Namor McKenzieNamor the Sub-Mariner

The hybrid mutant son of an Atlantean and a human, Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, is alternately loved and hated by Earth's surface population—often depending on his actions. As Atlantean royalty who defends his homeland fiercely, Namor has a massive chip on his shoulder. Threaten Atlantis, and expect a full-scale invasion. Get on Namor's good side, though, and he’s a strong-willed champion of the downtrodden.

Namor's not one to be homebound, though. He has been a member of the Avengers, the Defenders, and X-Men and has even formed his own pragmatic, villainous team called the Cabal when human morality got in his way. Whoever he works with, Namor is, above all, his own man. He has strong ideas about how the world should be and massive armies that listen to his every word. Namor's enemies and allies know very well never to cross the Sub-Mariner!

Avenging Son

The story of Namor begins when his human father, explorer Leonard McKenzie, uses explosive charges in the process of discovery that inadvertently causes damage to Atlantis. This gains the attention of Atlantean Princess Fen, who sneaks aboard his vessel to investigate the potential enemy. An unlikely friendship begins instead, and eventually McKenzie and Fen fall in love and are married. Though they’re separated soon after, Fen gives birth to their son, Namor.

Namor's name means "Avenging Son" in Atlantean, and he certainly lives up to it as a young prince of Atlantis. His mutant power of flight manifests during his youth. As a young prince, Namor joins with Lady Dorma and Attuma of the Chasm people, and with their Atlantean allies, the Swift Tide, to set out on a mission to retrieve a powerful magical relic, The Unforgotten Stone. Though when they find it, it releases a dark Eldritch energy that corrupts their allies from the Swift Tide, turning them into vicious and murderous creatures. The Swift Tide rampage across the ocean, destroying Attuma’s home and family and Namor, Dorma, and Attuma are too late to stop it. Coming back into possession of the stone thanks to Dorma’s pet fish, Ambrose, who secures it, it seems their mission was worth it, but it kicks off a rivalry between Namor and Attuma that would last for a century.

As he grows to adulthood, he frequently leads attacks against the surface world for their perceived transgressions against his people. Huge, destructive battles against Jim Hammond, AKA Human Torch, are frequent, as well as massive wars against the military. Namor wants the surface world to know that Atlantis would not to be trifled with.

During World War II, Namor allies with members of the surface world for the first time, sensing the danger to all humanity should the Axis powers win. To that end, Namor joins the Invaders, America's fighting force against them. Together with Human Torch, Thomas Raymond, AKA Toro, Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, and Bucky Barnes (later known as the Winter Soldier), among other heroes, he helps fight the Axis around the world. Namor also fights alongside a similar team, the All-Winners Squad, after the war comes to an end. But his turbulent relationship with humanity remains far from settled.
 

The Mutant Prince

Namor is stronger and tougher than most any human or Atlantean. He can go toe-to-toe with some of the strongest beings on Earth and come out unscathed, especially when underwater or doused with H2O, which increases his strength by extreme degrees.

Namor has telepathic abilities from his Atlantean heritage that allow to him to communicate and command not only sea life, but also fellow Atlantean soldiers, if need be. Namor increased longevity—he has a much longer lifespan than a human, and shows little signs of aging, despite being born many decades ago.

His mutant power is the gift of flight, represented by the tiny wings on his ankles. He can fly quite fast and for indefinite periods.

Often, Namor will use his flight to burst forth from the water and smash into an enemy with all of his considerable strength.

Aside from his natural strength, endurance, and abilities, Namor's intelligence and intuition are exceptional. He's equally at home leading a business in the boardroom as he is leading Atlantean armies.

Finally, as a member of the Illuminati, a secret union of the world's smartest heroes, Namor has been the caretaker of two of the Infinity Stones at different points: first, the Time Stone, and later, the Power Stone.

Aquatic Enemies

When Namor holds a grudge, it is usually for life. Several enemies—aquatic and otherwise—have made Namor's list, and woe be to them.

If Namor has an arch-villain, it is probably Attuma, a fellow Atlantean and ruthless warlord. He believes himself destined to conquer Atlantis, and he has attempted it on several occasions, succeeding more than once. During the most recent attempt, Attuma is stopped by Robert Reynolds, AKA Sentry, who kills him.

Krang—another high-level Atlantean warlord—is a brutal foe who crosses paths with Namor several times. Once, when Namor is presumed missing, Krang and Namor's love, Lady Dorma, begin a relationship. That ends upon Namor's return, and the enraged Krang never forgives either of them.

