Submariner Solo books

[Kirk G]

A friend of mine came up with a "rare" comic at a flea market that he just "knew" I had to have....

Submariner #47, with the Red cover and Namor and Doom falling together.
I believe this was the issue AFTER Namor father is discovered and dies in his arms.

I believe this was a radical departure in direction for the series, giving him amensia (again!) and a new supporting character, Cindy, and a new more melodramtatic soap-opera style to the writing. (What ever happened to her? How about Diane Arliss? Walt Newell as Stingray resurfaces from time to time, and how about Senator Mitchell, the ecological senator that fronted Namor just prior to this?)

Does anyone know if Gerry Conway wrote the Submariner BEFORE that issue...cause certainly Gene Colan drew the magnificent "The Quest" arc from way way back in Tales to Astonish #70-75 and much of the run up through #90 or so.

Can anyone fillin in the background on WHY these creators went off on this future Avenger's tagent? And, if this issue is now sought after? I don't want it.

<b>PS: How many individual Submariner series (by any name, Namor, Subby, Savage, etc, have there been through the years of Atlas, Marvel, CCM, whatever??? :confused:

[Shellhead]

I believe that Sub-Mariner issue was reprinted recently in the Essential Super-Villain Team-Up. Actually, it would have been a reprint of a reprint, since that story was reprinted in Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1 or #2.

There have been several Sub-Mariner titles over the years, not counting the golden age stuff. Tales to Astonish was a shared title in the early 60's, with both a Hulk story and a Sub-Mariner story in every issue. Then there was the monthly Sub-Mariner title that ended sometime around issue #75, back in the early 70's. Iron Man and Sub-Mariner shared a title for one month in the late 60's or early 70's, and that has to be a rare and valuable #1 issue these days. Namor co-starred with Dr. Doom in most of the Super-Villain Team-Up issues, and he was a member of the Invaders when that was a monthly title in the mid-70's. Namor joined the Avengers in the late 80's for a while. In the late 80's, there was the Namor series pencilled and written by John Byrne. And then there was that manga-style romance comic a couple of years ago.

I don't remember how long Gerry Conway worked on Sub-Mariner. Back then, Marvel had more of a uniform house style, possibly enforced by stronger editors back then, so changes in writers were less obvious than now. Super-Villain Team-Up, for example, had at least a half dozen writers over the course of less than 20 issues, and yet the writing style is fairly consistent until near the end.

[Kirk G]

Yes, I recall most of this, but the issue I have, (Sub-Mariner #47) was from that first silver age run... but I'd be VERY surprised if it was reprinted in either a Giant Supervillian Team-up OR the regular issue. Namor is NOT on his game, behaving out of character...and certainly not super-heroic.

That one issue you refer to, Ironman/Submariner #1 was a collection of the "left over 10 pages" from each storyline that allowed them to kick both Iron Man #1 and SubMariner #1 a month after Captain America 101 and Hulk 102 continued on their merry way. So, the numbering of Tales of Astonished continued with Hulk in 102...and the leftovers from splitting the book were paired together for one more split book to get it off and running.

Now, does anyone know WHY marvel decided to split those four books apart then, and not years before? (It's quite a tale!)