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King in Black

Rei das Trevas: Namor

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Direto do épico Rei das Trevas chega essa sombria e arrepiante história narrando o nascimento dos maiores vilões da Atlântida! Namor, Dorma e Attuma - todos ainda em sua juventude - se envolvem com um grupo formado pelos maiores heróis da cidade submersa, e o que se inicia com alianças e possibilidades se degenera em traição e tragédia, apresentando a gênese de uma ameaça que há de crescer (e muito) no futuro!

King in Black: Namor (2021) 1-5

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 21, 2021

6 people are currently reading
56 people want to read

About the author

Kurt Busiek

1,859 books627 followers
Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.

Busiek did not read comics as a youngster, as his parents disapproved of them. He began to read them regularly around the age of 14, when he picked up a copy of Daredevil #120. This was the first part of a continuity-heavy four-part story arc; Busiek was drawn to the copious history and cross-connections with other series. Throughout high school and college, he and future writer Scott McCloud practiced making comics. During this time, Busiek also had many letters published in comic book letter columns, and originated the theory that the Phoenix was a separate being who had impersonated Jean Grey, and that therefore Grey had not died—a premise which made its way from freelancer to freelancer, and which was eventually used in the comics.

During the last semester of his senior year, Busiek submitted some sample scripts to editor Dick Giordano at DC Comics. None of them sold, but they did get him invitations to pitch other material to DC editors, which led to his first professional work, a back-up story in Green Lantern #162 (Mar. 1983).

Busiek has worked on a number of different titles in his career, including Arrowsmith, The Avengers, Icon, Iron Man, The Liberty Project, Ninjak, The Power Company, Red Tornado, Shockrockets, Superman: Secret Identity, Thunderbolts, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, JLA, and the award-winning Marvels and the Homage Comics title Kurt Busiek's Astro City.

In 1997, Busiek began a stint as writer of Avengers alongside artist George Pérez. Pérez departed from the series in 2000, but Busiek continued as writer for two more years, collaborating with artists Alan Davis, Kieron Dwyer and others. Busiek's tenure culminated with the "Kang Dynasty" storyline. In 2003, Busiek re-teamed with Perez to create the JLA/Avengers limited series.

In 2003, Busiek began a new Conan series for Dark Horse Comics, which he wrote for four years.

In December 2005 Busiek signed a two-year exclusive contract with DC Comics. During DC's Infinite Crisis event, he teamed with Geoff Johns on a "One Year Later" eight-part story arc (called Up, Up and Away) that encompassed both Superman titles. In addition, he began writing the DC title Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis from issues 40-49. Busiek was the writer of Superman for two years, before followed by James Robinson starting from Superman #677. Busiek wrote a 52-issue weekly DC miniseries called Trinity, starring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Each issue (except for issue #1) featured a 12-page main story by Busiek, with art by Mark Bagley, and a ten-page backup story co-written by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, with art from various artists, including Tom Derenick, Mike Norton and Scott McDaniel.

Busiek's work has won him numerous awards in the comics industry, including the Harvey Award for Best Writer in 1998 and the Eisner Award for Best Writer in 1999. In 1994, with Marvels, he won Best Finite Series/Limited Series Eisner Award and the Best Continuing or Limited Series Harvey Award; as well as the Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story (for Marvels #4) in 1995. In 1996, with Astro City, Busiek won both the Eisner and Harvey awards for Best New Series. He won the Best Single Issue/Single Story Eisner three years in a row from 1996–1998, as well as in 2004. Busiek won the Best Continuing Series Eisner Award in 1997–1998, as well as the Best Serialized Story award in 1998. In addition, Astro City was awarded the 1996 Best Single Issue or Story Harvey Award, and the 1998 Harvey Award for Best Continuing or Limited Series.

