sub-mariner – Page 5 – Coke ⊕ Comics

Avengers #4

Captain America Joins… The Avengers!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: January 3, 1964
Cover: March 1964
12 cents
Gloriously written by: Stan Lee
Grandly illustrated by: Jack Kirby
Gallantly lettered by: Art Simek
23 pages

No inker is given in the credits for some reason. The GCD suggests the inker is George Roussos, who has been doing a lot of inking lately under the pseudonym George Bell. I don’t think we’ve yet seen a single comic where Kirby has done his own finishes. Probably because he’s drawing a half dozen comics each month.

There’s something that troubles me about these credits, and it’s the type of thing that makes Stan Lee a controversial character to this day. Look to the acknowledgement on this first page. Stan notes that Jack drew the original Captain America comics. That’s true and good to point out. But that massively understates Kirby’s contribution. Kirby and Simon created Captain America. The box should say. “Jack Kirby is one of the creators of Captain America.” Now, this may have been mere thoughtlessness on Stan’s part. Kirby used to draw Captain America and now is drawing him again; Stan used to write Captain America and now is writing him again. That may be the only point he wanted to make, and perhaps no other thoughts occurred to him. But the phrasing seems careful, and reflects the longtime legal stance of the many companies that have owned Marvel, that people don’t create characters, companies do. You can read an article from Brian Cronin on a piece Stan Lee had written in 1947 crediting publisher Martin Goodman with the idea for Captain America. The piece is basically fictional. Joe Simon came up with the character independently, and Kirby helped him flesh out the details. Stan’s failure to credit them for that goes back a long ways.

The Avengers #3

Sub-Mariner!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: November 5, 1963
Cover: February 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: P. Reinman
25 pages

We see a new cover box. Acknowledges that Hank is now Giant-Man and that Wasp exists.

Welcome to a special Mothers Day post. What makes this a Mothers Day post? Well, today is Mothers Day. Also, my mother likes the Sub-Mariner, and this is the issue where the Avengers meet Sub-Mariner.

Sub-Mariner doesn’t show up until page 15, but still gets the issue titled after him. Good for him.

In the first issue, Loki tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.

In the second issue, Space Phantom tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.

This issue, the Avengers just decide to attack the Hulk.

Fantastic Four Annual 1

Sub-Mariner Versus The Human Race!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 2, 1963
Cover: 1963
25 cents <– whoa!
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
37 pages

We just read no less than 5 Sub-Mariner stories from the ’40s and ’50s to have some context for this giant-sized Fantastic Four/Sub-Mariner epic we are about to read. At 37 pages, this is the longest story we have yet read. And at 25 cents, this and the Strange Tales annual are the most expensive comics we’ve come across by a factor of 2.

When Sub-Mariner returned in Fantastic Four #4, he learned that his kingdom had been destroyed and his people were missing. He’s been searching for them ever since. Until now.

Is it the longest ever? Or might Stan be exaggerating?

Quite the opening couple pages. The bold imagination on display is Kirby at his best. But we haven’t seen that much of his true potential yet in these stories. He’s just been getting warmed up.

The Fantastic Four decide to take a vacation along with Alicia. Reed’s suggestion is to take a cruise to where some sea monsters have been sighted.

PRELUDE: Young Men #28, Story C

The Land Below the Sun!

Featuring: Sub-Mariner
Release: February 25, 1954
Cover: June 1954
10 cents
By: Bill Everett
8 pages

If the Nazis were the favorite enemy in the ’40s, by the ’50s it will be the Soviets. They are portrayed as rather silly here, believing their leader without question, constantly insulting capitalism, and generally being blind lemmings praising their fascist state.

That’s exactly how Soviets talked, I imagine.

Now, we read in Sub-Mariner Comics #1 how the Emperor died. Well, now he’s not dead. In truth, I haven’t read very many comics in the intervening 13 years, but I’ve done some internet research, and it doesn’t seem like the comics had explained this discrepancy. As far as I can tell, this is the first time we’ve seen the Emperor since his death. And nobody remarks on how alive he is. Eventually, we will come to a 1980s series called Saga of the Sub-Mariner that attempts to explain the wonky continuity on display.

PRELUDE: Young Men #25, Story C

Featuring: Sub-Mariner
Release: October 26, 1953
Cover: February 1954
10 cents
By: Bill Everett
8 pages

We’re continuing to sample some of Sub-Mariner’s older adventures to catch us up on his history. We’ve read the start of his self-titled series, the conclusion of his self-titled series, and his return to comics in Young Men #24.

Why this next issue as well? Well, because I have it. I mentioned before that JC Penney put out an odd set of new printings of assorted classic Marvel comics, which I acquired as a young child. Young Men #25 was among the set. So I may as well include it.

PRELUDE: Young Men #24, Story C

Featuring: Sub-Mariner
Release: August 19, 1953
Cover: December 1953
10 cents
By: Bill Everett
8 pages

Young Men, there’s no need to feel down…

I can’t find any credit in the story, but it seems to be pretty clearly by Bill Everett.

The story is a mystery of sunken ships, but the teaser kind of spoils the revelation.

We last saw Sub-Mariner, or any of the superheroes from the company that tends to be called “Timely”, in 1949. In 1953, the company tends to be called “Atlas”, and they’re ready to give superheroes another try. At least briefly. Sub-Mariner will get new stories for about a year or so. This issue also sees the return of two of Timely’s other most popular superheroes.

