Now, this might be a bit of a controversial statement, but this “Kurt Busiek” guy? He might just be pretty good at this comic book thing.
King in Black: Namor is a bit of a strange beast. It’s nominally a tie-in to the eponymous event starring the king of the giant goop monsters, but is really about the past of the King of Atlantis. Teen Namor, Teen Dorma, and Teen Attuma join a squad of elite undersea soldiers in an attempt to stop the rise of some malevolent force. Being a book by Kurt Busiek, it’s a book steeped in continuity, with many a Marvel place and event getting referenced and called to — Krang and Attuma and Lemuria and all that.
It’s not really a tie-in to the King in Black event, of course. That’s just tacked on in an effort to sell more copies of the issue. And I can’t blame them: it’s a good book, though a bit slow-paced, but there aren’t a lot of people clamoring at the bit for a prequel book starring old Atlantean characters and Teen Namor.
Which is a shame. Without going into the details, Busiek writes Namor well, and these sort of continuity heavy prequels are exactly the sort of books that he does best. The art is really good too. Artist Benjamin Dewey does the exact sort of light and dark, and dappled light, that makes underwater scenes so tricky and so pretty, and does a sort of Chris Samnee-style simple, yet resilient, style.
It’s really good, and I strongly encourage you to read it.
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