Busiek was given the 1998 and 1999 Comics Buyer's Guide Awards for Favorite Writer, with additional nominations in 1997 and every year from 2000 to 2004. He has also received numerous Squiddy Awards, having been selected as favorite writer four years in a row from 1995 to 1998,

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5 stars
15 (7%)
4 stars
26 (13%)
3 stars
92 (46%)
2 stars
49 (25%)
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14 (7%)
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
Profile Image for Paul.
2,809 reviews20 followers
August 2, 2021
I’m a big fan of Kurt Busiek and Namor, so this book should have been a sure fire hit for me. Unfortunately, it had too many elements that bugged me to get more than an average score.

Firstly, this is only very, very tangentially connected to the King in Black event by a framing sequence that felt like a total afterthought. My guess is that Busiek came up with a Namor story and the Marvel editors said ‘It’s fine, but nobody’s going to buy it if it’s not an event tie-in’.

I don’t like it when a story takes place in two different time periods (in this case ninety years apart) and they get two different artists to draw each period. It’s jarring and overdone.

I wasn’t a fan of the colour palette they used on the book, either, I’m afraid.

I did like the giant goldfish, though! I’m also hoping the hunted at sequel happens… although I’d really like it if it didn’t get dragged into another giant crossover…

My next book: Brigantia
Profile Image for Chris Lemmerman.
Author 7 books123 followers
July 16, 2021
Kurt Busiek scribes a flashback story that gives us some insight into the early days of Prince Namor, with promises surrounding a dark Atlantean secret that will have repercussions on the present day as the King In Black arrives.

Unfortunately, those promises aren't fulfilled. This story's not a bad little Namor story, and the new characters that Busiek and artists Ben Dewey and Jonas Scharf introduce to Atlantis, but it's got nothing to do with King In Black at all. There are vague hand-wavey suggestions that the evil that infected the villains of the book is symbiote related, but it never comes to anything even remotely important. I don't even think Namor's seen in the main King In Black book after a certain point.

The art's pretty decent, with Dewey and Scharf splitting the present day and flashback stuff between them, and I did enjoy the banter between Namor, Attuma, and Dorma, so it wasn't a complete loss, but if you're looking for King In Black stuff, I'd recommend you look elsewhere.
Profile Image for Guilherme Smee.
Author 27 books191 followers
October 14, 2021
Em primeiro lugar, preciso dizer que este encadernado pode ser lido separadamente da saga Rei das Trevas e que Rei das Trevas pode ser lido sem esse encadernado. A história trata sobre a criação e aprisionamento da Maré Negra, um grupo de nobres mulheres guerreiras atlantes que acaba sendo corrompidas pelo poder de uma joia ancestral. A história em quadrinhos é escrita pelo veterano Kurt Busiek e é desenhada por dois artistas diferentes que trazem a ambientação da história no passado (adolescência de Namor) e presente (durante a saga Rei das Trevas). É uma história divertida, mas bastante aquém do que sabemos que Busiek pode produzir. O interessante aqui é um desenvolvimento maior dos perosnagens da Atlântida da adolescência de Namor e as relações que se estabelcem entre Namor, Lady Dorma, e Attuma. Essas relações desenvolvidas aqui parecem prenunciar o que aconteceria entre entre os três, com Dorma se tornando a rainha de Namor e Attuma, um de seus maiores nêmesis. Dito isso, é legal que tanto a Marvel quanto a Panini Brasil tenham dado uma chance para as histórias do Namor, que nem sempre são bem desenvolvidas por seus artífices.
Profile Image for Dimitris Papastergiou.
2,527 reviews87 followers
April 18, 2024
Set in Namor's early days

I liked it.

When Namor was young, there was this group, deep in Atlantis, that saved the day and took Namor into Adventures with them, and basically there's something deep in the sea, that's threatening and mysterious, and what we have here is another flashback story to set things up and build up past stories of Knull from years and years ago, and that makes him much better for what is coming in King in Black.

