Namor, The Sub-Mariner (1990) #60

I just added a label category called "Story Arcs" in the event that someone might be interested in tracking down Namor's appearances in major events throughout the Marvel Universe.

The inspiration for this was the Atlantis Rising multi-title crossover.  I bought the compilation on the cheap on Comixology some time ago. It includes issues of Namor's own series of the time, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Force (*shudder*) and as the cover below will give away, also features The Inhumans.

Marvel showed a little consideration here in that the books provides a few relevant pages from issue #58 and #59 of the Namor series to make things clear as we leap into issue #60 as the first official chapter of Atlantis Rising.

We open with a history lesson as Namor lifts the sword of Kamuu, said to be "The symbol of Atlantis' majesty before the fabled continent sank beneath the waves". It feels a little sudden and random but sure, whatever.

That's Andromeda back there. I'm not very familiar with her but she seems relatively cool.

Triton of the Inhumans is found by this oceanographer lady and some dude and brought back to their crib. Meanwhile, Namor's sword, for some reason, draws him (and Andromeda) to Triton as well.

But it's not the only sword to do that! This guy has the same issue!

Blood Wraith so terribly sounds like a 90s name, doesn't it?

Everyone seeking Triton shows up at the same time which, naturally, means a scrap.

Good reference to Krang there. Even though he ended up being a treasonous bastard, his skill must be acknowledged. Well done.

The battle is fairly even until BW pulls this dirty trick.

Right. See, back in the day, Namor had to kill his second wife, Marrina from Alpha Flight, when she became the creature known as Leviathan and he used the Ebony blade (the one wielded by Wraith here) to do so.

The whole thing is a giant distraction for our favourite prince and he loses his focus, leading to this:

Slutch!

I think at this point it was understood that Namor's series was coming to an end so perhaps this made for a good cliffhanger at the time? Obviously he survived this and we'll find out how when we get around to issue #61 some day.

Pretty cool book though. The series may have been nearing its end but it doesn't feel like anyone mailed it in. Quite the contrary, they were going for "epic" with this one!

Wolverine (2003) #45

I am starting to understand why Marvel's recent output has faced so much criticism. I have read material from several decades now and it seems that anything I read that was published in the current millennium is largely crap. That applies to Wolverine #45 though it does have one redeeming quality.

Humberto Ramos' art is not it. I'm sure he has his fans, and he's certainly built a solid career for himself, but his exaggerated facial expressions and physiques is not to my personal taste.

Let's catch up here.

It bears pointing out that Namorita, Namor's cousin, is believed to be among the dead. Otherwise, while the hell would anyone in Atlantis care? I spent half the issue asking myself that very question until Namor blurted it out.

We go through Wolverine's tedious "I'm the best at what I do" routine just in time for him to get punched in the face.

Is he naked again? Why is he naked so damn often? Is that what he does best?

Wolverine takes the first round by sticking all six of his claws through Namor's chest. If Logan weren't so clueless about Atlantean anatomy, Namor would be dead because apparently Wolverine managed to miss all major organs. Six times. The best at what he does. We'll just assume he knew that and that it was NOT attempted homicide then. Or regicide, for that matter.

While Wolverine is dispatching the Atlantean sleeper agents, Namor recovers and ends the fight with a well-placed punch. Nitro is taken to Atlantis. Wolverine still feels responsible for protecting him though so he calls in some help and follows.

That is Wolverine is an one-size-fits-all borrowed Iron Man armour. He's able to pop his claws from that thing and everything.

And here we have the shining moment in this book. When Iron-Wolverine threatens to kill an Atlantean woman to recover Nitro and stay true to his word to protect that villain, Namor pretty much spells out his idiocy to him.

Wolverine actually concedes to this reasoning and leaves the Atlanteans to deal with Nitro. Namor catches up with Logan later in some pub to share the results of their interrogation of Nitro.

There are so many nonsensical decisions made here that it's difficult to get into the book. Each side should easily be able to grasp why the other has an interest in Nitro. Neither guy is known for level-headedness, granted, but the whole thing could, and should, have been talked out. This book feels like editorially-forced filler.

Iron Man (1968) #120

I needed a friggin' break from the Fantastic Four and the Invaders (Captain America in particular) so right on cue, Comixology tosses out an Iron Man sale. I knew our hero had made a couple of appearances in that series, did a little scouting, and settled on the issue below.

