Incredible Hercules #122: "Love & War (part two)"

We recently had a look at a Hercules appearance in a Namor book, and a time when they were both members of the Avengers, so let's close out this little theme with Namor appearing in a Hercules book instead. 

Ha ha ha ha ha! I love Namora's expression back there...

See, she and Hercules have been getting on quite nicely of late, and when Namor shows up at the end of #121 in the following manner, Hercules can't help but jump to conclusions.

But it's not about that at all, as Namor makes abundantly clear. 

Namora straightens the boys out, pointing out that they are actually on the same side, since the Amazons have attacked Hercules as well.

Oh. 

So the three gang-up to confront Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, about the whole thing. 

That's Hercules asking for a moment. Namor generously gives him 15 minutes to charm Hippolyta.

Once at Triton, Hercules is instead again attacked, and blinded, by the Amazons. Namora rescues him.

Namor accesses the station through underwater tunnels but finds out the hard way that they were rigged with explosives. 

As Namor begins to tear the place apart looking for Hippolyta, he is surprised to find...

Ah, well, I guess Namor appears in the next issue too. I did not know that. 

That's good news, actually, because I've enjoyed this story thus far. I've criticized the 2005 Defenders series for trying so hard to be humourous and, in my opinion, failing miserably at it. This creative team (Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Clayton Henry) is far better at pulling it off because the humour doesn't dominate the story or reduce the threat.

Also, a character like Hercules lends himself to humour far better than a Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer or, for that matter, Namor, who isn't there for laughs.

Love & War is a five-part story and it wouldn't kill me if Namor was involved throughout, but I suspect he will exit after the next one. Too bad.

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.

Sub-Mariner (1968) #29: "Fear Is the Hunter!"

Namor's rivalries with other strongmen such as The Thing from the Fantastic Four and with the incredible Hulk are more celebrated, but in reading his adventures across the Marvel universe, I've come to enjoy his interactions with Hercules as well.

The Olympian demigod and the Avenging Son met up in the latter's own series in the early 70s. It would have been among their first encounters (they met earlier in an Avengers book, Hercules even makes mention of it in this issue) so we're going to check out how that went.  

Namor had spent the previous couple of issues on land and he's on his way home, however...

See that staff he's holding? The Huntsman has been tasked by Zeus to bring Hercules home as Zeus feels Earth is no place for one of Hercules' stature.

Huntsman uses the staff to call sirens to enchant Namor to do the Huntsman's bidding. 

It takes very little time for Namor to reach the island and therefore Hercules. And of course it also takes little time for them to come to blows because as Herc ponders whether he can ever have some "me" time, we go all FKOOM and BTOK...

Their titanic clash causes a huge boulder to crash down towards the town. Namor is able to fly down towards it and destroy it and in doing so, clear his head of the mind-control spell cast by the sirens.
 

The Huntsman knows his control over Namor has broken so he uses his magic staff to call upon three huge monsters to destroy the two heroes. Namor and Hercules waste no time mounting an offensive.

That's interesting. I wonder if this inspired the "Fastball Special" that Colossus and Wolverine of the X-Men used to do?

Anyway, they battle the monsters for a while but Huntsman strikes Hercules down.

Namor seeks to help his fellow warrior and achieves greater success than he'd anticipated. One of the monsters is made of stone. Namor chucks one of its fragments at Huntsman, separating him from the staff. 

Separating Huntsman from the staff causes the massive creatures to disappear. Hercules is preparing to beat Huntsman senseless when his dad pops in.

Namor impressed Zeus. Not bad at all. There's a reason Namor is so arrogant. As the man said, it ain't braggin' if you back it up!  

So Hercules goes home, Namor busts up Zeus' staff and heads back to the sea and we conclude our little one-and done!

It was a little hard to perceive that goofy-looking Huntsman as a credible threat, even with that magical staff, and I wish more panel-time had been devoted to the scrap between Namor and Hercules. When Namor goes to encounter Hercules, he passes Atlantis in what is a largely pointless scene. That page space could have been better used to expand the battle the two heroes but aside from those two minor criticisms, that was an entertaining read. 

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #513: "Utopia, Part 2"

X-(Wo)man Loa's appearance in the last book I reviewed reminded me that it had been quite some time since I checked one of Namor's appearance in an X-Men book. Having read one as a result, I'm reminded why that is. 

As the cover reveals, this is chapter two so let's include the handy recap.

