Sub-Mariner #58
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSub-Mariner #58 (February 1973) is the debut issue of Tamara Rahn, the sole surviving member of the water-breathing extraterrestrial Banari race from the planet Laab — a red-skinned alien refugee whose vengeance-driven mission against Atlantis gave Namor one of his most morally nuanced Bronze Age antagonists-turned-allies. The issue also marks a quiet but poignant turning point in the history of the series itself: it is the last issue where Bill Everett — the man who created Namor back in 1939 — receives top creative billing, with his declining health now visibly reshaping the production behind the scenes. Tamara proved durable enough to recur across two decades of Namor comics, with writer Glenn Herdling explicitly building the 1990s 'Starblast' crossover around giving her origin story the closure it deserved.
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By mid-1972, Marvel had handed Everett near-total creative control of Sub-Mariner starting with issue #50, a triumphant reunion between a Golden Age legend and the character he invented. That reunion was cut brutally short when, in November 1972, Everett suffered a massive heart attack while walking through the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital after an AA meeting — the very setting that likely saved his life. With bypass surgery scheduled for early 1973 and deadlines looming, Marvel quietly restructured issue #58 so that Steve Gerber provided the script and artist Sam Kweskin supplied breakdowns, while Everett handled finished art and plot; Gil Kane penciled the cover, which Everett inked. The letters column in #58 itself acknowledged the arrangement openly, telling readers that deadline pressures had led to Everett working over another artist's layouts — the first public signal that the run was in trouble.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Tamara Rahn, a red-skinned humanoid alien of the water-breathing Banari race from the destroyed planet Laab — last survivor of her species.
- Tamara's origin: her fellow Banari traveled to Earth fleeing their dying world but were slaughtered by Atlantean soldiers who mistook them for invaders; Tamara, a stowaway on their spacecraft, was the sole survivor and came to Atlantis seeking revenge.
- Story title: 'Hands Across the Water, Hands Across the Skies...' — plot and finished art by Bill Everett, script by Steve Gerber, breakdowns (layouts) by Sam Kweskin.
- Cover pencils by Gil Kane, inked by Bill Everett — one of Everett's last inking credits on the series.
- Published February 1973 (cover-dated); part of the 1968–1974 Sub-Mariner Vol. 2 ongoing series, which ran 72 issues.
- Issue #58 is the final issue carrying a primary 'story and art by Bill Everett' credit; subsequent issues reduced his role to plot or co-plot as his health collapsed ahead of his death on February 27, 1973, at age 55.
- Tamara Rahn returned as a recurring supporting character across multiple later series including the 1990s Namor run, and her arc reached explicit closure in the 'Starblast' crossover — acknowledged by writer Glenn Herdling as deliberate payoff to her #58 origin.
- The Everett-era Bronze Age run, including #58, is collected in the 2025 Marvel Epic Collection: Namor, The Sub-Mariner Vol. 5, and is available digitally on Marvel Unlimited.
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Reprints
Reprinted in I Fantastici Quattro #120 (1975), Namor #3 (1979), Marvel Masterworks: The Sub-Mariner #7 (2016), Namor, the Sub-Mariner Epic Collection #5 (2025)
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