NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER
Real Name: Namor McKenzie
First Appearance: Marvel Comics (Vol. 1) #1, April 1939
Powers: Born in late 1920, Namor is the son of Atlantean Princess Fen and American human sailor Leonard McKenzie. He is a mutant hybrid, possessing the various traits of his people, the Homo Sapiens and Homo Mermanus (Atlanteans), as well as additional abilities unique to him.
Unlike fellow Atlanteans, he is fair-skinned instead of blue-skinned. He is superhumanly strong, able to lift 100 tons while in contact with water. Even when active on the surface, he generally remains sufficiently strong to lift 85 tons, but prolonged time without renewed contact with water causes his strength to decrease proportionately. Prolonged dehydration (without any water contact or consumption), combined with repeated exertion, can reduce his strength to Class 10 or lower and even bring him to the brink of death, although even slight contact with water will immediately restore him to a semblance of health.
He is amphibious, capable of extracting breathable oxygen from atmosphere or water. Like all Atlanteans, his body is adapted to deep underwater pressures. This grants him a prolonged lifespan, augmented vision to penetrate ocean depths and specialized blood circulation to withstand freezing temperatures. His stamina and endurance also enable him to survive in outer space without protective garb, although he would still require a breathing apparatus. Even point-blank gunfire cannot penetrate his skin. Namor can survive indefinitely either underwater or on land, although too much time spent in one environment without contact with the other can induce manic-depressive mood swings.
Namor possesses superhuman reflexes, agility, and speed. His dense underwater-adapted body can move easily through a thicker medium like water and withstand the great pressure of living on the ocean floor. Unlike all Atlanteans, however, his physical abilities are dramatically greater. He can swim as fast as 60 miles per hour and has fin-like wings on his ankles which are inexplicably capable of providing enough lift for him to fly at similar speeds. In addition, the Sub-Mariner has certain abilities which are only rarely used: He possesses a telepathic rapport with many forms of marine life, allowing him to psionically communicate with and command them. He can also adapt this talent for communication with fellow Atlanteans. At times, he has demonstrated abilities similar to certain marine life forms, such as electric eel's ability to harmlessly absorb and redirect electrical currents (he absorbs electricity into his body and redirects it as charges of energy from his fists), a puffer fish's expansion and retraction of body mass, and a cavefish's radar sense, allowing him to probe his environment in order to determine the position of other objects, even invisible ones.
In the past, he has suffered a number of temporary changes to his abilities. At one point, his ankle wings were removed and his gills closed up so that he couldn't breathe underwater. Another time, his ability to breathe on land was affected, prompting him to use a special saturation costume to regulate his oxygen supply. As part of the Phoenix Five, Namor had the standard powers of cosmic fire enriching extreme telepathy and telekinesis which all Phoenix wielders have had since Jean Grey.
When not suffering from oxygen imbalance, Namor is an accomplished tactician, leader, and has proven himself to be a talented business executive as required (having been CEO of the environmentally conscious company Oracle, Inc. and owner of Hollywood film studio S.M. Studios). He is adept at designing Atlantean technology and reputedly speaks every language on Earth. He sometimes wields Neptune's Trident as both a weapon and a symbol of his royal status as King of Atlantis. On occasion, he has used Atlantean artifacts of power, including the shell-like Horn of Proteus that summons monstrous sea creatures, a statue that mesmerizes the user's opponent, and others. For a time, he wore a magic earring which he and his cousin, Namorita, who wore its twin, could use for communication purposes.
1 comment:
I was glad they made him an X-Man. Him acknowledging his mutant/x-gene heritage was put off for too long.
Technically Marvel’s first mutant character. Half-human, half-Atlantean, but all mutant.
Considers himself Atlantean and is accepted by his kingdom as such. Looks down on his paternal species as primitive. Gene Roddenberry probably got the idea for Spock from Star Trek using Namor given the similarities.
It’s also parallel to the real world scenario of a mixed-race kid. White dad, Black mother. Kid looks completely White, but was raised by his mother. Raised, grew up and therefore considers himself Black.
Also, those small ankle wings that enable him to fly have been the subject of some debate.
The main idea was that they really didn't do anything and were just part of his mutation, and his flight was self-telekinetic or a remnant of ancient Atlantean magic, or that they helped channel this power somehow.
I did read some ideas about an MCU version of Namor where all Atlanteans had them, but they were fins used for underwater travel and that Namor's were white and appeared to resemble feathered wings, which would logically make more sense, but hey maybe they were just really, really strong and powerful little wings.
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