It seems that whenever I pick up an X-Men book which features Namor fairly prominently on the cover, he ends up being an afterthought inside. This is the case again.

Emma Frost is being introduced to the team of Dark X-Men she is going to lead. It is rather underwhelming.  Norman Osborn allows her to add members and she requests but a single one.

Frost probably has a scheme of her own brewing so perhaps Namor's role in future issues will increased and significant.

As it is, Osborn apparently has the authority place a curfew on the city of San Francisco. A group of young mutants chooses to challenge said curfew so Osborn's team of X-Men are sent out to, supposedly, maintain the peace.  That includes Namor.

The real X-Men are watching the proceedings from afar so one would expect the two teams to clash in the following chapter. Or have a nice long chat, these books seem to enjoy those. 

This book gives a little context to the only other Utopia book I've read, the dreadfully tedious Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1. That's about it.

Namor The First Mutant (2010) #4:

With Halloween just around the corner, let's wrap up Namor's involvement in the Curse Of The Mutants story and his battle against a vampiric version of his grandfather.

You may recall that what was left of Atlantis was under siege from a great number of aquatic vampires. An ancient Atlantean wizard, named simply Logomancer, had found a spell which would eliminate those vampires but its requires the blood of a king. Namor just happens to be one. Knowing it would kill him, he prepares to take one for the team and leads his small army to face undersea bloodsuckers on their turf.

(For a slightly more detailed synopsis of issues one through three of this series, click on the "Curse Of The Mutants" tab under the "Story Arcs" heading at right)

Namor figured out that the leader of the vampires (Aqueos) is none other than his grandfather, Thakorr. While he faces off with him inside the vampire lair, his army outside get a little support.

Ah, there's 'mancer now! The wizard casts a spell that will reduce the power that the vampire horde draws from Thakorr, so that's a start. 

Inside, meanwhile, Namor and Thatkorr are squaring off rather bluntly.

Thakorr is a tough old bird though and starts to turn the tide against Namor, so to speak. Abira is there for the assist, however.

Guess so.

With his advantage restored and again with Abira's assistance, Namor begins the spell Logomancer had provided him with which he could destroy the vampires. It required the blood of a king and he is no longer the only king in the room.

Thakorr's still finds a way to get a final dig in.

Where Thakorr sees failure, Namor sees opportunity. He claims the city in which the Aqueos resided as part of his realm and offers the remaining wretches a chance to continue...huh...living, I guess, if that's what they call it. Don't raid us and I won't kick your ass, is what it boils down to. 

And so ends the Curse Of The Mutants story.

There was a lot packed into these pages including Loa discovering that she could breathe underwater. I thought it had already been established that she could with the aid of the amulet around her neck or something. Perhaps reading these books out of order has confused me there. They do not dwell on it in this book but it seems clear that it will discussed in future stories.

Unfortunately, the book ends with the confirmed deaths of two Atlantean brothers, Husam and Husni, who were fairly prominent in the earlier issues of this series. I enjoyed Husam in particular though he had that feel about him like he wouldn't be around very long. Mind you, in comics, he could pop up in the next line-wide event for all we know.

Super-Villain Team-Up (1975) #4: "A Time Of Titans"

It's been nearly a year since I last read and reviewed an issue of this series which is surprising because I've enjoyed its over-the-top goofiness a great deal.

And this one promises soul-searing action! How can I resist??

At the end of third issue, in the afterglow of having vanquished a threat together, Doctor Doom and Namor appeared poised to renew their partnership. Let's see how well that's held up.

So that's about a C-.

The sheer power of their exchange is noticed by a passing navy ship and brought to the attention of a dude named Simon Ryker. It is hinted that Ryker created (or will one day create) the cyborg Deathlok. That's a cool reference there. 

During the battle, Doom is tossed into the side of the ship. When Namor attempts to chase after him, Doom blasts the avenging son out of the sky. Ryker therefore sees the opening he was hoping for.

Doom is peeved by the affront and tosses Ryker around a bit. Then accepting that Namor and he are not meant to be pals, he flies off.

Ryker will evidently use the energy he siphoned from Doom to create his perfect soldier so he's happy enough. 

Namor...Not so much... 

That's it! He is so DONE with the surface world!

Until the next issue of this series, that is. It seems Doom left Namor a parting gift and the prince will need the help of the Fantastic Four to deal with it. It kind of all works against the "super-villain team-up" theme but it should be fun!

