Namor of the Comics

This past weekend, Cinema Sunday turned the spotlight on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever which introduced Marvel's aquatic super human Namor to the MCU.

I thought I would turn today's post over to Namor's comic book roots.

In the comics, Namor is known as the Sub-Mariner.

How you pronounce that is.... well, I think it's up to you, 

Some people pronounce it "Sub Muh-REEH-er" and others say "Sub MARE-uh-NER".  

Created by writer/artist Bill Everett, Namor the Sub-Mariner was there in the very beginning in Marvel Comics #1 cover-dated Oct. 1939).  

In the comics, Namor generally looks like this.  

 

The dude's naked except for his teenie-weenie greenies.  

And yes, those are wings on his ankles. 

They help Namor to fly.  

Don't ask how. It's comic book science, just roll with it, OK?   

While the movies adopted a new back story for Namor involving ancient Mayans, Namor's comic book story was pretty much Aquaman's story from DC.  

Female royalty comes from Atlantis, has sex with a human dude, produces a baby who will one day grow up to rule Atlantis.  

OK, not throwing stones here. For all I know, Aquaman ripped off Sub-mariner's origin. Aquaman's origin has been retconned, rebooted and redone so many times, I'm not sure which Atlantean princess fucked which human male first.  

What really sets Marvel's aquatic super dude from DC's are ego and motivation. Namor has some serious balls stuffed into those teenie-weenie greenies with absolute zero chill for anyone from the surface world. He struts around with his mostly naked self reminding anyone that he is ruler of Atlantis and that he and his kingdom is far superior to anyone on the surface.

"Imperius Rex!" Namor will proclaim which I think is Latin for "serious asshole". 

And as for motivation, Namor is a villain or a hero depending on the needs of the plot.  

He does try to tamp down his "Imperius Rex" shit and work along side Captain America or the Fantastic Four. 

Side note: depending on the needs of the plot, Namor is crushing super hard on Sue Richards, the Invisible Woman. Yeah, she's married to Reed but... well, a dude never knows when there might be an opening.  

NAMOR from the comics

NAMOR from the movies