Great story along with some even better artwork to go with it.
Profile Image for Tilápia frita.
146 reviews
August 29, 2025
Não sei nada sobre Namor, primeira vez que vejo ele nos quadrinhos, mas vou dizer que eu adorei que ele deixa os peito de fora, muito cunt. Adorei a diva Dorma e o peixinho dela, muito legal a narrativa deles sendo possuidos levemente pela pedra véia. Senti que a parte deles juntos com a Maré Ligeira foi muito rápida e superficial, parece que foi muito pouco tempo até pros três, não deu pra tirar muita coisa deles ou da relação que tem entre si. Adorei as partes em que o atual Namor passava pelas sombras de uma civilização que antes era prospera e pacifica, mas que agora só restam corpos e destroços. Amo o visual dos dias atuais de Namor, deslumbrante. Pessoalmente não me pegou muito não essa aqui, é legal mas infelizmente não foi pra mim mesmo.
Profile Image for NarraTea .
171 reviews2 followers
January 5, 2022
A little confused with the timeline but if you ever wish to read a good Marvel story with pure Cthulhu Mythos in it… this is it
Profile Image for Briana.
423 reviews
August 26, 2022
Interestingly, there isn't much of an actual tie in to the King in Black story in this take, but I'm choosing to ignore that. The only other thing I didn't love about this one is the dual time line aspect. While it's not my favorite thing in the world, I don't mind shifting back and forth through time if done right but, this seemed kind of messy and at some points confusing. If it's going to be distracting, it's a bad choice to have made.

Outside of that, I did really like this. While you don't spend too much time with the older version of him, you can easily see how the Prince matured and grew into the King. You see where he started and what turned him into who he is now. It's entertaining and fast paced with each character holding your interest. The last few pages are kind of open ended and anti-climatic but, I'm assuming it's to be explored in the next issue.

All in all, maybe it's not my favorite of the Sub-mariner's comics but it's still pretty good.
Profile Image for Dakota Morgan.
3,417 reviews53 followers
November 16, 2021
A King in Black tie-in in name only, Namor is really a pulpy adventure tale ala Raiders of the Lost Ark. Present-day Namor is ruing his use of the Black Tide to battle the King in Black, so he recalls his younger days, when he and some friends joined the Swift Tide on a quest to find an object of dark magic. When the object turns the Swift Tide heroes into Black Tide villains, Namor and crew must band the undersea peoples together to keep the Black Tide from killing everyone.

Namor is enjoyably action-packed with pleasant, simple artwork, though it doesn't work very hard to explain itself. The Unforgotten Stone and it's dark powers don't get much of a history. Namor and the Black Tide are fairly generic. It truly does feel like a Golden Age comic, which I suppose is a Kurt Busiek specialty.
Profile Image for Alex Sarll.
7,073 reviews363 followers
Read
June 12, 2023
The good news is that this has very little to do with the tedious symbiote clusterfuck to which it supposedly ties in, bar a vague theme of ancient and corrupting stuff, and a mercifully brief framing story with the inarguable but hardly original message that the present is deeply grim. Mostly it takes place in the past, the young prince of Atlantis awed at getting to team up with a great undersea superteam, only to see them become monsters and be forced to take up arms against them. All those years of Astro City have left Busiek more than able to introduce bonkers retro super(mer) people and make us care about them even in the slim space available here, while still remembering to make space for stuff like an affable sidekick fish. Whether the sequel it sets up will ever happen, who knows, but in its own utterly inconsequential way this was quite fun.
Profile Image for Meri.
58 reviews2 followers
July 24, 2021
El argumento y desarrollo de la trama me han resultado interesantes, pero lo que más me ha enganchado ha sido el estilo de lenguaje y arte (especialmente el contraste de colores) vintage, que me han parecido un homenaje a los cómics antiguos pero revisitados rebajando un poco los discursos pedantes y la carga habitual de machismo.

