Sunday, July 28, 2013

The Age of Namor


Looking at some of Bill Everett’s earliest Marvel tales about the Sub-Mariner, from 1939-40, I am reminded what a perverse protagonist this character was — murdering people in fits of pique, helping others in manic spasms, wrecking Manhattan infrastructure like Kong.
Everett managed the difficult feat of an original take on the much-imitated Superman template – an anti-hero Superman, an amoral, arrogant Superman.
A Hollywood film about Namor as written could easily be a blockbuster. That’s both a compliment to Everett’s genius and a sad comment on the moral tone of our society, one that demands a Superman who breaks people’s necks.

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