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Welcome to the coolest look into a comic book character in Marvel Snapshot! This week, I’m going to be taking a look into the life of Namor, the Submariner. He’s been around longer than just about anybody and lived many different lives, so let’s dive right in (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

All right, so we all know that Namor has been doing his thing since before WWII, but in recent times Marvel has really ramped up his presence in the funny books. I enjoyed Namor in the Avengers back in the day, but his solo stuff has been less than stellar. I’ve read some of his adventures with the Invaders, and that was good for what it was. It seemed for years that Marvel didn’t know what to do with Namor. One month he was a hero, the next a villain hanging with Dr Doom. One thing was certain though, his enormous strength and love for his people. Namor has been called the world’s first mutant, but I think Apocalypse gets that nod (although isn’t Selene even older than him?). Whether or not he is the first mutant, he has been an X-man now for quite a while.

I think Namor wasn’t relevant for a long time, but when Marvel brought him into the Illuminati story, that was a turning point for him. I loved that story, and when he went off on Iron Man and smacked him around, I loved it. Namor’s relationship with Emma is very interesting too. It appears as though it will be rekindled again in his upcoming solo series, and should prove to be a very good subplot to this whole vampire story going on right now. For a long time Namor was just a “muscle guy”; meaning every time some evil-doer came along that was physically stronger than most of the Avengers, he was present to help save the day. Or as you can imagine, also, anytime there was an adventure involving water, Namor had to be there. I think once somebody was drowning in a community pool and Namor got a call.

I really didn’t think much of Namor besides his Invaders stories, but when the Illuminati story broke, I thought that was cool. Little did I know Marvel would out-do that with Norman Osborn recruiting Namor into his evil Illuminati, or “Cabal.” That to me was really cool, because although I do like Namor as a hero, I like him even better as a villain. I mean really, do the heroes need a guy who’s only really worried about his own people and not the world? He’s kind of selfish and very arrogant, but he does usually come through when you need him. His latest actions in Second Coming were commendable with helping the mutant race to survive, but I tend to think with his new upcoming series, we’ll see a return to the old Namor where it’s all about what he wants and that same old “who cares about the surface world” attitude. Hopefully, Marvel will make this new book good for a while and tie it in to more important stuff. I know right out of the gate, it will be tying in with the X-Men vs. Vampires arc, so that should prove to be interesting for sure.

Well, that’s all for now, but take a look below at my recommended reading list, and also some cool pics of the king of Atlantis!

Recommended Reading
Essential Invaders vol. 1 & 2
Marvel Masterworks: The Submariner vol.’s 1 -3
New Avengers: Illuminati Tpb
Uncanny X-Men #515– present
Uncanny X-Men Annual #2 (Dark Reign)
Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1-3
Dark Reign: The Cabal

Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net