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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2015 6:48:03 GMT -5
Oh My God does his head get stranger and stranger looking ...The whole thing is very disturbing. The cover of Marvel Mystery Comics #77 by Syd Shores is one I single out as being representative of Namor's appearance going completely off the rails. He seems to be suffering from hydrocephalus here. Disturbing is right! And until I saw this pic in this thread, I had NO IDEA that THAT is the triangle head you all were talking about. I never knew it was that terribly exaggerated. Also: going to share this in the Namor thread on CBR.
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Post by wickedmountain on Mar 10, 2015 18:53:08 GMT -5
No, I have not. But now I want to own them. That cover is beautiful (on the one pictured). That cover is cool I want to read it to lol
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Mar 10, 2015 19:24:46 GMT -5
The pufferfish maneuver was something Jack Kirby dreamed up while drawing that story. Namor never did anything like that before and never did it again. That's from Strange Tales #107. It's Dick Ayers working from a Stan Lee plot and Larry Lieber script. I don't think we can blame Jack for it. Didn't Fantastic Four # 9 say that Subby could mimic the powers of any sea-creature while Namor was doing the electric eel bit? If so, I'm fine with blaming the puffer fish on Kirby & Lee. Ayers was just following established canon.
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Post by Phil Maurice on Mar 11, 2015 16:00:49 GMT -5
Didn't Fantastic Four # 9 say that Subby could mimic the powers of any sea-creature while Namor was doing the electric eel bit? If so, I'm fine with blaming the puffer fish on Kirby & Lee. Ayers was just following established canon. Sadly, that appears to be the case. FF #9 is the only one of the first five Silver Age appearances of the Sub-Mariner that I do not own, and now I know why . This is only Namor's third Silver Age appearance, but all of the nuance and gravitas of his initial appearances are abandoned here seemingly for the sake of spectacle.
Namor purchases a movie studio and tempts the FF with the promise of a Hollywood salary to star in his freshman picture. Of course, it is all a ploy to defeat the FF. We are treated to cameo appearances by many of the stars of the day, and Namor does indeed exhibit several uncharacteristic abilities derived from sea creatures (though not the puffer fish; that was pure Larry Lieber). Here he is beating Daredevil to the punch by almost a year: Over in Journey into Mystery, Larry Lieber had been introducing similar never-seen-again powers for Thor and his hammer, like emitting anti-matter particles and producing a shower of sparks. These types of story elements always seemed more DC than Marvel to me, and the explanation for that surely lies in Liebers initials .
Nevertheless, the fact that Stan specifically states later on (in an editorial note in Marvel Tales #9 [July 1967], which reprints ST #107) that Namor no longer possesses these abilities suggests that he found them in retrospect to be incompatible with his overall vision for the character. I'm not sure whether a similar disclaimer had to be made in the case of Thor.
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Post by MWGallaher on Mar 11, 2015 19:37:49 GMT -5
It appears that Timely came to their senses between Sub-Mariner Comics #21, on sale in late 1946, when penciller Gustav Schrotter drew Namor like this: and Sub-Mariner Comics #22, on sale in early 1947, where Lee Elias pencilled him with a Caniffesque look: Bill Everett's work in both of these issues was in between the two extremes.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2015 20:00:48 GMT -5
It appears that Timely came to their senses between Sub-Mariner Comics #21, on sale in late 1946, when penciller Gustav Schrotter drew Namor like this: ^^^^^ Nightmares.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2015 11:33:38 GMT -5
Also: It seems to me that during the 80s, artists (some? all? don't know?) went through a phase where they drew him with a square head and flat top. I really dislike that look for Namor. It makes him look more like a basketball coach and even less half Atlantean. and I just opened the 1st issue of my Prince Namor Sub-Mariner 4 issue mini, and I see on the second page he has a square head. The flat top isn't as bad. Huh.
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