Namor considers fellow monarch Victor von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom, one of the few humans who is his mental and physical equal, though this concession is not quite returned from the egotistical Doctor. They are allies at times and bitter enemies at others, but each earns the other's respect.

Imperius Rex

Namor has made several fierce allies during the many years he has been in action.

The Atlantean royal lady Dorma is Namor's first and greatest love. While they are destined to be married, subterfuge by outside influences leads to Dorma's death instead. This sabotage devastates Namor, and he vows revenge against those responsible ever since.

Namor's next major love interest is the aquatic alien Marrina, a member of Canadian super-team Alpha Flight. Tragedy strikes this relationship when Marrina is forced to transform into her true form, a savage beast called Leviathan. Namor ends up having to slay her and never forgives himself for the deed.

Aquaria Nautica Neptunia, AKA Namora, is the adult cousin of Namor and, in a reversal of Namor's heritage, she is the daughter of a human mother and Atlantean father. She fights alongside Namor until her apparent death at the hands of an evil Lemurian named Llyra Morris, AKA Llyra. Years later, Namora reappears as part of the Agents of Atlas, a group of globe-hopping, old-school heroes.

Namorita is a younger clone of Namora. She poses as Namora's daughter, as cloning is illegal in Atlantean culture. She has the gift of flight like her relatives, and teams up with Namor many times, with the two forming a sibling-like bond. Namorita is also best known as a founding member of the New Warriors.

Just after the Kree-Skrull War, several of Earth's greatest minds join together to create a secret group called the Illuminati. Their goal is to monitor other-dimensional and extraterrestrial incursions into Earth and stop them. Namor is a founding Illuminati member along with Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, Dr. Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, and Blackagar Boltagon, AKA Black Bolt. However, Namor destroys an alternate Earth that threatens the prime Earth, leading to his departure from the group.

The Fantastic Four are among the earliest teams to count Namor as both foe and ally. While Johnny Storm, AKA Human Torch, first helps to restore Namor's memories, the rage at the seeming destruction of the Atlantean race leads Namor to launch an invasion of the surface world, with the Fantastic Four as the only ones that can stop him. When Namor takes a romantic interest in Susan Storm, AKA Invisible Woman, he becomes more of an ally to the team, even becoming a member of the Fantastic Four on a few occasions.

During WWII, Namor fights alongside Captain America, Bucky, and the original Human Torch (Hammond) as the Invaders, an Allied team designed to fight the Axis powers wherever they can.

When part of the Avengers lineup, many of the members protest his membership as Namor is infamous for his attacks on humanity. Eventually, Namor manages to prove himself to the world and his teammates while retaking Avengers Mansion from the Masters of Evil and fighting the Olympian gods. He also manages to discover the underwater cocoon containing Jean Grey, AKA Phoenix, who was thought to have perished.

The Sub-Mariner

Following his adventures before and during WWII, Namor's modern-day story really began when the treacherous telepath Paul Destine caused earthquakes in Atlantis and erased Namor's memory with the Serpent Crown. Namor was left an amnesiac for years afterward.

Early in the Fantastic Four's career, Namor, his memory still gone, was seen wandering in the Bowery district of Manhattan. Johnny Storm, the second Human Torch, stumbled upon Namor and returned him to the Atlantic, restoring his memory. However, Namor was enraged to learn that undersea testing by the Americans had destroyed the original site of his homeland and swore vengeance against the surface world, attacking it with the huge sea creature Giganto.

Though the Atlanteans escaped to another site and Namor was reunited with them, Namor still declared war against the human world. The Fantastic Four thwarted this full-scale attack. Returning to Atlantis, Namor attempted to marry his beloved Dorma, but outside treachery by Llyra of a rival undersea kingdom, the Lemurians, led to Dorma's death.

Namor would continue to be a complex figure among the Super Hero community, at times working against and alongside them. Shortly after the Kree-Skrull war, Namor agreed to join the secretive organization, the Illuminati, brought together by Iron Man. Their goal was to prevent Earth-threatening incursions before they happen.

Namor's first ongoing, public dynamic with others among the human heroes was when he joined the "non-team" the Defenders, with their loose, informal structure working well with Namor's temperament at the time. Namor would move to a much more official group with the Avengers after losing his Atlantean throne to Attuma. Namor then married the alien Marrina, but their happiness was short-lived. Her uncontrollable transformation and subsequent death at Namor's hands left him distraught once again.

