UNCANNY X-MEN #6: Sub-Mariner! Joins the Evil Mutants

It wouldn't be the first year of a 1960's Marvel Comic without Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner here to f. up all your s.!


Written: With the flair of Stan Lee
Drawn: With the air of Jack Kirby
Inked: With the care of Chic Stone
Lettered: On a dare by S. Rosen
Originally Published July 1964


This is the point where I am forced by convention to demonstrate that the genius of Stan Lee's "Marvel Universe" was that characters could regularly cross paths and everything was interwoven. That definitely helps when you're on your third consecutive fight between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and you need to shake things up a bit.

I think the Sub-Mariner is a pretty compelling character. And not because he's super strong and flies and has eyebrows on fleek or anything, but because he's one of the comic industry's rare gray-area characters. Forget being an "anti-hero," Namor is basically neutral - leaning toward villain, and yet not quite. He embodies the real-world complexities of conflict, that old saw about the bad guy being the hero of his own story, better than Magneto or Dr. Doom ever could. And he's been that way, crusading against man's industrialized folly and aggressions against the undersea world, since his late-30's creation, when comics were so new that such a hellraiser could be the lead in his own feature while still making war on mankind. So while his role in Stan Lee's new Marvel Universe was essentially as an antagonist, he isn't really, and the best aspect of this issue is that it plays that middle ground very well.

In one of their patented moments of synchronicity, Professor Xavier and Magneto simultaneously realize that Prince Namor, who has been in the news lately, might make a powerful ally (and might, in fact, be a mutant.) In order to spy on his would-be partner, Magneto demonstrates the previously-unseen and hereafter-unmentioned ability to project his consciousness outward like Professor X.

Magneto finds Namor in a rage over his recent failure to bed Sue Storm in the pages of the Fantastic Four. So he dupes one of Prince Namor's underlings into suggesting he seek out Magneto, convincing him that while Namor's gone, the underling can seize the throne for himself. It's a crafty plan, and could have led to an intriguing plot concerning Atlantis' internal politics, but you know how it goes, and at least as far as X-Men #6 goes, that aspect of the plot is dropped cold.

Namor arrives on Magneto's island* and acts standoffishly toward Magneto, who wins the Prince of Atlantis over by offering him the Scarlet Witch as a bride potential fix-up if he joins the Brotherhood. I don't know if this means anything to you, but years later it will be revealed that the Scarlet Witch is Magneto's daughter (apparently this was later undone but that doesn't take away the ick factor.)

*In the span of three issues, Magneto has taken over the government on one island, set up a hidden base on another, and had a floating asteroid base. Dude is so good at real estate, and so bad for humankind, he should run for President of the United States.

For what it's worth, both Namor and Wanda seem to be briefly into it, but the gender politics of the X-Men comic remain medieval.

The X-Men arrive to wreck stuff for Magneto as always. The same fight that the X-Men and Brotherhood have been having for three issues now ensues, but with Namor as the wildcard. Namor turns on Magneto when he sees him being dismissive and rude to Scarlet Witch, but opts not to join the X-Men either, since he's only interested in his fellow tweeners Wanda and Pietro - the latter of whom has been mentally roofied by Xavier to use as a hostage so that Namor will leave the team alone. You can always trust the Prof to take the high road.

The fight is basically a draw as Magneto beats a hasty retreat with the Brotherhood in tow - including the Maximoffs, who have blown up his spot in one way or another for the third scheme in a row. Namor joins neither team and returns to Atlantis where he presumably has to kick a nameless Sea-pretender off his throne.

Further Thoughts:

Jean has traded her cowl for a sleeker masquerade-style mask, so as to not mess up her hair. Nobody remarks on it, but it marks the first time an X-costume is tweaked.

She's also doing the food preparation at the X-Mansion since the previously-unmentioned cook has the day off, because women=cooking=emotional labour. Make of that what you will but after seeing Scarlet Witch get auctioned off for political purposes I don't have much gas left in the tank.