Issue(s): Marvel Super Heroes #10 (Sub-Mariner story only)
Cover Date: Jul 92 / Summer 92
Title: "I won't take 'No' for an answer!"
Credits:
Barry Dutter - Writer
Patrick Archibald - Penciler
Andrew Pepoy - Inker
Dan Cuddy - Assistant Editor
Rob Tokar - Editor

Review/plot:
This feels like a "just in case" fill-in that didn't need to be run. It didn't need to be run here, either, but that's what the Marvel Super Heroes book was for, to torture us with stuff that wiser heads realized didn't need to see print in the first place.

An evil business man named J.Q. Stamp forces other business owners to sign over their businesses to him, and then kills them.

Oh, and the Rhino is working for him.

He decides that Namor's Oracle is going to be his next acquisition. Frankly i'm surprised that he didn't get distracted by whatever that paper is reporting about on the back. "Woman in go-go boots meets tiny brontosaurus".

I'm also surprised that he wants to risk taking on Namor. But the guy is clearly an idiot.

"This 'Namor' character is proving to be a tougher sale than I anticipated. I asked him to sell me his company, and he said no. Frankly, I'm kind of stumped as to what to do next."

Stamp sends in the Rhino.

Namor hasn't been in water for a while, so he has a rough time with the Rhino at first.

But thanks to a swimming pool in his office...

...Namor is able to recharge and beat the Rhino...

...who really is kind of slow on the uptake.

But Stamp has more tricks in store, including a forcefield thingy...

....and the fact that he has the Alexanders held prisoner.

The Alexanders did have the right idea when they decided to leave Oracle so they'd stop being perpetual hostages for Namor, but i guess it's already too late. So Namor feels obligated to sign over his company to Stamp.

But then a new villain, the Tigress Shark, shows up to attack the CEO of Oracle for all the pollution it's been causing.

And Stamp agrees to sign the company back over to Namor if he'll save him from Tigress Shark. Who turns out to be Namorita.

Love Caleb shouting that he's tired of being a hostage.

A dumb story.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Namor still has his ankle wings at this point, but it's public knowledge that he's running Oracle. So this takes place between Namor #5-6. Namorita leaves Namor to go hang out with the New Warriors at one point, so this probably doesn't take place between New Warriors #2-3 when the team wasn't meeting. The Vision & Scarlet Witch and Ms. Marvel stories from this issue are in separate entries. Rhino is wearing a costume without the extraneous bands and spikes. It's possible that those items were removable from the suit that he wore them with, but the inability to remove suit itself was a major point to several Rhino stories around this time. He gets his suit removed in the Deadly Foes of Spider-Man series, and then in Amazing Spider-Man #344 Justin Hammer talks about giving the Rhino a "retro-design battle suit" as if for the first time. Since i don't want to push all of Namor #6-12 after Amazing Spider-Man #344, we can say that the Rhino got a temporary suit, either from Justin Hammer or elsewhere (J.Q. Stamp?), while he was waiting for Hammer to deliver a new upgraded version; Rhino does say in ASM #344 that he expected his new suit to be extra powerful. So i've placed this after Deadly Foes of Spider-Man, but before Namor #6 and Amazing Spider-Man #344.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Also fnord, don't forget Rhino is wearing his post-Deadly Foes of Spider-Man costume he got in Amazing 344.

Thanks, mikrolik. I have to admit, it just looks his regular costume to me. He's not wearing the extraneous armbands that he's been wearing recently, but that wouldn't be a consideration to me in and of itself. I'll be looking at DFoes soon enough, in any event.

fnord, the "Woman in go-go boots meets tiny brontosaurus" on the back cover of the Daily Bugle are probably inker Andrew Pepoy's creations Simone & Ajax...

http://simoneandajax.com/

Cool, thanks Ben.

I know it may seem trivial, but I still think this needs to be pushed ahead of Amazing 344, since Rhino's not wearing the banded, irremovable costume, especially since Deadly Foes and Spectacular Annual 11 made such a big deal of it.

But if you need to keep it here because of the Namor stuff, maybe you could comment that the artist drew the wrong Rhino costume?

Thanks for bringing it up again, mikrolik. I've moved this to after Deadly Foes based on your comments, but see my notes in the Considerations. Placing this after Deadly Foes (which i've done now) isn't great because the Rhino didn't get his (final?) costume until Amazing Spider-Man #344. But placing it before Deadly Foes doesn't work either for the reason you note.

I'll note that the MCP places the story before Deadly Foes. Maybe they are going with the "you can take the bands off" idea. But i guess it's equally OK to say that he had a temporary costume before the one in ASM #344.