With Namor’s cinematic debut this past winter in Wakanda Forever, Marvel’s taken advantage of the opportunity to reprint some classic Sub-Mariner adventures. This collection compiles issues #4-27 of Namor the Sub-Mariner series, which finds us in the 1968-1970 Marvel Comics era. This particular series marks Namor’s first ongoing book since the Golden Age era. He’d popped in and out of various other books like the Fantastic Four and Avengers, but this series allowed the King of Atlantis to take center stage in his own tales. There’s not one main overarching thread running through the book; instead, many recurring plots rise and fall across the ongoing saga of Namor. His adventures run the gamut of laughably wacky to surprisingly engaging superheroics.
There’s too much here to simply summarize, so instead I’ll highlight several snapshots of what you can expect from this collection:
Origins of the Serpent Crown
Credit: Marvel Comics
An early plot thread woven through the first half of this collection focuses on Namor reclaiming the Serpent Crown. Longtime Marvel fans have no doubt encountered this evil artifact before as it’s surfaced time and time again to wreak serpentine havoc upon the world. These early issues contain its first major appearance as the “helmet of power.” The first issue here opens with Namor tracking down “the man called Destiny” to stop him from taking over the world with his helmet of power. After triumphing over Destiny (he throws himself off a building believing himself invincible…oof) and besting the Thing in a truly climactic battle, Namor returns the helmet to Atlantis believing it to be too strong for mortals. When he does so, the helmet cracks, revealing the seven-headed serpent crown we’re all familiar with. It surprised me to learn the serpent crown wasn’t always its original form and even more that its power usurped Namor for a time throwing all of Atlantis into Serpent paganism.
This pits our aquatic anti-hero against the forces of Lemuria and the serpent crown’s creator, Naga. If you’re a fan of sword and sorcery stories, these early issues are sure to entertain you, as Namor finds himself pitted against many fantastical foes both human and monster alike. The visual design of Lemuria and its inhabitants feels like it could be an extension of Conan’s Hyborian age. Truly engaging fare here and fun for comics nerds like me to learn in-universe history of the serpent crown.
Namor goes to college…and space
Writer Roy Thomas really pushes the range of Namor’s adventures across this collection. While a large portion of his adventures are understandably water-based, there’s a surprising number that place the King of Atlantis out of his element. Midway through issue #15, Namor must venture on land to Empire State University where his lover, Lady Dorma, has been kidnapped by evil professors. While a huge opportunity is missed by not having Spider-Man swing on by, this issue makes up for it by having Namor tear across the college campus in a rage and ending with a fight between him and the fearsome ‘Dragon-Man.’ Later on in the collection, Namor finds himself abducted by the alien “Stalker” and experimented on. This adventure sees him as far from the oceans as he can be as well as teaming up with the Inhuman Triton.
Marvel Comics
The fallout from his inadvertent space travel briefly removes his ability to breathe underwater, leading to more land-based adventures and a fateful encounter with Dr. Doom at the Latvarian embassy. Doom spends the whole issue trying to convince Namor to work with him against their common heroic foes, and when Namor refuses the ensuing fight results in local firemen showing up to the embassy. The issue concludes with Doom holding off the fight further for fear of breaching his diplomatic immunity. Not as much a satisfying ending to the issue as it is a convenient wrap-up. Quick and unresolved endings are all too common in this collection and while rarely satisfying, they can still be entertaining.
Wacky villains
There are some hilarious villains packed in these pages. Namor’s most well-known nemesis, Warlord Krang, doesn’t appear until much later in the collection, so for the first 20 issues or so we’re treated to some truly wild appearances. The evil Dr. Dorcas is our first major antagonist. His plot creates another villain, Tiger Shark, by giving a disabled Olympic athlete the combined powers of Namor and a shark (someone should check his medical license). Captain Barracuda also appears early on and proves a menace with his nuclear torpedos. Unfortunately, his incompetence bests him and he blows himself and his submarine up when he activates the wrong torpedo (he really only had one job). Commander Kraken makes a brief appearance alongside his namesake mythical creature (who immediately turns on him). There’s a common theme of incompetence among Namor’s villains and they never really pose much of a threat to the world as much as to themselves.
Namor is a pompous jackwagon
I’d never read many Namor comics before this collection, and going in I thought I was aware of his hot-headed nature but I could not guess how impetuous he truly is. For example, issue #11 sees Namor torn between pursuing his foe and stopping a torpedo from destroying a USA battleship. He makes the heroic choice and stops the torpedo, but the marines think Namor was attacking and retaliate. Thus enraged, Namor tears through their ship screaming how “Namor explains to no one clowns!” And so he destroys the ship he was desperately trying to save not five pages ago. This is just a small taste of the petty actions undertaken by Namor, and boy does his angst get in his own way more times than I can count.
Marvel Comics
Inking matters!
Inking plays a huge role in the finished product in comics, but I’ll be honest, I’ve never really paid attention enough to see how much it can affect the art. This collection opened my eyes to its importance. There are several main pencillers here both Sal and John Buscema, Gene Colan, and mainly Marie Severin. Accompanying them are a whole host of inkers that change in and out almost from issue to issue. It becomes most apparent in Severin’s issues on art duty where depending on the inker the issue has a drastically different visual style. Some inkers lend themselves to the pencil’s strong suits while others make for an uneven reading experience. The artwork is rarely consistent throughout, but I am glad that this book taught me how to recognize effective inking.
‘By the wreathed horns of Proteus!’ Neo-Shakespearean dialogue abounds
Namor and his fellow Atlanteans’ dialect reads old-fashioned in a way that actually helped me buy into the characters. Their dialogue leans more into the Sword & Sorcery genre with wild exclamations and mythical references. Characters also are prone to referring to themselves in the third-person, leading to even more moments of hilarious archaic speech bubbles. The dialogue choices always gave me a chuckle and for Namor helped lean into his ‘the man-out-of-time’ characterization.
Credit: Marvel Comics
At the end of the day…
Who Strikes for Atlantis? encapsulates the highs and lows of an era. There’s strong artwork at times and weaker at others due to the shifting inkers, there are lasting plot devices and characters, but there’s also uneven storytelling that feels like they just needed another book on the shelves that month. With such a large span of issues, there’s bound to be some better than others, but the one thing I will say is it never stops being entertaining. There’s something at least once per issue that I admired or laughed at, and what more can you ask for? This collection is worth checking out, flaws and all, for those interested in Namor or just fun ’70s comic books.
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