Issue(s): Sub-Mariner #47, Sub-Mariner #48, Sub-Mariner #49
Cover Date: Mar-May 72
Title: "Doomsmasque!" / "Twilight of the hunted" / "The dream stone!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Mike Esposito / Frank Giacoia - Inker

Review/plot:
This arc has everything, by which i mean MODOK.

Also, Dr. Doom and the Cosmic Cube.

But the Doom/Sub-Mariner team-up loses a little of its significance due to the fact that Namor currently has amnesia due to the trauma of losing his father last arc. I was thinking this might be a set-up for Super-Villain Team-Up, but nothing like that occurs (and that series was too directionless to really require a set-up anyway).

MODOK and Dr. Doom show a decent amount of mutual respect for each other, which is nice.

As much as we can expect for two villains written by Gerry Conway, anyway. It shows MODOK is pretty much on the A-list, and that neither is so egotistical that they just ignore the other.

Doom's motivation for seeking the Cosmic Cube is to restore his face. It's implied that if he could just fix his injury he'd no longer need to be a menacing arch-villain. I doubt it.

An amnesiac Namor insists on dragging around a lady friend named Cindy Jones that he randomly picks up half-way through the story, even as he and Dr. Doom battle MODOK and AIM and face the cosmic cube.

Dude has to have priorities.

Diane Arliss and Walter Newell (AKA Stingray) show up in a brief sub-plot contemplating Namor's strange behavior and Diane's affections for him. This is Arliss' last appearance in the Sub-Mariner series. She'll next show up married to Newell. This is also the last appearance of Senator Craig Winters, the politician that Diane and Walter convinced to try to push for amnesty for Namor. He said in his first appearance that the effort would probably doom his political career, and that does indeed seem to be the case.

More MODOK!:

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Doom tries to remind Namor of their previous alliances, such as in Fantastic Four #6. He doesn't mention Doom's tendency to double-cross Namor, though. He says that it was the tragedy of the death of Dorma in Sub-Mariner #36-37 that has caused Doom to reach out to Namor again.
  
• MODOK was thought destroyed in Captain America #133.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

It's implied in Saga of the Sub-Mariner in 1988-89 that Cindy was a hooker.

It's interesting how completely Conway misreads the nature of the Cosmic Cube, which he seems to equate with the "Great Whatsit" in Robert Aldrich's classic KISS ME DEADLY. In my opinion, the cube didn't really live up to its name until Starlin used it so well in the Thanos War.