This takes place during Iron Man's drunk phase which, at the time, was pretty ballsy for squeaky clean Marvel. To my mind, this publisher made its name on "flawed" heroes such as cash-strapped Peter Parker, blind Matt Murdock and cane-wielding Donald Blake. Tony Stark had a heart problem, which is a "flaw" in and of itself, but tackling alcoholism is a whole other matter. I didn't read the whole saga at the time but I do recall being impressed that they would go there at all.

David Michelinie does the writing honours here while John Romita Jr and Bob Layton remind me of what a great art team they made.

So what's going on? Well, Stark is on a flight, sipping his 4th martini and flirting with a stewardess when a flying tank takes a wing off his plane and causes it to crash into the ocean. Hey, it happens!

After he saves the people aboard, he has a chat with the military personnel which suspiciously just happened to be nearby. They explain that they'd been dumping radioactive waste on a nearby island when some codger resident started taking exception and tried to fight them off. Mysteriously, the geezer had royal support.

Namor tossed one of their tanks into the stratosphere. Hey, do you suppose that's the one that just happened to break the wing on Stark's plane? Of course it is!

Iron Man and Namor scrap for a while, the latter hinting that there is more at play than shellhead realizes. The battle is fairly even until the old dude distracts Iron Man long enough for Namor to take the matter to his home turf.

Iron Man combines his boot jets and repulsor rays to get the avenging son off him...

But a sub-plot rears its ugly head! Someone has control of the armour and in a rather chilling development, they open the mouth and eye slots and allow water to pour in.

That would suck.

And so we have ourselves a cliffhanger. Namor really only shows up to fight; his role in the story is not clearly defined at this point, but it's a good fight and the stage is set for a good ol' team up in #121! Imperius Rex!

Fantastic Four (1996) #3

All right! In the event that you stumbled here following a search and are not reading this chronologically, this is essentially a continuation of this blog entry from March 25th. FF3 is the second part of a modernized retelling of Fantastic Four #4 from 1961.

Looking a little rough with the ladies there, Avenging Son.

Giganto was released at the end of the previous issue. We open this one with a brief recap and the Avengers' attempt at stopping the giant whale. It fails, to Namor's great glee.

Tell 'em, boss.

Susan Richards tries to talk Namor and even though she seems to be making headway, the men in the family take a more direct approach and ruin everything. Namor dispatches each one individually, culminating with this gem.

Wham indeed!

The Avengers step in. Thor is itching for a scrap but Captain America takes Sue's more peaceful approach. Well, Krang will have none of that!



Enthralled? I know Namor tends to like blondes, but I'm not sure that extends to...

Anyway, as everyone begins to make peace, Namor suddenly takes ill, apparently due to catching the plague that triggered Atlantis' attack on New York in the first place. And so, Krang seizes the moment.

While a hybrid Avengers/FF team fights back the invasion, Reed Richards treats Namor and finds that the prince's illness was actually Atlantis-borne. Namor believes Richards and calls off the sea dogs of war.

More appropriate channels! Atlantis would invade the surface another half dozen times after this. But in fairness, I don't recall a single time that Captain America has helped make Namor's voice be heard, sanctimonious ass that he is.

Everyone makes their farewells and that's that! A year later "Heroes Reborn" would become "Heroes Return" and everyone would be in the regular timeline. While this was enjoyable enough to read, I look forward to going "home".

Fantastic Four (1996) #2

It seems I inadvertently bought the same book twice!

In 1996, Marvel made a dismal attempt at being trendy with a "Heroes Reborn" marketing campaign. My memory of this period is a little hazy, but I believe that Marvel's A-List heroes were believed to have died but instead had been transported to an alternate universe or some damn thing. Once there, they basically ended up reliving the key moments of their origin stories, unbeknownst to them.

Most of the material appeared to be quite craptastic to me and since I'd pretty well given up on Marvel by then anyway, I didn't buy into this whole scheme. Until yesterday.

Heroes Reborn was far out of mind when I bought this book. It wasn't until I had a closer look at the creative team that I realized what I'd purchased.

This issue, however, is pretty much a retelling of the story I read and wrote about yesterday from the fourth issue of the original Fantastic Four series. So what the hell, let's see how they managed this.

Being the second issue, things are already in motion. The FF have just acquired their powers and are battling the Mole Man (Ugh...). As they escape his tunnel lair, they appear to be surprised by a sudden flash of light.

We switch to Atlantis and the HR versions of Krang and Dorma, looking quite good.

Orthus, with paler skin, could be any number of the early Image Wolverine ripoffs. I'm not sure why Krang feels the need to remind him that they are cousins, but there you have it.

