#leonard mckenzie

[smbhax]

From “Sub-Mariner Versus the Human Race!” in Fantastic Four Annual #1, September 1963. Stan Lee script, Jack Kirby pencils, Dick Ayers inks, Stan Goldberg colors, Artie Simek letters.

Info from Grand Comics Database

[wharfspider]

POP QUIZ: Namor’s father has just been murdered. He will deal with this by:

Getting therapy

Seeking vengeance

Spontaneously developing amnesia

Voting ended onMar 29, 2025

Answer under the readmore…

If you picked “Spontaneously developing amnesia,” you are correct!!

WHY IS HE LIKE THIS? PLEASE CONSIDER ANOTHER PATH.

[imperiuswrecked]

What could have been like if Leonard McKenzie was a mixture of Captain Nemo/Fujimoto from Ponyo: someone who disowns the surface world and chooses to live under the sea with its varied resources, and adopts the Atlantean culture of his wife Princess Fen?

I think that would be a really interesting AU to explore, we've already had Captain McKenzie raise his son in What if? The Sub-Mariner was raised on land (2006), which imo is one of the best AU Namor comics ever. It explores how even though Lenoard was a loving father he couldn't protect Namor from his mother's past or find a way for his son to be happy living among the humans.

In the AU Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four (2005) #7 Captain McKenzie leaves the surface world to live with Fen among her people before he was murdered, so we don't really have much insight into what that was like.

Meanwhile in 616 we do have a comic that actually touches on this subject, Defenders (2012) #5 & 8 alludes to Captain Nemo being Namor's real father but it's never actually retconned in, it's just a little mystery that ultimately goes nowhere, which imo is for the best because the point of 616 Leonard is that he's just a normal human man, a sea captain, and the only thing he passed onto his son was that Namor is half human and the x-gene that allows Namor to fly. Issue 8 shows Leo, Fen, and Nemo as a trio of adventurers.

See while I don't mind exploring different backgrounds for the character in AUs, I strongly feel that 616 Leonard McKenzie should always just be a human, because the point of Namor's backstory isn't that he's got special background from both sides of his parents, it could have been any human, the point is that the father was a normal human. It's why I often say Leonard isn't as important to Namor's story as Fen is, but still I do love characters like Captain Nemo and Fujimoto so an AU would be great.

[comicavalcade]

Submariner Summer 37

Many felicitations unto thee, Namor Nation! We gather for #SubmarinerSummer read through part 37 for another great milestone in the history of our sea prince-a series all his own. Yes, we are finally reading Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner #1! We are kicked off by a legendary cover

And on the title page, Destiny gloats about killing Namor! How's *that* for a start to a series? Roy Thomas stays on scripts from Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1, and we have John Buscema going all out on pencils. Frank Giacoia on inks and Sam Rosen on letters round out the team

Though victorious, Destiny is still filled with hate, so he gloats that this is his second victory. He then uses his mind powers to set Namor's brain to go over his past, so that he will finally remember the lost amnesia memories that apparently hide the first defeat by Destiny

As a plot device for a flashback issue, not the worst I've seen. So now, Oh ye faithful, thrill to the Silver Age retelling of Namor's origin. It begins with the US explorers led by Captain Leonard McKenzie causing (accidentally) a massive destruction and slaughter in Atlantis

Emperor Thakorr tells his daughter, Princess Fen, to select warriors to investigate; she says yes, but decides to do it herself. She goes to the surface and among the US expedition; soon, she ends up marrying Captain McKenzie! Weeks later, Thakorr DOES send a war party

They retrieve Fen and score some casualties on the Americans in the process, notably Captain McKenzie himself, or so Fen thinks, breaking her heart. But that brief love birthed Namor.

Fast forward to the 40s, and Namor rises to the surface, fighting war upon war

Though the wars ended, he fought still, both Atlanteans rivals like Byrrah and surface crime and enemies. Eventually, though, another destruction came to Atlantis seeming to repeat the one that led to Fen going to the surface. So Thakorr sends Namor to perform Fen's old mission

But this was not an accidental genocide by ignorant surfacers: it was Destiny with his Helmet of Power, killing and destroying just to test his abilities. He then uses them to mind control Namor, and forces him to see his Granfather and emperor, and his mother, die with Atlantis

So we finally see the cause of the destruction of "First Atlantis" that was alluded to way back in Submariner Summer part 30, covering TtA #96.

But Destiny's not done; he decides to turn Namor into his mind wiped pawn and sends him away while he hibernates one last time

So robbed of his mind and now in New York, Namor flails about a bit at first, before simply beginning to wander without identity or purpose. Y'all...this is nightmare fuel. What a godawful fate, and Destiny basically did it for kicks.

That is, of course, the state he's in when the Human Torch finds him in the classic Fantastic Four #4, which reintroduced Namor. So now we're basically back at the Silver Age, and Namor's memories are finally complete. This wakes him up from Flashback Land, where he's trapped

The ice melting on his body is the water he needs to recover his strength, and suffused with it he bursts free! And with that freedom, Namor plans to visit his wrath on the man called Destiny...and perhaps the entire surface. IMPERIUS REX!

Going to be honest, if I had to relive all that trauma all at once and wasn't just broken into a sobbing heap, I could absolutely want to destroy the world too.

But as a reader, what can I say, this was a fun if extremely truncated ride through Namor's history to that point, with some new additions and revelations in the typical Roy Thomas retcon fashion. It focuses on some key events relevant to the greater story, arc but basically this #1 was Namor 101. 👨🏽‍🏫

But NEXT, we get back to then-current events as Namor starts his hunt for revenge against Destiny as we cover Sub-Mariner #2: Cry...TRITON!

[petpackss]

Óscar Jaenada would be Leonard McKenzie, Namor's father. A colonizer who falls in love with a native woman and decides to abandon everything to live with her, until he is killed for leading native rebellions against colonizers.

[namorthesubmariner]

One big thing I see ignored on the racial coding surrounding Namor ,is his father ,Leonard. He's always been depicted as bronze skinned, potentially suggesting Namor is mixed from his father's side with the Mckenzie name coming from the father side of Leonard's family. What are your thoughts ?

Personally I don't mind what ethnicity Leonard is from and people can headcanon whatever they like tbh, I think the only important thing is that Namor's father be of the surface world/Non-Atlantean.

Leonard McKenzie is a Scottish-American man, his skin tone does shift around from pale to tanned but there was never any indication or backstory as to his family's past/his ethnicity being anything other than Scottish-American.

I have a full reading thread here that shows all the times he showed up and what he looks like (link). There really isn't much to go on, so I think that without more context or clues about his own family history there isn't much to discuss from canon.

[comicwaren]

From Maestro: World War M #002, “Curtains”

Art by Germán Peralta and Jesus Aburtov

Written by Peter David

[marvelousmrm]

Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner #1 (Thomas/Colan, Apr 1968). Destiny’s revelation of the Sub-Mariner’s forgotten origin is too much to fit in 11 pages, so Namor dives into a full-length book next month!