The Dragon in the Sea!

The Sub-Mariner’s wife Marrina has transformed into a massive creature that has been terrorizing the seas. Dubbed the Leviathan by the media, Marrina has been a threat to the planet prompting the Avengers to begin hunting her down. Unfortunately, Namor refuses to allow any harm to come to his wife, even though she is a danger to life. Although the Avengers prevent Leviathan from attacking a costal town, Namor stops them from following her so she can get away.

As the Avengers head back to base to regroup, Doctor Druid nods off and begins having another dream of a beautiful blonde haired woman beckoning to him to join her. This time, he is being crowned before a crowd of loyal subjects. The woman tells him that he will save them all very soon. Druid is woken from the dream when Thor notices he is sleeping and begins knocking on the cockpit window of the Quinjet. Once again, Druid takes these dreams of prophecy and becomes more determined than ever to replace Captain Marvel as leader of the Avengers.

Soon, the Avengers return to their headquarters on Hydrobase and begin pouring over all the files they have on Marrina. They learn that her transformation was due to the fact that she is part of the Plodex race and that this transformation is the product of genetic conditioning the Plodex use to conquer alien worlds. They don’t understand how this is happening, since the transformation had been previously stopped shortly before she married the Sub-Mariner.[2]

Meanwhile, the Sub-Mariner has followed Leviathan to her resting place at the bottom of the ocean. Namor vows to stay by her side even though there appears to be nothing left of the woman he married. However, he refuses to abandon her until he can find a way to return her to her humanoid form.

Elsewhere in time and space, Kang the Conqueror finds himself teleported into a strange council room populated other Kangs. Each one is slightly different than he is. They explain that they are the Council of Cross-Time Kangs and that they operate on a multiversal level, recruiting the lone survivors of each Kang War across the timestream.[3] As the lone surviving Kang of his own timeline, he is invited to join the Council.[4] At first, there are only three holographic projections of the other Kangs, but the new addition is cunning and activates a device to shut down the bright lights and holoprojectors. He is shocked when this uncovers a massive room full of alternate Kangs.

Back on present day Earth, the Avengers have finished going over what scant information they have on Marrina. Doctor Druid concludes that their only recourse is to kill Leviathan because she is a threat to all life on Earth. Captain Marvel protests this idea, reminding them that Marrina is part of the team. Everyone else agrees upon it and Thor makes a point that they should follow their appointed leader, Captain Marvel. The Black Knight suggests that they get in touch with the one man with enough knowledge on biology that could help them out, Hank Pym, a former Avenger himself. While what they are asking is well beyond his scope, Pym agrees to help come up with a way to revert Marrina back to her humanoid form and asks the team to send them all the available data they have on her.

That’s when a report comes in that Leviathan is attacking another ship, the USS Gosnold, prompting Captain Marvel to race to the scene in her light form. Captain Marvel arrives just as the crews are abandoning ship and tries flying into Leviathan in her energy form. This does little to harm the monster, which grabs the damaged ship and pulls it under the waves.

While nearby, Navy battleships arrive on the scene and they are halted by the Sub-Mariner, who warns them that Leviathan is too powerful to stop. When the creature surfaces again, it makes its way toward the battleships. They open fire, but their artillery shells bounce off the monster’s indestructible hide. Leviathan then begins attacking the ships, forcing the crew to abandon them. When the other Avengers arrive on the scene, they begin assisting Captain Marvel with the evacuation efforts. As Leviathan sinks the ships, the Avengers help ferry the crew back to the nearest port in the Bahamas, a trip that will take seven hours.

When they explain everything to the commanding officer and how they are trying to save Marrina. He is unimpressed with the explanation, reminding the team that it wasn’t long ago that the Sub-Mariner was an enemy of the surface world and for them to reconsider their priorities before it is too late.[5] Left to their own council, the Avengers debate over what to do next. Doctor Druid suggests that they focus on maintaining their reputation by killing Leviathan and being done with it. This horrifies everyone else, who are disgusted that Druid would be more concerned with their reputation than Marrina’s life. This convinces the Doctor that he must wrest control of the Avengers from Captain Marvel no matter what.

Meanwhile, on the ocean floor, Leviathan has been using the sunken ships to create a nest for herself. Namor can’t fathom the reason why and finds himself wishing he never met Marrina, believing that this would never have happened. Recounting how he has lost a woman he loved in the past, he wonders if he must make such a sacrifice again. He curses the fates for demanding such a price.[6]

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Thor, Black Knight, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Sub-Mariner, Doctor Druid), Leviathan, Henry Pym, Council of Cross-Time Kangs (Kang, Nebula)

Continuity Notes

1. These dreams are the product of manipulations by Ravonna Renslayer who is manipulating Druid in order to get access to a powerful weapon that is trapped in a Time Bubble that exists some 20 years in the future. This is all part of a long running scheme to get revenge against Kang the Conqueror. See Avengers #294-297, Fantastic Four #337-341, Captain America Annual #11, Thor Annual #17, Fantastic Four Annual #25, and Avengers Annual #21.

2. Marrina is a member of the Plodex race, which sends its children to alien worlds where they adapt to their environment and conquer the planet. Marrina’s origins and biological nature are detailed in Alpha Flight #2, 3-4, 14-16, and 39-40. It’s revealed in Avengers #293 that this transformation was triggered because Marrina is pregnant, which triggers her Plodex DNA. She and Namor got married in Alpha Flight #40.

3. Avengers Annual #21 and Avengers Forever #9 clarify that these are not divergent Kangs, but others who murdered the Kang of their native reality and usurped his identity for their own ends.

4. The Kang brought before the Council is the apparent survivor of the Kang War that occurred in Avengers #267-269. At the end of that story, Kang fled into Limbo after being driven mad by a globe of knowledge. Avengers Forever #9 clarifies that this is not the Kang, but another divergent created when the Kang at the end of Avengers #269 committed suicide and created two divergent selves to break his insanity.

5. Indeed, Namor has warred with the surface world on an off over the years, dating back to his first appearance in Marvel Comics #1 and, more recently, at the start of the Modern Age back in Fantastic Four #4. After flip-flopping over the years, Namor made peace after abdicating the throne in Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner #1-4 and joined the Avengers in Avengers #262 to atone for his past.

6. Namor is referring to Lady Dorma, his first love. The pair were married only for Dorma to die tragically shortly thereafter. See Sub-Mariner #36-37.