Marvel Compass #5

Fantastic Four #4

 “I thought he had died long ago!" -Mr. Fantastic

The Coming of Sub-Mariner

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, inks by Sol Brodsky, Colors by Stan Goldberg, Letters by Artie Simek
                         
Reed, Sue and Ben are in their tower hideout, lamenting the still missing Johnny. Reed points out that it’s Ben’s fault that Johnny quit the team, forcing him to listen to his recap of last issue. Ben flips a table over, before they all depart in the Fantasticar in their separate sections in search of the Human Torch.

On the ground, Sue goes invisible while searching for her brother. She becomes a bit parched, stopping at a soda shop for something to drink. Which she does while invisible, freaking out a nearby youth.

Reed takes a more dramatic approach to finding Johnny. He waits by the side of the road, plucking a teen-ager off of his motorbike. Reed asks if he’s seen Johnny, then puts him down and starts heading towards a field where some youths are playing baseball.

It turns out Johnny is at a garage with some of his friends, working on a car. The Thing successfully finds him there, prepared to fight him Johnny flames on. Knowing Johnny can’t fight with all the gas around, Thing lifts up the car they were working on, and smashes it into the side of a wall. They start going at it, when Thing starts turning back into his human form of Ben Grimm. Human Torch runs off, just as Ben reverts back to his monstrous Thing form.

Johnny reaches the outskirts of The Bowery in Manhattan. He decides he’ll blend in with the rest of the human derelicts that inhabit the area. Hiding in a cheap hotel, where people are sleeping right next to each other in cots, Johnny finds a comic from the 1940‘s featuring Sub-Mariner. Johnny recalls his sister talking about him, “Yeah, just like sis said, he could live underwater, and was as strong as ten men!” Johnny is interrupted by a man who claims there’s a bum around there who is just as strong as Sub-Mariner was supposed to be. He tries to get the bum to show Johnny how strong he is, but the bum is having none of it. Annoyed, the bum bats the man off his feet with his fist. He’s rushed by more men, who he succinctly knocks to the floor. More men come after him with boards and other weaponry, when Johnny ignites his own hand to get them all to stop. Giving the bum a shave with his hot finger, Johnny reveals that the bum is, in fact, Sub-Mariner.

Meanwhile, Reed is still out looking for Johnny. He looks in helicopters and trains with no luck. Invisible Girl searches The Bowery while invisible, but fails to find him, and Johnny fails to see Sue just as he leads Sub-Mariner out of the cheap hotel. Johnny flames on and carries Sub-Mariner over the ocean, where he dunks him down into the sea. Feeling the water all about him, he finally remembers that he is indeed, Namor, the Sub-Mariner. He also remember that he has an undersea kingdom, which swiftly returns to. He finds that it has all been destroyed by radioactivity “The humans did it, unthinkingly, with their accursed atomic tests!” He knows that his people could not have perished due to radioactivity however, and promises to find them one day. Re-emerging from the ocean, Namor sees Johnny waiting at a dock, and declares revenge on the human race for destroying his undersea kingdom.

Back at their headquarters, the rest of The Fantastic Four see Johnny’s flare shooting up from the docks. They race over in the Fantasticar, where Johnny explains to them the situation. Under the sea, Namor finds a giant whale-like creature with legs he calls Giganto, and awakens him using a horn. He leads Giganto towards the coast of New York. New York is quickly evacuated, and the military set up perimeters in preparation for the attack.

The Military fire artillery at Giganto to no avail. Reed encircles the creature with a smoke screen to slow it down. Johnny tries to do anything, but Giganto spouts water out of its blowhole, dowsing Johnny’s flame. Mr. Fantastic stretches his arm out to save him. Namor continues to blow his horn, guiding the monster into many buildings, destroying them all. Thing gets an idea, and goes to a military depot where they strap a nuclear bomb to his back. Thing carries it deep into the opened mouth of Giganto.

Inside Gianto, Thing finds the debris of many eaten vessels over centuries. Thing sets the bomb down and triggers it, when a creature with pincerse that Giganto must have eaten whole, starts attacking Thing. Thing manages to clobber it, and race out of Giganto’s mouth, just in time for the bomb to go off. The blast kills Giganto. Johnny and Reed collect the Thing.

Namor boasts above the three of them that they have still not defeated him, “You haven’t beaten me yet! As long as I have this horn, I can summon countless other sea monsters to attack you!” when using her invisibility, Sue grabs the horn out of Namor’s hand. Namor runs after what to him is his horn floating away and stumbles right into Sue “Well! Here is a prize worth catching!” Namor tells her that he’ll show the humans mercy if she promises to be his bride. Before Sue can decide what to do, the rest of the Fantastic Four show up, to which Namor tells them he’ll have both. He promises to unleash more sea creatures, until the humans are rendered back to living in caves.

Sue says she’ll agree to be his bride if he’ll call off his attack. Namor is appalled at this being some sort of sacrifice, and lashes out at the FF. Johnny flames on and starts encircling the sky faster and faster until he’s whipped up a tornado to suck up Namor and the corpse of Giganto into it. He shifts the tornado over to the deepest part of the sea. Namor loses his horn from the chaos, and is deposited in the ocean’s depths. Down there he vows to return one day, stronger than ever.

Bearings

• The Fantastic Four will appear again next issue in Fantastic Four #5

• First appearance of Namor, the Sub-Mariner since the golden age. He will appear again in Fantastic Four #6

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• This issue brings my favorite character back into the Marvel Universe, Namor, the Sub-Mariner. The most sure thing about Namor is that he is arrogant and angry. But somewhere in that arrogance and rage is a well defined character, who is not after just world conquest, or riches. There is reason behind his rage. In this story, he has just woken up from about a decade of thinking he was nothing more than a street bum, into realizing that he is a prince of an undersea kingdom that has seemed to have been destroyed by humans in his absence.

• Reed plays leader here when he guilts Ben into searching for Johnny, which ultimately pays off. Reed’s method searching is pretty peculiar, pulling teenagers off their motorbikes, and just sort of wandering around aimlessly for Johnny.

• Sue isn’t much better, after what seems like maybe 10 minutes of searching, she decides to stop and get a soda. She’s much more effective later when she grabs Namor’s mighty horn.

• Points for Thing actually finding Johnny in a logical place, and his near sacrifice to stop Giganto. Points off for his “One-side, woman!” and scaring Johnny off when he first finds him.

• Human Torch saves the day again, although the ending seems a bit rushed with his tornado thing.

• Really love the panels in The Bowery when Johnny is hiding out there. You can feel the dinginess, and almost smell the cheap alcohol.

• Poor Giganto. While Namor has been “asleep” for nearly a decade, Giganto has probably been asleep for centuries, only to be woken up by Namor’s horn and attack the city by his guidance. All to die by a bomb going off inside of it.

Quotes

“You young fool!! Do not feel proud of what you have done!!” 
-Namor

The images, story, and all character names on this page are trademarked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.