Sub-Mariner (2007) #1: "Revolution"

Marvel Comics recently had a two-for-one (digital) sale. I took advantage of it to not only move forward with some of the books that I'd started gathering in the past but also to start some new ones, including a six-issue mini-series dedicated to Namor following the Civil War event. 

Here's a partial recap from what's gone on in Civil War. Namor's connected appearance in a Wolverine book was covered here.

The story begins with Iron Man and SHIELD overlooking a devastated (again) Atlantis in the present and some question as to whatever happened to Namor.

We begin to answer that questions with a flashback from eight days earlier. An explosive rocks a small town in Kansas. A great many citizens are killed and the resulting investigation seems to point the finger at Atlantis. 

Lordy. Haven't the surface world and Atlantis gone to war, or nearly come to it, a dozen times already over such sketchy evidence? When will everyone learn?

But asshole that he is, Iron Man makes the call.

This is an interesting approach. When Atlantis has been damaged, or some of its citizens injured or killed by the acts of unknown surface world residents, can Namor just call up whoever is president at that point and lay blame at his/her feet?

Namor first questions Nitro, which makes sense, but yields no results. He then checks in with his own council and finds out about rumours of an unaccounted-for sleeper cell that could very well be the cause of the Kansas explosion.

He later confronts an Atlantean named Timoran about it, a youngster he got a bad vibe from during the council meeting. It doesn't go extremely well for Tim.  

Namor then goes to speak to a mysterious "old friend".

Namor responds by suiting up for war but swears that if blood is spilled, it will be human blood.

SHIELD's "evidence" for blaming Atlantis for the attack on a Kansas town seemed a little thin but then they were surprised at the level of devastation that Atlantis had gone through so there would appear to be more  at play than just a scrap between that organization and the underwater city. Add in the mystery of Namor's mole within SHIELD (I have a theory...) and there's plenty here to keep one coming back. This was a good start.

Rise of the Black Panther (2018) #2: "Coffin For Head of State"

To avoid getting into a tired loop of reviewing Fantastic Four / Avengers / Defenders appearances, I try to choose my material based on whatever might be happening in the real world. It's often dictated by a movie release or an upcoming comics event (lord knows there are many), something along those lines.

Obviously, in this case, it was the sad passing of Chadwick Boseman. I will not pretend that I was a huge fan or any such; I haven't even seen the Black Panther movie. But by all accounts he was a great person making his corner of the world better and on that basis alone, the news came as a shock nonetheless. 

This book is actually far more recent than I realized, having been published in 2018. It takes place very early in T'Challa's (Black Panther, I assume you know) reign as king of Wakanda and debates whether Wakanda is best-served by remaining a secret to the rest of the world or by "going public", as it were. 

But first, Wakandan citizens have gone missing. As Black Panther searches form them, he hears an explosion miles away. Thinking it may be a lead, he heads towards it and finds an Atlantean ship has been shot down.

This upsets Atlantis' most hot-headed monarch who was with said ship and is still a little miffed at the whole thing.

The tradition of two heroes fighting upon first meeting is short-lived in this case as, after Namor mentions seeking traitors to Atlantis, Black Panther deduces that perhaps the two are looking for the same thing. 

Meranno? Isn't that U-Man from the original Invaders books?

Black Panther tracks down his missing countrymen to what appears to be a large barn out in the country. Namor gets tired of waiting for Panther to crack the password to break in stealthily so he uses one of his own.

And we find out that it is, indeed, U-Man! 😀 Dude has teamed up with some asshole from a neighboring country that has it out for Wakanda.
 

We only see Namor land one punch on U-Man and even that is in the background of the panel. Of course, it's not his book, so we can only expect so much, but it was still a little disappointing. 

The prisoners are released, the villains are captured, everyone's relatively happy. 

Black Panther is polite and diplomatic but he again weighs the question of exposure. Namor knows where Wakanda is. He's a friend now but Panther wonders if he will be the next time they meet? That was a nice way to work in more current tensions between Wakanda and Atlantis.

It took a long time for Namor to show up, to the point that I feared he might get the last-panel cliffhanger treatment, but that was not the case. It is clear that this is meant to be their first meeting and I'll be curious to see if it clashes with past material. These two characters have good chemistry. The line between respect and a wicked throw down always feels very, very thin.