Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #7 (Sub-Mariner story only)
Cover Date: Nov 88
Title: "From sea to deadly sea"
Credits:
Hollis Bright - Script
Steve Ditko - Plot
Steve Ditko - Penciler
Dan Adkins - Inker
Mike Rockwitz - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor

Review/plot:
Ok, finally a fourth story in Marvel Comics Presents that doesn't feature a character that already has his own book. Sure, he was recently an Avenger, but at least he isn't currently! And sure, Steve Ditko is currently drawing and plotting Speedball, but i don't mind seeing him tackling a classic Marvel character (and everything about this story emphasizes Ditko's better points). I don't know anything about scripter Hollis Bright except that she seems to have exclusively written short stories in Marvel Comics Presents and Marvel Super-Heroes, except for one issue of Namor.

The plot here has Namor investigating the Bermuda triangle and coming across a pair of renegade Atlanteans named Ruthar and Zoga. They have a scheme with a surface worlder who sinks ships for them, supplying them with weapons. And beyond that, Zoga has mutated some sharks...

...and himself with some poisonous gases in the area.

Namor defeats the duo thanks in part to the help of some seaweed.

It's an absolutely inconsequential story (although i don't see why more couldn't be done with Zoga in the future) but it's fun and nice to see that Ditko can still do something that doesn't feel entirely retro. I mean, it's still very retro...

..but in a way that doesn't feel like it's retro just for the sake of being retro. Ditko is generally more successful the less normal the environment that he's drawing, and so this underwater story works well enough.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Namor compares the mutated sharks he fights this issue to Marrina, who he was forced to help kill in Avengers #293.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A