Issue(s): Sub-Mariner #17, Sub-Mariner #18
Cover Date: Sep-Oct 69
Title: "From the stars -- the Stalker!" / "Side by side with... Triton!"
Credits:
Roy Thomas - Writer
Marie Severin & Jack Katz / Marie Severin - Penciler
Mike Esposito - Inker

Review/plot:
Jack Katz is credited under his pseudonym Jay Hawk.

Sub-Mariner Comics #36 had pretty much the most awesome story in the world, where some aliens came to Earth and suck off all its water. Namor decided to let the aliens keep the water, because it would kill all the humans on Earth, until he remembered that his people needed water too.

Golden Age aficionado Roy Thomas surely had that story in mind when he wrote this two parter, where a group of aliens come to Earth with the exact same scheme in mind...

...only much less awesomely they don't manage to execute it completely and Namor fights them every step of the way.

The aliens come from the twin suns of Alpha Centauri.

The main agent of the aliens, Dynorr, is known as the Stalker.

It's also said that they have two hearts, which really seems to mean that they get two lives, because the Stalker gets crushed by a ton of rubble at one point and then he gets back up boasting about his second heart, and i don't think it was just his heart that would have been injured.

If Marie Severin wasn't also the colorist of these issues, i would have bet money that she intended for these Alpha Centaurians to have awesome handlebar mustaches, but since she colored that part of their face the same as the rest of it, i guess that wasn't the case.

An ambitious priest named Kormok is invented for the story so that an Atlantean can betray Namor to the aliens.

The priest forces Namor to perform a quest involving the Trident of Neptune. The quest brings him to the original site of Atlantis, and while he is there he visits the grave of his mother, Princess Fen.

The Alpha Centaurian's back-up plan is to evolve a working set of lungs and gills, just like Namor...

...so they experiment on him a bit and in the process they disable his gills.

The Inhuman Triton was an early prisoner of the aliens...

...and at the end Namor gives him the Trident to return to the Atlanteans, while he flounders on the beach.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Namor loses the use of his gills for a bit.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Namor loses his gills during this arc so he shouldn't have any guest appearances elsewhere where he's breathing under water. Issue #19 begins with him still passed out on the beach, so it shouldn't be placed too far from these issues.

References:

• Namor acquired the Neptune's Trident in Tales To Astonish #70-76.
  
• Namor met Triton in Sub-Mariner #2-3.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Jay Hawk is better known as 1950s horror comics & 1974-86 First Kingdom artist Jack Katz.

Thanks Mark; i've updated the credits.

How does Marvel let Aquaman jump on the Silver screen as their most popular character without a Namor retort?? Namor needs immediate presence and a parlay into an original Defenders concept with Doctor Strange,The Valkyrie, Silver Surfer and company. The supernatural elements combined with Strange and Namor along with Marvels underwater effects would be awesome.. Cmon Marvel....