Story continued from IMMORTAL HULK: THE BEST DEFENSE.
Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, consults with his counselors
and makes his decision: Atlantis is in need of allies and so he announces that
he is going to seek out the Vodani, a faction of Atlanteans who went off into
exile centuries ago and bring them back to their rightful home and under their
rightful ruler. His friend Machan advises Namor to take someone along with him
for safety; Namor doesn't see the point as if the Vodani decide to kill him, no
allies will help. Machan also worries that reintroducing the Vodani will push
the people to rebellion in the name of democracy....
Namor sets out, not knowing where Vodan is, knowing only that
it can be reached through the Mindanao Trench. Abandoning his sub, he swims
into the dark Trench, with a luminous sea creature to go ahead of him. When the
pressure becomes too great and the glowing creature dies, he continues,
fighting the weight of the ocean, hallucinating a WW2 battlefield, moving ever
on and on....
Interlude: The killer wearing a ghost costume slays two more
aliens in the massive machine....
One week later and Namor is still fighting monsters until he
no longer recognizes his surroundings; he is surprised by armored warriors who
deliver an electric shock with a trident, knocking him unconscious.... He
awakens in the presence of King Okun of Vodan and his daughter Kataw, who are
contemptuous of Namor's claim to royalty and laugh at his plea for them to
return to the Atlantis they were thrown out of. Okun does not consider the
air-breathers a threat to his kingdom (and we'll find out why later). Kataw
appeals to her father to at least consider an alliance between the two peoples;
Okun orders Namor to prove himself worthy by killing the monster Skrilkrak....
Namor an Kataw enter the Canyon of Sorrows where they are
surprised by the Skrilkrak, a huge squidlike monster with tusks. Kataw shocks
the creature with her electric trident but it only makes it stronger; Namor
suggest she try draining the creature while he attacks it and kills it. Okun
was watching and he refuses to grant Namor an audience as he needed Kataw's
help to slay the Skrilkrak. In fact, Okun has come with troops to kill his
Atlantean foe. Namor clobbers the soldiers but finds himself in hand-to-hand
combat with the King, who threatens to next lead an army to destroy the false
Atlantis Namor rules. Enraged, Namor hurls himself and Okun through the waters
up to the surface where he discovers that Vodan is on another world, a world
without an atmosphere. He chokes Okun to death in the cold of space and while
imagining Kataw as leader of the Vodani, he passes out to await death—but a
silver surfboard flies in, picks him up, silvers him against the harsh environment
of space and alters him to the possibility of another powerful ally....
Story continued in DOCTOR STRANGE: THE BEST DEFENSE.