By Ryan Penagos
Namor is a man you don't want mad at you. He's the prince of Atlantis, a former Avenger, a former Defender and one of Earth's strongest heroes. But in the upcoming SUB-MARINER mini-series, launching in June by Peter Johnson, Matt Chernis and Phil Briones, things are falling apart. His allies don't trust him, he's wrapped up in a major scandal and he's on the cusp of getting dethroned.
"The events of SUB-MARINER tie into the events of Guggenheim and Ramos's WOLVERINE run as well as CIVIL WAR," hints series editor Warren Simons. "There's going to be a terrorist attack on the United States and it's going to decimate a small town. S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to come to investigate the attack and they're going to find a clue that's going to link them to Atlantean DNA. Once upon a time, Namor had sleeper cells installed in the United States. What we're going to find out is for some reason, there was another sleeper cell in this town and it [destroyed] the entire town."
But the action isn't limited to above the sea level. "What we're going to slowly see from there is not only are Atlanteans possibly responsible for the attack, that also there's a coup taking place in Atlantis and people are getting ready to get Namor out," adds Simons. "And one of the things they're doing to get Namor out is put him in an indefensible position by having this sleeper cell activate and attack America. In this day and age, especially after the events of Civil War where Namor sided with Captain America, the U.S. government is looking prominently on Atlantis and this is going to be the final straw that breaks their back.
"They're going to go down there and basically demand a regime change in Atlantis. And Namor is going to find himself in a position he's never found himself in before: He can't just lash out and fight something with his hands, because he knows that he's in the wrong here. He knows that repercussions between the sleeper cells and the United States led to this even though he didn't directly authorize this and in fact, he doesn't even know who did this attack. He knows that in some ways he's responsible and Atlantis is responsible for this attack. We're going to see S.H.I.E.L.D. submarines descending upon Atlantis and he's going to realize he can't strike out."
With a concept that's tied to both Civil War and The Initiative and a hero with an illustrious history, it's the book's team who may turn the most heads. "Peter Johnson and Matt Chernis are the writers of this book," notes Simons. "They did a very good book called POWERLESS a few years ago. The artist is Phil Briones (WHITE TIGER) and the pages he's completed have been absolutely gorgeous."
While pages are rolling in, details are still scarce. "The coup is going to be the mystery in this story, so I don't want to give anything away just yet," notes Simons. "It's going to relate directly to Namor and Namor's past. We're going to see visits from members of the Illuminati. Namor is going to go to the surface world to try to find out who is responsible for this and while he's doing this, he's going to call on his old friends and allies for help. He's going to going to find many of them are very, very wary of him. They're not even going to be sure if he's responsible for this or not. He's going to find that most of his allies are going to turn their back on him and it's going to help him with his belief that humans are beneath Atlantis. He's a man of two worlds, he's of the sea and earth at times, so there's a fascinating dichotomy of his character. We're really going to explore that."
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