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.

The New Mutants (1983) #76, "Splash!"

I bought the first few issues of this series as they came out, when I was a kid. I didn't pursue it for very long and now, 35 years later or so, I remember why.

We hop into the story as the New Mutants as they fly towards a town. It is explained to new readers that the school for mutants has been blown to bits and the youngsters have nowhere to go, yet they seem to be in good spirits for all that. They try to phone their parents from a pay phone at a mall but are once again the victims of discrimination, fear and loathing and have to get the hell out of there.

The group instead chooses to head towards the HQ spaceship (or something) apparently owned by X-Factor but currently only populated by a team called the X-Terminators. Sounds like it would be your go-to destination if you're a mutant whose own residence has been obliterated but it didn't occur to these guys right away. Maybe the ship doesn't have a pay phone?

As this momentous decision is made, we transition over to said X-Terminators team mid-dive.

The ship made them diving suits and everything.

Naturally, they come across squid and sharks and what-not, which is pretty much exactly what you would expect to happen, but there is one interesting aspect to this book.

Damn right it isn't. Read the classics, kid!

That is the Horn of Proteus (or Proteus Horn), the very same one used to call upon Giganto in Fantastic Four #4, as seen below.

The kids screw around with it and eventually manage to blow it. This act, of course, calls on some giant octopus to stir itself awake now that Giganto is no longer. Evidently, these monsters knew to take turns.

This one attacks the closest thing it can wrap tentacles around and that happens to be the ship these kids are on. The New Mutants arrive as this happens, but even the combined "power" of these two scrub teams full of characters with shitty names like Wolfsbane, Rusty, Rictus and Boom-Boom can do little against the beast.

And then, our guest-star arrives, at last.

Oddly enough, Namor doesn't do all that much from here on in. He throws a few punches at the octopus but when the kids plan to place dynamite in its mouth (similarly to how Giganto was defeated) he just hangs back and lets three of them take on that task.

The plan does work, however, so the creature is beaten just as X-Factor (at that time, the team of the five original X-Men) arrives. Namor puts in a good word for the kids and takes off with the horn.

All told, this is by and large a throwaway story bordering on filler, but credit writer Louise Simonson for working in a slice of 60s history.

Marvel Knights Fantastic Four 1 2 3 4 #3 (2001): "Darkness And The Mole Man"

Jesus, could that title be any more awkward?

So Jae Lee and Grant Morrison. I am not as enamored with either one as many fans are but seeing one or both of those names on a book is always intriguing. Let's see what they had in store for our favourite Atlantean.

Namor's appearance actually began in the previous issue. Susan Storm (the Invisible Woman) and Alicia Masters are chatting about how (stop me if you've heard this one before) Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, constantly ignores Sue for one of his fancy Lego sets. Since he always seems to know when Sue is having this conversation, Namor showed up.

The Human Torch, meanwhile, witnessed a giant-ass creature rise out of the ground. He heads to the Baxter Building for reinforcements. Namor, upon seeing his old frenemy, throws the first punch.

Namor increases the intensity of the downpour to the extent that Johnny Storm can't stay lit and falls from the sky. The art is quite pretty here, so much so that it actually escapes my notice that...Namor doesn't normally possess that ability. At least, I have yet to come across it or have no memory of doing so.

Perhaps Morrison dug up something kind of obscure there. Or he pulled it out of his ass altogether. Both options are quite plausible.

Regardless, we then have this exchange:

Just a friendly reminder to Susan Richards that your brother appears to have just plunged to his death as a result of the actions of the man you're chatting with. You've already had this conversation 100 times, maybe you could table it until after you look after Johnny? And to Namor that anticipating a woman's husband's death may not be the easiest path to her heart.

Inexplicably, Johnny Storm did not die. He never even hit the ground. He went down a crevice or something and landed in a puddle which broke his fall of several hundred feet. He ended up in the Mole Man's lair where the Mole Man plans to make Alicia Masters his queen and Johnny his bitch.

But Namor and Sue are done their romancing so they finally show up and Mole Man elaborates on what Doctor Doom's plan actually is.

Now understanding that he is expected to be an equal to a toad like the Mole Man, Namor rejects the offer. He pounds a hole into the ground which causes a tremendous amount of water to enter the cave and drown a load of Mole Man's minions and perhaps the subterranean king himself.

But, romantic that he is, amidst the genocide and destruction that he caused, Namor makes sure to maximize the value of the situation.

"For you, I've changed my mind about participating in a plan which saw your husband murdered, your brother mutilated and one of your closest friends enslaved." Ah, Namor, at the end of day, you always end up doing the right thing!

Ah, but there is a matter of a giant robot that Namor's people delivered on behalf of their prince as part of the deal to land Susan Richards. Its intent is to demolish New York, of course. That's revealed earlier in the book.

I suppose Namor will help the FF deal with that thing next issue (the concluding one) before it demolishes New York city and kills millions of people. All out of love for Sue, of course.