Krang, being an asshole, sees the above tragedy as an opportunity to goad Namor into attacking the surface world.

So none of this seemingly random crap about being found with amnesia in a homeless shelter and needing a shave. To this point, the Namor material feels more like it is meant to update the beginning of Daredevil #7.

We cut to the SHIELD Heli-Carrier. The earlier flash of light was SHIELD abducting the FF. SHIELD, having no shame, now asks for help to subdue repel Namor's attack.

He IS a legend! Is that a little admiration we see in Sue's demeanor? Not certain if I'm seeing what I expect to see, but I do know the expression on The Thing is spot on.

The Fantastic Four go to meet Namor and things go about how you'd expect.

*Groan*. Why does EVERYONE throw Namor back in the ocean? Think! Do you use a flame-thrower to beat The Human Torch??

Understanding that he is outnumbered, Namor calls on his own "Doomsday Weapon".

Giganto! Now there's a post tag I didn't expect to use a second time!

I got swerved into buying Heroes Reborn material that I expected to be putrid, and I'd planned on avoiding all alternative reality versions of this character to focus on the "primary" version, but I'm not disappointed that I got this issue. I suspect that it was among the better books at the time. It's a decent enough attempt at that cleaning up wonky history and the art is spectacular.

I'll get around to #3 sooner rather than later to complete the "re-imagining" of Fantastic Four (1961) #4 then get back on track.

Fantastic Four (1961) #4

I am becoming more and more convinced that Marvel is basing its Comixology discounts on my reading habits. After enabling me to load up on some Invaders, Defenders and original Sub-Mariner series issues on the cheap, they now have a Fantastic Four sale for no reason I can determine.

Whatever, I shall not squander the opportunity. I grabbed a few early issues including Namor's first appearance in that book way back in issue #4. I was aware of that story as a kid but not really buying into what a big deal it was supposed to be. Human Torch had found this guy, gave him a shave and it turned out to be the Sub-Mariner. Okay, great.

Having rapid access to information these days makes the "big deal" a bit more clear. Namor's adventures had been published regularly from 1939 to about 1955. This book, cover dated May 1962, was his fist appearance in seven years.

He may not be one of Marvel key characters but considering that he has not gone a whole year since without showing up somewhere (team book, guest-appearance, whatever), that was quite the dry spell for him and therefore a significant comeback.

How does it all happen? With the usual strangeness and leaps of logic of the time, of course, as only Stan Lee and Jack Kirby could provide them.

Johnny Storm has had an argument with The Thing and blown off the Fantastic Four. Wanting to keep a low profile, he decides to spend the night in a homeless shelter, because who hasn't done that? Like most homeless shelters, this one is well-stocked with classic comic books.

That creepy bum at the bottom right sees what Johnny is reading and points out that one of his fellow vagrants is as strong as that Sub-Mariner fella. When the residents try to goad this strong homeless man into displaying feats of strength, he beats the hell out of all of them. So, I suppose he granted them their wish in a roundabout way. Good man.

As they gang up for another round, Johnny recognizes that this mysterious stranger seems to be suffering from memory loss (a common affliction for this character) and tries to be the voice of reason. All right, boys, first things first: Let's give him a shave.

What are the odds???!

Well the only logical thing to do now is to dump him in the ocean.

Sounds good, but...Atlantis is devastated, apparently by atomic testing. That doesn't go over well and so Namor...Are you ready for this?...Swears to take revenge against the human race! Maybe you should have left well enough alone, Johnny!

Namor wakes a giant walking whale creature named Giganto and commands it to attack New York.

The Thing detonates a nuke inside Giganto to kill it (no, really). When Namor promises to unleash all sorts of other sea beasts on New York with his magic trumpet-horn (lol...), Invisible Girl Sue Richards swipes it from him.

Way to go, Namor, you old smoothie. Nowadays that's sexual misconduct though.

He makes Sue a pretty sweet deal: Marry me and I won't destroy mankind. While she's weighing the pluses and minuses of that arrangement, The Human Torch creates some sort of tornado vortex in which he captures Namor and his horn and tosses them both out to sea. Without the ability to call upon giant sea bastards, Namor decides to chill for a bit, but with a promise...

We haven't heard the last of that guy! For a while, he was basically a series regular, appearing every two to four issues, then again in a couple of early issues of The Avengers, completing the comeback.

Defenders (2005) #1

All right, let's get this over with...

I typically detest these kinds of books. It's not that I don't care for humour in a comic book. It certainly has its place. I just don't like it when it's overdone and in this book, it (predictably) is.

