When a Monarch Goes Mad!
Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
Release: April 5, 1966
Cover: July 1966
12 cents
Amazing story: Stan Lee
Astonishing art: Gene Colan
Astounding inking: Dick Ayers
Agonizing lettering: Sam Rosen
12 pages
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The color of one’s skin is but a chance accident of fate! It alters nothing else about the person!
Namor was fighting a Behemoth last issue, and Krang convinced Lady Dorma that Namor’s only chance for survival was for him to relinquish his control on the Behemoth, which he would only do if Dorma agreed to wed him.
This issue picks up right where that left off. Dorma had told Vashti she was to wed Krang, but not why. And Vashti has just delivered the news to Namor.
Namor declares the mention of Dorma’s to name to be treason. Rational. Namor claims he has the fury of youth. He had been a youth 25 years earlier when introduced in 1939. Not sure how long he can use that excuse. Vashti notes Namor had been the gentlest and noblest of monarchs. I am not sure that is true.
Namor imprisons someone just for the crime of being Dorma’s cousin. Isn’t Namor also Dorma’s cousin?
This gets to questions about our notions of continuity. For my purposes, the “canon” is the 565 comic stories we have covered in this blog, starting with 1961 and the introduction of the Fantastic Four. Marvel had 22 years of history before that, but having not read it all, it’s hard to think of that as part of the canon. However, we’ve read some of it, and noted some facts. and tend to assume those facts are true in this canon, unless contradicted. In the “old” continuity, Captain America and Bucky kept having adventures after World War II. That seems to be have been contradicted. In the “old” continuity, Dorma was Namor’s cousin. That may be contradicted by their romantic love for each other. But, you know, they’re royalty. But now that Namor is sentencing cousins of Dorma’s to prison, that is strong evidence she is not his cousin in this canon. Maybe.
A few good possible pull quotes from this issue. Vashti gets some poetic reflections in on how the fate of an empire rests on one man’s rage.
I know I’d hate to live in a society that depended on the chaotic whims of someone with the temperament of a toddler.
That such a fate should have fallen Namor, the Avenging Son!! Because of this catastrophic quirk of destiny, an empire may totter… a dynasty may crumble!
Namor gets some good bravado about how cool he is.
Am I not the mightiest of all? Am I not the Avenging Son?? Am I not monarch of all I survey?? Has it not been written… in letters that shall live throughout eternity… Imperius Rex!!
To blend in on the surface world, Krang and Dorma make their skin white instead of blue. Dorma notes she feels no different, and we get a good anti-racist quote from the villain, the Warlord Krang. This is what I ended up using for the pull quote.
This issue is largely a bridging issue between two arcs. Last issue ended the Behemoth story, but here the fallout of that story convinces Namor to travel to the surface world, which will lead to next issue’s adventures, and soon lead to Namor becoming entangled with Iron Man, and later with the Secret Empire…
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 54/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Sub-Mariner vol. 1.
Characters:
- Namor
- Vashti
- Dorma’s cousin
- Warlord Krang
- Lady Dorma
Story notes:
- Namor has learned Dorma is to marry Krang, and is angry.
- Namor sends Dorma’s cousin to the dungeons.
- Vashti in his role as Grand Vizier claims Namor is meting out oppression, not justice.
- Namor’s observa-coils extend through aquatic empire.
- Namor orders Seek-and-Destroy units of the Atlantean army to find Krang.
- Krang has defensive devices that fooled the observa-coils.
- Krang alters skin color of himself and Dorma to match white humans.
- Krang’s flagship has an unmatchable speed.
- Namor smashes a statue of Dorma.
- Namor follows Krang to surface world.
| Previous | #565 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales to Astonish #80, Story B | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #81, Story B |
| Tales to Astonish #80, Story B | Tales to Astonish | Tales to Astonish #81, Story B |
Happy Easter! The previous blog gives me a “file not found” error. Something might have gone wrong during the upload.
Happy Easter to you. And thank you, that was an error on my part, hopefully fixed: https://cokeandcomics.com/tales-to-astonish-80-story-b/