Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
Release: August 2, 1966
Cover: November 1966
12 cents
Script written by: Stan Lee
Drawings pencilled by: Gene Colan
Inking rendered by: Bill Everett
Panels lettered by: Artie Simek
Confusion compounded by: Irving Forbush
12 pages
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|---|---|---|
| Amazing Spider-Man Annual 3 | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #85, Story B |
| Tales to Astonish #84, Story B | Tales to Astonish | Tales to Astonish #85, Story B |
“Who is it, Phil?”
“We’ll probably never know! From the looks of things, I’d say he was pretty much beyond recognition!”
Colan has been the regular penciller on Namor’s adventures of late. Bill Everett is the creator of Namor, and this is his second time working as Colan’s inker on the series.
Where were we? The head of the ruined Secret Empire had tricked an amnesiac Namor into being his pawn, until a blast from Krang’s ship sent Namor into the ocean, where he regained his memory. We pick up with Krang flying away, thinking he has killed Namor.
Dorma has been with Krang for a while now. Originally she had agreed to marry him in exchange for saving Namor’s life. Namor doesn’t know this and is mad at Dorma for betraying him. Krang keeps trying to kill Namor anyway, and Dorma keeps staying with him, so it’s all a bit confusing.
Also confusing that Number One blames Hulk for the destruction of the Secret Empire, when the Hulk had nothing to do with it. It was a combination of internal strife and infiltration by Gabe Jones of SHIELD that took them down.
Number One has lost contact with Namor. Hulk is still in New York and the paranoid Secret Empire dude fears Hulk is coming for him.
After Spider-Man failed to bring Hulk in, the rest of the Avengers apparently decided not to bother.
Namor considers killing people on a roller coaster for no particular reason, but decides not to. Does this prove him too weak to rule?
Number One decides to leave a bomb to take care of Hulk, but gets his robe caught in the door, and the bomb only kills him. I assume he’ll blame the Hulk for this as well.
And so ends the Secret Empire.
The title of this issue was correct. One did die.
On a chalkboard, AIM and the Secret Empire are crossed off. Hydra is set to return. Nick Fury had already deduced that Hydra was behind all this.
Number One had complained he’d always been an anonymous nobody. And hoped that by founding the Secret Empire, people would finally give him recognition. So it’s dark humor that the police officer notes his body is beyond recognition.
Quite happy to be done with the Secret Empire, but Namor’s story is that he’s been pursuing Krang and Dorma. And that’s not over yet. He just kind of ran into the Secret Empire along the way.
We’ll finish up some Namor and Hulk threads and then finally pause to breathe, and try to recap this whole Secret Empire mess.
We’re explicitly pausing before the actual return of Hydra. To that end we’ve read a little further in Iron Man and Dr. Strange stories than those they share a title with.
Rating: ★★½, 49/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Not a high quality comic, but the way the Secret Empire is defeated does amuse me.
Characters:
- Namor
- Krang
- Dorma
- Number One
- Hulk
Minor characters:
- Phil (police officer)
Story notes:
- Namor crushes radio device, so Number One is unable to communicate, and doesn’t learn Namor has broken free of his amnesia.
- Number One had been an anonymous nobody, a scientist. Even as a successful criminal, he remained unknown because he hid under a hood.
- Number One had placed tiny vibra-discs in Namor’s ears, and send outs an ultrasonic sound beam to drive him back.
- Namor is in pain, but finds the disc and takes it out.
- Number One leaves bomb in penthouse for Hulk, but gets cloak caught in door attempting to leave.
- Number One’s exploded corpse too hard to identify.
- Krang thinks Namor is dead and intends to return to Atlantis.
| Previous | #599 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Amazing Spider-Man Annual 3 | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #85, Story B |
| Tales to Astonish #84, Story B | Tales to Astonish | Tales to Astonish #85, Story B |
Well, it was a pretty disappointing conclusion for Secret Empire… At least the next Number One will fare better in its next attempt.
Still, as a continuity fan, it’s pretty cool to see that final scene with the names crossed off the board. It was like a sneaky crossover between the three organizations that attacked Marvel’s various anthology comics: Secret Empire attacked in Astonish, AIM attacked in Strange Tales, and “THEM” attacked in Tales of Suspense, only to find out they were all run by Hydra. That was great… Although the execution was very confusing, and I was left wondering about THEM. Are THEM and AIM the same thing? Is THEM actually Hydra? Or is THEM a separate organization, a subsidiary of Hydra? It’s all very confusing, especially since AIM and the Secret Empire both returned in the future as major organizations. But THEM never returned… That is, another group called “Them” emerged, formed by Tyrannus and those from the Hidden City that the Avengers encountered during Goliath’s adventure in South America; but they have nothing to do with the secret organization of “THEM”.
I’ll offer a long summary of the continuity surrounding AIM, Them, and the Secret Empire soon. There are contradictory clues as to who Them is. Some evidence that Them is AIM, some evidence that Them is AIM, some evidence that Them is a related organization, perhaps above AIM but below Hydra on the chart. And some evidence Them is a third and separate organization. My conclusion is that Them=Hydra.