Number 2581: Sub-Mariner and the Amphibious Elmer

Today a fun 7-page story from the 1954 issue of Sub-Mariner #35, drawn by Sub-Mariner creator, Bill Everett. The story adds an homage to The Creature From the Black Lagoon, a popular movie from that year. (The Creature movie was released March 5, 1954, and the Sub-Mariner comic was probably put on sale in June, 1954). Everett loved weird characters, and he must've been impressed by the design of the movie creature.

“Elmer” is an amphibious man, created by another in the long list of comic book mad scientist-villains, Professor Zunbar. The twist here is Elmer is frightened by water. That takes the underwater monster and dries it out, so to speak.

Number 2535: Origin of the Sub-Mariner

Sub-Mariner, also known as Namor, was born of a white American man, Leonard Mackenzie, and an Atlantean mother, Princess Fen. Fen was sent to spy on the depth-bombing Americans because she was the closest to looking like a white woman (and who was Fen’s mother?) Namor was what we would call today “mixed race.” His mom passed along the ability to breathe underwater (without gills), and for a real super power, keeping his hair sleek and combed while swimming in the ocean. The Sub-Mariner killed a couple of American divers, mistaking them for robots. Namor originally was a sorehead who hated America, but ultimately came around to becoming an ally. 

Bill Everett created Sub-Mariner, one of the more original and popular of the very early super-powered characters of the comics. Sub-Mariner was canceled in the late '40s, only to be revived in the early '50s, also drawn by Everett. The story I am showing today is “The Origin of the Sub-Mariner” from Sub-Mariner #33 (1954). I don’t know if Everett wrote the story.

Number 2349: Sub-Mariner: a couple of laughs in the torture chamber

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?

Number 2239: Der Zub-Mariner himszelf!

In my opinion Bill Everett was one of the top artists of the earliest days of comic books. His drawings were excellent, full of action. He fully understood the advantages of the format, where he could tell a story.

This is one of his early adventures of his creation, Sub-Mariner, from 1941. Everett also had a sense of humor; not gut-busting laugh-out-loud funny, but a bit more subtle. The panel where he buys fuel at a filling station for his homemade jeep — "Five gallons of alcohol and five of water!” — makes for some light humor as well as verisimilitude. Anybody who drives a car from Salt Lake to Oregon would need to stop for a refill, and it is likely they would need to use the restroom. We assume that bit of business is between panels.

I caught something Everett missed in the story. On page 6 Sub-Mariner is tied up, but the ropes have disappeared by the next panel, even though the caption says he is “securely bound.” They don’t reappear on the next page, either. Everett’s editor must have been taking a nap when Everett turned in the artwork for this story from Marvel Mystery Comics #23 (1941):

Number 1938: Sub-Mariner: Crocodile tears

A short but pleasing Sub-Mariner story from the mid-fifties incarnation of Sub-Mariner, drawn by his creator, Bill Everett. A 100-foot croc is roaming about Brazil, so Namor and his gal, Betty, go south to find it. It is probably the only time I have ever seen the cliché, “crocodile tears,” illustrated. That was Everett; he had a sense of humor.

(I am writing this well in advance of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, but what folks are worried about in Brazil is a tiny mosquito that can cause a terrible problem. It does not take great size to cause great disaster.)

From Sub-Mariner #33 (1954):

Number 1158: Sub-Mariner's fatalist attraction

 

I liked that Sub-Mariner waged a war against humankind while simultaneously helping us. Makes for a very conflicted character, more interesting than many of the goody two-shoes superheroes of the era.

In this particular story a three-man group called the Fatalists is trying to peddle a death ray to various countries around the globe. No one wants it because it would be the end of the world. Since when has that stopped an aggressive nation? There are several right now who'd love to have such a weapon.

The story gets really unrealistic when the president of a country is ready to sacrifice his kidnapped son to the death ray rather than give in and buy it! And the kid doesn't hate his old man! Personally, if I were that kid I'd already be plotting to take over that miserable country, having Pop "deposed" by a coup and a firing squad. But that's just me.

In some ways I share some character traits with Sub-Mariner. Not that I hate everyone, mind you, but there are days when I think our planet would be better off without people. From Sub-Mariner #38, the last pre-Comics Code issue (1955), drawn by Bill Everett.