The Invaders (1975) #11 - "Night Of The Blue Bullet"

As stated in the previous post about the 1993 Invaders mini-series, today we're going to look at issue #11 from the original Invaders book from 1975.

Lord James Falsworth (the first Union Jack) and his daughter Jacqueline were recently injured in a battle against Baron Blood. The Invaders rush them to a hospital for treatment as this issue begins.

While Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch, is giving a Jacqueline a blood transfusion, the lights in the hospital suddenly go out. The Invaders aren't just good at punching Nazis upside the head, they are also awesome at generator repair, so off they go!

The transfusion goes off without any additional issues but the doctor is all kinds of pissed and storms off to find the person who caused the generator to break down.

Gold is the that was referred to 18 years later in Invaders #2.

Captain America and Bucky depart after a quick confrontation with Gold's assistant but shortly thereafter a voice at the other end of a mysterious phone call gives orders to the effect that the heroes be destroyed. And so the Blue Bullet lives!

This is where Namor finally shines...eventually. His first attempt at stopping the rampaging mechanical terror is rather unsuccessful.

Captain America and Bucky also fail to stop the Blue Bullet but when it threatens to kill the helpless Jim Hammond and Jacqueline Falsworth, Namor steps up again.

And that is it for the Blue Bullet so good display of power by Namor there. BB is revealed to be Doctor Gold and not his asshole assistant. I suppose the confrontation from earlier was supposed to suggest that the assistant was some evil prick.

This book is also notable for Jacqueline Falsworth gaining superpowers as a result of having received both vampire blood from Baron Blood and that of an android in Jim "Human Torch" Hammond. The latter left the team at the end of this issue but young lady Falsworth joined up as the sassy Spitfire. Comic book science rocks!

The Invaders (1993) #2, "Havoc In Hollywood"

Presumably because the first issue of the new Invaders series becomes available this coming Wednesday, Marvel had a quickie sale of past Invaders material earlier this week. I grabbed a few things, of course, including the issue below.

The first issue in the series was reviewed briefly here.

Coming off her fight against Battle-Axis, in which she was defeated and Whizzer was abducted, Miss America crashes through the window of the Invaders' headquarters. After a little recovery time, she brings the rest of the team up to speed.

That's a hell of a reference there. The story to which Namor refers was published in late 1976. I think I know which book I'll be reviewing next.

When they reach L.A., Namor and the original Human Torch are tasked with looking in on this Goldstein guy. when they arrive at his home, they find that the leader of Battle-Axis, Dr. Death, has beaten them there! And who's that behind him?

Obviously, a fight ensues. The house catches fire, as it might when the Human Torch fights indoors.

The heroes lose (again). The Human Torch is abducted (Dr. Death specifies that he wants him alive) but Namor is left to die in the burning building. And he nearly does, until he is rescued by...

Damn, man, that's pretty obscure! One of the more enjoyable aspects of this book was how writer Roy Thomas worked in ancient and/or public domain characters. The Blazing Skull had appeared very rarely in comics since 1942 at that point. Way to flaunt that knowledge, Mr. Thomas!

In the concluding pages of this issue, Captain America and Miss America head to UCLA. It seems like it's mostly on a hunch based on the amount of war-based research being conducted there.

That hunch proved accurate, however, as they encounter, and defeat, the rest of Battle Axis with the help of another character from the 1940s, the Silver Scorpion. The Silver Scorpion is aware of the location of this Mojave Project so off they go. To be continued.

Thor The Mighty Avenger (2010) #5, "Thursday Morning"

With only Namor's rather unimpressive physique on the cover by which to judge the book, I can't pretend to be approaching it with much enthusiasm but it cost me all of $1 and I've been pleasantly surprised before. Let's go!

After a bit of a recap, Thor is using his flying chariot to show Jane Foster some of the greatest sites on the planet. They make stop on an island in Australia where they encounter...this:

This is either a flashback or a re-telling of the time that Thor and Namor first meet as they clearly do not know one another at this point. When Thor approaches Namor, the Atlantean tosses the Norseman into the ocean.

But when Thor doesn't resurface immediately, Namor is faced with choosing between rescuing someone he believes to be a regular human being and controlling the wild beast he's riding. He chooses the former (which is fortunate, since Thor was struggling with the giant octopus from the cover). How Namor came to be in the area is explained when the trio is finally united. 

Well, there's a hammer somewhere...

Namor directs Thor to strike the giant whale thing right between the eyes. Thor does, propelling himself along with his hammer throw. He knocks the beast unconscious, as planned, but again finds himself into the drink.

Namor looks for Thor for a while but without success so he and Janet get comfy on the beach until the Norse God finally does show up some time later. They gab about the camp fire for a while.

That advice doesn't go over so great so Thor takes off.

