Sub-Mariner: Marvels Snapshots #1

Mar 2020
Alan Brennert, Jerry Ordway

Story Name:

Reunion


Synopsis

Sub-Mariner: Marvels Snapshots #1 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4.5 stars

1946: Betty Dean’s brothers are home from the War with Frank happy, Jimmy minus a leg, and Lloyd drinking because of combat fatigue, which Betty disapproves of. She has a new hairdo because she is going out with Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner….

The next day, Betty takes Namor to Palisades Amusement Park where he has a lot of trouble relaxing until he spots the pool. He dives in, soaking Betty with his splash and must apologize. The sound of gunfire from the shooting gallery gives him a flashback to the War. He enters the grocery pitch, throwing balls at stacked cans and he wins several bags of groceries for a poor family. Then he hears real gunfire and heads to the ticket booth where he finds his old enemy Verrill Shark in an armored shark suit, robbing the park. Namor easily clobbers the henchmen and he tears off Shark’s chest plate and sees a swastika and goes berserk, brutally beating Shark and wrecking the park which is quickly evacuated. Whizzer shows up in a flash and begins ferrying people down from the roller coaster and the rest of the All-Winners Squad (Captain America, Bucky, Miss America, Human Torch, Toro) arrive soon after. Cap and Torch try to calm Namor down and fail while Miss America seizes Shark and drops him in the River which turns out to be a mistake as he tries to swim away and Namor pursues him and throws him back to the Park. The assembled heroes again try to stop Namor who reminds them of Bitburg, where they liberated a concentration camp and Namor saw the ovens and the mass graves and since then he has no mercy for Nazis. He rips open Shark’s armored suit but Whizzer is able to whisk the baddie away and hand him over to the police. Betty tries to talk Namor into getting therapy for his pain but he refuses and flies away, leaving Betty to scream about loving him but always being left behind. Miss America (Madeline Joyce) takes Betty to a tavern and tries to convince her that she (Betty) is the one responsible for Namor being considered a hero rather than a villain but now she finally knows that any hope of a future with Namor is gone; Madeline gives Betty her number to talk when she needs to….

Betty goes home and apologizes to Lloyd and they make up and learn to appreciate each other’s wartime troubles.


 

Review / Commentaries


Sub-Mariner: Marvels Snapshots #1 Review by (November 9, 2021)

Review: An intense look at Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner and how he will never be tamed, no matter how much Betty Dean fantasizes about a commitment. And while Namor is smashing everything in sight, experiencing his own brand of PTSD, the story is really about Betty. She is shown to be in love with Namor and reveals they had been “intimate” as the comic puts it but he doesn’t return her love, at least not in the same way and when pushed he sees her—and all his human allies, as too different from himself. And in the end, it’s she who needs therapy to get over the horrors of war like any other veteran. Sensitively written (while being full of action), the featured art by Jerry Ordway does not have the Alex Ross realism associated with MARVELS but echoes the Golden Age for its own effect. Very good.

Comments: Everywhere else the title is given as SUB-MARINER: MARVELS SNAPSHOTS; we’re a bunch of rebels. This Captain America and Bucky are William Naslund and Fred Davis, the second heroes to use the names. Verrill Shark was introduced in the Golden Age SUB-MARINER COMICS #23, returned in the Silver Age INVADERS ANNUAL #1, and now makes his third and final appearance to date. Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey was open from 1898 to 1971. Combat Fatigue among veterans is now called PTSD. The usual in-joke: Everett’s Tavern is named after Namor’s creator Bill Everett. The title, “Reunion” would have been a better fit for MARVELS SNAPSHOTS: FANTASTIC FOUR.



> Sub-Mariner: Marvels Snapshots comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
statue
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Preview Pages




Jerry Ordway
Jerry Ordway
Espen Grundetjern
Alex Ross (Cover Penciler)
Alex Ross (Cover Inker)
Alex Ross (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Travis Lanham.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Human Torch
Human Torch

(Jim Hammond)
Sub-Mariner
Sub-Mariner

(Namor McKenzie)
Toro
Toro

(Thomas Raymond)

Plus: All-Winners Squad, Betty Dean, Bucky (Fred Davis), Captain America (William Naslund), Whizzer (Robert Frank).