptune Net. We meet another relative to Namor, his cousin Bobo (really?), tasked with the same chore, all overseen by Korra.

While the two youths are working, large sharks are seen threatening Atlantean children playing nearby. The men responsible for watching for that very thing mishandle the situation so Bobo has to heroically draw the sharks to himself in order to save the kids.

And the issue ends on that note.

There is nothing too earth-shattering going on here then. The unpleasant conclusion to Namor's beach day with Sandra is no doubt typical of his early experience with the surface world and helps explain his poor perception of it. So that's something.

But aside from that, there is no antagonist as such aside from a large shark. There is no hint of any of the characters that would eventually cause trouble for the prince; be it Byrrah, Attuma, Krang...No foreshadowing of future conflict. That seems peculiar.

So for the first issue in a series (which ended after the 12th), there is surprisingly little suspense built up. It sure is easy on the eyes though.

Captain America: Sentinel Of Liberty (1998) #2

All right, back on track. I had planned on reading a few Captain America and/or Invaders books around the fourth of July or so and did, but with vacation and such I didn't get around to actually posting about them. I do so now, with the following book and its rather grandiose title.

I'd actually started working on it a while back but came across an odd challenge; Much of the art is vertical rather than horizontal so it is difficult to copy into a post. Let's see what we can do.

The book begins with the original Human Torch mysteriously making himself hot enough to dive into the ocean and attack Atlantis. The (literally) boiling Atlanteans get reinforcements from the Nazis, while Namor and Captain America look on, shackled.

What what what?? None of this makes any sense. We transition to flashback material for some answers.

The Invaders are battling Nazis attacking a shipyard but Cap-Am is suspicious at the lack of aircraft in the Nazi assault. It's as if destroying the facility is not their primary goal. Peculiar.

As if on cue, an airship appears and Namor decides to attack it. The move is ill-advised as he gets blasted out of the sky by the ship.

The Human Torch attempts to help Namor but is instead snared into an asbestos net cast from the aircraft. The airship reveals itself to be some sort of advanced spaceship-looking craft. It drags the Human Torch into the ocean. Namor follows...and neither return.

Until a few days later. On a military base, Captain America is fresh off a chewing out from a commanding officer over his team's poor performance during the Nazi attack when Namor shows up out of nowhere with a rather grim command to follow him. They set off to...Nazi-occupied Atlantis.

It isn't long until they are seen by Nazis and attacked.

And now we're caught up. The Human Torch arrives as Namor and Cap are subdued. The Nazis are controlling the Torch and using him as a fabricated threat to gain confidence from the Atlanteans.

As Captain America attempts to explain this to Namor, he is told to shut his pie-hole by a female newcomer.

Cap wonders why the normally hot-headed Namor doesn't just tell her to go stuff her gills. He gets his answer in short order.

Ah! Lady Fen (assuming she's the real deal)!

How about that? This is a rather personal story for Namor considering that it was the second issue of a Captain America series. Good deal, looking forward to the conclusion.

Namor The Sub-Mariner (1990) #1

John Byrne is one of those creators for whom I need to separate the person from the art. There are many aspects of his personality that I dislike and that make me want to avoid supporting him but I can't deny that his work was often outstanding.

There is also little question that he enjoyed and appreciated this character a great deal. Carving out Byrne's contribution to the Sub-Mariner legend undeniably diminishes it greatly.

I reviewed one issue from this series already (#60, if my memory is sound) but at that point Byrne was long gone. Let's go all the way back to the beginning and see how Byrne launched it in the first place.

Byrne chooses to tell this story in prologues and epilogues which is a little strange at first because you wonder if you haven't missed something.. This would have made a great zero issue but I'm not sure those were a thing in 1990.

We begin six months earlier as a father/daughter team of marine biologist or researchers or something named Alexander are...researching...when suddenly...

Apparently at this point in his history, Namor is believed by the rest of the world to be dead, making this sudden appearance all the more surprising for the Alexanders.

The Prince Of The Blood lands on an island in the Pacific. For a moment, it appears that he may have lost his memory yet again, but he shakes it off. He comes upon some primitive tribe. When said tribe treats Namor as an intruder and attacks, he kicks their primitive asses.

Ah, he's in one of his "cursed to be alone" phases!

The Alexanders track him down and convince to come back to their boat.

Once on the boat, the gentleman pointlessly tells Namor's origin story. As if Namor needs to be told that he's half-human and half-Atlantean (and therefore technically the first mutant, see). But I suppose we have to think of new readers.

On the flip side, I don't believe that Namor's mother has been seen very often and in this book, she looks great (the 40s version was hideous).

The old man does introduce Namor to a theory to the effect that an oxygen imbalance causes the Prince's rage. Too little oxygen when Namor's underwater, too much when he's on land. What's a brother to do? But evidently anticipating that one day he might meet Namor, the geezer has built a machine which regulates the oxygen balance. So...good for that.

The encounter causes Namor to run off to think. He comes back some time later with a treasure chest and a plan.

Oh look, an old dude putting the moves on a significantly younger lady. This must be a John Byrne book. It's not out of character for Namor to play the smoothie on occasion though. At least there's that.

The book concludes with a wealthy brother/sister combo talking business just after the lady stopped her brother from shooting himself in the head out of boredom.

Can you guess?

Namor's plan is basically to save the planet (read: the environment) through the business world by flexing the vast amount of wealth to which he has access.

That is certainly a new spin on a character that to this point was usually more interested in doing away with the surface world altogether. So while portions of the book felt like filler, its premise is (was) certainly intriguing enough to continue reading.