Instead of one long winded review, I give you 3! (cause there’s 3 seperate stories in here)

Sub-Mariner (Roy Thomas as writer; Mitch/Elizabeth Breitweiser on art): This was a pretty good WWII story by Thomas. He has a good feel on Namor. Tough when it comes to humans, but still knows what is right and wrong with the world. I seriously thought for a second he was gonna side with the Nazi’s in this issue. But thankfully he proves why he is such a legend with the Marvel U. We get inside Namor’s head just to know what he believes in, but never gives us a full view on his beliefs. Cause if we did, where would the intriuge in this character be? Also, very gorgeous pencils by Breitweise on this. He wasnt kidding on the NYCC podcast about how he wanted to do this in such a bad way. Great underwater effects and some of the best character model’s I’ve seen in awhile. Also, his wife Elizabeth (I assume it’s his wife) did the inking for this….Let them be a continuing art team please.

Vergeltungswaffe! (Mark Schultz as writer, Al Williamson on art): This is just a simple story of Namor fighting some Nazi’s….Kinda feels like Hellboy in a way. I cant honestly tell if this is a very old story or written in an old-school manner. But Schultz keeps the plot going and he has a good voice for Namor. It feels like one of those cartoons you would’ve seen back in those days. Like ‘America *** Yeah! Nazi’s Boo!!’ type of feel. What makes this feel like a Hellboy-ish type of tale is the setting Namor is in. The labratrory seems something straight out of Mignola and then there’s this big Octopus creature. I do like the art though, again not knowning if this is old school or old school-like. But I like Williamson’s pencils; especially the faces. Not one person looks the same and if this comic is older then I think it is….then that’s pretty impressive for the time.

The Sub-Mariner (Bill Everett as writer/artist): This is the offical start of Namor in comics. Not an origin mind you, just a simple story of Namor helping out some divers. The art….well….thank god that there is something called evolution. I know it’s stupid to judge something that’s so old, this was drawn in what? The late 1930’s? Still, some of those character designs are creepy to look at. Like, what are those blue things that Namor hangs with? Are those the atlantiean people? I mean I know some of them are blue in today’s comics, but yeesh….Still the story is good, it’s a pretty good story to give us an origin for the character.

So overall this was a pretty good comic. There is great art in these stories (well 2/3) and I think Namor has a pretty good origin issue considering for the time. What I want coming out of this anniversary issue is: Let’s try an ongoing series with Namor. We’ve had mini’s and Marvel Knight’s tales for the last couple of years. But considering how important he is to the Marvel U, even today, I would think they would try again and get an on-going with him. He is such a great character to write, I hope some big writer in the future tries him out. Heck lets see Thomas and the Breitweiser’s do an ongoing. That would look pretty.