Marvel’s seagoing superman of the 1940s became a useful utility character early in the 1960s, serving as hero or villain as the occasion required — just as the Hulk did a little later.
In his Silver Age resurrection (Fantastic Four 4, May 1962), the Sub-Mariner became the super-team’s enemy, but in his second appearance (Fantastic Four 6, Sept. 1962), he started out as an opponent but turned into an ally to save the day.
Prince Namor was intriguingly unpredictable, even as he had been in the late 1930s (though, thanks to the Comics Code, he was no longer casually murdering police officers).
However, by the time a feature spot opened up for the character in Tales to Astonish 70, the very busy Stan Lee had settled into a sort of one-note characterization for the Sub-Mariner, a grandiloquent arrogance. Compared to other Marvel superheroes, I found him a bit of a humorless “noble” bore.
“I was as thrilled as anybody when the Sub-Mariner was finally given his own series in Tales to Astonish,” recalled Roy Thomas. “‘Adam Austin’ drew an illustrative Namor which had little in common with the (Bill) Everett version, but I liked it. Later that year, when I went to work for Stan Lee, I learned that ‘Adam Austin’ was really one Gene Colan, hiding under a fake name because he also drew romance comics for DC and didn’t want them to know he was moonlighting.”
Perhaps coincidentally, when the Sub-Mariner replaced Giant-Man in the duplex title Tales to Astonish, the magazine acquired a theme: super-antiheroes.
Both Prince Namor and the Hulk, the star of the magazine’s other feature, were rough-hewn, sharp-edged heroes who often rescued humanity only reluctantly or inadvertently.
Meanwhile, Strange Tales, featuring Dr. Strange and Nick Fury, spotlighted niche characters more marginally connected to superheroes. And Tales of Suspense, featuring Iron Man and Captain America, was the duplex comic offering two out-and-out superheroes.
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDeleteIt can’t be overemphasized how much Marvel tapped into the growing youth culture zeitgeist by publishing two prominent anti-heroes like Namor and the Hulk. It’s hard to think of two characters more suited for their times.
Vincent Mariani wrote:
ReplyDeleteMarvel had a number of characters whom I refer to as wild cards.
Namor and The Hulk were the earliest and wildest ones, and they were followed by Hawkeye, Black Widow, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, and Hercules, who would wind up becoming the nucleus of The Avengers as each were "tamed" or reformed, or shown to have innate heroic qualities. Some of the early edge that Marvel had introduced became watered down as these characters became overexposed or unambiguously portrayed as heroes.
Bob Doncaster wrote:
ReplyDeleteOf all the split books I was glad Captain America got his own feature. Liked him since Avengers #4
Cheryl Spoehr wrote:
ReplyDeleteWhen Giant-Man's series was canceled, I lost all interest in that comic. Sub-Mariner and The Hulk were two characters I could enjoy when they were in comics with my favorites, but not on their own. As a teen, the anger which came from my physical and emotional abuse made me eager to read the early stories, the Golden Age ones where Namor thought nothing of killing a whole city block's worth of people. As I aged, I grew to prefer a middle ground between super hero, super villain, or just a destructive force. And that put Namor back into the category of 'I can take him or leave him' back where I started. For my money,the best use of Namor that I know of, was when he fought Wally Wood's Daredevil... to me that was perfect Namor.
Paul Zuckerman wrote:
ReplyDeleteWhenever Stan announced "now it can be told" and revealed the real name of the artists, I usually went -- who? Since I didn't know them anyway! Adam Austin or Gene Colan? Never heard of him before! One artist who used a pseudonym couldn't hide his style from me though- - Kurt Schaffenberger. Most of these others were old Atlas artists returning to the fold.
I admit that Colan's art on Subby did not impress me at first; it was when I saw his work on Iron Man -- that first issue where IM goes after the Black Knight in his castle was incredible!!!--that I became a fan, and stayed one!