Namor

        Namor The Submariner # 5 (1990)

                                                            

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      Before I even start this review I have to be honest and admit that I've never really read any Submariner comics. I know who he is, and I know in the FF comics he's has a thing for Sue Richards. For some excellent Namor/Sue action check out Fantastic Four 1234 and you'll see what I mean. When it comes to Namor, I always thought of him the same way I thought of Aquaman. Kind of a useless superhero with nothing to add to anything. I was wrong about Aquaman and will admit it wholeheartedly. My comic guy told me to read the New 52 issues and I did. Honestly, they are some of my favorite comics. You can see that even the writers saw Aquaman as a useless super hero who talks to fish and only serves as a sidenote in any comic he's in. Could I be wrong about Namor too? While I was in Stuff Genie Curt was pricing some Namor comics and as we talked he mentioned that these were written by John Byrne so of course I then had to buy them. Issues 3-7, and quite a few others. I figured at some point I would read them but just kept putting it off. It's Namor, a hero I'm not even into. I only bought them because of who wrote them. They could just sit among the Future State crap until I felt the urge to pick them up. 

       Why am I even telling you all this? I don't know. I'm home sick and I figured why not add a little backstory. Set this all up before I review some of these. Being home sick sucks, but at least I can tackle some of my back issues. I have a bunch of old Daredevil comics to read, but here I sit on my Chromebook preparing to review Namor issue 5. Maybe I'm just delaying the inevitable. I know if I hate the comic there are going to be some people who will taunt me for my lack of Marvel love. I have softened up to Marvel in the short time I've been collecting and reading comics. I love FF, Daredevil and yes, even the X-Men. I hate to say it, but Marvel is like an old friend to me. As bad as some of their titles are, there are some that have won me over and made me see how wrong I was, DC is great, but let's be honest and admit lately they're just phoning it in. This isn't even about that. It's about Namor, the guy who talks to fish? I don't know a lot about Namor so let's pause this while I Google some facts. 

        Okay, that was about as much fun as you would expect. Anyway, issue 5 is my first look at Namor aside from the usual cameos in other comics. Yeah, he's as boring as I thought he'd be, but the art more than makes up for it. You also have Byrne's story which is really really dated and deals with an oil spill of all things (No! Not the ocean! Namor's gonna be mad at you) and yeah, it's one a trope you would use when you have a super hero who is water based. The thing that saves it, or tries to is the cameos of Reed, Sue Richards, and Iron Man which almost makes it feel like Namor is guest star in his own comic. While I may make light of this, I didn't hate it. It was exactly what I expected it to be. It's a lot of fun despite the serious tones of the terrorists who threaten to use the oil spill as the matrix of moral and physical corruption. They promise to do this by detonating  a second bomb that will ignite the spilled oil. 

      You know exactly how this is going to end and you know what? Sometimes that's all you need. You kind of forget  how dated it is story wise. Was it a perfect book? Of course it wasn't but sometimes all you need is a story that shows the superhero winning. You don't care if the bad guys are caught and if you do? Well, maybe that'll be resolved in the next issue. It's superhero 101 and it shows that you don't need to be all dark and brooding to make a comic good. All you need is a c level hero, an oil spill and awesome guest stars to lure people in. I'm curious to see just how it all develops and will review some more of these as I read them. Namor #5 is a solid three from me which means while it may not be a classic it's still a decent read.      

         3 stars from me and now on to issue #6!