HONOURS - SUB-MARINER

(Human Torch v1 006, 1941) 

Just one issue after attempting to conquer the world (and sinking a US fleet in the process), Namor is commissioned as an honorary admiral in the US Navy (for saving a different US fleet from sinking).

MINOR SUPER-HERO 330: RATHIA

(Human Torch v1 005b, 1941)

Bit of an unfair one here: Rathia is a princess of a Baltic kingdom of Atlanteans who persuades the Sub-Mariner to attempt world conquest. She is unquestionably a bad egg but by far the worst crimes of the issue are perpetuated by Namor himself and include: imprisoning and nearly killing Toro, mind controlling the Human Torch, flooding Africa and NYC, sinking the Italian Navy, nearly destroying Moscow and various war crimes. Crucially, Rathia does not exert any influence other than puffing up Namor's ego - no mind control, nothing. Maybe a roll in the hay. Despite this, she is the one who stands trial as "World Enemy No. 2 - second only to Hitler!" while Namor just has to look contrite.

In conclusion, this should probably be part of a Yearbook post about Namor but I am aggressively disinterested in him so Rathia takes the hit once again.  

Seriously, look at this guy. Contemptible.

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 328: THE NAZOMBIES

(Human Torch v1 005a, 1941)

This is kind of a weird one in a few ways, the first being that the foundation of the plot is that a) Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Angel both own Caribbean islands and b) that they are good enough friends for Namor to pay the Angel a visit. During this visit one of Namor's servants bursts in and promptly drops dead in an effort to deliver a note cryptically warning of a zombie takeover.

Namor takes off on his own and indeed! Zombies have taken over his island! Kind of!

I mean, even by 1940s standards of zombie these are clearly either costumed goons or some sort of monstrous humanoid group. They're not explicitly identified as fancy dress Nazis until the third-to-last panel, but come on. Buncha goose-steppers establishing military bases and concentration camps across the Caribbean? That's Nazis.

The Nazombies mostly employ conventional weaponry but seem to have hit up the "underwater" section of the Comic Book Nazi Superweapon department, as not only are they fielding undersea tabks but these extremely cool personal shark submersibles

This is, by the way, your go-to comic if you have ever wanted to see the Golden Age Angel get crucified by a bunch of Nazi zombies. Not to worry though: Namor rescues him and from then on it's strictly Nazi-punching time.

I don't reckon that the Nazombies have enough potential to be BRUNG BACK but it really seems like the shark-sub tech is ripe for revival in the hands of coastal raiders or something. Once such a revolutionary technology is unleashed it can't be put back in the bottle.

HONOURS - SUB-MARINER

(Human Torch v1 003, 1940)

After helping foil a Nazi faux-Japanese* invasion of the US and only committing a few hundred war crimes, Namor is personally thanked by FDR and given a big parade.

*confusion arose from the fact that Namor had already tangled with a group of Nazis in NYC and a Nazi-analog invasion fleet in the Atlantic in the same issue, but the invasion fleet that he's receiving kudos for above was definitely in the Pacific.

MAD AND CRIMINAL SCIENTIST ROUND-UP 002

Back again with another collection of science-villains who didn't quite make the grade!

Fritz Cardif here has a gunpowder-exploding ray and a lot of big plans. He probably would have made the main list except that I personally find his antics very dull, with the exception of the lil' stinker moment pictured above. (Hit Comics 006, 1940)

Dr Marko figured on using kidnapped scientists as research slaves in his Grand Canyon hideout, but he too was corralled by Neon the Unknown. (Hit Comics 013, 1941)

Professor Dorn here is your typical Nazi scientist obsessed with replicating the powers of the Sub-Mariner for the glory of the cause. He ends up lasting about fifteen minutes after meeting the real deal. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 023, 1941)

 Dr Sunga has a pretty good scheme going wherein he seeming kills people by sending them a cursed wand that is actually harmless - seemingly the perfect crime! But the Golden Age Falcon figures out the trick: it's actually the box that the wand is sent in that does the killing. Sunga of course ends up dead by his own fiendish device. (Daring Mystery Comics 005, 1940)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 291: QUEEN JARNA

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 025-026)

Jarna here is Queen of the Lavarites, a group of aliens from Venus who coordinate with the Nazis (shown here as a chunky guy in his pyjamas about to be punched out by the Sub-Mariner). This is all regular comics stuff but there's some fun highlights:

a) the main Lavarite force is composed of these little roughnecks who talk in their own untranslated language and are clearly having a ball at all times. If your aliens have to look like humans they should absolutely look like fun humans.

b) Lavarites have some extremely fun sexual dimorphism going on! Some wags over at the Marvel Wiki are of the opinion that Jarna here is a member of a second Venusian species who has become ruler of these little guys but that removes the much more fun option of them being some sort of eusocial species like bees  and that these are all her worker drone children. Or that Lavarite women are just fifty times larger than Lavarite men!

