Featuring: Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner
Release: May 4, 1965
Cover: August 1965
12 cents
Story by Stan Lee, unchallenged king of the spoken word!
Art by Adam Austin, Marvel’s newest prince of pageantry!
Inking by Vince Colletta, lordly emperor of embellishment!
Lettering by Artie Simek (someone’s gotta carry the spear!)
12 pages
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Imperius Rex!
And… we’re back. Happy Labor Day!
Namor has been flittering through the Marvel Universe as a villain or anti-hero, fighting enough different heroes to help serve as the glue binding the universe together. It has been a decade since his last ongoing series was cancelled. He now makes his triumphant return and will again star in his own title for the next decade before again facing the ignominy of cancellation.
Giant-Man and Wasp just had their regular adventures cancelled. Giant-Man in various guises had been the star of this title since issue 35, sharing it with the Hulk for the last 10 issues. Now the title will be shared by Hulk and Namor. A fitting combo. Neither a hero per se, both acting primarily as villains across different titles for the last couple years, even teaming up once against the Avengers.
A bit of a pattern is taking hold. Tales of Suspense features two of Marvel’s more traditional superheroes, Iron Man and Captain America, the former having long shed any initial horror roots. Journey Into Mystery is entirely Thor’s title now, with the backup features telling stories of Asgard’s past. This series will feature Marvel’s anti-hero characters, Namor and Hulk. Leaving Strange Tales for the not-quite-superhero characters, Marvel’s resident spy and sorcerer, respectively. The combined titles remain a necessity of longstanding distribution difficulties on Marvel’s part, but now there at least seems to be some thematic consistency amongst the titles.
Adam Austin is Gene Colan. He’s learning. Colletta’s inking perhaps doesn’t show Colan at his best. You have to squint or know what you’re looking for to see hints of someone who will soon become one of Marvel’s greatest artists.
The style of layouts will already be different, and reflects a move these comics are slowly making, away from very even grids of pages with 6-9 panels to larger panels of varying shapes and layouts.
Interesting to have a new artist without Kirby to assist. Who is plotting the story? Lee? Colan?
Here’s the plan. They’ve set up a pretty standard adventure here. Namor has lost his crown and needs to go on this quest. There will be various clues. The issue takes him to the first clue.
I guess that seems like a plot Lee could maybe have come up with without Kirby.
We’ll keep reading Namor’s story while this quest is going on. Meanwhile, Hulk is embroiled in the “Leader Saga”. So we’ll read both stories from the next several issues of this title. As will happen often, Hulk’s story will reach a natural breaking point sooner than Namor’s, so we’ll break the comics up and read a little ahead in Namor’s story, and then try to get them back in sync later.
The story opens with the phrase “Imperius Rex!”. What does that mean? Sounds almost Latin. Something like “Imperial King”. I don’t know. I don’t speak Latin. I suspect Stan doesn’t either. Whatever it means, it is now Namor’s official catchphrase and will be for decades to come.
Continue reading “Tales to Astonish #70”
