How to fix

I apologize in advance for venting... but this comic is such a horrible stinking mess of lame dialogue and utter pointlessness. There, I got that out of the way. It's all the more disppointing because Namor is such a great, unique, complex and unpredictable character in the hands of a good or even merely competent writer. Tsunami itself, as a group, I don't think is a bad idea at all. Runaways is awesome, Inhumans is getting better and better, New Mutants and Sentinel are supposed to be good (I don't read either). I will start reading Mystique soon as well... the art in the first issue put me off but I'm ready to get back into it. Comics like Runaways are going to produce really good TPBs. Unfortunately, 'Namor,' the so-called 'flagship' of the Tsunami group, is diving to the bottom like a homesick catfish.

Once Larocca leaves there's not much hope for 'Namor.'

Solutions? Here are my suggestions.

1) absolutely essential: whichever person or combination of persons is really writing this thing needs to get off it immediately. Anything else is secondary.

2) get rid of the 'set in the 20s.' I've heard it said that stories set in prior continuity are a lose-lose situation. Either the writers have to keep in mind all the past continuity and it strains their plots, or else they ignore past continuity and **** off the readers who are reading that comic because they already know and love the character (like me). I've read some really great stuff set in the past but I guess you need a lot of talent to pull it off.

To make the transition, create a big, apocalyptic ending to the current story arc that involves Sandy ending up in Deviant Lemuria. (Bobo and Beemer... Atlanteans should not have names that sound like the names that people put on personalized license plates in West Virginia. They must die.) Present-day Namor ends up meeting up with Sandy again. 80 years later she has actually become an interesting character. A plot ensues.

3) Get Jae Lee as an artist, who is the best person living for drawing Namor (he is also the worst, in my opinion, but that was a decade ago). A Paul Jenkins/Jae Lee team-up on Namor would draw in a lot of people.

4) If it has to be set in the 20s and has to stay a light-hearted romance story, then get one of the other GOOD Tsunami writers like Vaughan to write it.

Any other wish-list suggestions?

of this mess.

D: I would have them come back to the here and now, and have the first issues a set up or flashback as you suggest. However, I would then have Namor declare war on the surface world forever, and have him beat up on the Fantastic Four, work in Orca the Killer Whale, but Namor would eventually become a pawn of Dr. Doom as I change the tile name to Marvel Super Villian Team Up.

Seriously I think Namor is character with a rich history and tons of potential as a moody ruler of a kingdom, that if done right would be very 'other worldly' even sci-fi. His kingdom has plenty of adversaries (Lemuria, the other group that starts with a D...blanked on name, plus surface world exploiters, and political rivals in Atlantis) which leads to plenty of potential interesting stories. Some stories may even have a potenial to have a beginning, a middle and an end or 3 acts, as many story plots have had over the past 2500 years of story telling.

Having him be a love sick little Mermaid, with no plot or pacing is a waste, regardless of how stunning the art has been.

I'd like to see Namor in the book at some point. You know, the Avenging Son, the Scion of Atlantis? The guy who casually killed two surface people in his very first appearance?

I'd also like to see Atlantis placed correctly

I know it's not supposed to be an action-adventure book, but could we at least have some sort of tension?

Another shark attack, at least?

When Bobo and the other girl were left alone on the beach, I figured he was going to attack her, or they were going to turn up missing, or SOMETHING dramatic.

I know, I know..not what they are going for. But geez, it's still a frigging Namor comic book...

Actually, a pre-World War II setting is pretty much the only period in Namor's history where continuity problems are unlikely to occur.

: 3) Get Jae Lee as an artist, who is the best person living for drawing : Namor (he is also the worst, in my opinion, but that was a decade : ago). A Paul Jenkins/Jae Lee team-up on Namor would draw in a lot of : people.

Perhaps, but it would also be an entirely different comic, aimed at an entirely different audience. As it is, NAMOR is a romance book, conceived and paced for a bookstore audience.

In that context, I don't think there's doing anything fundamentally wrong with the book. It's worth a try.

You didn't know it was the Jemas-ter working on this one? I guess that explains why you at least read it, whereas a lot of people who knew that fact wouldn't touch it/ ;p

I would agree with you on that, but there are STILL tons of continuity problems. Here's just a few... 1) Why are the Atlanteans in the Pacific Northwest and not in the Arctic? 2) Why do Atlanteans turn pink when coming out of the water? It's been established they have special pills that can let them breathe air for a few hours and also turn them pink. Why not just go with that, instead of introducing a totally different new system where they're naturally blue in water, pink out of water and use these stupid things called 'gill scarves' to breathe air? It's more complicated, less believable and doesn't serve any plot purpose yet. 3) Atlanteans and surface-dwellers seem to be aware of each other but don't particularly hate or fear each other, whereas in the Golden Age and Silver Age comics (and flashbacks to those periods) there is always a big shock and surprise factor involved in those contacts. Like in the first 'Marvels.'

Here's where I must respectfully disagree with you. The stated purpose of 'Namor' is to cross an old-school superhero into a different genre... romance. The audience is young, female and would buy it in a trade. I believe the comic will fail at this stated purpose. It just isn't a good romance. There are two basic romance plots: 1) unrequited love boy/boy/girl/girl whatever(e.g. girl loves boy, boy doesn't care, girl has to prove herself worthy of boy's love) 2) or two characters love each other but are presented obstacles to their love. The simplest obstacles are external events, anything from 'boy gets fired from job at 7-11' to 'aliens abduct girl.' The most complicated are psychological ones where the pair have different loyalties, duties, cultural backgrounds, which present obstacles to beginning their love affair or continuing their love affair. In the case of Namor, the obstacles just aren't presented in a convincing fashion. Going back to continuity complaints, Namor's mom and dad had a classic 'doomed love' where two allegiances violently conflicted. In contrast, the Namor/Sandy affair is totally underwhelming. Obstacles? 'Oh, you're an Atlantean. Whatever. Wanna go to a mixer?' And then some Atlantean girls tease Sandy when she visits Namor. Ooh, that's tough on her.

I actually just did some more research on Andi Watson and found out what he wrote before. I don't like Buffy the Vampire Slayer but I've had friends explain the appeal. The romance angle is straightforward... Buffy is a vampire slayer, Spike is a vampire, they're attracted to each other but obviously have some problems in their relationship. Teenage girls like romantic angles where the 'boy' is charming but very dangerous

Indeed. I'm not overly bothered by them, though

I'd think the biggest obstacle is the lack of a writer with any writing skills

Namor already has an excellent writer - Andi Watson.

However, he's only scripting the book at the moment (to all intents and purposes), and he's never been the world's most dynamic scripter. His skill is more in ordering the events, and there's not much scope for him to do that here. He's not the sort of writer who's going to turn around a lacklustre plot by dialogue alone.

You may find things improve when the book gets onto the second storyline, by which time Watson should be writing the thing himself.

I can't help it! I tried to restrict myself to somewhat realistic suggestions, like 'ask Brian Vaughan to write it.' But I think about some wacky ones too, like... Jodorowsky and Moebius Giant-Size Super-Villain Metabaron Team-Up! Or have Namor switch places with Thor and go beat up some zombie Vikings.