Real Name: Namor

Class: mutant Atlantean/human hybrid

Occupation: ruler of Atlanteans

Affiliations: Atlanteans ; Invaders ; Defenders ; Avengers ; widower to Marrina

Scale of Operations: worldwide (primarily oceans)

Powers: Namor's hybrid nature enables him to breathe both in air and underwater. He also has powers possessed neither by human beings nor by ordinary Atlanteans, due to a unique mutation. Principal among these are the wings on his ankles and his ability to fly. His superhuman strong physiology allows him to swim at great speeds and enjoy complete freedom of movement in water, even under great water pressure, as well as extreme cold temperatures in deep sea conditions. (And Namor possesses far greater strength than any other known Homo mermanus.) His vision allows him to see in murky depths. Namor's strength rapidly diminishes the longer he is out of water. If he was cut off completely form all water for about a week, he would dehydrate, lose all his strength, and die.

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

In 1920, McKenzie's ship, the Oracle, was on an expedition to Antarctica. They discovered the site of a city once built by water-breathing Lemurians as well as the so-called Helmet of Power, which was actually the disguised Serpent Crown, an object of tremendous mystical power. McKenzie had explosive charges set off to break up icebergs, unaware of the existence of the Atlantean capital city beneath the icebergs off the Antarctic Coast.

The Atlantean emperor Thakorr asked his adventurous daughter Fen to the surface to investigate the cause of the damage. Fen took 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. Remaining aboard ship, Fen quickly learned English, and she and McKenzie soon fell in love and were married. However, 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. Returning to Atlantis, Fen later gave birth to McKenzie's son. Fen named this first known hybrid offspring of Homo sapiens and Homo mermanus Namor, which in the Atlantean language means "Avenging Son."

Namor grew up in Atlantis, learning to be hostile toward the surface people. Believing two surface human beings in diving suits to be the advance 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 Human Torch, who sought to stop Namor 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 Namor to stop. Over time, Namor and Betty Dean would become friends and companions, 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 he forces of the Axis powers. When Adolf Hitler ordered an attack on Atlantis's capital city, Namor vowed to retaliate. When the United States entered World War II, Namor allied himself with the heroes Human Torch, his partner Toro, and Captain America in forming the superhuman team, the Invaders. The Invaders fought for the Allied cause on many fronts, often coming into conflict with superhuman agents. For a brief period of time following the war, Namor would fight crime as a member of the All-Winners Squad.

Some time later, Atlantis' Antarctic capital city was again besieged by violent quakes. In a cavern on Antarctica, Namor found a former member of the Oracle's crew, Paul Destine, who now called himself Destiny. He had spent decades in suspended animation and now was testing the might of the Helmet of Power by leveling much of Atlantis, ultimately scattering its people across the globe for many years. Destiny used the Helmet to force Namor to fly to New York City, giving him nearly total amnesia and dulling his ability to think. As a result, Namor spent years as a derelict in New York City.

Namor was eventually discovered by Jonathan Storm, the second Human Torch and member of the hero team Fantastic Four, who 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 memories of Destiny and the Invaders, most of Namor's memories did return, and he regained the ability to think clearly.

However, when Namor found an Atlantean outpost in ruins due to collateral damage from an atomic test by Homo sapiens, Namor's hostility toward the surface world reared anew. He attacked New York City in an attempt to avenge the ruin of his homeland, but was thwarted on this and other occasions by the Fantastic Four. During this time, Namor found many Atlantean survivors and, learning that Thakorr had died, set himself up as ruler of Atlantis. Almost immediately, he led Atlantean forces against the surface world but was thwarted by the Fantastic Four again.

Namor, having developed romantic intentions on Susan Storm, a member of the Fantastic Four, later took her captive, but when she nearly drowned, Namor himself took her to a surface hospital. The Atlanteans, outraged, abandoned Namor as their ruler. While searching for his people, Namor encountered the ice-bound Captain America, not recognizing the man he fought alongside decades before, and in a fit of rage, threw the entombed hero into the sea, inadvertently contributing to his rescue by the hero team Avengers.

Namor eventually returned to his people, who were now no longer nomadic, at a base in the Atlantic Ocean and became ruler again. There he fell in love with the Lady Dorma. Namor eventually regained his full memories, thereby learning of his wartime alliance with Captain America and of Destiny's responsibility for Atlantis's destruction. Realizing that he could not blame Atlantis's destruction on all surface dwellers, Namor banned official acts of war against Homo sapiens and even began to help them occasionally.

Namor finally wed his longtime companion, Dorma, but she was murdered on her 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 this throne. For some years, Namor also acted as an occasional member of the Defenders, a team of superhuman champions.

Years later, Namor fell in love with Marrina, an amphibious alien being who had been raised on Earth. Shortly after, the Atlantean council decided that the adventurous Namor devoted too little time to his duties as Atlantis' 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 public 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 triumvirate added Lord Dara to their number and hired the undersea barbarian warlord Attuma and his hordes to fight on their behalf. Attuma, now commanding both his own armies and those of Atlantis, became the true master of Atlantis. Seeking to turn Atlanteans completely against Namor, Attuma captured Marrina, who had at that time become hideous due to her alien biology. Namor, toghther with mmembers of Alhpa Flight and the Avnegers, 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. Namor took an extended leave from the Avengers while he built his new kingdom.

The newlyweds' joy was short-lived, however, when Marrina went insane when her alien physiology reacted adversely when she became pregnant. Transforming into a giant leviathan, Marrina terrorized the oceans until Namor and the Avengers confronted her, finding her nest of eggs. In order to stop her wake of destruction, Namor was forced to kill his wife with the sword of his teammate Black Knight. Almost immediately, Marrina's eggs hatched, and Namor left to search for his supposed offspring. The world was led to believe that Namor was dead after the battle.

Namor later went on another violent irrational rage, this time on a small Pacific Island tribe. This caught the attention of Dr. Alexander and his daughter Carrie, who revealed that Namor's irrationality was due to a type of oxygen starvation that would occur during the constant environment changes Namor subjected himself to as a member of both the surface and undersea world. They also provided Namor with a device to correct the instablity. This prompted Namor to use the vast riches that lay scattered in the ocean to finance a corporation called Oracle Inc. Through Oracle, Namor hoped to be a force for ecologically-minded business policy. Namor tried to remain anonymous, since the world believed him dead, but was later forced to reveal his identity. by his corporate rivals, the Marrs twins. Ultimately, Namor believed his actions with Oracle were ultimately futile, and he left Oracle Inc. for the ocean, returning to rule his people as before.