Human Torch Comics #5B
The Human Torch Battles the Sub-Mariner
The Human Torch is having a banquet for his friend, a reporter named Casey who is going to be covering the war in Europe of the Consolidated Press. In attendance at the banquet are the Angel, the Patriot, and Toro. During the celebrations the Torch points out that the Sub-Mariner is absent as he has been called back to Atlantis by his mother for important business. As the Sub-Mariner nears Atlantis he comes across a sea battle between Allied and Axis forces. Knowing that this will endanger his people, Namor enters the fight and sends both sides fleeing. In the aftermath of the battle, the Sub-Mariner dives down into the ocean and inspects the carnage that the conflict has wrought. Entering an underground shelter, Namor is reunited with his mother Princess Fen. Fen informs him that various undersea races are now meeting to decide how best to deal with the surface dwellers' war. He meets with a refugee princess, a woman named Rathia who fled her home in the Baltic Sea after it was subject to surface bombing. She suggests that they all rally their forces together to wage war on the surface world and take it over. She convinces Namor to support this move, using her seduction and playing on Namor's ego by suggesting that he would be a great leader of the entire world.
Namor then contacts Casey and finds out where he will be covering the war. When Casey responds that he is covering the Russo-German front, Namor sends him a warning to avoid that region. Finding it suspicious, the Human Torch and Toro go to investigate for themselves. As the two heroes fly to Russia, Casey arrives in Moscow where he steals a soldier's uniform so he can sneak onto the front line and get a first hand account of the battle. To his surprise both sides are suddenly swept up in a massive whirlpool that floods up from the nearby water. Casey almost drowns along with the soldiers, but is rescued by the Torch and Toro. With the conflict ended, and a new danger presented Casey is reassigned to London while the Human Torch and Toro decide to seek out their sometime ally the Sub-Mariner.
Meanwhile, Namor is happy over his first strike against the surface dwellers and Rathia plays up his ego suggesting that he has become a modern day Napoleon. When Namor spots the Torch and Toro coming to visit him, Rathia tells him that a conqueror has no friends only pawns, and so the Sub-Mariner decides to try to recruit the Torch and Toro as allies. Sweeping the flaming duo up in a whirlpool and taking them below the sea, Namor offers them a part in his conquest of the entire world. The two heroes ultimately refuse to aid him, and Namor floods the room with water. While the Human Torch manages to escape, Toro is captured. Rushing to the surface, the Torch flies over both Germany and Russia and attempts to warn them of Namor's pending attack. Both sides of the conflict dismiss the Torch's warning as an enemy trick. The Torch decides to return to London to try to get Casey to put the word out hoping the press will have a better job warning the world of Namor's threat. Along the way, the Torch stops in Africa and warns Ka-Zar of the potential threat of floods in his region. As the Torch rushes off to London, Ka-Zar begins building a massive ark to protect his animal friends from any flooding.
Meanwhile, the Torch's warning reaches the presses and it spreads across the world. The Patriot brings the news to the President of the United States who agrees to mobilize US troops to deal with the coming crisis. While the Torch meets with the British Prime Minister for troops that he can lead in a strike against Namor's undersea kingdom. However, in attempting to tunnel their way through the ground, they are easy targets by the Sub-Mariner who uses his whirlpool device to flood the tunnel.
The Torch has no other choice but to save himself and seal the tunnel so that Namor does not use it to invade Britain. Going after Namor, he confronts the undersea monarch in his hide out and the two fight it out. However the fight is cut short when Rathia arrives and douses the Torch's flame. The Torch is then easily overpowered and locked in a water filled cell. The Torch is then fed drugged food that bends his will to Namor's cause. With the Torch as his slave, Namor sends him to prove his loyalty by destroying Allied forces before mobilizing a massive undersea army to launch a full out attack on the surface world.
While down below, Toro - who has been locked in a water filled room since his capture earlier - has started to become delirious thanks to the onset of pneumonia. Namor has the Torch's young sidekick taken out of his cell and placed in medical care. That night as the conflicted Namor struggles with the guilt of Toro's position and his desire to rule the world, Toro awakens and in his impaired mental state manages to escape. Toro makes it as far as the British coast where he is found by a soldier and taken to a hospital. Meanwhile, Namor and his legion attack the British post on the Gibraltar. The invasion is a complete success and eventually the soldiers stationed there surrender to Namor's forces. After attacking British naval ships and Nazi U-Boats, Namor then activates one of his whirlpool devices to flood Africa. Thankfully, Ka-Zar and his animal friends are spared from drowning thanks to the ark he had built earlier.
The Torch has meanwhile been sent to melt glaciers near Russia, causing massive flooding in the area. While Hitler plots to change his tactics, unconcerned with the sudden freak floods the Torch snaps out of his mind control when he spots an American flag fluttering at the American embassy in Moscow.
Free from Namor's control, the Human Torch stops the continued flooding from the area and then is contacted by Casey who tells the Torch that the United States is threatened by the melting of glaciers in Canada. The Torch rushes off and stops this flood as well, much to Namor's chagrin when he learns that his slave is now free from his control. The Torch briefly clashes with the Sub-Mariner, however when Namor begins to lose the battle he flees. Learning where Toro is located, the Torch pays a visit to his injured sidekick and offers to bring him to New York to get away from the bombings going on in London. Toro however is inspired by the bravery of the British people and decides to remain in London to recover.
Meanwhile, Namor's campaign against the surface world continues as his forces attack and flood Nazi Germany, and easily overpowers their army. However when the Human Torch arrives, the Sub-Mariner and his forces retreat. They head toward the United States, sinking British fleets along the way and activate one of their whirlpool devices to flood New York City. The Torch arrives and minimizes as much of the damage as possible, and in battling Namor within the Statue of Liberty convinces Namor that he is fighting a lost cause and that Rathia will eventually betray him and take over. Realizing the folly of his ways, Namor decides to give up his aggression against the surface world and stop his attacking army. When Namor rushes off to confront Rathia alone, the Torch soon catches up with a special pipe that sucks the water away from him allowing him to turn on his flame underwater. The two destroy the last of the whirlpool devices and capture Rathia and forcing the undersea army to surrender. With the battle over, the Torch and Namor return to Britain to find Toro and find that the hospital he was staying in had been bombed and that Toro himself is among the missing, leaving the Torch to wonder if his sidekick is dead or alive.
This story continues in Marvel Mystery Comics #27…
Recurring Characters
Human Torch, Toro, Sub-Mariner, Nazis (Adolf Hitler), Josef Stalin, Angel, Patriot, Ka-Zar, Princess Fen, Seal People, Shark Men, Winston Churchill
Continuity Notes
Namor’s flooding of America is recounted in Marvels #1 and Marvels Project #6 & 7. Since Marvels Project #6-7 shows Namor getting arrested and incarcerated those and Namor later being freed. The events of those stories take place between Panels 2 & 3 on the final page of this story.
This is the only Golden Age appearance of the Shark Men. They will resurface years later in Fear Itself: The Home Front #7
