Sub-Mariner Comics Primer
Series History
Due to the popularity of the Sub-Mariner in Marvel Mystery Comics the Sub-Mariner was given his own series in 1941. When the series started, The series included back-up stories starring the Angel up until issue #21. Through most of the run, the Sub-Mariner primarily fought the Nazis or, more commonly, the Imperial Japanese Army. Encounters with the latter, by today’s standards, are quite problematic. The general anger over the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, still this led to a lot of racist comments being made about the Japanese in this series. The series didn’t offer much in terms of recurring villains, except for the Python, who appeared in later issues of Marvel Mystery Comics.
With the end of the war, writers struggled with trying to find interesting foes for the Sub-Mariner to combat. In a lot of cases they had to go to some outlandish lengths to give Namor a waterway to swim in so he could chase crooks. In issue #23 Namor was joined by his cousin Namora after her first appearance in Marvel Mystery Comics. Namora was Namor’s regular sidekick for the remainder of the series. With the Angel no longer a backup feature, this became a revolving door for other characters. The Young Allies appeared one in Sub-Mariner Comics #22. The Blonde Phantom became an on-again-off-again feature in the series starting in issue #25 and lasting until issue #30. Issues #29 and 31 had back-up stories featuring the Human Torch and Captain America respectively.
Strange Numbering
The series has some bizarre numbering. After issue #23 a new title Official True Crime Cases Comics was published recycling the numbering from Sub-Mariner Comics. This was usually reserved for titles that were cancelled with the new series taking on the numbering of the old. This is the only case where that didn’t happened. The reason? Who the fuck knows.
Anyway, the series did meet its end in June 1949. By this point, superhero comics were becoming very unpopular and the series was cancelled after issue #32. That final issue also had Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett try to retell the Sub-Mariner’s origins and early adventures. Was this a last attempt to breath life into the series? Who can say. If it was, it didn’t work because the series was replaced with a romance comic called Best Love which took over the Sub-Mariner number.
However, this was not the end of Sub-Mariner Comics, the title was revived (continuing the original numbering) in 1954 when Atlas made a failed attempt to revive their superhero characters. For more on that revival check out our Atlas Era section.
Index Scope
Like other titles of the era, Sub-Mariner Comics also includes a number of one-page funnies as well as text stories scattered throughout its run. I hate these fucking things because they are boring and they have no value to continuity so. So yeah, I skipped them.
