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Namor the Sub-Mariner has always been one of the most conflicted characters in the Marvel Universe. From his inception in 1939 he has always bordered between being good and evil and his love/hate relationship with the surface was the source of some of the best Sub-Mariner stories of all time. This collection focuses on his Silver Age run, though his Golden Age and Atlas Era stories have all been collected in their own Masterworks already. This was also a very important selection for Marvel Masterworks. The Masterworks started back in the early 90’s but they only released 31 volumes before stopping. Maybe it was due to money issues (the mid-90’s were not kind to Marvel in any way shape or form) but whatever the case when Marvel decided to relaunch the Masterworks series they went to their oldest character, the Sub-Mariner. As a result, the look of this collection is a bit different than other ones. The covers are not presented in full but have a black background around it.
This volume 1 of Masterworks contains the beginning of his run in Tales To Astonish, a book that he shared with the Hulk and a book where he succeeded Giant-Man. Stan Lee writes the introduction to this collection and in true Stan fashion really just hypes the book and talks about the stories involved. Stan wrote every tale in this issue (except for Marvel Comics #1 and Tales #82). He talks about the great art of his collaborator Gene Colan (who worked on every issue except #’s 82, 83, 86, and 87) and his pen name of Adam Austin which he used on most of the earlier issues. Like I said this collects his Tales to Astonish run from #’s 70-87 (which spanned August 1965 to January 1967) as well as Marvel Comics #1 (his origin) and Daredevil #7 (a story with Namor that tied into his Tales run).
Spoilers Ahead
-Marvel Comics #1- This is the original one that started it all for Marvel. This was published way back in October of 1939 and Bill Everett wrote and drew this origin story. This origin story features Namor killing some divers thinking they were robots. His uniqueness (half-man, half-Atlantean) and his views of humanity are set right away. From the start you had a conflicted character that at times saw humanity as his greatest foe, or a powerful ally. The art of Bill Everett still stands up beautifully today.
-Daredevil #7- This was printed in April of 1965 and features Namor showing up to the surface world to try and fight the world in a different way, using the law. He ends up in the law offices of Murdock and Nelson and where Murdock is involved you know we’d get Daredevil. This is the first appearance of DD’s red costume, too. Sub-Mariner allows himself to get captured but breaks free when Lady Dorma tells him that Krang has taken over his kingdom. Namor leaves (but not before beating DD) and his tales will pick up in Tales to Astonish (though a few months later).
-Tales to Astonish #70- Namor returns back home and is captured by new ruler, Krang after Dorma sold him out after Namor didn’t profess his love for her. Dorma frees him so that Namor can find the Trident of Neptune, and with it the rights to being the true ruler and she does. Namor fights his first trial, a huge octopus. However, his passage was blocked by Krang and he is about to succumb to the octopus.
-Tales to Astonish #71- Namor manages to defeat the giant octopus and burrows his way through the cave that Krang closed. Namor finds an old man on his journey’s before finding himself face to face with a seaweed creature that is blocking his next step. Meanwhile, Krang is stealing from his people and taxing them very heavily. He’s quickly becoming the tyrant no one wants in power.
-Tales to Astonish #72- Namor stops the sea-weed creature by creating a vortex that sucks him up. He heads to his third trial but falls victim to the diamonds that sap his power and energy. Meanwhile, Dorma rejects Krang’s advances so he has her banished to the faceless people.
-Tales to Astonish #73- Namor fights and defeats the Demon of the Diamonds by using all the sea that is at his control, in this case electric eels. Meanwhile, the denizens of Atlantis start to revolt against Krang. All this is happening while Dorma is about to be destroyed by the Faceless Ones.
-Tales to Astonish #74- Namor stops his quest for the Trident so that he can save Dorma. This would normally mean that the quest is over and he will be shamed. Krang knocks down the rebellion pretty quickly as Namor fights valiantly against the Faceless Ones.
-Tales to Astonish #75- Namor is facing the Faceless Ones when they disperse and reveal the Trident of Neptune. By Namor leaving the quest it showed he was worthy. So Namor swims with the injured Dorma back to Atlantis and puts her in the reviving chamber before squaring off against Krang.
