'Namor' Still Swimming

Pretty much every major Marvel or DC superhero is in some form of development at one of the many industry studios. One of those characters that has been long talked of is Namor or more commonly known as Sub-Mariner. Prince Namor is the Marvel equivalent of DC's Aquaman. He is a half human and half merman. Namor possesses high intellect, super-human strength, obvious underwater advantages and a huge disposition against surface dwellers. The Marvel property is owned by Universal, who has continually renewed the rights but has never seemed to get the property rolling. The folks over at Collider have new word from "The Surrogates" director Jonathan Mostow that "Sub-Mariner" is in active development right now over at Universal. Does that mean will we get a Sub-Mariner film right away, probably not. Read the full story below...

Jonathan Mostow director of this year's "The Surrogates" starring Bruce Willis revealed to Collider that he has been in active development of the Universal property. He said, "Uh, well Sub-Mariner is sort of like all things Marvel, in a shroud of secrecy. So, it's a project that I've been developing and you know well have to see what happens." Mostow's comments aren't to revealing at all but he later spoke with Steve Weintraub off camera he revealed a bit more on the subject of Prince Namor. He told the news outlet that the main thing holding back "Sub-Mariner" is the right script. Weintraub's paraphrased Mostow's comments by saying, "He said the big hang-up is getting the script right and they haven’t cracked it yet. He said making a great super-hero movie is really tough and without the right script it’s impossible." I think all of the major studios have moved passed trying to just make a superhero movie for the sake of making one and Mostow's comments reflect that logic entirely.

It is nice to think that studios are taking the time and nurturing these beloved characters and Sub-Mariner isn't the easiest of super heroes to put on film. There are quite a few obstacles in front of it. First and foremost the amount of CGI or underwater filming that will have to be utilized. Another big aspect to Namor is who will he fight and what will be the major conflict. Sub-Mariner has always been a strong character in the Marvel team-up universe, but not as much in his own comic. Namor fought alongside Captain America in The Invaders. Namor is the person who later finds Captain America frozen in ice. Namor is part of the super hero council known as Illuminati along with Mister Fantastic, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Professor X, and Black Bolt. The sad part there is, Sub-Mariner being owned by Universal means he will not be allowed to cross over into other Marvel hero worlds like the Fantastic Four or Captain America. Unless of course the Marvel and Universal came to some form of an rights-sharing agreement.

I have a few ideas how Namor could work, but it does not involve him really having a major villain. The villain would instead be humanity or surface dwellers as Prince Namor would call them. There have been quite a few story lines in the Sub-Mariner history that point to mankind causing the treachery towards the ocean. One quick example would be when the original city of Atlantis was destroyed by nuclear testing. Namor sought out to seek his revenge on humans. Sub-Mariner might be best portrayed as not necessarily the typical super hero, but more so an anti-hero. There is a lot left to speculate about "Sub-Mariner" more news as it develops...

What say you? Would you go see a Sub-Mariner film? Strikeback...