9:27 PM
Brad
Cover Date: September 1963
Plot Overview: Namor has found the citizens of Atlantis and take his place as their king. Lady Dorma professes her love for Namor while Warlord Krang professes his love for Dorma. Namor has decided to exact his revenge on the surface world with the armies of Atlantis.
We switch scenes as the Thing and Torch are up to their usual antics around the Baxter Building. Reed breaks things up and says the group needs a vacation. Strange sea creatures have been spotted so he booked them a cruise. While out at sea, Johnny spots a monster. The FF head out to sea in a boat and are captured by Namor. He tells them to warn the U.N. of his coming and then expels them back to the surface.
Reed and a professor tell the U.N. of Namor's origin. How he is the product of a marriage between a surface man and an Atlantis princess. After their discussion, Namor reveals himself, he was disguised as the professor, and Atlantis invades New York. The Torch counterattacks but can only do so much damage by himself.
Meanwhile, Reed has developed a device to fight the Atlantis invasion and sends the Thing out to catch a prisoner. The Thing eagerly follows orders and brings some soldiers back. Reed notices that they can not breath water and knows he can use his machine. Reed's machine works and Atlantis is forced to retreat.
The last half of the issue is a giant brawl between the FF and Namor. He captures Sue at one point and takes her to his main ship. The Lady Dorma gets wind of his affection towards her and tries to drown Sue as a result. Sue is nearly lost until Namor and the other members of the FF put their differences aside briefly to save her. Sue ends up recovering and Namor returns home. Upon his return, the other citizens of Atlantis have left him. He chose the surface over them and they abandoned him for it.
My Take: This was a 37 page story with a ton of action. It really felt like a culmination of the Namor appearances in the Fantastic Four book up until this point. Namor got a lot of screen time here and they really developed him in a big way. He is a much more tragic character and you can see the seeds of him being more of an anti-hero than a villain in this issue.
After that, it feels like they have the Fantastic Four formula down with this Annual. The Torch/Thing antics feel right, the Reed/Sue relationship feels right. The book just feels like the Fantastic Four now.
This was a really great annual. It had bios on most of the villains from the series up to this point and it reprinted the origin of the FF from issue 1 as well. This would've been a fantastic buy for 25 cents when it was initially released.
I left my review a little vague on the details because of the length of the story on this one. The fight was pretty big and long and I didn't want to give away too many of the details on this one. Honestly, if you were to read an early Fantastic Four issue, you should check out the Annual. It was a really good tale.
I give this ****1/2 out of *****
Notes: This book features the first appearance of Warlord Krang. He'll be around as time progresses. I wouldn't call him important by any means. This book also features the re-introduction of Atlanteans, Lady Dorma and many other characters into the Silver Age of Marvel. The Atlanteans will be an important part of the Marvel Universe going forward. Lady Dorma is mostly a side character with a minor role in Marvel history.
Next Issue: Fantastic Four #19
Posted in: Alicia Masters,Emperor Thakorr,Fantastic Four,Human Torch,Lady Dorma,Leonard McKenzie,Namor,Princess Fen,Reed Richards,Sue Richards,Thing,Warlord Krang
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