Real wack. He was stuck in the disco era, still rockin’ the open vest, ballerina slippers, and with no writer having ANY idea what to do with him. That said…

#20 – Namor 16

John Byrne always did draw a MEAN Danny Rand.

I would say in the Terrible/Bad/Eh/Meh/Ok/Good/Great, Byrne’s Namor run for about the first 20 issues was strongly in the Ok-Good range. It was never steadily great, but this was a great issue. Worth picking up.

Looking back, it seems pretty wack, but I only have warmth in my heart for this weird toy.

I think if I had to explain this to someone under the age of 16 at this point, I would say…

“Well, it was before the internet. And before handheld mobile devices; it even predates the original gameboy. So, imagine something you could carry around and “watch” a story, but there’s no audio. You had to read along with it on the screen. You couldn’t use it in the dark, really.”

“I don’t think you’d be into it.”

But man – look at how cool those viewmaster slides look.

I could be alone here, but I really like Namor’s look in this piece. It’s somewhere between Prince of Atlantis and Beavis from “Beavis and Butthead”.

Ebay insider wisdom here: Because the origin of the piece can’t be verified, use the “Make Offer” button and see if you can’t get this for $100. At that point, even if you never go to the trouble of finding its credentials, it’s a steal.

He’s just that cool. Let’s talk about this, a vintage 1960′s Marvel poster featuring the man himself, Namor.

1. Can you picture someone tripping out in their garage, staring at this poster? It’s a little bit weird to think about this guy charging at you in the midst of an altered state of mind.

2. Imagine showing up at the house of your former high school crush, who’s now happily married with children, and just taking her out for a date. Now imagine that’s not a house, it’s a SKYSCRAPER. And you’ve done it so many times that you brawl the husband on the regular. And the wife still will go out for the night with you. She can’t deny the feelings. And you just revel in this. THAT’S HOW NAMOR ROLLS.

3. What’s with the cape in this poster??

4. He’s the King of Atlantis. And on top of that, he doesn’t have blue fins or prominent gills. He can throw on a suit and boom~ just a sharp looking dude with slight Euro trash leanings.

5. The first mutant. Currently he’s throwing the moves on Emma Frost, aka the blonde significant other of the leader of the X-Men. No bigs.

6. No, really. What’s with the cape?

7. He’s gone toe to toe with every hero in the known world – and still they come back to him in their time of need. And who is also one of his main “go-to” pals? Just Dr. Doom.

Namor rules, ok?

Of course, the only way you’re gonna see it is if you still own a VCR, or if you get sketchy and buy one of the many bootleg dvd copies floating around the ‘bay (see what I did there? Subtle).

On a related note, in 1993 or 1994, I used to tape songs off of a local music show on Sunday nights, focusing on all bands from the Boston and Providence areas. One of these songs was about Namor; it may have been a version of the cartoon theme but hearing it, I don’t think so. All I remember is that the hook went “NAMOR the Sub Mariner, NAMOR… the Sub MArinnnERRRR duhna nana duhna nanana na duhna nana duhna nanana na”… I remember literally nothing else, other than that there was also a band called Are We Dead Yet? on the tape with it, but that little snippet has been stuck in my head for years. If anyone has a clue, for the love of Attuma please help me out. For that matter, any one with any Are We Dead Yet? info, I’d dig that as well. These mysteries have been haunting me for years now…

It’s amazing to think about how much he smokes other sea characters.  (Looking at you Aquaman…)

But here’s the thing. In most of our readership’s lifetime, he’s never had a successful series. This was probably the closest. John Byrne was coming off a decade on the top. Honestly, the eighties were enormous for Byrne. Imagine just owning the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Superman and brief appearances on Captain America, Batman, and the Avengers? Unstoppable. But then he came “into the 90′s” – and brought a whole lot of Miami Vice and Wall Street with him. Namor became a high powered corporate executive. Right down to the slicked back hair, this title felt odd even when it was on the newsstand. However, I did like it. There were certain arcs that really worked and I definitely was feeling the addition of the Griffin to the cast. If you are a fan of any of the collected works of Byrne, be it FF or Alpha Flight or Superman, you should check this run out. I would’ve loved to see where he would’ve gone with it, however he left after 22 issues – relatively short for the length of which Byrne ran on many of his classics.

One of the first Marvel characters. 

One of the BEST Marvel Heroes. Also… One of the BEST Marvel Villains.

I never realized this connection, but the cover of this issue reminds me of the artwork for a certain classic punk / hardcore / metal record (the uncensored inner sleeve is what I’m referring to, of course). Check out the images around Namor. The ills of his world indeed.

1. Beating the snot out of Reed Richards and the Thing.

2.  Beating the snot out of Attuma (or some other evil Atlantean)

3. Atlantis crumbling (how many times did that happen?) 

4. Pretending to be homeless / “Memory loss”

Zero bids so far. I can’t think of a better way to spend $10 then to open the bidding here. John Buscema is a legend.