(this is the first of two times that we cross over into Sexual Kink That I Don't Fully Get territory)

As with any good story involving a bunch of little guys, Namor gets Lilliputianed. (and there's the other one!)

Jarna is also surprisingly merciless in her attempt to do away with Namor - it's just her bad luck that he's also amphibious.

Despite the fact that Namor lets her off with a warning in her first outing, Jarna is immediately back to her old tricks in the subsequent issue She's working with the Nazis to build an underwater staging area for the invasion of the US, but good news: she's planning on turning on them just as soon as they do the dirty work for her. Attempted world domination I can forgive but Nazi collaboration is a harder pill to swallow.

Unfortunately it's just Jarna in this issue - the Lavarites all seem to have gone back to Venus and I guess she hasn't had time to hatch out another generation of them. I miss them.

For some reason probably related to her status as a pretty girl Namor lets Jarna go at he the end of this story as well, and she's stayed away ever since, possibly because he came very close to killing her on a couple of occasions there. I of course would love to see her BRUNG BACK, particularly if she is actually portrayed as the queen of a eusocial species of little guys that she gives birth to, and particularly if they aren't defaulted to the insect version of such but reflect something more like naked mole-rat society or some other, weirder, model. Have 'em come back for revenge on the Sub-Mariner some time when he's vulnerable!

BONUS: this is perhaps the most perfectly drawn "amused disbelief" face I have ever seen 

(said in a room with two people who had been surgically altered to be amphibious by the Antarctic-dwelling people of lost Atlantis, by the way)

MINOR SUPER-VILLAIN 285: DAKA

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 024, 1941) 

Daka is Namor the Sub-Mariner's uncle who is the first of many to usurp his throne while he's off adventuring. He allies with the Nazis and the Seal People in a scheme to invade Argentina and it's a testament to how little I can bring myself to care about Atlantean political drama that not even the Seal People can inspire me to write more about this guy.

HONOURS - SUB-MARINER

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, 1941) 

It's a bit marginal, but this is a boxing match between Namor the Sub-Mariner and Killer Casey, the Heavyweight Champion of (the US/ the World). Was it for the title? Who knows, but Namor won.

NOTES - MAY 2023

Folk:

Luther Robinson and Lynne Harris! These folks are hard to categorize! They're not villains, despite being antagonists to Namor the Sub-Mariner, because Namor is very much a villain at least half of the time. They're not heroes, despite eventually allying with Namor to fight Nazis, because they definitely attempt to commit at least one genocide against the people of Atlantis. 

They're adventurers, they've both been surgically modified by Atlantean scientists to be amphibious, and Lynne is one of a long line of women to be abducted by Namor with romantic ill-intent (and she's, like, third one, in a mere handful of stories). They're interesting artifacts of the way comic book universes come together, and that's great.

(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 010-026 (sporadically), 1940-1941) 

Vision foe Rhamu Rondi is your bog standard crooked mystic character and will make no further appearances here, but the Buddha Signal is objectively great - even early Jack Kirby knew what was up with regard to villainous décor.(Marvel Mystery Comics v1 015, 1941)

Names:

Fella name of Barney Bailey here, which is a pretty great moniker for an exhibiter of curiosities to have. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 016, 1941)

Panel fun:

Sub-Mariner x Human Torch (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 017, 1941)

Whether this is Namor's personal flag/ crest or a more general Atlantean symbol, this bit of regalia must be noted. (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 018, 1941)

Biographical Details: Namor the Sub-Mariner weighs 198 pounds, according to the ring announcer during his foray into the world of boxing (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, 1941)

NOTES: APRIL 2023

One must always take note of what super-hero costumes were made of in the age before spandex. In this case, the Sub-Mariner is sporting wool trunks.

(Marvel Mystery Comics 004, 1940)