Sub-Mariner #50
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSub-Mariner #50 is the first appearance of Namorita, the Atlantean clone-daughter of Namora and second cousin to Namor, a character who would grow from a supporting figure in the 1970s Sub-Mariner title into a founding member of the New Warriors in 1990 and, ultimately, a pivotal catalyst for Marvel's Civil War event in 2006. The issue also marks one of the most resonant creative homecomings in Bronze Age Marvel history: Bill Everett — the man who invented Namor back in 1939 — returned after more than three decades to write, pencil, ink, and color the character himself, beginning with this anniversary number. That creative reunion gave the book an emotional weight and a Golden Age craft that set it apart from the Roy Thomas/Gerry Conway run that preceded it, and observers at the time and since have noted that Everett's return re-grounded Namor in a richer sense of dynasty and family — most visibly through Namorita's introduction. Because Namorita went on to serve as the symbolic ignition point for the Superhero Registration Act storyline, this single Bronze Age issue carries consequences that ripple across decades of Marvel continuity.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
By the time the series reached its 50th issue, the creative team of writer Gerry Conway and penciller Gene Colan had departed, and Marvel editor Roy Thomas — himself a major Namor champion — arranged for Bill Everett to assume total creative control, handling script, pencils, inks, and color simultaneously starting with this anniversary issue, with Gil Kane providing the painted cover. Everett had battled alcoholism for years and was, by all accounts in contemporaneous Marvel Bullpen Bulletins and later retrospective reporting, in a period of hard-won personal stability when he took the assignment; the invitation to return to the character he created over thirty years prior was part of a deliberate editorial effort by Thomas and Marvel to honor Everett's foundational role in the company's history. The run Everett began with issue #50 proved to be among the finest work of his late career, but his deteriorating health — he suffered a massive heart attack in November 1972 while leaving an AA meeting — forced increasing creative assistance from other hands beginning around issue #53, and he died on February 27, 1973, during heart bypass surgery, just weeks after issue #61 reached newsstands.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Namorita (Namorita Prentiss), the Atlantean clone-daughter of Namora and second cousin to Prince Namor, introduced here as a young woman entangled in a plot by villain Llyra and Atlantean prince Byrrah.
- Written, penciled, and inked entirely by Bill Everett — Namor's original creator — marking his full-creative-control return to the character he debuted in Marvel Comics #1 (1939), more than thirty years earlier.
- Cover art is by Gil Kane (pencils) and Vince Colletta (inks); the interior is Everett's solo work, making the issue a notable split between cover and interior artists.
- The story's title is 'Who Am I?' and opens with Namor suffering amnesia in New Orleans before recovering and traveling to the Antarctic, where he discovers Namora's corpse and rescues the young Namorita from the clutches of Byrrah and Llyra.
- The letterer is John Costanza, credited under the pseudonym 'Jon Costa' — a publishing quirk noted across multiple collector databases.
- Namorita was later retroactively established in Marvel continuity as a genetic clone of Namora, created by the exiled Atlantean scientist Vyrra; her cloned origin was not fully elaborated in this debut issue but was developed in subsequent stories.
- Namorita went on to become a founding member of the New Warriors (debuting in Thor #411–412, 1989–1990) and was killed during the Stamford, Connecticut explosion caused by Nitro — the inciting disaster of Marvel's Civil War crossover event (Civil War #1, 2006).
- The issue was later collected in Marvel Masterworks: The Sub-Mariner Vol. 7, preserving Everett's Bronze Age return run for modern readers.
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Reprints
Reprinted in I Fantastici Quattro #112 (1975), Submariner #13 (1978), Marvel Masterworks: The Sub-Mariner #7 (2016), Namor, the Sub-Mariner Epic Collection #5 (2025)
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