Avengers #293

[iamrman]

Somebody must really have it in for Marrina. My money is on Editorial.

Elsewhen, Marrina reverts to her Leviathan form.

Marrina's offspring swim away to only ever be seen again in the background of one panel during Kurt Busiek's run.

Comments

[dan_ingram]

Well, Namor shouldn't be married. It makes the WW2 veteran look too old.

[scorntx]

Too old and unrelatable to all of those readers who are not half-mutant Atlantean royalty.

[thanekos]

Loving the implicit acknowledgement of infinity that's " local Council war ", mildly annoyed at " Omniverse " as a way to tamp that down into a more immediately comprehensible singularity.

[beyondthefringe]

Yeah. That whole "well, you survived a local Council War, welcome to the much larger Council."

Makes you wonder if after surviving the local Council War, you're invited to regionals, and then state, and national, and then international -- it's Council Wars all the way down.

[mazway_75]

Captain Marvel" I don't know if I believe Thor is really a god."

Lady, you were held prisoner by the actual gods of Olympus only ten issues ago, come on!

And why is Black Knight suddenly talking like he really is from the 11th century?

[scorntx]

During Steve Englehart's time on the Defenders, Dane got turned to stone, and in an attempt to de-petrify him somehow his mind got sent back to the 12th century where he possessed his ancestor.
(there's that patented Englehart logic in action...)
He apparently decided to stay there, until he got his ancestor's body destroyed thanks to an incident involving demons, the Avengers and time travel.

Apparently the lingo rubbed off on him.

[beyondthefringe]

Poor Dane. I love him as a character, but he's another one where writers have struggled to make him relevant. This storyline is the end of him for a while as the curse overtakes him and he gets plonked into storage by Thor... but that's by no means even close to the end of the confusion and misery he'll experience over the years. The '90s will be so bad for him.

[mazway_75]

Except he'd been speaking like normal 20th century guy all through the Stern run and just a couple of issues earlier.

[scorntx]

Well, then the only explanation is that this is just what Dane does this week.

[scorntx]

"Should we be concerned Marrina laid some eggs while she was a monster, and that they hatched and swam off?"
"... naaaaah. I'm sure Namor will handle it."
"I, Namor, shall not handle it, because it's been a long day, my wife is dead, and I'm really feeling pretty bummed out right now."
"Guess not, then."

Earth's Mightiest Heroes!
(okay, maybe Simonson had a plan for them that he never got around to following up on. And given what just happened to Marrina and Monica they can be excused for taking five... but still... seems like a plot thread that probably should've gotten a little follow-up, even in an offhand "oh, yeah, we dealt with that" fashion.)

[beyondthefringe]

I feel like both writers and editorial hated Marrina given the way Byrne kept writing her out in Alpha Flight, and her treatment in Avengers. Yeah, aquatic characters can be a hard sell outside of aquatic storylines, which is why Namor has so rarely been a long-lasting member of a team and Aquaman and his various peripherals struggled for respect in Justice League and Teen Titans...

But Marrina really got the short end of the stick.

[bravest_spinja]

Marrina never really stood a chance:

Besides the perils of superhero marriages, Namor in particular is a fridge magnet. Having a redundant power set is probably also not great, especially in the 80's, and on an Avengers books (How many Pym particle users die in these crossovers?) And I think artists were kind of frustrated with trying to stay consistent with John Byrne's original unique look (Sasquatch went through his own set of shit.)

[blues32]

Couldn't Namor have used something that WASN'T a cursed blade to kill her? Like a piece of jagged metal from a sunken boat or something? Anything that wouldn't invoke a blood curse on Dane?