* Sub-Mariner had multiple good stories in FANTASTIC FOUR (issues 4, 6, 9, 14, 27, 33, and ANNUAL 1) it was only when Namor got his own monthly series that he turned dull, largely for me due to the lackluster Gene Colan art.
More than the art, I think the real factor is that Namor has, outside of World War II (when he was battling the Axis), never worked as well as a hero as he does as a villain. Marvel should just admit that fact and make him one of the big-three bad guys in their canon, along with doom and magneto
Every now and again you get a glimpse of that.
In Avengers: Arena (a terrific comic, notwithstanding its shadowing of the Hunger Games, with some amazing characterisation of what had previously been a D-list villain, Arcade), the writer explains the origin of the Atlantean girl (can't remember her name). As a small child, her parents committed treason and were executed. She is standing in front Namor's throne, maybe 5 years old, with her parents' dead bodies in the background. Namor's guardsmen say, "And what of the girl?" Namor is showing walking to his throne with his back to her, and a hand nonchalantly in the air. "Exile her to the surface," he says without even looking at her.
Supervillain as fuck.
