After the debacle that was issues #1-4 of this series, Marvel turns to two well-established, great creators to get the book back on course.
Namor goes to Reed Richards for help fixing his life-support suit. Because, naturally, you go to the guy whose wife you’ve been crushing on for years when you need help. This turns out to be an excuse to get Namor back into his green speedo. Anyway, while it’s going on, Johnny Storm spots a shadowy figure on a nearby rooftop…
It’s the Shroud!
He seems to appear for no real reason, though, because then the tale is back to Namor who goes back to Doom, and the three of them form an alliance with Henry Kissinger.
Seriously??
Then Shroud returns. Now he’s in Latveria planning to kill Dr. Doom. He fails, the tables turn, and Namor captures Doom and tries to force him to do some medical science stuff on some sick amphibian people who date back to Sub Mariner’s solo book. Then the Avengers show up and Doom basically beats them, and Vision looks silly without a cape.
In issue #8, the Circus of Crime drops in. Namor and Shroud are trying to escape Dr. Doom (because this isn’t a team-up, really) by joining the Circus.
then #9 brings in The Avengers. It crosses over with Avengers #154 and 155. Presumably in an effort to get people interested in this book.
Are you getting how jumbled this is? Do I have to go on? Because I’m only up to #9, and it goes for three more issues, and even includes Red Skull in a Nazi spacesuit.
It’s horrible. Just horrible.
At the end of the issue, Red Skull is buried under rocks and left to die on the surface of the moon.
Creators are Steve Englehart (#6-8), Bill Mantlo (#9-12) and Herb Trimpe (#6-7), Keith Giffen (#8), Jim Shooter (doing pencils! #9), Bob Hall (#10-12).
At the risk of flogging a dead fish, had they JUST left the status-quo established in Sub-Mariner#67- the Atlanteans comatose, and the life-support system- the “Reed Richards Rebreather”- in place- Namor would quite most likely have spent the past forty-four years swimming successfully in his own series again! Great heroes require a mission- a purpose- which, prior to Sub-Mariner#67, he totally LACKED- the quest to revive his comatose countrymen provided that purpose! Also, great heroes usually carry some type of tragic burden which humanizes them- Daredevil is blind, the Thing, the Hulk, and the Man-Thing are heroes trapped in monstrous forms, Thor is a crippled doctor half the time, Iron Man is a boozer, Spider-Man ( Peter Parker ) is a loser, the Black Widow is just loose, Mantis started out on the streets of Saigon as a “pro”, Moondragon is an arrogant bitch, and so on, and so on, and so on! Namor’s limitation gave him that badly-lacking note of tragedy, and when that badly-needed note of tragedy was unwisely written out, ( beginning in Super-Villain Team-Up#5, and concluding in Super-Villain Team-Up#13 ) Namor is restored to the previous go-nowhere status-quo that resulted in his 1968-1974 series going to Hades in a chum-bucket! Seriously- just exactly where HAS the Sub-Mariner BEEN for the past forty-four years, now?? Just floating around aimlessly, without that sense of PURPOSE and DIRECTION that he HAD, between Sub-Mariner#67 and Super-Villain Team-Up#13! Had the quest been allowed to continue, the possibilities for dramatic conflict between Namor and the rest of the entire Marvel Universe would have been ENDLESS, as opposed to what we were given, for instance, in his Nineties series, which ALSO failed for the same reason/s as his previous series- NO DIRECTION!!! NO PERMANENT CREATIVE TEAM!!! Sheesh!!! Doesn’t anybody at Marvel, and besides myself, believe that Marvel Comics’ premiere super/antihero deserves the serious attention he needs to return him to the status of one of the company’s greatest and most important properties! I certainly do! Am I doomed to remain in the minority??? How about some love for the Sub-Mariner!!! Nuff Said!