Marvel Universe (1998) #1: "The Spoils of War"

When quarantines and isolation began, I figured I'd have more time to take in some Avenging Son awesomeness but that has not turned out to be the case. I've been busy as hell but I finally get some quiet time to take in some Atlantean heroics.

Today, we're looking at a short-lived mini-series called, quite simply, Marvel Universe, in which the Invaders starred for the first few issues.

We begin with a recounting of the demise of a large German sea vessel called the Deutschland at the hands of the Invaders. 

We find out that the event is narrated, sort of, by Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, a Nazi and I believe the founder of Hydra, as he ponders the loss of the ship while in a meeting with German military leaders.  He is disgusted by his fellow Nazis' inability to see the future and the big picture so he leaves them to debate pointlessly. He has a brief meeting with the Red Skull in a secret lab geared towards, at least on paper, suspended animation and preservation.

We transition to a scene in a German submarine as its captain appears pleased to receive an encoded message. His glee is brief, however, because he is visited by undersea royalty. 

The men don't put up much of a fight so Namor has no difficulty getting his hands on the message that the captain received. 

But the captain ingest poison rather than talk. The poison was concealed in a ring with the Hydra logo so evidently we are seeing the formation of that organization.

This leads to a retelling of Namor's origin as told by Betty Dean to a couple of G-Men. The Human Torch and Captain America get the same treatment; a few pages of adventure followed by an origin story. The purpose in all cases is for the military to determine, based on these background checks, whether these three men can be trusted.

Once that has been established, these three core Invaders members are brought in by Allied Command and given their mission. Hydra is not only operational, but they are preparing to build an atomic bomb from their secret island base. They also acquired this sweet beast, the "dragon" referred to above.

...But Hydra swiped it. That, and books about things which have yet to happen, appear to make Strucker quite confident. 

So we have a little time travel going on here then? Good tease. 

This was quite enjoyable. Going over the origins of each Invader seemed a little pointless but in a 36-page book, it didn't hurt the story at all. I only wish that other members of the Invaders, like Spitfire and Union Jack, were included (Toro and Bucky, not so much).
 

Iron Man (1968) Annual #10, "Two If By Sea"

I'm full of shit. I've been saying for a while that the annuals the year of the Atlantis Rising were tied-in to that story but that's not true at all. They are years apart, in fact. The 1989 annuals, rather, told the story called Atlantis Attacks. I was confusing the two events.

That means I get to read this book after sitting on it for so long. I had been avoiding it to avoid Atlantis Rising spoilers but it has nothing to do with that story so let's finally have at 'er..

This is part two of Atlantis Attacks. Part one was, unexpectedly, in the Silver Surfer annual that year.

We open with a dude named Ghaur making a pitch to a who's who of Namor enemies. In particular, we have Llyra, Krang and it seems that Attuma sits on the Atlantean throne as this point. Crickey!

Meanwhile, Iron Man is tracking a criminal organization called the Maggia as they, in turn, are tracking a ship. And wouldn't you know it, Namor just happens to fly by as he searches for spawns of his late wife, Marrina.

I...didn't know that was a hobby of his. I am learning a lot from this book so far.

Namor spots the ship that the Maggia is eyeing while Iron Man is eyeing them. As Namor approaches said ship, they open fire on him.

But why?? Because the ship is full of Hydra agents, that's why, which Iron Man spots with his spy-cam.

Hydra doesn't want some hero type hanging around so they figured they'd just waste Namor but with Iron Man arriving as well, and now facing sure defeat, the terrorists blow up their own ship in a mass suicide.

The heroes head to Stark's office where they track the ship using its serial number. At this point, I'm asking myself why Namor would give a crap about any of this but the writer's got that covered.

Fair enough!

As they head towards the business to which the ship is registered to investigate the Maggia/Hydra connection, Namor feels the need for a rejuvenating dip in the ocean and in yet another incredible coincidence...

They sure could! So the boys split up.

Iron Man visits the visits the business and finds it crawling with Hydra agents preparing to delivering a highly addictive drug to the States. He trashes the place, murders their leader (there's no other word for it) and heads off to rejoin Namor.

Upon their reunion, Namor reveals his own findings to his bullet-headed friend. There are Atlantean (they may be technically Lemurians, I have yet to make a clear distinction) soldiers hiding under ships at nearby locks.

They'd planned to use the ships to provide cover for an invasion of their own, I guess.

Iron Man decides that he'll take on the soldiers while Namor prevents the Hydra ship from getting away, which he does to great effect.

But much like they did with their first ship, Hydra has the vessel ready to explode should they be met with defeat, and so...

Iron Man is therefore convinced that Namor has died at this point. That may explain why Namor doesn't seem to appear much in any of the other 1989 annuals despite the Atlantis-based theme.

That story had enough Namor content to make it worthwhile but this book is 64 pages long and the "main event" only accounted for about half of that. Some of the remaining material is little more than filler but there was another story which had my attention.

Andromeda gets what I believe to be rare spotlight material as she stars in her own story. She heads to Atlantis to confront Attuma about his invasion of the surface world and in doing so reveals a connection between the two of which I was not aware.

Wow, no kidding? I only knew of Andromeda as some Atlantean warrior but saw little reason for her to stand out. That she is the daughter of one of Namor's classic villains was cool to find out and I kind of want to read more about her now.