El nexo con el evento KIB es un poco débil sin necesidad, porque aunque está bien presentado, se queda muy corto en el desarrollo, y la trama del pasado se podía haber resumido un poco para dejar más espacio al evento.

El conjunto es positivo, lectura ágil, arte y lenguaje diferente en escenas de pasado vs presente y la trama aunque sencilla no está mal.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Sesana.
6,287 reviews329 followers
September 4, 2021
This is a pretty decent Namor book. It's largely set 90 years in the past, when Namor was an adolescent, and I liked it as a teenage Namor story. It also seems to be nodding towards upcoming storylines for Namor. Does it have anything to do with King in Black? Sort of, I guess. This is the backstory for the Black Tide, who are briefly alluded to in the main book. As in, Namor is told to summon them, and then they show up in one panel later on. Maybe they also show up in one of the other connected books? Read this if you want a young Namor adventure, but it's apparently not necessary for the King in Black event.
Profile Image for Adam Fisher.
3,605 reviews23 followers
September 8, 2021
Namor's role in the Marvel Universe has mostly been on the outside as of late. The "King in Black" storyline gave him a chance to shine again, and from his participation in the main story, we get to see a look into his past to see how the darkness has always affected him...
The Story contains a bunch of characters I didn't know and will probably never hear of again, but the story was good (Kurt Busiek, amazing writer) and it did allow us to see the young and not-so-much-asshole Namor, which was good.
If you are a story completionist (like me) or a huge Namor fan, pick this up. If not, skip it.
Profile Image for Joey Nardinelli.
882 reviews2 followers
May 2, 2022
Pretty boring flashback to a narrative with the thinnest tendril or connection to the mainline of King in Black as a crossover. Honestly, I’d already forgotten Namor had anything to do with that event and the backstory here felt entirely inconsequential. I do like these opportunities to dip into other lines, but I often feel so out of my depths (heh) or just…not at all attracted to this wannabe high fantasy concept when Excalibur is already doing the same crap with mixed results. Honestly…it amazes me how similar all the Namor and Aquaman stuff is too. Like, shockingly similar save Namor is just such a bleh character.
Profile Image for Quentin Wallace.
Author 34 books178 followers
June 11, 2022
Prequel to King in Black. While I'm sure some will argue this isn't relevant to the bigger story (and will have a point), I still enjoyed this as a stand alone story. A teenaged Namor, Dorma and Attuma battle an evil force which I'm sure is somehow linked to Knull (it wasn't fully explained yet). We also get a nod to Lovecraft as it looks like Cthulhu and Dagon (never mentioned by name but hinted at) used to control the oceans from the city of R'lyeh (mentioned by name) before Atlantis was created.

While this has some of the dreaded retconning Marvel is famous for, I still liked it.

As a King in Black tie in, I'm not sure of its relevancy, but as a stand alone read, I enjoyed it.
Profile Image for Dallas Johnson.
276 reviews2 followers
May 12, 2025
The coolest things this book does is give a very colorful rendition of Atlantis and Aquatic settings in a way Ive never seen before! immense props to colorist Triona Farrell for such!

This story is a bit special with going back to Namor's younger teenage years, which is interesting to see at all, let alone so much of!

Lots of classic characters written kind of tragically more interesting and whole here than how they ever acted in older Namor books. Doesn't quite align well, but I see an effort to make them feel changed over time and attemptively more realized.

I wouldn't say the story is very satisfying or completely interesting, but it is intriguing enough for its little run.
Profile Image for Nicky.
228 reviews
February 17, 2025
I borrowed this from Libby as it was advertised at the end of Atlantis Attacks as a follow-up but that isn’t the case. It also isn’t really a tie-in to the King in Black though it’s mentioned briefly.

However, I did find it to be an engaging read with a story set in Atlantis’s past. I’ve not read any Namor or Atlantis centric stories as I’ve not been particularly interested but as with Eve Ewing’s recent Black Panther run I enjoyed seeing another part of the Marvel universe.

