I love the fifties versions of Sub-Mariner, Captain America and Human Torch. Atlas, formerly Timely, later Marvel, tried to bring their wartime heroes back to fight commies a few years after their publications were cancelled, but didn’t have much luck. It would be another few years before they came back into new popularity.* Sub-Mariner was fortunate enough to be drawn by his creator, Bill Everett. Everett was a busy artist in the fifties, and no matter what the stories are about, I love just about everything he did during that period.
This story appeared originally in
Sub-Mariner #34 (1954), and I scanned it from a reprint in
Marvel Super-Heroes #14 (1968). I got a big kick out of the sequence on page 3 when Namor is put in the torture chamber and encounters a large, brutish blue man who tells him, “Chee! I allus wanted t’meet d’famous Sub-Mariner! You used t’be my hero when I wuz just a liddle kid, mister!” Everett, who is credited with the story (as well as drawing and lettering it) by the Grand Comics Database, avoided showing torture scenes with some comedy.
*All those Marvel movies...where is Sub-Mariner? Has he appeared in one and I missed it?
It's always amusing to see Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner talking like a "reg'lar guy" in these forties and fifties era stories. Not even a hint of the Shakesperean English that has become his hallmark since the day Johnny Storm found him living as an amnesiac on skid row. Gone are exclamations like "Jumpin' Jellyfish" or "Creepin' Crawfish"...replaced by "Imperius Rex"...a more appropriate expression for the ruler of Atlantis.
ReplyDeleteIs there is a sub-mariner movie, than I hope "jumpin' jellyfish" is in it, and sub-mariner calls all women "dolls" or "babe!"
ReplyDeleteThe art is, obviously, incredible, but Everett could have used an editor as parts of it don't make a lot of sense and there's very little drama and stuff goes without explanation. Subby dragging around the (ghost/zombie) woman and constantly hurting or threatening her is a little much, regardless how evil she was!
Superhero story? Horror story? Take your pick. It even has the comedy relief you mention.
ReplyDeleteThere's a Ditko Spider-man story where he almost gets unmasked by Princess Python because he can't hit a girl. Apparently the Sub-mariner does not have that problem. That is unless you find arm-twisting a more genteel alternative.
Still and all, I also am a fan of Everett's fifties work and the more brought back to light the better.
I was struck by how much this story were of the same sort of weird fiction as were the Atlas stories of Venus from about the same period. The supernatural element is an odd mixture of the grim with the childlike.
ReplyDeleteIf Atlas had succeeded in its attempt of the mid-'50s to revive its superhero line, or if Kirby hadn't worked to make the Sub-Mariner repulsive during the early Marvel period, then surely the unnamed fantastic girl would have made a return. But by the time that the Sub-Mariner had made a real come-back, Marvel had settled into a different type of fiction. The supernatural was either that exemplified by Dr Strange or that exemplified by Thor. The weird fiction whence came this girl was a thing of the past, with no rôle outside of nostalgia, and no place outside of reprintings.
Brian, I'd skip a Sub-Mariner movie for the same reason I now skip going to Marvel movies in general. I am just curious why Sub-Mariner hasn't appeared in a Marvel movie; could it be that, like Fantastic Four, someone else holds the screen rights, and would want too much for them?
ReplyDeleteFor you readers who worship them and don't fail to catch each installment in the Marvel Sagas in your local theaters, I am of the mind that I don't really care about the characters when they are in movies. I am a comic book guy. I like reading the stories, looking at the artwork. I believe that so many people have worked over them, both in comics and the current movie versions that they have lost all the charm I get from their original comic book appearances. So sue me.
Daniel, that "...if Kirby hadn't worked so hard to make the Sub-Mariner repulsive" was probably on orders from Stan Lee. Like Namor was in his early days before he took the side of the Americans in World War II. As I remember, Namor was homeless, amnesiac when he first appeared in The Fantastic Four #4.
ReplyDeleteHere is another anecdote you can skip if you want to, but when I was a young fan in 1961 I had several correspondences going on with other fans, and Marvel was all the buzz. One day I got excited to receive a letter from a guy who told me he was "in the know" about the Fantastic Four because he was in touch with Stan Lee. He told me in a letter, "Stan said the Sub-Mariner will be returning in Fantastic Four #4, and the comic will be renamed The Fantastic Five. When I saw Sub-Mariner and it was still Fantastic Four I wrote him to ask him wha hoppen? Never heard from him again.
There's a missing close quote in your 1961 anecdote. When I first read it, I assumed the close quote went at the end, leading me to believe your correspondent never heard from Stan again after he questioned him. I've never heard that Stan carried on correspondence with anyone, even Roy Thomas. There doesn't seem to be any sign that "the letters of Stan Lee" will be donated to any university. Maybe he carried on all his communication by telephone?
ReplyDeleteOn second reading, I think the close quote belongs after The Fantastic Five, and you never heard from your correspondent again after you questioned him.
Thanks!
Darci, since all of those letters from my early fandom days are long gone (I did not value them at the time), I can't check to make sure, but my guess is my long-forgotten correspondent heard the news of "The Fantastic Five" through the grapevine, rather than from Stan Lee's mouth.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, Stan Lee did not correspond directly. I remember writing to Marvel and asking for permission to do drawings of Sub-Mariner in a fanzine, and Flo Steinberg answered.
I also remember when Marvel went to DC for their distribution needs, it was wrongly reported in at least one fanzine that DC had taken over Marvel (or Atlas, as we still called them before they changed their colophon), the same way they bought out Quality and got the Blackhawks. We were all pretty naive, and prone to rumors and misinformation.
When written properly, Sub-Mariner is so wonderfully quirky. And Bill Everett deserves all the praise we can give. Too bad his life didn't allow him to be recognized as the artistic genius he is.
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