What do you think?
Rate this book
Namor: The Sub-Mariner #1-40, Annual #1-2
Namor the Sub-Mariner Omnibus
A radical reinvention of Namor, the Sub-Mariner by comics legends John Byrne and Jae Lee! First, Byrne writes and draws the iconic Marvel hero as Namor enters the cutthroat world of corporate intrigue! The Sub-Mariner faces the subtle threat of the diabolical Marrs twins, stands trial for his attacks on New York...and gets beheaded?! Namor reforges alliances with old friends the Invaders, battles long-forgotten foes from WWII and unravels the mystery behind the resurrection of the immortal Iron Fist! Then, as Jae Lee takes the artistic reins, crafting dark and moody visuals, Namor confronts Doctor Doom and Master Khan, struggles to regain his memory - and returns to Atlantis to face a foe unlike any other!
COLLECTING: NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER 1-40, ANNUAL 1-2; MATERIAL FROM INCREDIBLE HULK ANNUAL 18; SILVER SURFER ANNUAL 5; DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME ANNUAL 2
COLLECTING: NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER 1-40, ANNUAL 1-2; MATERIAL FROM INCREDIBLE HULK ANNUAL 18; SILVER SURFER ANNUAL 5; DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME ANNUAL 2
1192 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 2019
1 person is currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
John Byrne
2,955 books359 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 2, 2023
I'm a huge John Byrne fan, but this was a hot fuckin' mess.
December 14, 2021
3.5 stars. The first 3 quarters of this book was my favorite part. Basically all the stuff Byrne wrote and drew. The art was crisp and Glynis Oliver’s colors popped off the page. There were multiple plots bubbling and Byrne did a great job juggling them. These stories had a nice sense of adventure and took the reader all across the world. From the ocean floor, to New York, England, K’un L’un and even the Savage Land. Plus there were a plethora of cameo characters that popped up thought out this book that were nicely weaved into the story. Then add in the story arc about Danny Rand being dead. Is he dead? Is he secretly alive? That story worked its way through the many arcs for several issues and come to a nice conclusion. The last last quarter of the book had a jarring change at first. This is when Jae Lee took over art duty for a while. Sure there is talent behind his art, but it was a very big change from Byrne. It was more dark and edgy and sometimes a little too stylistic. A lot of dark single color backgrounds and shadow figures. Bob Harris eventually took over writing and that also turned really dark and didn’t have that awesome sense of adventure. Luckily, as the end of the book progressed, the story eventually built up to something decent as it neared the finale.
April 7, 2022
By 1990 I had pretty much moved on from superhero comics, so even though John Byrne had been a favorite creator since my earliest years of reading, I let this series pass. Namor was not a character I particularly liked, anyway. Then about a decade later something made me want to search the back issue boxes and I got most of the first part of the series. And it was very enjoyable! Byrne actually made Namor likeable. Still not a favorite, but better than the angry jerk I had read previously. Having his young cousin Namorita as a supporting cast member didn't hurt, either.
The portion of the series with Byrne doing both story and art comprises about 3/4 of this volume (issues #1-25 of 40). There are three major story arcs:
1. Namor decides to get into big business and use his financial power to protect the oceans, where previous efforts failed. He makes the acquaintance of the devious Marrs twins, who take advantage of his naivete in this particular milieu, and runs afoul of Headhunter, a hypnotic albino with a bizarre way of dispatching her corporate rivals.
2. The return of old foes spurs the reformation of the Invaders, the super-team that fought against the Axis powers in World War II.
3. The search for Iron Fist, who was presumed murdered at the end of his own series. Daniel Rand has mysteriously resurfaced, and is acting very much out of character. His friends Colleen Wing and Misty Knight want to find out why. What really happened to Iron Fist?
These first twenty-five issues are very good. We get something of a resolution, but also a cliffhanger. And then things get ugly... literally.
