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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