SUB-MARINER #37 April 1971
'Two loves has Namor!! The Land... --and the Lady!' we read on the cover of SUB-MARINER #37, '...and one must DIE!' And for once the trademark over-the-top Marvel cover threats and warnings are not mere hyperbole-- because in this 'most SHOCKING saga of all' one of them does indeed (spoiler warning) die. And what a powerful cover image this is-- Namor's grim visage staring directly out at us, his features heavily shadowed, especially on the side of the divided frame which shows the prostate figure of Dorma surrounded by broken glass and puddles of water. And on the other side is Namor's enemy, Attuma, brutally hacking at a huddled Atlantean with a vicious looking barbed blade--
The previous issue of this title was over-laden with imagery and symbolism conforming to the eponymous protagonist's bonding in matrimony with the lovely Dorma (which, if you missed it, you can read here--), only to close with the cliff-hanger revelation that the scheming Llyra had tricked the Atlantean Prince into marrying her instead.
This issue opens with a brief re-cap, Namor recoiling in horror at the sight of the triumphant Llyra declaring herself to be "Queen of all Atlantis!" Roy Thomas titles this episode THE WAY TO DUSTY DEATH! a line borrowed from Shakespeare's MACBETH, a story which features its own evil Queen. (Thomas also employs the phrase 'turn to gall' in the opening caption, perhaps a more subtle reference to Lady Macbeth.) And artists Andru and Esposito seem to be enjoying the opportunity to depict this beautiful, deadly, dominant female-- the image of her thigh-length boots, forward-thrusting body and uplifted breasts surely implanting themselves on the developing minds of the book's readership back in 1971.
This Llyra is a formidable foe indeed, typical of the assertive female characters so beloved of many comic creators and readers, sexy and deadly at the same time. Typically depicted standing tall with her hands planted firmly on her hips she demonstrates effortless authority contrasted with the spluttering hunched-over males.
If you feel the need to research these kinds of ladies more, then you'll be pleased to learn I've already put in some hours myself examining the phenomenon, which you can find here and here--
See how cool and collected she remains while the blustering Sun-Mariner bellows and bawls and the crowd bays and jeers--
And see how much fun she's having taunting the Atlanteans, goading Namor flirtatiously to chase her--
But Namor is not prepared to play this game, Llyra learns that this testosterone-charged alpha-male is laden with "wrath" and "rage" and "raw power" and "murderous strength" which causes him to behave in a most ungallant manner, clutching her by her hair and threatening her with violence, prompting the elderly Proteus to interject somewhat belatedly--
Much to Llyra's horror the old spoilsport informs the newlyweds that their betrothal is void, and that since Dorma was the one who originally signed on the dotted line, it's Dorma after all who is Namor's true bride--
The aggressive Namor, robbed of his opportunity to beat seven shades out of the hastily departed Llyra, and deprived of his chance to satisfy his yearnings for the kidnapped Dorma is now overbrimming with unexpelled masculine energy, physically assaulting his loyal guardsmen and barking angrily at his advisors before turning his ire on himself--
But before he falls fully victim to "torrents of despair" he gets a chance to unleash his fury, discovering the trusted Ikthon has been double-crossing him, being in league with his enemy Attuma--
And he manages to get a lot of the surplus energy out of his system by taking on the huge metal earth-borer the nefarious Attuma is commanding--
And overcoming it using only his bare hands--
My previous look at SUB-MARINER examined the excess of penis imagery I felt was being used in #36. Not all my readers were convinced by my take, and that's fine. I'm quite happy to admit I might have been reading more into an innocent kids' comic than is reasonable. I mean all that nonsense about staffs and helmets and guns and long cylindrical tubes having any association with parts of the male anatomy is pretty preposterous, right? So, with that in mind I refuse to mention at this point how the huge phallic earth-borer used by Namor's enemy might have any symbolic meaning, nor will I say a single word to suggest that his overcoming of it, causing it to sink impotently to the depths of the ocean should be interpreted in any way as evidence that this flaccid-horned Attuma fellow is something of a limp-dick--
Anyway, there's still plenty of gas in Sub-Mariner's tank, and the weasly Ikthon must demonstrate that brains beat brawn to save himself from a further beating, by showing Namor how a scanner he's designed can locate the missing Dorma--
We now learn that Dorma is being held in an Oceanarium on dry land, imprisoned in a cylinder of water while Llyra herself wears a water-filled helmet--
As the frustrated Namor rushes to the recue he is assailed by Llyra's soldiers and held up by a giant crab-- again he boasts of his male aggression, listing his "rage" and "anger", which he describes as "mighty" and "awesome", while his masculine "power" is, he says, "without parallel"--
Excited by the way that she has engendered this excess of "fury", Llyra puts into place the next part of her plan-- dramatically smashing the tank containing Dorma--
The next three panels each show Dorma's lifeless face, reinforcing just how dreadful a moment this is, while the callous Llyra gloats about her "gasping (her) last in the open air" before exhorting her coldly to "die silently, my dear" so that she can focus on utilising her mental powers--
She then causes a shoal of leeches to engulf Namor, the caption pointing out that all his "power" is now useless against the weapons at Llyra's disposal-- again it would appear that brains beat mere brawn-- and that certainly would be the case if Namor's dying bride didn't summon the strength to save him--
The desperate last-gasp action of Dorma indeed cause the leeches to depart, Llyra's controlling hold on the creatures broken--
And as he crashes into the Oceanarium, he finds his lady-love gasping for breath as the still-helmeted Llyra escapes unobserved--
In an agonising sequence Namor cradles Dorma as the life finally leaves her body, the silence of the second pair of panels in stark contrast to what is about to follow--
First Roy Thomas scripts what seems at first to be a bitter rebuke of Namor, who, as his bride dies in his arms seema unable to repeat back to her the words "I love you"-- 'There are those,' our challenging narrator is saying, 'who will swear that you never truly loved the girl', citing his lack of warmth and absence of terms of endearment--
Then secondly we have the closing panel, with the agonised Atlantean prince crying out in pain and anguish the name of his departed bride, while our narrator poetically asserts that those who accuse the Sub-Mariner in this way have got it wrong, as demonstrated by the strength of his reaction here--
It's a horrible, beautiful ending, and coming to this title for the first time I'm impressed by how this storyline builds to this point, playing so much on the aspirations and expectations of Namor only for them to be thwarted over and over until he is left ultimately with the worst frustration of all-- the death of the woman he loves. And that final panel, with its use of the PIETA pose is still one of the most powerful ways of representing grief in a visual medium. If you want to see more examples in comics and elsewhere then please take a look here--
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