This volume essentially sets up a big threat, does anyone know if it's followed up in another series?
Profile Image for Szymon.
776 reviews45 followers
December 22, 2021
To the depths we condemn you. To the depths, the cold, the darkness, for all of time. For your crimes. For your evil.
Want to get back on my Marvel Comic grind in 2022 and this was recommended as a pre-lude to the King in Black comic run. The only thing I knew about Namor is that he's set to appear in the next Black Panther MCU movie. Fun enough, I liked the Black Tide.
Profile Image for CapesandCovers.
562 reviews49 followers
February 22, 2025
ngl i haven't kept up with Marvel events in years, and i don't really care about King In Black, but this worked pretty well as a standalone, and i really enjoyed reading a new Namor story. i really loved the choice to use two artists to distinguish between the time periods, and i'll have to see if there's a follow up to it! also, loved Ambrose, we could all use a giant goldfish in our lives
Profile Image for Vicky.
61 reviews
February 26, 2025
It stands more as lore for Namor than an event tie in which I preferred. The back and forth between the two time periods was a bit disjointed at times but did like his characterisation enough.

Did also enjoy how the colourist's work and the distinction between the past with brighter colours and present day with a lot more shading and darker and muted tones.

3.5
Profile Image for Chad.
10.4k reviews1,060 followers
August 11, 2022
Namor remembers his childhood when Atlantis's heroes were corrupted by the King in Black. This is OK, but nothing of import and completely skippable.
Profile Image for Erik J.
145 reviews1 follower
October 6, 2024
For a story as inconsequential as this one was ... I actually really enjoyed it.

The art too (especially in the flashback story) was absolutely gorgeous!!

Overall - 4/5
Profile Image for Nicolas.
3,138 reviews13 followers
November 21, 2022
I hadn't read a ton of solo Namor and wanted to brush up before he showed up in Wakanda Forever. I read this Infinity Comics style on the Marvel app. The plot was murky, and not a great representation of Namor. Oh well.
Profile Image for Tan.
29 reviews
June 13, 2023
Great artwork, intriguing and enticing read! Can't really say much else besides wishing this was longer than it was.
Profile Image for Regis Neilson.
46 reviews1 follower
January 27, 2023
This book was fine. The 2.86 stars it has on Goodreads seems slightly harsh to me, but only slightly.

This limited series follows Namor in two different timelines that are connected to a larger comics event, but just barely, and certainly not in a way that’s very clear to a sporadic and casual comics reader like myself. In the earlier timeline, which is the main focus of the story, Namor and his peers team up with the Swift Tide, a group of five celebrated female warriors, and encounter a dark and dangerous power.

I think a story about the Swift Tide prior to this event would have been a lot more interesting, but as far as I know, these characters don’t appear anywhere else in Marvel’s catalogue, and given this series’ reception, they probably never will.
Profile Image for Rocky Sunico.
2,277 reviews25 followers
September 14, 2023
This is among the best examples of terrible crossover event books. I get the need to establish supporting parts of the main story in supplementary books like this, but to go all the way to the relatively distant past to retroactively establish more ties to the big bad of the current event always feels like a bit of a cheap shot. And this side adventure in Namor's past didn't feel all that fulfilling. We had already gotten a glimpse of this in part of the Atlantis Attacks book but it still felt largely superfluous.

It also doesn't help that beyond the likes of Namor and Attuma, the average Marvel reader may not know most of the characters featured here, which inadvertently lowers the stakes since we're not all that tied to them. Add on the new characters created specifically for this book and you get a lot of things that happened that don't super matter to the "present" but are supposed to link up in time.
Profile Image for Daniel Butcher.
2,950 reviews2 followers
February 3, 2022
2.90

Not quite 100 percent a clear tie-in.

Kudos for trying to tell and give the feel of a classic Namor
Story.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews

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