Newcomer Jae Lee takes over the art for most of the rest of the series. Now, Lee would develop into a fine artist over the next several years, illustrating some of my favorite books, but at this point, I have to wonder why Marvel didn't tell him to practice some more and try again later. He seems to be influenced by Bill Sienkiewicz's impressionist style but had none of his storytelling ability. Characters look hideous and unrecognizable and aren't even consistent from page to page. Byrne continues to write the book for a time, but the script largely consists of caption narration, with little dialogue. This is actually helpful since I would have had no idea what was happening by looking at the art. Bob Harras eventually takes over the writing and by then I was pretty lost. Something about an ancient Atlantean god/demon infiltrating Atlantis to bring about its destruction. I don't know. The art remains indecipherable and the script is over the top in an irritating way.
It's hardly worth mentioning but the book also includes a bunch of annuals that were published during this period. This material is just as dire as the last part of the main series. To make it worse, they've stuck it in the middle of the good part of the book, even though none of it is related to what's going on there. If they had to include it (they didn't) it could have been relegated to the end where it is more easily ignored. These issues are so aesthetically offensive that I want to tear those pages out of my book.
Averaging out the quality of the contents, three stars is both the most and least I can give this collected volume. Four stars for the all-Byrne portion, nothing for the rest.
The portion of the series with Byrne doing both story and art comprises about 3/4 of this volume (issues #1-25 of 40). There are three major story arcs:
1. Namor decides to get into big business and use his financial power to protect the oceans, where previous efforts failed. He makes the acquaintance of the devious Marrs twins, who take advantage of his naivete in this particular milieu, and runs afoul of Headhunter, a hypnotic albino with a bizarre way of dispatching her corporate rivals.
2. The return of old foes spurs the reformation of the Invaders, the super-team that fought against the Axis powers in World War II.
3. The search for Iron Fist, who was presumed murdered at the end of his own series. Daniel Rand has mysteriously resurfaced, and is acting very much out of character. His friends Colleen Wing and Misty Knight want to find out why. What really happened to Iron Fist?
These first twenty-five issues are very good. We get something of a resolution, but also a cliffhanger. And then things get ugly... literally.
Newcomer Jae Lee takes over the art for most of the rest of the series. Now, Lee would develop into a fine artist over the next several years, illustrating some of my favorite books, but at this point, I have to wonder why Marvel didn't tell him to practice some more and try again later. He seems to be influenced by Bill Sienkiewicz's impressionist style but had none of his storytelling ability. Characters look hideous and unrecognizable and aren't even consistent from page to page. Byrne continues to write the book for a time, but the script largely consists of caption narration, with little dialogue. This is actually helpful since I would have had no idea what was happening by looking at the art. Bob Harras eventually takes over the writing and by then I was pretty lost. Something about an ancient Atlantean god/demon infiltrating Atlantis to bring about its destruction. I don't know. The art remains indecipherable and the script is over the top in an irritating way.
It's hardly worth mentioning but the book also includes a bunch of annuals that were published during this period. This material is just as dire as the last part of the main series. To make it worse, they've stuck it in the middle of the good part of the book, even though none of it is related to what's going on there. If they had to include it (they didn't) it could have been relegated to the end where it is more easily ignored. These issues are so aesthetically offensive that I want to tear those pages out of my book.
Averaging out the quality of the contents, three stars is both the most and least I can give this collected volume. Four stars for the all-Byrne portion, nothing for the rest.
August 30, 2024
Un omnibus decisamente massivo ed intrigante, che ristampa i primi 40 albi della serie del 1990 ed un paio di annual, più gli annual collegati della saga del Selvaggio, parte dell'epopea dei Difensori.
La parte migliore, e di gran lunga, è quella dei primi 25 numeri scritti e disegnati da John Byrne per le chine di Wiacek in cui il grande canadese ripercorre l'epopea di Namor, iniziando dalla motivazione dei suoi sbalzi d'umore. Recupera e omaggia gli Invasori, e poi il suo primo personaggio Marvel, ossia Iron Fist. La saga che si conclude con il colpo di scena di Master Khan che esilia Namor cancellandogli la memoria è ancora oggi un gran bel colpo di scena.
