Namor, the Sub-Mariner and Marvel’s Monarch of the Oceans, has long defended the kingdom of Atlantis from external and internal menace, often warring with the surface world and facing down domestic threats simultaneously. With lineage both of human and Atlantean blood and born to wear the crown of the undersea domain, the Sub-Mariner’s dual identity frequently puts him at odds with surface-dwellers and his very subjects. Cast in the role of villain in countless Marvel masterpieces, the otherworldly Namor seems more a reckless adversary than an irredeemable foe with diabolical intent, his rash actions often precipitated by assaults on the underwater empire or his own personage. When the oceans are poisoned with refuse and radiation by the willful or unwitting actions of the air-breathers or the throne is beset by treacherous rivals, Namor is driven to take up arms by virtue and a sense of responsibility, uncompromising in his sovereign duty to Atlantis.
Namor’s path to kingship and the stories of his contentious rule began decades ago in the pages of Marvel Comics #1, alongside the android Human Torch in the Golden Age of Comics. Published in 1939 and brought to life by Bill Everett’s captivating artistry with layered halftones and watercolor effects that evoke aquatic realms with incredible realism, the premiere issue depicts a young Sub-Mariner discovering humankind for the first time and learning of the prolonged conflict between the surface world and the water-breathing inhabitants of Atlantis. The future monarch of the seas is told by his mother of how the humans “invaded our ancient home deep in the waters at the south pole, and nearly exterminated our entire race,” and how he was a hybrid, born from the blood of his Atlantean mother and his father’s own humanity.
This duality, the nature of the Sub-Mariner torn from two different worlds but at times belonging to neither, creates a complex persona that can appear at once as a villain and as a sympathetic character. Gifted with supernatural ability, Namor is described in Marvel Comics #1 as “an ultra-man of the deep…lives on land and in the sea… flies in the air… (and) has the strength of a thousand men.” So empowered and motivated by royal decree, Namor is a worthy and wicked adversary, and even more advantageous as an ally.
Namor’s adventures in the Golden Age of Comics saw him in league with Captain America and the original Human Torch as the Invaders fighting against Nazi forces in the naval and European theater of World War II. Wartime readers thrilled to the exploits of the Sub-Mariner defending the ideals of America and crushing the tanks and armies of the Axis of Evil. Decades later, Namor returned to the pages of Marvel Comics in the 1962 publication of Fantastic Four #4, “The Coming of the Sub-Mariner,” by Stan Lee and Jack “King” Kirby.
While a disenchanted and hot-headed Johnny Storm is on the lam from his companions in the Fantastic Four, he encounters the Sub-Mariner in the Bowery district of New York City in one of the Silver Age’s most enduring sequences. In Kirby’s unmistakable style, a bearded and bedraggled tramp is revealed as the once-ruler of Atlantis by the Human Torch’s fiery touch, whiskers singed away from the face of Namor and his memories to follow after returning to the ocean.
Regrettably, the Sub-Mariner finds Atlantis reduced to rubble, his people scattered, and radioactivity still contaminating the watery depths. This devastation provokes the Atlantean to war against the surface world, with the Human Torch waking a sleeping giant. Atlantis and the Sub-Mariner retaliate with shock and awe, bringing the might of the empire and ocean to humanity’s doorstep. And as often as the tides, the avenging son of Atlantis strikes back from beneath the waves with fury unbridled.
While Namor’s moral ambiguity towards collateral damage in pursuit of justice and his chronic disregard for individual rights paint him as an iconic bad guy, his villainy in the history of Marvel Comics cannot be overlooked. In the briefest litany of offenses, Namor’s more nefarious acts include kidnapping and holding captive Sue Richards, The Invisible Woman, crushing the skulls of helpless divers in his first appearance, flooding unsuspecting population centers of the surface world including New York City and the nation of Wakanda with crippling tidal waves, and unleashing titanic beasts like Giganto, the Great Whale against civilian targets. These are not the actions of a hero, and there are no grey areas when mass catastrophe is at issue.
Yet time after time, readers would see Namor fighting fascism and the ravages of environmental destruction, reorienting from a villainous or sinister track to a heroic and honorable path. Through the Marvel Age, the Sub-Mariner has fought both against and alongside Doctor Doom, Iron Man, Captain America, and nearly the entire rosters of the Avengers and the X-Men—even becoming a manifestation of the Phoenix Force as envisioned in the epic Avenger Vs. X-Men series from 2012. He has been an adversary and an ally of the Marvel’s First Family, an opponent and an accomplice of the Latverian monarch, and played an integral role in the Invaders and the Defenders.
Namor isn’t so much a villain as he is a victim of his own pride and vanity, the salt in his blood. He can be malleable in moments, as his hubris lends a certain naivety, and like Victor Von Doom, he is suggestible if the end result is beneficial to his own desires, though the means be questionable. This Machiavellian dynamic illustrates the complexity of Namor and creates the tension that motivates the Monarch of the Oceans, for better or for ill. The legacy of the Sub-Mariner in Marvel Comics is as old as the name and, sometimes, the villain lives long enough to become the hero of the story.
Catch more of the Sub-Mariner’s adventures in the “Last King of Atlantis War” arc in Namor (2024) written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by Alex Lins.
Sometimes, the villain lives long enough to become the hero of the story, which proves to be the case in the misunderstood Namor. Read More