After a slow start, this turned into a nice read. I enjoy Namor's volatile personality as much as anyone but it is also good to see him take a mentoring role or sorts with a young man whose situation he feels some understanding of. A young, brash Thor rejecting that advice makes sense as well. Good job by writer Roger Langridge here.

Super-Villain Team-Up #2, "In The Midst Of life...!"

I am at times surprised at how some books that you expect to be significant in a character's history turn out to be duds while some that seem to be little more than brainless distractions actually have far more impact. This book belongs in the latter category.

Part of the reason for my enjoyment of the first issue of this series was that Namor was the most prominent character. The opposite is true in this issue but it's quality over quantity.

Following the breakdown of the very brief union between Namor and Dr. Doom, the Atlantean prince returned to Hydrobase only to find it under siege by a number of his past villains; Attuma, Tiger Shark and...Dr. Dorcas. Well, the first two would be bad enough...

That's Betty Dean-Prentiss walking us through the graphic above. See, Dr. Doom has been watching the proceedings from a camera inserted in a robot fish (it actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it).  He had been seeking an opportunity to make Namor indebted to him and he sees one here.

So Doom shows up at Hydrobase and encounters Betty, a long-time friend of the sub-mariner, who gives him the scoop. With her guidance, Doom breaks his way into the lab in which Namor is chained up.

The villains were expecting them though. They're all gloating and stuff when Betty gives them a verbal middle finger. Chicken-shit that he is, Dorcas backhands her one across the face which wakes up the Avenging Son.

Dorcas, being a chicken-shit and all, figures he'd better deal with Namor ASAP. He plans to shoot Namor dead while the prince is an easy target but he can't even do that much right.

Good job, asshole. You have legit badasses Tiger Shark and Attuma ready to go and you pull this stunt.

At least you inadvertently created some awesome. The book concludes on the panel below.

I've been reading a lot of books from that era. They tend to be filled with melodramatic, overstated, verbalized internal dialogue. I would have expected something along the lines of "The fiend killed someone who was very dear to me and I will not rest until he has been brought to justice! So swears the prince of the blood, the avenging son, the one true sub-mariner, Namor of Atlantis!"

Instead, writer Tony Isabella and artists Sal Buscema / Fred Kida rely on the simple act of looking up, silently. Everyone in the fictional room, and reading this book, knows that hell will be unleashed in short order. If I'm a kid reading this in 1975, I can't friggin' wait to get the next issue.

Betty Dean was a not huge deal in the "current" Marvel era. But during Namor's adventures of the 40s and 50s she was a regular presence. They did eventually incorporate her into the silver age continuity and she served as a guardian of sorts to Namorita to the point that Namorita took on Betty's last name of Prentiss.

So Dean meant something and she was killed off in the second issue of a long-forgotten book. Ah well. We can't all go out in a blaze of glory.

Namor, The Sub-Mariner (1990) #62, "Beware The Tides of March"

Today, I'm feeling like getting a little further ahead in the Atlantis Rising story. Maybe it was the recent exposure to the Black Knight in an Avengers book who triggered that mood as he was involved in the chapter prior to this one. Whatever the cause, let's move on a bit.

The delightful lady above, wearing a quaint belt made of skulls, is Morgan Le Fey. She has just revealed her plan to take back what belongs to her and that, in her opinion, is the city of Atlantis or as she calls it, Avalon.

Le Fey has taken control of the Inhuman known as Triton and sicced him on Namor. The wounded Avenging Son retreats, however, taking Andromeda with him to find a place to recover their respective strength.

They head to Atlantis. Namor is exiled at this point but the guards take them, on the sly, to Namor's old friend and adviser Vashti.

While in recovery, Namor has a vision of a previous ruler of Atlantis.

Kamuu details how Avalon's demise, which Le Fey survived, led to Atlantis' birth. She wants her home back and for the magic required to cast the spell that will enable her to do that, she needs to sacrifice the noble soul of one whose "magnetic vitality is equal parts earth and moon".

That would be Triton who, along with the other Inhumans, resides in the city of Attilan on the moon. Namor won't let that happen so he storms off to help another old pal.

See that dude on the left there? That's 90s poster boy Blood Wraith. He's given Namor that gaping wound that others have referred to.

But our prince has done his research. He knows that the blade BW wields must drink blood before being sheathed again. So Namor defeats his opponent by sheathing the blade against Wraith's will and breaking the curse.

That leaves Namor and Triton to have it out. As Namor tries to break Morgan's hold on Triton, this Dolan guy takes matters (and Namor's sword) in his own hands. He whips the sword at Morgan Le Fey in attempt to kill the witch but Triton steps in front of the throw.

Way to go, jackass. Now you've completed the ritual sacrifice and sure enough...

This would conclude Namor's 1990 series but the Atlantis Rising story would be told through a couple of specials, the Fantastic Four books of the time (the main title, FF Unlimited and Fantastic Force) and affect the annuals for most (all?) Marvel books that year. If you're going to go out, do it with a huge bang, I guess.