Marvel’s First Supervillain Eventually Joined The Avengers

Taking a brief hiatus from comics following the end of WWII, Namor was revived in the Silver Age in Fantastic Four #4 (May 1962) and immediately resumed his dastardly ways, kidnapping the Invisible Girl and teaming up with the likes of Dr. Doom and Magneto to do battle with the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. Arrogant and prideful, Namor had a grudge against the “surface-dwellers” for their mistreatment of the oceans, but he also had a strong sense of nobility and justice. Graduating from supervillain to antihero, Namor was given his own title which ran 72 issues from 1968 to 1974, but it wasn’t until 1985 that he became a full-blown superhero when he joined the Avengers in Avengers #262, though he has since perpetrated some decidedly villainous deeds including the destruction of Wakanda during the 2012 Avengers vs X-Men event.

Technically speaking, Namor’s first appearance was in early 1939 in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly, a promotional comic planned as a giveaway in movie theaters. The comic was produced by Funnies, Inc., one of many “comic book packagers” that created comics on demand for publishers in the late 1930s. Only eight copies – created to send to theater owners – are known to have been printed, seven of which were discovered in an estate sale in 1974. The same story, written and drawn by Bill Everett who later went on to co-create Marvel’s Daredevil – was expanded and appeared that same year in Marvel Comics#1 (August 1939). And although some have claimed Namor is just a rip-off of DC’s Aquaman, such is not the case: Aquaman first appeared in More Fun Comics#73 (November 1941), a full two years after Namor’s debut.

Most of the Golden Age superhero comics were anthologies that featured multiple stories starring different heroes, and Marvel Comics #1 was no exception. Changing its title to Marvel Mystery Comics with the second issue, the book featured Namor and the original Human Torch, among others. In issue 8 of the series, Namor and the Torch meet and do battle, confirming that their stories took place in the same world and marking the beginning of the “shared” Marvel Universe.

Namor was deemed a mutant in X-Men #6 (July 1964), retroactively making him the first mutant to appear in Marvel Comics. Adding this to the fact that he started out as a villain but later went on to become a good guy, it can be said that Namor is Marvel’s first superhero, first supervillain, and first mutant!

About The Author