I can list three reasons why humour-heavy stories generally don't work for me.

1. The humour eats up too much space. 

Nightmare visits Doctor Strange to warn him that Dormammu and Umar The Unholy have joined forces to invade Earth.

I've recapped the first six pages. That revelation is surrounded by jokes surrounding Wong's place in the Doctor's household and an explanation as to why Nightmare is suddenly the comical type even though he's never, ever, displayed that personality trait in the past.

2. It can overshadow some quality moments.

Writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis have been around quite a while. They know their stuff. And here they have Doctor Strange capture The Avenging Son rather well, I think.

Pretty cool way to describe Namor, actually. It took a long, rambling argument to get there, of course. At one point, even Namor says "There is no point to this prattling" and he's right. Half of it is filler. The writers might as well admit they're wasting our time because their story is so thin.

3. It diminishes the threat. 

Here's would-be planet conqueror Dormammu complaining about his mom.

And I'm supposed to believe that this guy is dangerous.

The next few pages are mostly of Namor and Bruce Banner tossing insults at one another, because that's what Giffen and DeMatteis enjoy, until Strange teleports all of them to Dormammu's realm. But of course, hilarity ensues!

I suppose Namor had to be told that the Hulk was on the other side of the barrier. In case you can't see him either, that's him at bottom left.

Anyway, I hated this book and unlike some of the other series I've read recently, I don't look forward to continuing it. It's clear that nothing of consequence will happen anyway so why bother? There is so much material involving The Sub-Mariner, I'm sure I can keep busy until I have to force issue #2 down.

Daredevil (1964) #7

I may have gotten a bit of a break earlier today. The book below was available on Comixology for $0.99, down from $16.99.

It was apparently released today so I can't help but think that the price was set in error. The book is not part of a current sale and even if it were, 94% would be a pretty incredible sale!

So I bought it, of course. It collects 20 books in total; 18 issues of Tales To Astonish, one of Tales Of Suspense and, somewhat surprisingly, Daredevil #7.

This is actually the first book in the collection. While Stan Lee indeed wrote this issue, it was drawn by Wally Wood and not Gene Colan, as the Masterworks cover might lead one to believe.

The book starts with Namor sitting on his throne (as he often does), being questioned about why he hasn't taken over the surface world yet. Check this out...

Now that's Krang and he's full of shit. Among the reasons he states for invading the surface is a desire by his fellow Atlanteans to "bask in the heat of the sun". Yeah. Say that again slowly, Krang, and think it through.

That's Dorma on the steps.

Namor decides to go negotiate...something...unclear...with the surface so he hops on his Turtlecycle and heads for New York.

I'm three pages in and absolutely loving the ridiculousness of this book.

Namor's is unfamiliar with human law so he looks for a good lawyer or, alternatively, the very first one he comes across. Of all the wild coincidences, that happens to be Matt Murdock!

In Murdock's office, Namor lays out his master plan.

Hey, leave me out of this!

The absurdity of the plan is explained to Namor. The Sub-Mariner doesn't care for the response so he goes to plan B, which is to demolish the city in order to be arrested. Then "the man" will have to bring Namor to court. It's brilliant!

But not really. This book is full of such leaps of logic. When Daredevil attempts to stop Namor, his reasoning is that he should kick him off the pier because maybe "a dash of cold water will cool him off and make him listen". How can you possibly think that's a good idea?

Shortly thereafter, Daredevil recognizes that Namor is essentially invincible in water and, well, gets his ass kicked in record time. Namor recognizes that 'devil's a solid dude though so he doesn't let him drown, even if his handling is a little rough.

Namor decides this is as good a time as any to surrender so he can get himself to court which, apparently is an overnight process because he's in front of a judge the next day. But during the trial, Dorma shows up with a fish bowl on her head to let Namor though that that bitch Krang has attempted a takeover of Atlantis. Ah, shrimp!

Namor naturally wants to head back to Atlantis but now he has crimes to pay for. The puny humans attempt to stop him but it's pointless. Namor makes short work of police, military, etc. He gets a HUGE power push in this book, to use a pro wrestling term. He is made out to be unstoppable.

Daredevil, however, won't quit (and is fearless, as we know) and it is his courage that gets underscored. He loses the fight, but earns respect. 

Can't measure heart, baby!

Namor heads back to Atlantis to kick Krang to the curb, a story which I hope to read in the next issue of this compilation.

This issue, by the way, is also notable for being the first one in which Daredevil wears his red suit.