Acquiring an environmental and conservationist-minded business called Oracle, Inc., Namor, along with his friends Carrie and Caleb Alexander, discovered sunken treasure to finance this business; their ultimate goal was to save Earth's oceans. To that aim, Namor fought a being of pure pollution called Sluj and lost his ankle wings in the battle, removing Namor's ability to fly. Still, Namor fought on, and along the way, he rescued Danny Rand, AKA Iron Fist, who had seemingly died months earlier.

As revenge for rescuing Iron Fist, the evil sorcerer Master Khan of K'un-Lun erased Namor's memory and sent him to wander in the Midwest. In the meantime, Khan took Namor's place and nearly ruined his business in the process, before Namor regained his memory and destroyed Khan.

Soon after this, Namor learned that an ancient witch-queen named Artys-Gran was impersonating his mother Fen in order to resurrect her husband, Suma-Ket. Namor died in battle with Suma-Ket, but Neptune, AKA Poseidon, himself resurrected Namor, restoring his ankle wings and bestowing upon him a set of golden armor. Restored to his kingdom once more, Namor used Oracle to finance the new Heroes for Hire.

After Namor’s cousin Namorita perished with her team the New Warriors as well as nearby school children and residents in Stamford, Connecticut at the hands of Robert Hunter, AKA Nitro, the Superhuman Registration Act followed—a law that enforced super-powered people to register with the government. Suffering such a personal loss, the Illuminati invited Namor back into the fold but Namor declined, seeking vengeance instead. Though the X-Man James Howlett/Logan, AKA Wolverine, found Nitro first, resulting in a battle between Namor and the mutant. Namor bested him, allowing Namor and his Atlantean brethren to take Nitro to Atlantis and torture him. Wolverine eventually caught up with them but when he discovered Nitro had killed Atlanteans, he allowed Namor to keep Nitro in custody.

Namor then assisted Captain America when the heroes came to blows over the registration act, thanks in part to encouragement from Invisible Woman, but Cap surrendered leaving Namor and his people to flee back to the sea. He lost several allies when siding with Cap and because he had hid several Atlantean sleeper cells within the United States.

Namor learned he had a son, Kamar, who wished to rule Atlantis and decided war with the U.S. was the way to do it. Namor evacuated the entire city in response, detonating Nitro after him.

The explosion destroyed Atlantis and killed Kamar, ending the threat of war. Because Doctor Doom was the only one who offered to help him and his people by offering refuge in Latveria, Namor formed a new team with Doom called the Cabal, adding Loki Laufeyson, AKA Loki, Parker Robbins, AKA the Hood, Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, and Emma Frost to their numbers. Eventually betraying the Cabal, Namor rebuilt Atlantis into New Atlantis, which was located just below the mutant city Utopia.

Though Namor was a mutant, he more notably embraced that label when he joined the X-Men. When Namor lost his throne to Attuma again and enlisted Norrin Radd, AKA Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Alani Ryan, AKA Loa, and Llyra to reclaim it, and a brief Defenders reunion followed.

During the conflict between the Avengers and X-Men, Namor sided with the X-Men as the Phoenix Force made its way to Earth. When Iron Man attempted to destroy the Phoenix, it instead split into five, each choosing a different person to merge with. As a result, Namor became one of the Phoenix Five for a brief time, gaining greatly amplified abilities. Becoming power mad, Namor invaded Wakanda, becoming the first entity to ever successfully invade that country, though T’Challa, AKA Black Panther, and the Avengers eventually took him down.

Rejoining the Illuminati, Namor's the ends-justify-the-means attitude led him to push the button and destroy an entire alternate Earth as it threatened to collide with his. The Illuminati then expelled Namor from their group, leading Namor to create a new Cabal to continue protecting Earth, this time including Black Order members like Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight.

The new Squadron Supreme then destroyed Atlantis in a misguided effort to protect the Earth, and Hyperion decapitated Namor in retaliation for the Cabal's actions. Luckily, time travel restored Namor to life soon after and he oversaw the rebuilding of Atlantis.

During a crisis where a Hydra-aligned Captain America sought to bring the world under their command, Namor would take a more dictator-like stance as leader of Atlantis. He believed that in doing so he was protecting his people from Hydra, which brought him into conflict with Namora, among others. Eventually admitting the error of his ways, Namor's ingenuity then saved the life of the Winter Soldier, who he helped hide among the Atlanteans.

Namor would then work with Jean Grey's new X-Men team, who made their base of operations inside Atlantis, and assist in their intended goal to create a nation of mutants. Offering them shelter came at a cost when Jamie Carlson, AKA Teen Abomination, attacked Atlantis, though he had been under the influence of powerful psychic foe Cassandra Nova.

