Bronze Age Babies: Oh, Heck No! Savage Sub-Mariner #67

Oh, Heck No!Savage Sub-Mariner #67

Sub-Mariner #67 (November 1973)
"Seawinds of Change!"
Steve Gerber-Don Heck/Frank Bolle

Doug:Look at that beautiful John Romita cover, will you?Man.I guess I've mentioned that a pair of days ago I won a Bronze Age lot on eBay, and have been picking out of it since it arrived.

his one's been on the back burner for review, but I thought I'd take a Sunday with it.Well.Much to my chagrin, Jazzy Johnny didn't do the interiors (really, I didn't think he would - but I was hoping for maybe Sal Buscema), but Don Heck did.It's been well-documented here that both Karen and I owe Don Heck some Silver Age love, but once we hit the Bronze Age.ugh.His design work is frequently very stiff, but I tried to pick panel samples that were flattering.Well, let's soldier on, as this is a significant ish.It's the introduction of Subby's much-maligned leather suit.For this young Marvelite, it's how I first knew him.

Doug:We pick this one up properly in the centre of a conflict between Namor, Orka the Killer Whale, and the She-Beast (and she's no looker, nosiree!).Orka has pinned Namor up against a huge coral reef and is threatening him with a large pod of killer whales.Now I'm no undersea expert, but Don Heck must get used a different credit than would I if I were passing to get these giant mammals.Namor senses the despair of the situation, so chooses a severe course - he launches himself into the reef, spinning as tight as he can.He basically drills his way (must have the toughest knuckles on Earth) through the entire organization and makes his escape.Problem (and not only with my suspension of disbelief):Namor is spinning so quick that he's out of command and is soaring through the water at an alarming rate.Seeing a sunken U.S. Navy ship as his landing point, Namor tries to modify his trajectory when he spies a great amount of cylinders of nerve gas.His effort fails him, and he crashes hard into the grace of the ship.Really?Shooting through all that very dense water near the rear of the sea didn't slow him at all, huh?

Doug:Upon Namor's impact, the gas explodes, bathing him in it.It also shoots him out of the ocean, to conveniently land about a rescue site.American officials are on an undefined mission and are being aided by the Inhuman Triton.Triton was sent by Reed Richards, and was yet given use of the Fantasticar.Once Namor lands and Triton sees that he's not in good shape, the Inhuman gives the Americans a stern tongue-lashing, admonishing their polluting of the Earth.It's Steve Gerber moralizing at it's utmost.

Doug:As Triton whisks Namor back to New York and to the Baxter Building, we see Orka and the She-Beast astride a killer whale riding triumphantly through downtown Atlantis.But at approximately that same time, the nerve gas released by Namor arrives and envelopes the city.All in the vicinity, including Orka, succumb to the gas and fell to the sea floor.The sole being immune seems to be the red-skinned alien Tamara.Meanwhile, in New York the FF decide to help Triton save the Sub-Mariner.Reed diagnoses Namor as having had his cellular structure. restructured.It's greatly inhibited his power to breathe oxygen from air.So, as we've seen before, Reed chucks the Avenging Son into the big vat of water that only happens to ever be seated round the lab.Namor soon awakes, and doesn't think a book that Reed says.You know what happens next - all hell breaks loose!

Doug:What follows is a four-page battle royal that effectively destroys the upper floors of the Baxter Building (again).Johnny attacks after a major-league slugfest between Ben and Namor.As Namor's been out of water for several minutes, doing nothing but expending energy, it doesn't take long for the Torch to take him down.Once under control, Reed's allowed to establish his solution to the problem.Now waitasec.when the heck did he have time to conceive this affair through, let alone build something?No way.But what we are told is that there is a custom-fit suit that will recycle the wet in Namor's pores, activated by his own body heat.MacGuyver couldn't have reinforced it any break or faster.

Doug:Verdict on this one?Where to begin?Gerber's script is very heavy into moralizing, not unlike what we got out of Archie Goodwin back in 1970 in Iron Man #25.I say the nature-aspect of an undersea story might lend itself to that.He does, however, have the part of the several members of the Fantastic Four.And Heck's art?It's OK - not the worst, but certainly indicative of Heck's period of decline.But I make to offer - in the big reveal of Namor's new duds on the final page, tell me that Jazzy Johnny Romita didn't draw Namor's head and face.Final opinion:average Bronze Age issue.I mentioned a pair of weeks ago that Daredevil sort of meandered along at the heart of the Marvel pack.That word may have gone hand-in-hand with this one.