Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner is the hybrid son of Princess Fen of the undersea kingdom of Atlantis and the American seaman Captain Leonard McKenzie.

In 1920 McKenzie’s ship, the Oracle, was on an expedition to Antarctica. One of the passengers, carnival mentalist Paul Destine, persuaded McKenzie to mount a search into the interior where they discovered the site of a city once built by water-breathing Lemurians and the so-called Helmet of Power, which was actually the disguised Serpent Crown, an object of tremendous mystical power. Realizing the danger that Destine could pose using the helmet, McKenzie triggered an avalanche, which buried the city, Destine, and the helmet.

Having returned to the Oracle, sometime later McKenzie had explosive charges set off to break up the icebergs, unaware of the Atlantean capital city beneath the icebergs. At that time the Atlantean Empire was centered off the Antarctic Coast. The explosive charges caused severe damage to the city. The Atlantean Emperor Thakorr asked his adventurous daughter Fen to send a scouting party to the surface to investigate the cause of the damage. Seeing no need for a scouting party, Fen went up alone, taking with her a potion enabling her to breathe air for up to five hours per dosage. She soon discovered the Oracle and went aboard, startling McKenzie and his crew by her appearance. At this time there was no documented evidence among the normal human beings of the existence of the water breathing, blue-skinned race of Homo mermanus, such as dwell in the undersea Atlantis and Lemuria. Remaining aboard ship, Fen quickly learned English and she and McKenzie soon fell in love with one another. Fen and McKenzie were married aboard the ship. But when Fen had not returned to Atlantis for several weeks Thakorr dispatched a war party to the surface, assuming she had been taken prisoner. In the resulting confrontation aboard the Oracle, Leonard McKenzie was apparently killed. Fen returned to Atlantis, and months later gave birth to McKenzie’s son. Fen named this first known hybrid offspring of a Homo sapiens and Homo mermanus Namo which in the Atlantean language means “Avenging Son”.

Namor’s hybrid nature enables him to breathe both in air, as his father’s race does, and underwater, as the Atlanteans can. He also has the powers possessed neither by human beings nor by ordinary Atlanteans, and these are caused by him being a mutant (yeah, you know what a mutant is, don’tcha?) .

Namor grew up in Atlantis with a hostile attitude towards the surface people. One day the young, rash Namor clashed with two surface human beings in diving suits exploring the ocean bottom. Believing them to be the advanced scouts of an invasion force, Thakorr sent Namor to the surface world to retaliate. Over the following months tensions between the Sub-Mariner and the surface people escalated, and Namor frequently employed his superhuman strength against them, especially Americans. Several times Namor battled the original android, the Human Torch (one of the many fine gifts of the Golden Age – the Torch squaring off against the Sub-Mariner), who sought to stop him from wreaking destruction in America. On one occasion Namor desisted from wreaking havoc because he was impressed by the courage of policewoman Betty Dean, who had come on her own to plead with him to stop. She eventually became the Sub-Mariner’s friend and companion on his adventures, and the two were in love for some years.

Dean and the Torch persuaded Namor that his true enemies were not all surface human beings but the forces of the Axis powers: Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and imperial Japan. Adolf Hitler ordered an attack on Atlantis’s capital city which wrecked it and left Thakorr temporarily comatose. Namor vowed to retaliate. When the United States entered World War II Namor allied himself with the Torch, his partner Toro, and Captain America and his partner Bucky to form the Invaders, a team that fought the Axis powers throughout the war (well, duh!). The Allied war effort in both the Atlantic and Pacific naval theatres was instrumental in the defeat of the Axis powers. For a brief period of time following the war, the Sub-Mariner fought crime on the surface world as a member of the All-Winners Squad.

Atlantis had escaped much of the damage that befell the surface world during the war. At one point after the war had ended, though, Atlantis’s Antarctic capital city was again besieged by violent quakes. Emperor Thakorr dispatched Namor to the surface to investigate the cause of the tremors. In a cavern on the Antarctic continent, Namor found Paul Destine, who now called himself Destiny. He had spent decades in suspended animation and now was testing the might of his Helmet of Power by leveling much of Atlantis. Destiny succeeded in destroying the capital city of Atlantis, and killing a large portion of the Atlantean population, including Thakorr and Fen. The survivors began a long period of nomadic wandering. As for Namor himself, Destiny used the Helmet to force him to fly to New York City, give him nearly total amnesia, and dull his ability to think. As a result of Namor spent years as a derelict in New York City.

