Thursday, October 11, 2018

Deadman and Sub-Mariner



It was a long time before I considered Namor to be a hero.  As a kid, whenever I saw him, he was at odds with the good guys.  He always seemed to be waging war on the surface world, trying to make moves on Sue Storm, joining forces with Doctor Doom and so on.  Even when he assisted the heroes, it seemed very reluctant with him complaining all the time.  Eventually, through other appearances over the years, I began to see him as more of an anti-hero - but I think he's still a jerk!  That's not a completely bad thing though, it makes him fun to read about.

18 comments:

AirDave said...

Roy Thomas' The Invaders made me like Namor.

James Hawk III said...

All these years later and I still can't figure out how the guy could have possibly ended up with tiny feathered wings on his ankles.

jackel said...

to James above, he is part dinosaur...
and Ross, is Lady Liberty from an early Jack Kirby issue of Kamandi???

Ross said...

Good eye, Jeckel!

emsley wyatt said...

Great cover. Love the almost identical poses.

Ross said...

Thanks, Emsley - I saw the Deadman image and thought, I know I've seen that angle somewhere before!"

Carycomic said...

You've got him pegged right, Ross. When not defending Atlantis from the likes of Attuma, Krang, and Cousin Byrrah, Namor could come off as a bigger egotist than Magneto and Dr. Doom, put together! That is; till Dr. Strange formed the Defenders.

The world's first and greatest non-team.

I loved those early 1970's confrontations! Xemnu the Titan; the Undying Ones; Yandroth and his sentient computer Omegatron. Even--my personal favorite (discourtesy of Loki and the Dread Dormammu)--the Mighty Avengers! Then, Marvel had to go and ruin everything...

...by raising the price of their comics to 30 cents each.

BigMike20X6 said...

Next up, Galactus asks the Statue of Liberty out on a date :P

Bob Greenwade said...

I echo Emsley's thought above. In fact, it was the first thing that struck me about this cover. Also, the Liberty background and Deadman's thought balloon made me think of the tsunami that befell New York in Marvel's Ultimate universe -- and that suggests that the story in this issue would be a real corker. Very well done!

Anonymous said...

@MS: I bet she just gives him stone-cold silence. ;-)

The Silver Fox said...

I first encountered Nam,or in Fantastic Four Annual #1, and like you, Ross, I thought he was a villain... and a jerk. I can still remember when the Sub-Mariner series replaced Giant Man in Tales to Astonish. I remember thinking "Since when is he a hero?!?"

Carycomic said...

@The Silver Fox: not since World War II, in the eyes of the American judicial system.

Anonymous said...

@Carycomic: But, that's only the judicial system of Earth-616 in the MCU.

chris ellio said...

@Carycomic ... just think how I felt when I could get 5 comics for a dollar and then in May 1974 I could only get 4 comics ! I wasn't very happy with Marvel for months , but I still bought their comics though !

Carycomic said...

@chris ellio: Me, too. In fact, I didn't stop buying Marvel on a regular basis until the ill-advised "Dr. Doom-as-God" story arc!

Bob Greenwade said...

I just had a thought, inspired by the respective names, though once I thought it through it might make for a gripping scenario:

Deadman meets the Living Tribunal.

Carycomic said...

I second BG's motion. :-)

Brother Kellymatthew said...

I look at this and I look at this, and all I can come up with is Komandi The Last Boy. It's that statue it dominates the picture for me. By the by I did not even know much about Komandi until the the 90's or later.

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