The X-Men intervened and helped restore Teen Abomination to his true self while Namor provided an army of Atlanteans to assist the X-Men against Nova by waging peace. The Avengers joined as well and all of them wore copies of Erik Lehnsherr, AKA Magneto’s helmet to protect their minds, and thanks to allying with each other, they succeeded. Namor joined Grey and the others at the United Nations to offer a vision of the future where mutants and people with powers are accepted.

After the Final Host of the Celestials, a Dark Celestial invasion devastated Atlantis and Namor blamed the surface world. Namor began taking action. First, his warriors boarded a Roxxon whaling ship and attacked them, resulting in the deaths of the Atlantean warriors who were strung up in a brutal manner by Roxxon’s gunmen. In response, Namor attacked the ship, taking the gunmen as prisoners with plans to execute them. Meanwhile, the Avengers re-formed under Black Panther, and their first mission was to negotiate with Namor, who had been preparing to declare war on the surface world and began recruiting super-powered water-dwellers, such as Walter Newell, AKA Stingray, and Todd Arliss, AKA Tiger Shark. He gave them an ultimatum: join him or leave the oceans forever. Stingray declined, so Namor beat him to a bloody pulp and ordered his war sharks to finish him. After witnessing Stinray’s apparent demise, Tiger Shark joined Namor’s cause out of fear.

When the Avengers arrived under the sea, the guardians of Atlantis attacked them despite their request for an audience with their king. Namor battled Black Panther and the Avengers, but Namor seemed stronger than ever. Captain America intervened and warned him that should he execute the prisoners rather than hand them over to face the laws of man, he would suffer the blame. Namor reluctantly handed them over and told him to never return to the seas. The Avengers placed the Roxxon gunmen in a prison far from the ocean, but Namor had his revenge anyway by flooding the prison block and choking them with polluted sea water from their toilets.

In an effort to avoid repeating mistakes of the past, Namor chose to protect the seas instead by gathering his own team of Avengers, calling them the Defenders of the Deep.

He warned the Avengers at Hydropolis to stay out of the oceans but Namor’s piranhas nearly attacked innocent bystanders, leaving Captain America to save them at the last second. Namor’s Defenders saw Cap’s interference as an assault and began to fight. Namor threatened Black Panther with death and suddenly Russia’s Winter Guard intervened, seeking justice for crimes Namor and his people committed against the Russians in the Black Sea. A brutal battle followed but Namor ended the battle when he killed his piranhas and ordered his people to leave.

Namor continued to gather additional allies to his cause and sought out the Vodani, a race of people from the Vodan. His entreaties with them led to the deaths of their king Okun and his daughter Princess Kataw, who sacrificed herself. Namor’s plan to force an alliance with them helped him realize that he didn’t understand the Vodani culture.

He then threatened the Sea Blades to join him in his war efforts, with their leader Karris succumbing to his deadly threats. He began experiencing what seemed like PTSD from his time battling the Axis Powers during WWII. He began dreaming of an old, deceased friend from the war, Tommy Machan, who then manifested in his mind. Driven by this psychic projection, Namor launched several offensives on the surface world. His former compatriots from the war, Captain America, Bucky Barnes, and Human Torch (Hammond), tried to convince him to relent, but the Sub-Mariner beheaded Hammond instead and launched missiles at a coastal town in Maine—missiles that transformed the civilians into sea-breathers and Namor moved the ocean to help them survive. Namor then obtained the Serpent Crown and rebuffed Bucky and the Invisible Woman, who attempted to thwart his efforts. Cap and Bucky used Namor’s chemical weapon on themselves to give them the power to become sea-breathers and stop Namor and his allies. They traveled to Atlantis to retrieve a potential cure, Namor’s Genus Compound, but Roxxon stole it first. When Cap got ahold of it, but his efforts were spoiled when Roxxon agents fired on him and Namor, exposing them both to the compound, which transformed them into powerless versions of themselves.

Stranded on an island for weeks together, Cap appealed to Namor’s guilty conscience, believing there was still good in him. The pair soon found a Roxxon lab nearby and reclaimed the compound, restoring their powers. Namor ultimately rejected Machan, who had escaped his mind using the Crown and possessed Navy Commander, and his new lieutenant, Roman Peterson instead. Upon battling his enemy, he defeated him but his plan to execute Roman Machan was met with dissent from Cap, who warned him if he didn’t hand him over, Namor would be blamed for Machan’s machinations. Namor put his bloodlust to bed, departing in silence. Namor later sent a message to Cap expressing how furious Atlantis was over Machan and insisted he had destroyed the Genus Compound to maintain peace.

