Sub-Mariner #23
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSub-Mariner #23 (March 1970) marks the debut of Orka — the 'Human Killer Whale' — who would go on to appear across dozens of Marvel titles over the next five decades, from the Avengers and Fantastic Four to Heroes for Hire and Namor's Defenders of the Deep. The issue also continues the sustained world-building that writer Roy Thomas had been conducting across the 1968 series, deepening the interconnected rogues' gallery of Atlantean science-villain Dr. Lemuel Dorcas (who also created Tiger Shark) and military antagonist Warlord Krang, turning Namor's underwater corner of the Marvel Universe into one of the richest and most self-referential continuities of the early Bronze Age. Because Orka's origin is directly threaded through the established Dorcas/Krang alliance, the issue also exemplifies Thomas's approach of building new threats out of existing mythology rather than standalone introductions — a storytelling discipline that gave the Sub-Mariner title unusual narrative density for its era.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
By issue #23 the Sub-Mariner monthly was a well-settled creative collaboration: writer Roy Thomas — who would later become Marvel's editor-in-chief — had been scripting the series since its 1968 launch, while artist Marie Severin, a Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame inductee, had been its primary penciller across this same period, also handling cover colors and design duties. Severin drew Orka from scratch, and the character is formally credited to both Thomas and Severin as co-creators. The interior story was lettered by Art Simek, with the cover inked by Mike Esposito over Severin's pencils. The issue arrived at the turn of the Silver Age to Bronze Age transition, with Marie Severin's tenure as regular penciller on the book concluding shortly after; Sal Buscema took over the art duties in the issues immediately following.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First and origin appearance of Orka ('The Human Killer Whale'), a new Marvel villain created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Marie Severin, published March 1970.
- Orka is introduced as an Atlantean soldier loyal to the renegade Warlord Krang; mad marine scientist Dr. Lemuel Dorcas uses a psionic belt-amplifier to endow Orka with the strength and powers of a killer whale.
- The story title is 'The Coming of… Orka!' — 21 story pages written by Roy Thomas, pencilled by Marie Severin, inked by Johnny Craig, and lettered by Art Simek; the cover is pencilled and colored by Severin with inks by Mike Esposito.
- Dr. Lemuel Dorcas — the same villain who previously created Tiger Shark in Sub-Mariner #5 (1968) — serves as the mad-scientist architect of Orka's transformation, cementing his role as Namor's premier 'monster-maker' antagonist.
- Warlord Krang and Lady Dorma also appear in this issue; Krang provided Orka to Dorcas as a test subject in exchange for Dorcas's scientific services against Namor.
- Orka went on to appear in Fantastic Four, She-Hulk, The Defenders, Heroes for Hire, and later as a member of Namor's Defenders of the Deep, and received a voice role in the animated series Avengers Assemble (voiced by Roger Craig Smith).
- The issue has been reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: The Sub-Mariner Vol. 4 (2011) and the Namor, the Sub-Mariner Epic Collection Vol. 3 — 'Who Strikes for Atlantis?' (2022), as well as in the Italian I Fantastici Quattro #84 (1974) and the French Eclipso #59 (1976).
- Marie Severin, who co-created Orka here, is formally recognized as a co-creator of the character in reference works, alongside other Marvel creations credited to her such as Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) and the Cat (Greer Nelson/Tigra).
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Reprints
Reprinted in I Fantastici Quattro #84 (1974), Eclipso #59 (1976), Marvel Masterworks: The Sub-Mariner #4 (2011), Namor, the Sub-Mariner Epic Collection #3 (2022)
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