Sometimes hero, sometimes anti-hero, and occasionally outright villain, Namor the Sub-Mariner isn’t just one of Marvel’s most complicated characters. He’s also their first superhero. Created in 1939, Namor quickly made a strong impression thanks to his complicated back-story, dramatic eyebrows, and super-short green swim trunks.
Namor is finally joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, where he'll be played by Narcos' Tenoch Huerta. While we wait for that, let’s learn all about the passionate player known as the Sub-Mariner, and why he’s far more than just Marvel’s answer to Aquaman.
- Who Is Namor, the Sub-Mariner?
- Namor’s Origin
- Namor’s Powers and Abilities
- Namor’s Signature Villains
- Could Namor Swim Into the MCU?
- The Sub-Mariner in TV and Games
Who Is Namor, the Sub-Mariner?
Created by Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner made his official debut in 1939 in Timely Comics’ Marvel Comics #1. Even though the original Human Torch also debuted in that issue, Namor the Sub-Mariner can be called the very first original Marvel character since he had appeared months earlier in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly (of which only a handful of copies were printed).
Half human and half Atlantean royalty, Namor is proud, quick-tempered, and willing to do anything to protect his kingdom. He’s been an Avenger and one of the X-Men, a founding member of the Defenders, and even fought alongside Captain America in World War II against the threat the Nazis posed to the entire world. He’s the ruler of Atlantis and fights with fervor for his people.
But Namor isn’t a natural do-gooder like Cap. His temper and arrogance make him more of an anti-hero who has no qualms about destroying anything that gets in the way of his goals. In his very first appearance, he kills two innocent deep divers simply for being in his undersea domain. While time has softened his stance on humans, Namor has kept the same hubris throughout the 80-plus years he’s been a part of the Marvel universe.
Namor’s Origin
Namor’s first appearance introduced him as “an ultra-man of the deep [who] lives on land and in the sea, flies in the air, has the strength of a thousand men.” After a deadly first encounter with humans, the prince’s mother explains his history for the reader.
The pointy-eared prince is the son of an Atlantean princess and a human explorer named Leonard McKenzie. Their story began in 1920 in the waters of the South Pole. The captain’s expedition vessel repeatedly blasted the ice above Atlantis, which rocked the city below with explosions that claimed the lives of many Atlanteans. Princess Fen was sent to the humans above to act as a spy. She and the captain fell in love and were married, but Fen didn’t forget her mission.
While the princess did consider Captain McKenzie a good man, she never lost her distrust of humanity and blamed them for the destruction of their kingdom. She passed those beliefs on to Namor, her “Avenging Son.”
With his roots in the Golden Age of comics, his star would eventually fade until Stan Lee brought him into modern Marvel Comics in 1962’s Fantastic Four #4. The “new” Human Torch, Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four, came upon an amnesiac Namor in New York City. Namor’s fate became intertwined with the Fantastic Four as he fell in love with Sue Storm, maintained a bitter rivalry with Reed Richards, and counted Doctor Doom as an ally.
Over the years Namor would fight both for and against the world above, all in the name of keeping his own people safe. Namor has also found more love interests over the years — human, Atlantean, and alien. He’s teamed up with the Avengers and X-Men, and also with Doctor Doom and a supervillain group called the Cabal.
Most recently, he battled Amadeus Cho, Silk, and the Agents of Atlas in the Atlantis Attacks (2020) miniseries in retaliation for the capture of an Atlantean creature.
“Are you a hero, Namor? Or are you a monster?” Cho asked him in the first issue.
“I am a king,” Namor replied. “So I’m both.”
Namor’s Powers and Abilities
Namor is often deemed the first mutant of Marvel’s long publication history (if not the earliest in the Marvel in-universe timeline). Those iconic wings on his ankles? Those aren’t part of his Atlantean or human ancestry, but instead a mutation that gives him the ability to fly. As he soars out of the water for a surprise attack, Namor is known to shout his catchphrase, “Imperius Rex!”
The Sub-Mariner also has superhuman strength and endurance, the ability to breathe underwater, and limited telepathic ability with sea creatures and Atlanteans. He can swim at super speed and has an extraordinarily long lifespan.
Namor is a born leader of the kingdom of Atlantis and has played the diplomat on the world stage. During writer-artist John Byrne’s notable run on the character, Namor also showed his business acumen when he entered the human corporate world for a time.
Namor’s Rivalry With Black Panther
Namor and T’Challa have a long and dysfunctional relationship in the comics, which is true of pretty much anyone who spends much time around the haughty king of Atlantis. As a fellow super-powered king, Namor sees T’Challa as one of the few people in the world worthy of his respect.
However, their relationship took a turn for the worse in 2012’s Avengers vs. X-Men crossover. At one point, a Phoenix-possessed Namor flooded Wakanda, causing untold destruction in a kingdom that once prided itself on never being invaded. The two were later forced to work together to stop the threat of Incursions in writer Jonathan Hickman’s New Avengers series, but that alliance shattered when T’Challa stabbed Namor and left him for dead in another universe. Namor survived, but their friendship has seen better days.
How the MCU Is Changing Namor and Atlantis
Namor is finally making his MCU debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but perhaps not quite in the form fans might have been expecting. The film features Tenoch Huerta in the role, and the first trailer suggests Namor will actually be the main villain of the sequel. Though as we’ve already covered, that’s not such a stretch based on some of Namor’s comic book adventures.
Huerta’s casting and the costume designs seen in the trailer suggest Atlantis is being reimagined as a Mesoamerican or South American kingdom. Basically, the Western Hemisphere’s answer to Wakanda. We suspect the film will reveal Atlantis once battled Spanish conquistadors and other colonizers before finally retreating to the safety of the ocean, rather than hide itself through technology like Wakanda.
The trailer doesn’t make it clear why Atlantis is declaring war on Wakanda. However, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame may give us a clue. Early in the film, Danai Gurira’s Okoye remarks on a mysterious undersea earthquake, but the film never follows up on that loose end. Was this an early warning sign that Atlantis has been preparing to attack the surface world?
While Namor and T’Challa’s frigid relationship has become a hallmark of modern Avengers comics, the untimely passing of actor Chadwick Boseman means we won’t be seeing that rivalry play out in the MCU. Instead, we may see the hotheaded Namor butting heads with Shuri, as two of the most powerful and secretive nations in the MCU go to war with each other.
The Sub-Mariner in TV and Games
- TV: The Marvel Super Heroes, a 1960s animated television series, had a segment dedicated to Prince Namor. Since then he’s appeared in more animation like the Spider-Man series of the 1980s, The Avengers: United They Stand, and The Fantastic Four series in both the ’90s and early 2000s.
- Games: 1991’s Spider-Man: The Video Game saw the first introduction of the Sub-Mariner as a playable character. Players faced him as a boss in the Fantastic Four PlayStation game; later, Namor would play a part in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Most recently he can be found as a playable character Marvel Strike Force, Marvel Contest of Champions, Marvel Puzzle Quest, and Marvel Super War.
Will Marvel’s oldest original character become its newest star on the big screen? Only time will tell.
Note: this article was originally published in July 202 and updated on July 23, 2022 with the latest info about Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Kelly Knox is a freelance entertainment writer who also contributes to StarWars.com, DCComics.com, Nerdist, and more. Follow her on Twitter at @kelly_knox to talk Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragons, and comics.