When the Dark Elf Malekith brought his War of the Realms to Earth[2], Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, requested Namor’s help in defending the planet. Namor refused but protected the seas and sent the Muspelheim Firesharks that had invaded the oceans and sicced them upon the Avengers at Avengers Mountain, sending a clear message that he still harbored ill will towards them.

When an Atlantean Dragon was captured by Mike Nguyen, CEO of the Big Nguyen Company, and used to power the city of Pan, the Pan-Asian portal city, King Namor granted the Agents of Atlas one day to return the dragon, or Pan would suffer the consequences. Agents of Atlas returned the dragon but once it was in Atlantis, it went berserk, leaving Atlantis in ruins again. Nguyen sent his allies, the Sirenas, to attack Atlantis and take their own revenge against Namor for the dragon’s destruction over the generations.

On the brink of all-out war, the Agents of Atlas tried to stop the fighting but Nguyen used Sirena tech to seize control over the Agents’ leader, Amadeus Cho, AKA Brawn. Namor brokered a peace with the Sirena’s thanks to the intervention of the Agents member Pearl Pangan, AKA Wave, and he worked with them to defeat the mind-controlled Brawn. They soon all had bigger fish to fry when the God of the Symbiotes, Knull, unleashed a horde of dragons on Earth.

The threat that Knull posed led all of Earth’s heroes and villains to team up. Namor released Kharsa and Sycorax—two imprisoned Atlantean Warriors from the corrupted faction called the Swift Tide—to help in the effort. But releasing them had consequences as they liberated their remaining imprisoned brethren.

When the fiery cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force arrived on Earth yet again, it sought its next host. It empowered several Avengers along with other heroes and villains, pitting them against one another to determine its new host. Namor and Maya Lopez, AKA Echo, clashed across the ocean floor with Namor besting her as others fought and won their own battles. However, the Phoenix chose Echo in the end.

After Professor X, Magneto, and Moira MacTaggert, AKA Moira X, created Krakoa, a sovereign island nation for Mutants, Xavier invited Namor to join, but Namor refused. However, when Magneto asked to lease an island from Namor, Namor bargained for his help in finding a team of lost scientists he had hired. Magneto helped him find the scientists and also saved Namor’s life from a Kraken.

With Magneto’s part of the bargain fulfilled, Namor allowed the Master of Magnetism to keep the island. Namor later attended the Mutant Hellfire Gala on Krakoa and rebuked another offer to join them on their council, and instead chatted with the Illuminati members.

Atlanteans grew weary of Namor as their king with many considering his reign a disaster. They rose up and challenged his authority, citing his recent acts—transforming surface folk into sea-breathers, the phoenix debacle, and plans to subdue the surface world—as failures. Namor tried to convince his people that they were there because of the wars he won and promised glory ahead. But the Sea Blades, the OctoPriests, the Defenders of the Deep, and the Black Tide united against him in their dissatisfaction. In the midst of the assault that followed, a brainwashed Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk, now called Winter Hulk, attacked Namor on the orders of Russia’s Winter Guard who sought to assassinate the undersea king and detonate a gamma bomb in Atlantis. However, Winter Hulk resisted the brainwashing, playing along with their plans to put a stop to them. Instead, Winter Hulk defeated the Red Widow and sought to defuse the bomb, but she was too late and absorbed 68 megatons of the gamma warhead unto herself. Meanwhile, Avengers Mountain had been infected by the Winter Guard’s ally Kenneth Hale, AKA Gorilla-Man, and its systems became useless.

She-Hulk burned through the infection and the threat was seemingly over , but they soon had another enemy afoot: a Multiversal Masters of Evil formed, comprised of the deadliest villains of their respective realities. The Avengers received a warning from reality-hopping Deathloks dispatched by the mysterious Avenger Prime, and when the Deathloks appeared on Earth-616, Namor and Dr. Jane Foster, AKA the Valkyrie, offered aid to the Avengers. Suddenly, Victor von Doom, AKA Doom Supreme’s Masters of Evil assaulted Avengers Mountain and a young Thanos attacked Namor, who sprang to action and fought him back. But Thanos detonated a massive explosion before escaping and the Celestial that was Avengers Mountain started to fall. Namor and T’Challa held up the mountain to keep it from falling on the Valkyrie’s head while she performed emergency surgery with the All-Weapon on Deathlok, who had suffered catastrophic injuries. After having assisted the Avengers, Captain America demanded that he was in Avengers custody as his recent good deed wouldn’t undo the last several months of bad ones. Namor accepted Cap’s terms and the Avengers accepted Namor as a soldier in the coming fight.