Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "sub-mariner"

Essential Sub-Mariner, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the Sub-mariner's guest appearance in Daredevil #7 and then his half book length stories in Tales to Astonish #70-101 (exception is a full book length crossover with the Hulk in Issue 100), Tales of Suspense #80, and Iron Man and Submariner #1 and the first issue of the Silver Age Submariner comic book.

The book has its weak spots. The Daredevil crossover is odd and it feels like it was included to get the book over 500 pages in length. The villains are probably the biggest one. His villains aren't horrible, but they aren't memorable. Warlord Krang dominates the first half of the book and he's like a character out of Flash Gordon, undersea villains Attuma and Prince Byrrah are serviceable. Then Namor ends up fighting other characters' second tier villains like the Plunderer and the Puppet Master. The most interesting villain and the one who we don't actually fully understand even by the end of the book is "The Man Called Destiny" who claims to have defeated the Sub-mariner before.

What works about this book? To start with, there are the characters. Lady Dorma grows throughout the book. She starts out as a somewhat gullible and fickle female who helps Krang rise to power because of Namor's interest in Sue Storm, but she becomes a strong voice of reason which Namor really needs. I was somewhat annoyed that she seemed to fade from the reader's attention around Issue 95. It's a shame because she's probably one of the best female characters of the Silver Age.

Then there's Namor himself. To be honest, he's not quite as well written as he was during the Golden Age or even the Atlas era during the time he's written by Stan Lee, but he's still a fascinating character. He's a hothead, arrogant, prone to rash acts of violence, and has a chip on his shouler. On the other, he's also a noble character who truly seeks to do the right thing for his Kingdom. He's a warrior but resists ill-timed wars on the Surface World. He remains utterly unpredictable which makes him fun to read.

What I also like about the book is that everything Namor does has an epic nature to it, including his frequent shouts of, "Imperius Rex." It doesn't matter that he's mostly fighting second tier villains. The way he fights them is epic and the art really helps here. There are a variety of artists who work on the book but they all capture the Sub-mariner's fighting style which makes for a very vibrant style.

So, in conclusion, while this isn't the greatest Marvel book of the era, it is actually well-worth reading. It has a noble but unpredictable protagonist, some great art, and a great female lead in Lady Dorma. With all that, why was anyone above the age of 10 reading Aquaman rather than this in the 1960s? 'Nuff Said.



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Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Sub-Mariner, Vol. 2 by Bill Everett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 5-8 of the Golden Age Sub-Mariner series. It includes eight full-length Sub-Mariner stories, four Angel stories, as well as humor strips and back-up features.

The Sub-Mariner stories are not as good as in previous volumes. Creator Bill Everett left the strip to go fight in the war and other artists took over including some who didn't get how the Submariner worked. (One actually wrote that the Submariner had to go on land when it started raining.) There are plenty of Sub-Mariner wartime adventures, fought mostly against Japan in this volume with some good action sequences. He also got into more traditional comic book territory as he fought underwater Zombie pirates. The stories in this collection are not great, but I would say are above average for Golden Age material still, though being World War II, there are a couple of cringy moments.

The Angel reallys hines as he takes on some really bizarre and creepy foes. His one war-related tale has his against a villain who uses people's dreams to get them to commit murder. He also faces another foe who uses skeletons to commit murder, as well as a frustrated writer who turns to murder so he can write about it realistically.

The humor features are mixed. The Pop's Whoppers feature in the first three issues is about a cop who tells lies to impress people. It's a bit repetitive. The Tubby and Tack story in the final issue is really a cute little kids comic strip that was fun to read.

The two page text stories are above average. Two of them are good suspense tales by future Mike Hammer writter Mickey Spillane. In addition, the book features an introduction by the great Roy Thomas, which is always a highlight.

Overall, this is still a good read if you're a fan of the Sub-mariner or Golden Age comics in general.



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Marvel Masterworks: The Sub-Mariner, Vol. 3 by Roy Thomas

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 2-13 of the Sub-Mariner and it features plenty of highlights, including the return of a friend from the Golden Age era. The last plot arch involving the Serpent Crown is pretty good. However, most of the book is strictly middle of the road. There's nothing particularly unique or unusual about these stories. Tiger Shark is introduced and given a lot of space, but he's not all that interesting, neither is the man called Destiny.

Again, this is perfectly okay read, but a bit average overall.



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