Ma il vero motivo di questo cambio radicale d'ambientazione è l'arrio di un nuovo disegnatore, Jae Lee.
Sarò sincero: quando negli anni '90 lessi per la prima volta queste storie, scritte sì da Byrne ma con i testi di Cavalieri, lo stile di Jae Lee mi piaceva abbastanza. Oggi mi rendo conto che buona parte di quell'impressione positiva derivava da Albretch, l'inchiostratore, e dai colori della Glinys Oliver.
La seconda parte dell'omnibus è invecchiata molto male sia a livello di storia che di disegni. In particolare quando Jae Lee è autore di matite e chine ci si accorge di quanto scarso sia come fumettista. Tutt'al più poteva essere un discreto illustratore, ma questo è un fumetto, le vignette vanno lette in sequenza. Davvero, passare dalla fluidità di lettura di un Byrne, che pare quasi di vedere un bel film d'azione, a Jae Lee, statico e lapidario ed influenzato da Bisley per quello che riguarda l'anatomia di Namor, è davvero uno shock negativo.
Lasciando perdere la saga dei Difensori contro il Selvaggio, pessima se non fosse per alcune deliziose gag negli annual di Hulk e Silver Surfer, si salva il primo annual, quello in cui durante le Guerre Sotterranee già viste in Italia, Namor affrontava gli spettri del passato. Quelli della guerra, dei campi di sterminio per gli ebrei. In realtà è di questo che l'autore di vuole parlare, perché non dovremmo mai dimenticare certe cose.
Quindi nel complesso come valutare questo dispendioso omnibus?
Direi 3 stelle, forse mezza in più, perché per la prima metà è veramente materiale da 5 stelle, ma per la seconda metà assistiamo a qualcosa che va dalle 2 stelle alla singola stellina. E non basta Bob Harras verso il numero 35 a risollevare questa serie.
La parte migliore, e di gran lunga, è quella dei primi 25 numeri scritti e disegnati da John Byrne per le chine di Wiacek in cui il grande canadese ripercorre l'epopea di Namor, iniziando dalla motivazione dei suoi sbalzi d'umore. Recupera e omaggia gli Invasori, e poi il suo primo personaggio Marvel, ossia Iron Fist. La saga che si conclude con il colpo di scena di Master Khan che esilia Namor cancellandogli la memoria è ancora oggi un gran bel colpo di scena.
Ma il vero motivo di questo cambio radicale d'ambientazione è l'arrio di un nuovo disegnatore, Jae Lee.
Sarò sincero: quando negli anni '90 lessi per la prima volta queste storie, scritte sì da Byrne ma con i testi di Cavalieri, lo stile di Jae Lee mi piaceva abbastanza. Oggi mi rendo conto che buona parte di quell'impressione positiva derivava da Albretch, l'inchiostratore, e dai colori della Glinys Oliver.
La seconda parte dell'omnibus è invecchiata molto male sia a livello di storia che di disegni. In particolare quando Jae Lee è autore di matite e chine ci si accorge di quanto scarso sia come fumettista. Tutt'al più poteva essere un discreto illustratore, ma questo è un fumetto, le vignette vanno lette in sequenza. Davvero, passare dalla fluidità di lettura di un Byrne, che pare quasi di vedere un bel film d'azione, a Jae Lee, statico e lapidario ed influenzato da Bisley per quello che riguarda l'anatomia di Namor, è davvero uno shock negativo.
Lasciando perdere la saga dei Difensori contro il Selvaggio, pessima se non fosse per alcune deliziose gag negli annual di Hulk e Silver Surfer, si salva il primo annual, quello in cui durante le Guerre Sotterranee già viste in Italia, Namor affrontava gli spettri del passato. Quelli della guerra, dei campi di sterminio per gli ebrei. In realtà è di questo che l'autore di vuole parlare, perché non dovremmo mai dimenticare certe cose.