PRELUDE: Sub-Mariner Comics #32

The Birth of the Sub-Mariner

Featuring: Sub-Mariner
Release: March 20, 1949
Cover: June 1949
10 cents
By: Bill Everett
12 pages

I can’t find any credits in the comic, but it seems to pretty clearly be by Bill Everett, and the internet seems to agree.

This is the end of the Sub-Mariner’s story. After a decade, he’s getting cancelled along with all the other superheroes. Romance, humor, crime, western, horror… that’s all the company that will become Marvel is publishing come April 1949.

For his final issue, they look backward. This story tells of the origin of Namor. The next story in the issue covers the same events as Namor’s first story in Marvel Comics #1.

The story begins with a ship which has lost its Captain. Commander Leonard McKenzie is injured and lost. His ship has to abandon him. He is saved by his new wife, a woman they rescued who turns out to be more than she appears. She is Fen, Princess of the Sub-Mariners.

The Sub-Mariners wish him put to death for the crimes of humanity, but she is in charge in the absence of the Emperor and insists he live.

PRELUDE: Sub-Mariner Comics #1

The World’s First Deep-Sea Blitzkrieg!

Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
Release: March 1, 1941
Cover: Spring 1941
10 cents
By: Bill Everett
20 pages

My goal with this blog is to read through all the superhero comics that make up the Marvel Universe starting with Fantastic Four #1 in 1961. But there’s an oddity to that goal: the company had been making superhero comics since 1939. Of course, they stopped making superhero comics in 1949, to very briefly revive the idea in 1953. So 1961 isn’t exactly the beginning, but it sort of is. Most of the superheroes we know will follow in the wake of the Fantastic Four. We’ve already met Hulk, Ant-Man & Wasp, Thor Spider-Man, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Sgt. Fury… and more will come.

But some of our heroes predate 1961. Johnny Storm is not the first Human Torch. There was another and we’ve peeked at his stories. But the FF comics have yet to mention the existence of a previous Torch, so those stories are not crucial to the task at hand. We’ll very soon be meeting one more important character from 1941, but I’ll not jump ahead. The big thing we’re missing so far is the story of Sub-Mariner, who appeared in about 300 comics prior to 1961. Reading all of them would consume a huge amount of effort when I really want to push forward. But the gap is also nagging me.

So I’m going to read a small smattering of them. Try to get a sense of who Namor is and what he’s about. We’ve already read his earliest appearance as well as his first epic battle with Human Torch.

When the Fantastic Four met Namor in Fantastic Four #6, I wrote: “All posts regarding Fantastic Four comics featuring Namor are henceforth dedicated to my mother.” I may as well broaden that dedication to all Namor comics and include the next few we cover.

Fantastic Four #14

The Merciless Puppet Master

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: February 12, 1963
Cover: May 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
22 pages

I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1.

Kirby got a fill-in for almost every book he draws in the last couple months… except for this one. This is clearly his baby in a way the others are not. That is also evident in the fact that Lee does all the scripts. That the Human Torch, Thor, Ant-Man, and Iron Man stories have rotating scripters and fill-in artists tells you where they fall on the totem pole compared to Fantastic Four.

I’ve struggled some (actually, for years going on decades) with the question of what order to read these stories in. I’m not alone. Marvel has published indices dedicated to chronology. The Marvel Chronology Project has painstakingly ordered the events of each characters’ lives to make sense. The Complete Marvel Reading Order is focused on what makes the “best” read, which includes keeping stories together.

So far, I’ve mostly focused on release date, catalogued in Mike’s Amazing World. Going in order by date has yielded several insights. I can see when Kirby suddenly had lots of fill-in artists take over. I can see cool facts, like that Thor, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man were all introduced the same day. It’s added a lot to my understanding of the context of these stories to go in time order.

Since most issues have been self-contained and there’s been minimal crossover, there’s been no reason to go in anything but date order. But the stories will become increasingly complex. And it might be nice to read single story-arcs together to appreciate them best.

I did some light fudging last time. Fantastic Four #13 was released January 3, yet I chose to read it after two comics released January 10. Similarly, this comic was released on February 12, but I am reading it before two comics released on February 5. That is because issue 14 picks up right where #13 ended, with the FF still not back from the moon. This will become more common, that the ending of one story will lead into the beginning of the next, and I won’t always be able to place such stories together. But this was easy enough to do.

It says “Part 1”, but there seem to be no other parts. Part 1 of 1?

As an example of something lost in the shuffle if I don’t go in strictly chronological order… this is the first issue we see something pretty cool. There’s a new logo added to the cover, with the word “Marvel” appearing for the first time. I’ve been calling this the “Marvel Age”, and now we see why. This line of titles is officially taking the name “Marvel”! But it didn’t actually begin here. It began last week with Strange Tales and Journey Into Mystery. We’ll read those next.

PRELUDE: Marvel Mystery Comics #10

Well, that was anticlimactic.

The Result of the Most Famous Battle in Comic Magazines
Featuring: Human Torch and Sub-Mariner
Release: June 15, 1940
Cover: August 1940
10 cents
Credits: Bill Everett, Carl Burgos, and John Compton
1 page

No credits appear on the page. The art reminds me most of Burgos’ style. I borrowed the credits from the previous issue; the GCD agrees.

The finale of the epic is a single page. A single page.

Betty Dean finally gets her way and convinces Torch and Namor to call a truce. It makes sense for the fight to end in a draw, to disappoint neither set of fans. But letting Namor go is entirely unsatisfying. He crashed a train, flooded a tunnel. Who knows how many people died on his rampage?