Last month I wanted to talk about the new Seven Soldiers of Victory series. Unfortunately, the conclusion got pushed back from August to October, so it’ll have to wait until then. Luckily, I do have something to talk about. Recognize the guy in the picture? Unless you’re a comic book reader, you’ve probably got no clue who he is. Well, his name is Namor: The Sub-Mariner, and he is the first Marvel superhero of all time. He debut in the 1939, and was joined shortly after by the original Human Torch, Captain America and the Invaders. Much like DC Comics a lot of the stories took place during WW:2, because that was the time during which it was written. When the war ended Namor disappeared for a few years, and then finally resurfaced in the early issues of Fantastic Four in the early 1960s. At this time he was amnesiac. He was found wandering around the piers by the new Human Torch, when his memories returned.
This time he was more of an antagonist. He was pissed off that the seas have been polluted so badly while he was gone, that he was ready to wage war on the surface world. He wasn’t really a villain, but he did team up with Doctor Doom and Magneto on occasion. Every now and then he’d also start shit with the Fantastic Four, mostly as an attempt to steal the Invisible Girl away from Mister Fantastic.
Time passed and he mellowed out a bit, ended up on a couple of teams, like the Defenders, reclaimed his throne as ruler of Atlantis, got married to Marina from Alpha Flight who became mutated and kinda died a while later. Not long after that, he was going after the Invisible Woman when Mister Fantastic was thought to be dead. As soon as Mister Fantastic turned up alive though, well, let’s just say Namor got his ass handed to him.
A few months ago his cousin, Namorita died in the battle with Nitro that triggered the events that lead to the Marvel Civil war. It appears that he’s on the tail of her killer, which will put him at odds with Wolverine, who is also after Nitro.
I don’t know how well a Namor movie will do. I figured that he would have been put in the third Fantastic Four movie, like they’re doing with the Silver Surfer in the second. If the character is well received, then I could see a spin off movie being made. But I really don’t know how well this is going to do. I’m not exactly waiting in anticipation. He always was better received in the team books, like Avengers, Defenders and Fantastic Four. Who knows, maybe this deal will fall through and he will end up in a team movie. The current director of this project is Jonathan Mostow. You might remember him from Terminator 3. I never saw that movie, so you’ll have to tell me if he’s a worthwhile director or not.
