Namor the First Mutant #1 - Mobile Edition

Marvel Comics
Namor the First Mutant #1
By Hervé St-Louis
October 7, 2010 - 22:22

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Stuart Moore
Penciller(s): Ariel Olivetti
Colourist(s): Ariel Olivetti
Letterer(s): Joe Caramagna
Cover Artist(s): Jale Lee, June Chung, Joe Quesada, Danny Miki, Richard Isanove
$3.99 US

Namor has to rally Atlanteans from across the world to protect them from Atlanteans vampires that have allied themselves with surface ones to retrieve the head of Dracula. Will Namor and the poor Atlanteans who are not fighter resist these creatures of legends that roam undersea?

There has been many attempts at creating a viable Namor comic book series. I’ll say the most successful one and the best I have read thus far was the one by John Byrne. But that was then and this is now. Can this series measure up? Storywise, it’s slower and building up some good tension. But it’s not moving fast enough for me and is probably too tied with the X-Men. I know he’s a mutant, and that the latest spin from Marvel Comics is to explore Namor as a mutant. This issue did not dwell too much on the mutant stuff though. If the action can pick up more, this series could be interesting to watch.

Visually, I feel like I’m supposed to be enjoying myself, but I’m not. Painted comics are always good to look at, but when the artist uses Photoshop to reuse the same sea creature in many pages of the comic book, I start to feel like I’m watching an old Flintstones cartoon where the background kept being reused every five seconds while Fred and Wilma are driving by. I think modern readers deserve more care and attention in their comic books. I can understand reusing artwork for dramatic effect, but using the same fish all over makes the artists look sloppy.

Rating: 7/10