Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1968-03-01 00:03:31 |
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Iron Man & Sub-Mariner #1 (Sub-Mariner)
Issue(s): Iron Man & Sub-Mariner #1 (Sub-Mariner story only)
Cover Date: Apr 68
Title: "Call him Destiny ...or call him death!"
Credits:
Roy Thomas - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Frank Giacoia - Inker
Review/plot:
Namor has been dreaming about a man, and his dreams have led him to an Antarctic cavern where the man has been waiting for him.
The man identifies himself as "Destiny", and attacks Namor with his "helmet of power".
Destiny also implies that this isn't the first time he and Namor have fought.
Namor's mind is slowed by the attack, and he's forced to listen to Destiny's backstory. Destiny was once a stage psychic named Mentallo (and this is a couple of years after the Fixer's partner was introduced in Strange Tales, but the flashback takes place decades earlier).
Destiny/Mentallo's powers were real, and he found himself drawn first to a library in a small town with rare books, and then to a location in the Antarctic Circle. He hired Namor's father, Captain McKenzie, to take him to Antarctica (it was during this voyage that McKenzie met Namor's mother, Fen). Inside a cavern, they discovered complex ancient machinery. Believing that the machine would increase his powers, Destiny activated it, and caused a cave in. Destiny survived, and found the power helmet.
Any further explanation is interrupted for the moment when Namor breaks free and attacks Destiny again. Destiny battles Namor with a Sonar Canon, and in the resulting fight a cave-in buries Namor in ice.
Quality Rating: C-
Historical Significance Rating: 2 - beginning the explanation of Namor's lost years.
Chronological Placement Considerations: This continues directly from Namor's story in Tales To Astonish #101. Namor is trapped under ice at the end of this issue, so i'm allowing a little time before his next appearance in Sub-Mariner #1 (but no appearances should occur in between).
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
| Previous: Hulk #102 | Up: Main 1968 / Box 4 / Silver Age | Next: Daredevil #35-38 |
Comments
Stating the obvious, just because someone has to: "Captain Billy's Whiz-Bang" is another Roy Thomas reference to the original Captain Marvel in Whiz Comics.
Well, it sort of is. It's actually a reference to the real magazine by that name that was published by what later became Fawcett and long pre-dates Captain Marvel. It's referenced (anachronistically) in the song "Ya Got Trouble" in The Music Man (the musical takes place in 1912, but the magazine didn't begin until 1919).
Thanks, Eric. Now that you mention it, I recall reading that in a letters page a few issues later.
For a long time I've wondered why Marvel published this Iron Man & Sub-Mariner special in-between the two characters' runs in Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish and Tales and each of them receiving their own series. Was it just a case of Marvel accidentally ending up with a couple of extra chapters that were planned for split books?
According to Wikipedia, yes, that's exactly what happened.
Captain Billy's Whiz-Bang was a joke book and was Fawcett's first publication. Ben Parker and C.C. Beck drew from it using Captain for Captain Marvel, Billy for Bill Batson, Whiz for Whiz Comics and Bang was the sound effect given for the thunderbolt.
