Namor The Submariner (1990) 1-25 Lost Classic

Namor #4

This has got to be one of the great titles of the early 90's. To me it represents the last vestiges of the greatness of the 1980's before the Marvel Universe and its characters became a fictonal quagmire populated by cliche ridden tough guys, like Cable and Shatterstar, and Wolverine and the Punisher were pimped out to every low-selling Marvel Title to raise sales. Card embossed covers and cardboard cut-out characters were on the way in, characterization and intricate plots were on the way out. But that's a different post.
       Namor as a character was never really an a-lister, I feel aquatic heroes don't do as well as others(see Aquaman). Maybe it was his haughty imperious (Rex!) character that people didn't relate to. He had no feet of clay, except for maybe his temper. Mere mortal readers couldn't relate to him as they would Thor, who occasionally found himself humbled, and a lot of his stories dealt with the dangers of pride and over inflated ego. He just was more inherently likable as a character.
       I've always had a soft spot for Namor, and I can't properly explain why.  I think it is because I enjoyed him so much in Roger Stern's Avengers, where he was constantly at loggerheads with Hercules, and Stern fleshed his character out a bit from where he was when Roy Thomas was writing him in the 60's.
           John Byrne obviously liked the character and it shows. His Namor is still the same haughty, imperious , headstrong character but Byrne, and its a testament to his mastery of his craft, made him LIKABLE. Not only that but it was a beautiful looking comic inside and out.
           Just like Byrne revitalised the Fantastic Four and Superman, he works the same magic here, refining elements of Namor's mythos. One of the most interesting aspects is taking Namor from a pair of Speedos into a business suit as Namor entered the corporate world at the helm of an environmental protection company called Oracle, (very early 90's). This provided many a subplot and the nefarious Marrs twins Desmond and Phoebe, introduced in Byrne's Iron Man, attempted a hostile takeover, which was so full of intrigue and wild twists and turns that I won't spoil it. (Get the back issues or buy the trades, the back issues are dirt cheap).
           Namor had a sidekick his cousin Namorita who acted as a more whimsical counterpoint to the sometimes brooding and over-serious Namor. And Byrne draws a lovely Namorita, it has to be said. She even fashions a disguise for Namor in one of the early issues which is a typical Byrne motif; making the outlandish sound plausible. He did the same for Clark Kent in Man of Steel.

Just as some new comics just never seem to find their feet and end up in cancelation, Namor the Submariner had all major elements in place in the first three issues. A whole spectrum of Marvel characters show up, the FF, Cap, Iron Man, Ka-Zar, even the obligatory appearances of the Punisher and Wolverine, in an attempt to ground this title in the greater Marvel Universe. (Sadly other titles did not return the favour as mutants were the flavour of the day after Jim Lee's X-Men in 1991). If this title had appeared 7-8 years earlier it would have been an absolute smash and elevated Namor to a-list status, but Byrne was now superceded by McFarlane, Jim Lee and Rob Liefield while ironically, in my opinion was at the creative apex of his career.
      Namor's manner in this series is more nuanced than it had been earlier, there are subtleties in facial expression that Byrne allows that let the reader see through Namor's armour of aloofness. He has heart and is shown as fallible and self critical, but not overly so. This is something other writers have never been able to achieve with the character.
      His rages are explained by an imbalance of oxygen in his blood which drives him into temporary insanity, hence his wars on surface dwellers. A marine biologist he meets in #1 provides him with the cure. One of the greatest issues of any comic I've ever read was #13 'The trial of the Submariner' which is such a classic it deserves a post in itself. The book is also responsible for the reintroduction of Iron Fist into the Marvel Universe, in the climactic story arc, before Jae Lee takes over art duties. Luckily Namor has been released in two trade paperbacks collecting the whole run. Watch for 'em. I have only one complaint about this run on Namor, it was too short.

2 page splash ;-) from #1