Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Space-Born Super Hero Part 26: Sub-Mariner #30

Welcome back to 'Space-Born Super Hero' as I look back on the appearances of Captain Marvel prior to being written by Jim Starlin. At this point, we're entering an era where the Captain Marvel series had been cancelled. However, the character didn't go into comics limbo as Roy Thomas found other places for him to appear. Today we're looking at the first of those: Sub-Mariner #30 (1970) and the story "Calling Captain Marvel!" by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema (inks by Joe Gaudioso).

We open in Miami, Florida as Rick Jones is in town for a gig. Walking by the shore, Rick sees the Sub-Mariner rise out of the water. Alarmed, Captain Marvel tells Rick to switch places with him. Mar-Vell confronts Namor and is surprised with the Sub-Mariner launches into an attack against him, crying out: "You!! You have seen the Sub-Mariner--and so--you must die!" Mar-Vell tries to fend him off, but the Sub-Mariner doesn't recognize him from their first encounter (way back in Captain Marvel#4). Suddenly, Namor collapses. Puzzled, Mar-Vell carries Namor back to the beach house where Rick is staying.

When Namor comes to, he's greeted by Rick, but instead of becoming violent, he jumps out the window, running to the shore - only to collapse on his knees in terror, seemingly unable to return to the ocean. By now, it's obvious to Rick that Namor is having some kind of mental troubles. Namor returns to Rick's beach house and Rick shows him a newspaper headline, identifying Namor as having recently sunk a yacht. Namor doesn't remember doing that. A television news report then goes over Namor's history, recalling everything from his heroism during World War II to his battles with the Fantastic Four and confrontations at the United Nations. Rick observes that "music hath charms" and suggests Namor attend his set in the hopes of calming his mind. Namor consents.

At the club - the Electric Seaweed - one man points out Namor as the Sub-Mariner - but he's actually a fan wearing a pair of false ears! According to the people in the club, the Sub-Mariner is "the first folk-hero of the ecology scene"! "Personally," one woman opines, "I still think ol' princey stole the whole bit from Mr. Spock!" Considering how popular Spock was among young people of the 60s, I could see Namor having a big following. As Rick gets up an sings a cheerful song about how all humanity is doomed because of the atomic bomb (way to go, Rick), Namor's mind snaps and he storms out of the club. "Either that's--the real Sub-Mariner--or else we just found out whatever happened to Charles Atlas!" one patron remarks. Rick switches places with Captain Marvel and Mar-Vell intercepts Namor mid-air, knocking him back to the ground near a hotel.

As Namor gets up from the fall, he discovers his memories have returned. Namor had found two men named Hugo and Markham who had designed a molecular polluter to "make a death-house out of the oceans". When Namor burst in on the men they fired a concussion grenade at him; the grenade stunned him, causing his addled state. Captain Marvel agrees to help Namor find Markham and stop the Molecular Polluter. Mar-Vell confronts Markham, who says there are two molecular polluters and he can't resist activating it, even though he knows it will make the sea radioactive. Before Mar-Vell can stop him, Markham activates the device. The Sub-Mariner confronts the device itself underwater and fends off Markham's men, then grabs the machine and flies back to the surface, heading for the skies. Captain Marvel joins him and together they fly the machine into space, where it detonates. As they return to the Earth, Mar-Vell's power is spent and he switches places with Rick. Namor carries Rick back to the ground but when he asks how Rick is linked to Captain Marvel, Rick refuses. Calling Rick "ungrateful one" Namor heads back to the ocean; Rick instantly regrets his words.

Thoughts: This is an odd issue - it takes its time with the addled-Namor and doesn't introduce the issue's villains until the last 6 pages, but it's not bad - basically a fill-in issue of Sub-Mariner, which makes it a decent place for Captain Marvel to pop into.

The best parts are the scenes in the club where everyone's into Namor; Roy pulls off some funny dialogue and it's altogether some of the better 'youth culture' material from the era.

Next: Captain Marvel's still got no series of his own. What's next? Why, the Kree-Skrull War! Avengers #89!

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