Namor was eventually discovered by Jonathan Storm, the second Human Torch, who had wandered into a transient hotel on New York City’s Bowery. Burning away the excess hair and beard Namor had grown, Storm recognized the Sub-Mariner from pictures he had seen of him. The Torch then flew Namor out over the harbor and dropped him into the water, hoping that water would invigorate the Sub-Mariner and restore his memory. Indeed, except for his memory of Destiny and the Invaders, most of Namor’s memories did return, and he regained the ability to think clearly. Namor swan to an Atlantean outpost and found it in ruins, apparently accidentally destroyed by an atomic test by the surface people. Amid the ruins Namor found evidence of Atlantis’s Antarctic capital; he had not remembered Destiny had destroyed it. Namor assumed that the surface human race had destroyed Atlantis. His hostility towards the surface world at its height, Namor attacked New York City in an attempt to avenge the ruin of his homeland. However, Namor was thwarted on this and other occasions by the Fantastic Four and other superhumanly powerful champions.

During this time Namor finally found the survivors of the Atlantean civilization and learned that Thakorr had died. The Atlanteans happily made Namor, the heir to the throne, ruler of Atlantis. Almost immediately, he led the Atlantean forces against the surface world. They were dispelled and defeated by the Fantastic Four once again, however, and they hastily retreated back to their undersea kingdom. Namor had developed a romantic interest in Susan Storm, a member of the Fantastic Four, which still goes on today. Namor took her captive when his forces retreated, but circumstances led to her nearly drowning. Namor himself took her to a surface hospital, but the Atlanteans, outraged at his aiding of one of their foes, abandoned him. While searching for his people again, Namor came across Eskimos in the Arctic worshipping a human figure entombed in ice. Furious at all surface people, Namor hurled the ice-bound figure into the sea. It drifted south and the ice around it melted. The figure, whom Namor had not recognized, was Captain America, who had spent decades in suspended animation, but was now found and rescued by the Avengers.

Namor returned to his people, who again accepted him as a ruler, and he fell in love with his cousin Dorma. No longer nomadic, the Atlanteans now based their civilization in a location in the Atlantic Ocean. Namor eventually regained his full memories, thereby learning of his wartime alliance with Captain America and of Destiny’s responsibility for Atlantis’s destruction. Namor confronted Destiny again, but Destiny finally insanely jumped to his death. Realizing that he could not blame Atlantis’s destruction on all surface dwellers, and sought to live in peace with the surface world. Banning official acts of war against Homo Sapiens, the Sub-Mariner even began to use his superhuman abilities in defense of surface people on occasion.

Namor finally wed his longtime companion, the Lady Dorma, but she was murdered on their wedding day by Namor’s foe Llyra. For a time Namor, in mourning, forsook his role as Atlantis’s ruler, but he finally returned to his throne. For some years Namor also acted as a member of the Defenders, a team of superhuman champions.

Recently, Namor fell in love with Marrina, an amphibious alien being who had been raised on Earth. Still more recently, the Atlantean council decided that the adventurous Namor devoted to little time to his duties as Atlantis’s monarch, and requested that he abdicate the throne. Namor bitterly did so, but soon afterwards his old friend Captain America offered him membership in the Avengers. Namor accepted, and served briefly as an active member amidst great controversy.

A triumvirate of Atlantean nobles, consisting of Lord Vashti, Thakos, and High priest Shakkoth, assumed power after Namor’s abdication. However, Shakkoth soon turned against the others, and civil war broke out. Seeking to stop Shakkoth, the new triumvirate of Vashti, Thakos, and Lord Dara hired the undersea barbarian warlord Attuma and his hordes to fight on their behalf. Attuma, now commanding both his armies and those of Atlantis, became the true master of Atlantis. Seeking to turn the Atlantians completely against Namor, Attuma captured Marrina, who had at that time become hideous due to her alien biology, and claimed that Namor intended to wed her and crown her queen of Atlantis. Namor, together with members of Alpha Flight and the Avengers, freed Marrina, who subsequently regained her previous humanoid appearance. Still embittered towards Atlantis, Namor left Attuma master of the kingdom.

However, Vashti and other Atlanteans dissatisfied with Attuma’s rule flocked to Namor’s undersea villa elsewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. There they asked Namor to become their ruler again, and he accepted. Namor has established a new undersea kingdom called Deluvia, populated by these refugees from Atlantis. He married Marrina and thus made her his queen, with the Deluvian’s approval.

Like all things in a superheroes life, his new marriage didn’t last and neither did Deluvia. Namor, even more recently, founded a company called Oracle – after his long-dead father’s ship that had brought his mother and him together. Namor found a new crusade to go after, too – but this time by the way of environmentalism.

In a battle with Onslaught, Namor seemingly perished alongside all the other major heroes in the universe –– and entered a world where heroes were reborn. He returned months later, finding that he couldn’t control his anger any longer and had to wear a special amulet created by an old ally, Doctor Strange.

Through the war, amnesia, the death of his beloved, Atlantis’s demise –– there’s little wonder why he’s the Avenging Son.