Quindi nel complesso come valutare questo dispendioso omnibus?
Direi 3 stelle, forse mezza in più, perché per la prima metà è veramente materiale da 5 stelle, ma per la seconda metà assistiamo a qualcosa che va dalle 2 stelle alla singola stellina. E non basta Bob Harras verso il numero 35 a risollevare questa serie.
January 14, 2024
I am a big fan of Namor and this omnibus (all close to 1200 pages) is a nice mix of emotions and sides of the Sub-Mariner.
Byrne did something that no one had done for Namor, he gave him an answer to his almost schizophrenic personality and made Namor more human than Atlantean. Also, Byrne dug deep into the heart of what mankind is doing with the planet. His fighting of the creature Sluj, or the chopping down of ancestral forest and big corporations and their corruption were a big part of the story lines within these pages.
Fighting Doctor Doom and his wanton disregard for life in the oceans and the whole secondary story of one of my favorite heroes--Iron Fist made this a wonderful read.
I wish people read between the lines of comics like this one and the others about humanity, bigotry and hate, racism and other evils of the world and paid attention to how greed will ultimately destroy this world we live in.
Maybe I'm what some comic reader call Superman and Captain America--a Boy Scout--but even though the stories are out there we live in a world that has gotten more crazy, angry, war-driven, hate-driven, greed-driven than we have seen in decades.
All I can say is --- read a comic! Watch Star Trek or Doctor Who --there are lessons in the science fiction/fantasy worlds and they have the right idea (most of the time.)
Buy this read this and tell Marvel to hurry and get volume 2 to press.
Byrne did something that no one had done for Namor, he gave him an answer to his almost schizophrenic personality and made Namor more human than Atlantean. Also, Byrne dug deep into the heart of what mankind is doing with the planet. His fighting of the creature Sluj, or the chopping down of ancestral forest and big corporations and their corruption were a big part of the story lines within these pages.
Fighting Doctor Doom and his wanton disregard for life in the oceans and the whole secondary story of one of my favorite heroes--Iron Fist made this a wonderful read.
I wish people read between the lines of comics like this one and the others about humanity, bigotry and hate, racism and other evils of the world and paid attention to how greed will ultimately destroy this world we live in.
Maybe I'm what some comic reader call Superman and Captain America--a Boy Scout--but even though the stories are out there we live in a world that has gotten more crazy, angry, war-driven, hate-driven, greed-driven than we have seen in decades.
All I can say is --- read a comic! Watch Star Trek or Doctor Who --there are lessons in the science fiction/fantasy worlds and they have the right idea (most of the time.)
Buy this read this and tell Marvel to hurry and get volume 2 to press.
December 8, 2025
I really enjoyed it when it first came out, especially with John Byrne's writing and art. Then, sadly, it went downhill as the storyline dragged on. I did not at all care for Jae Lee's artwork when he took over from Byrne, either.
June 15, 2024
The Jae Lee stuff was bad, and such an immediate drop off from the preceding John Byrne material that it was jarring.
December 14, 2021
Namor the Sub-Mariner has long been a favorite character of mine.
John Byrne brought some welcome sub-plots, new supporting characters, and new antagonists.
Namor had certainly been through a lot, but there would be more conflicts and tests ahead for the Prince of Atlantis.
I must mention Jae Lee’s debut in this title. His work was just staggeringly good. So strong, atmospheric, dark, and powerful all at once.
This volume is simply amazing.
John Byrne brought some welcome sub-plots, new supporting characters, and new antagonists.
Namor had certainly been through a lot, but there would be more conflicts and tests ahead for the Prince of Atlantis.
I must mention Jae Lee’s debut in this title. His work was just staggeringly good. So strong, atmospheric, dark, and powerful all at once.
This volume is simply amazing.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews