No One Does Revenge Like Namor

[commodus]

From Avengers #9. Written by Jason Aaron and with some great art by David Marquez.

So, Namor's a funny one, isn't he? When he's not helping to save the world, he's often putting it in danger himself with his homicidal temper tantrums. This makes him one of my favourite characters, because whilst you could legitimately call him a hero for the numerous good things he's done, he's got the heart of a villain, with all the theatricality and brutality that implies.
In the case of this issue, he's already beaten his old friend The Stingray half to death, literally siccing a pack of sharks on the poor guy. But he has something far nastier planned for a group of Roxxon workers he captured...

Comments

[cricharddavies]

I'm a little unclear why killing people who work for an oil company makes Namor the bad guy.

[matrix_dragon]

The bosses of people who apparently murdered people and hung them from the side of whaling boats. You could argue about the political problems of him executing them on American soil, but other than that...

[gnarll]

Yes, they came into his nation and murdered his citizens. I don't see how anyone would object to his executing them in accordance with local law.

[commodus]

Frankly, that's far less villainous than what he did to Stingray. I just love the flourish of it though. He allows The Avengers to take them into custody, for the sole purpose of killing them later, to prove his own power. He's so vindictive it's actually kind of endearing.

[katefan]

Yeah, what he did to Stingray really does seem to put him over the edge in regards to ever being a hero again.

Kind've sad. I've been a fan of Stingray going way back to his teaming up with The Thing in Marvel Two-In-One...and now I feel oh so old...

[commodus]

Funnily enough, I had no idea who Stingray was before this issue. But I really liked his design - and I love manta rays in general - so it was a really good introduction to the character for me. I recently purchased the first appearance of Stingray (At least I think it is?) on comixology, and will probably post some of his fight with Namor in that issue, because it's interesting to see where they started and compare it to Namor's actions in this issue.

[katefan]

Wouldn't it be weird that in dying Stingray became more popular than ever as people like you decide to find out who the hell the guy actually is? I'm thinking it won't bring him back, but chances are we might be seeing Stingray ver. 2.0.

Judging by current trends it'll probably be a teenage girl...

[draganoche]

He only decided to kill those guys after atlantean children ran away to the surface world & choked to death while humans laughed at them.

Also Stingray is alive.

[katefan]

You have proof that he's alive? Or is that a tone of desperation from the lone member of the Stingray Fan Club I'm sensing?

[draganoche]

Steven says in the next issue that Namor 'damn near killed' him.

[katefan]

Thanks, I didn't know.

[kore]

Or is that a tone of desperation from the lone member of the Stingray Fan Club I'm sensing?

Whoah, dial it back.

[katefan]

Funny how the statement set you off but dragonoche saw my statement as the joke it was. See how polite our exchange was? Like a couple nerds joking with one another.

You should dial it back, dude.

[gnarll]

Did they have to give him more powers? He has so many, just using some of the less seen ones would have been much tidier. On the good side, the art is wonderful.

But really, hydrokinesis and personality transplant... this is Ultimate Namor, right?

[commodus]

Not really. He's always been haughty and prone to violent outbursts, so this is perfectly in keeping with his personality. Honestly, I'd say the bigger change of his character was when he joined the X-Men.

[gnarll]

The X-books spent some time on why he would join the X-Men. He also joined the Invaders, Defenders, Avengers and probably the FF at times. Also married into Alpha Flight. He joins teams.

The issue with Stingray wasn't the violent outburst or the violence. It was the fact that Stingray was a friend of his, and the speed with which he was moved to violence. Highly out of character.

Also, Hydrokinesis should be a very broad hint.

[commodus]

I'm genuinely surprised to learn that he joined the Fantastic Four. I can only imagine it must have been very awkward considering their past!

[gnarll]

I am not sure if it was an official join. But hes been with them on a number of occasions. Other teams hes joined include the Cabal, the Illuminati the All-Winners Squad, Dark X-Men, Deep Six, etc. Guy never met a team he didn't want to join it seems.

I don't think any lived up to his memories of his youth with the Invaders though.

[agharta75]

Namor now has the power to make water rise from toilets?

[bruinsfan]

Must be some plumbing system, to vent into seawater from New Mexico.

[kore]

Yeah, I used to live in New Mexico. That is not how the water supply works there. Yeah, comic science //handwave.

I'm actually more annoyed by RED SANDS "federal pententiary" -- "Red Sands" is Texas. White Sands is in NM but that's military aerospace. There's no federal pen in NM, either -- there are two contracted ones, mostly for ICE. Writing about inmate deaths in an NM prison is more than a bit tasteless, anyway.

[lordultimus]

Well, going by Invaders, it's looking more and more like Namor is being manipulated through outside influence.

[commodus]

I really hope that's not the case. It's such a cheap cop-out when comics do that.