-Tales to Astonish #76- Namor and Krang have their big blow-off fight which Namor wins pretty easily. Krang is banished and Namor is king again but faces a problem of a new kind; earthquakes caused by the surface world.
-Tales to Astonish #77- Things start to get a little bit complicated here. Namor heads to the surface to stop the drilling (which was controlled by Henry Pym) and he stops it, but not before the Behemoth is released from Atlantis to protect them.
-Tales to Astonish #78- So Namor is about to fight Pym and the army and a little scuffle does ensue but Puppet Master comes out of nowhere and starts controlling Namor. So Namor just leaves and Pym lets him and Puppet Master wants Namor to steal for him.
-Tales to Astonish #79- Namor ends up fighting an army while still under the mental control of the Puppet Master. Namor eventually frees himself of Puppet Master’s control as the Behemoth makes his way to fight Namor.
-Tales to Astonish #80- Krang goes to the Puppet Master and starts controlling the Behemoth and Namor almost bites the dust. Luckily some eels break Krang’s hold on the Behemoth. Krang still has one more trick up his sleeve. He fools Dorma into marrying him and leaving Namor and Atlantis. Namor is not too happy about this turn of events.
-Tales to Astonish #81- Namor is really pissed that Dorma left him but he doesn’t understand the real reasons why. This issue is really Namor just going crazy and swearing revenge on Krang.
-Tales to Astonish #82- This was continued from Tales of Suspense #80 (which wasn’t included here, though ToA was included in the Iron Man Masterworks edition). Namor slugs it out with Iron Man and this is a great epic battle that only King Kirby could illustrate. Namor spots Krang and bails on the fight.
-Tales to Astonish #83- This is another Kirby issue. Namor battles the warship of Krang and stops one of Krang’s energy missiles. Stop it he does but he suffers amnesia and falls right into the hands of Number One from the Secret Society. He was a Hulk villain and since Hulk appeared in the same pages, why not have a little bit of cross-over action?
-Tales to Astonish #84- Number One sends Namor out to find the Hulk but he only finds trouble with the military and the police. He also gets shot down by Krang at the end which gets his memory back on track again.
-Tales to Astonish #85- Namor has his memory back and before heading after Krang he has to stop Number One from trying to control Namor. Number One ends up getting trapped in his penthouse while the Hulk heads after him and is killed via explosion. This was a weird part of the book, with Namor battling two villains trying to mentally control him and both villains were not even dealt with by Namor personally.
-Tales to Astonish #86- Krang unleashes a tsunami on New York City and Namor is blamed. Namor helps the military recover Krang and Dorma but now they have the two of them captive and have a huge trap planned for Namor. This issue was illustrated by Jerry Grandenetti, who I know nothing about. It seems he was big artist in the 50’s with a long 17-year run at DC. This appears to be his only Marvel work before heading to Warren.
-Tales to Astonish #87- Bill Everett, creator of Namor, handles the art chores for the final issue in this collection. Namor quickly rescues Dorma and Krang to bring them to Atlantis so he can judge them in his land. He challenges Krang to a fight for the crown and Namor easily wins. He also reconciles with Dorman after finding out the real she left with Krang (to save Namor).
-The Bottom Line- This was a really cool collection in terms of story. The first half of the collection is like the Trials of Namor and really flowed well from issue to issue. After Namor became king, though, things were a bit rocky. We had villains that were just there and never really served a purpose. The big arc of Krang was dealt with so I can’t fault hanging plotlines. The art was also interesting for me. Gene Colan is a classic artist and I enjoyed his art, but the inking of the early issues just didn’t seem right. Once Dick Ayers took over with the inking we had great art. Before that things looked a little too rough. I just don’t think Coletta and Colan worked together well, or maybe the remastering of the Masterworks wasn’t as tight back then as it is now. Also, familiar features like extras and even credits for the people were worked on here are missing. I have to say, Marvel did pick a good collection to restart the Masterworks series. Namor is a classic and these stories are actually very good, especially the early trials portion. Definitely a recommended collection.
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