The Quest!

I recently read again the debut Sub-Mariner story "The Quest" in the new Essential Sub-Mariner. The story begins in Subby's first solo story in Tales to Astonish #71 with his return to Atlantis after his clash with Daredevil.

He finds Krang has usurped the throne and that his people have seemingly turned against him. Even Lady Dorma seems miffed and helps to capture the deposed Namor. But things get complicated and she helps Namor escape to begin his quest for the trident of King Neptune. Namor battles an octopus to gain a clue hidden in a shell, then follows that clue to another location where he battles a Seaweed giant which guards another clue which leads Namor to yet another clue in an undersea valley of diamonds guarded by a demon. While Subby is following his quest he is aided by an old Atlantean named Vashti and Lady Dorma has been caught by Krang and sent to hideous creatures called the Faceless Ones as punishment for spurning the tyrant. Namor is informed of this by his loyal fish and he abandons the quest to save her, only to find that his selfless act has in fact won the prize of the mystical trident for him and he uses that to defeat Krang and win back his throne.


Reading all of the issues in one sitting it's easy to dismiss the sense of scope this story had in the original. It does seem that Namor is only swimming around the local Atlantean area as he's under surveilance by Krang most of the time. Vashti seems to find Subby very easily and the distance to the Faceless Ones seems very short indeed. Also the fickleness of the Atlanteans is hard to keep in focus as the story unfolds. They seem fed up with Namor in the beginning but very quickly they find Krang's taxes unwieldy, leading to a revolt that is largely unsuccessful.



The romance of this storyline is neat though. There's a break from the then steady drumbeat of superheroics here, with the setting giving the story an almost sword and sorcery feel at times. The magic is real and apparent in contrast to the technology used by Krang. In this story in fact we seem almost to see Namor using the ancient ways to unseat the modern master of war, and maybe that was what Stan wanted to say afterall.



"Adam Austin" is the artist here. That's of course Gene Colan's pseudonym in his early Marvel efforts, and his work here is typically fine. Though I will admit he seems to have some difficulty with storytelling here and there and the use of larger than necessary panels. The series limited to half a comic moves a tad slowly sometimes due to Colan's trademark big panels. The Atlanteans too seem a bit generic in their look. Vinnie Colletta inked all the chapters of this series to date, and possibly his influence is involved here. The covers for the series are pretty nifty though, the debut by Kirby and the subsequent ones by Colan. The cover for issue #71 is one of my fave images of Subby.



All in all this is still a dandy read. The story holds up nicely. Subby wouldn't have an epic this sprawling for quite some time, not until he heads for Lemuria. But that's after he gets his own comic and sadly isn't included in this volume.

Rip Off