Cover Date: June 1980
On-Sale Date: March 25, 1980
After the conclusion to the extra tedious Tunnelworld saga, where there's a supervillain trapped in Hulk's brain, we go on to our next adventure arc where Namor goes diva again and Black Panther somehow gets involved. Ah well. Here we go again!
The Unnameable (sic) has just been defeated. So what does Namor do? He throws a party, of course. Doc is present, complete with a helmet from what looks like several decades earlier. He's also wearing his traditional garb with no apparent protection for those items. Assuming he is using a spell to keep the Cloak of Levitation from turning into a complete waterlogged drag, why doesn't he do that for his head? We've seen him go deep sea diving with no scuba gear. Heck, we've seen him cover vast area's of space with no visible means of protection.
Now that the silliness has been pointed out. There's another drag here and it's Namor. He's thrown a big shindig, but, because the Atlanteans didn't actually experience all the Tunnelworld tedium, they have no idea why there's a big party and Namor's pretty dour about the whole thing.
Next we learn that our favorite Hulkster collapsed when they arrived at Atlantis. Doc thinks it's just Hulk trying to heal himself after Doc sliced and diced some of his neurons. In fact, as Doc relates all this, Hulk becomes Dr. Banner once again.
Since, legally, none of these guys are allowed to have a moment's peace, Lord Vashti barges in to let Namor know something is wrong. Doc takes this as an indication it's time to bug out and says he'll pick up the Hulk in a few days. Guess Doc has had enough of freeloading visitors in the Sanctum Sanctorum. Just wait until he finds Sara there with a lot of empty pizza boxes!
Next we look in on some Atlantean traitors meeting with some Wakandan traitors on a peninsula off the coast of Africa. The Wakandans let the Atlanteans know that Blank Panther also knows what's up. This is more than a bid to raise there prices and, to hammer the point home, Black Panther attacks the gathering.
The head Atlantean coward flees to his sub as Black Panther trounces everyone else, including Wazira, the Wakandan who arranged all this.
Black Panther uses the smugglers vehicle to follow the sub. What he finds is alarming.
This has not gone unnoticed in Atlantis. Namor is fuming that his laziness when it comes to affairs of state have lead to this.
Black Panther gets captured and Namor intends to straighten everything out while attempting to assert his authority as loudly as possible. He order Dr. Banner be kept asleep while Namor does his thing. Not knowing who the occupant is, Namor goes to confront whom he believes is an enemy by his lonesome.
A brief interlude takes us back to New York City where Doc returns to his Sanctum and Clea showers him with hugs and kisses. Hellcat then invites him to join the "New Defenders." This is unrelated the the other New Defenders we'll see starting with issue 125.
Returning to look in on Atlantis, Namor and Black Panther are confronting each other and are having a measuring contest about who's law should provide.
The two start to beat on each other. Black Panther, troubled that Namor is attempting to assassinate a head of state, heads away. This starts a trend of Atlantean helmet smashing.
Black Panther finds Dr. Banner and slaps him awake, immediately summoning his green alter ego, who proceeds to smash more helmets.
Namor is now confronting both Hulk and Black Panther. Namor attempts to talk Hulk down a bit, but it doesn't work.
While the trio are tossed into the surrounding ocean, Wakanda has launched an attack. They rescue Black Panther while Namor rescues the Hulk. The Wakandas consider bringing their king to near death and act of war and aim some nuclear missiles in their direction. Atlantis has done the same.
Way to go, Mutually Assured Destruction! Back on the surface, President Carter (wow this is an old story) attempts to assure the American public that all is not a complete cluster-fudge while Kyle Richmond complains that the court not letting him become Nighthawk and talk to hot-headed Namor is putting the world at greater risk.
The rest of the world has it's own reactions.
In Atlantis, Hulk wakes up, is ungrateful about Namor saving his life and jumps so hard he goes flying into the air and is mistaken by hostile forces as a missile. Wakanda fires a missile of their own over Black Panther's objects. He attempts to talk down Namor.
Namor manages to divert the missile to Kiber's Island, where all this nonsense began. The island ceases to exist.
Namor then goes to pursue the release of his men being held by Wakanda so he can spank them personally.
There's quite a bit going on in this opening chapter and I found it very entertaining. Doc's presence is minimal, but we get lots of Namor being hot-headed. Black Panther is less hot-headed and trying to be reasonable, but he's got an ego too, that's getting in the way. Lastly, the Hulk manages to be the monkey wrench in all these works that sets off a terrible scenario.
It's actually an interesting political piece. I don't know Ed Hannigan's background, but he's developed a plausible plot, even if it's driven by Three's Company level of happenstance and misunderstanding. I love the fact that everything is made worse by the Hulk merely going away from a bad situation. Namor's and T'Challa's clash of egos will undoubtedly get in the way of calming things down. Nighthawk being grounded is frustrating for the reader as he's been the voice of reason so many times before.
So, it's an interesting and entertaining setup for a story that hopefully won't take a year to resolve. I, at least, look forward to the next installment.
