Sub-Mariner #57

Caught in the crosshairs of the gods! Namor discovers that a beautiful woman he rescued is none other than Venus, Goddess of Love! What will Ares, God of War have to say about Venus' departure to Earth? Namor takes on the God of War in mighty combat!

Namor is in the middle of a massive sea storm at night - all of a sudden a huge geyser erupts out of the sea and he spots the inert figure of a red-haired woman in a dress, lying on a rock that appears out of the ocean as if from nowhere. Namor decides to try to save her - as he flies down, she gets up, but before she can warn him a sword flies down between them and sticks into the rock. He is surprised that this woman knows his name and asks her about the sword. Confused, she points to it - the ‘sword’ has now become a shard of meteorite. We cut to see that it was Ares who threw the piece of meteorite - he vows to return and show her the righteous wrath of a lover deceived. A massive roll of thunder and lightning comes down and Ares disappears.

Meanwhile, Namor turns back to the woman - bizarrely she is now a completely different girl in a bikini, who now doesn’t recognize Namor, and claims to have no idea where she is or what is happening. Namor flies her back to shore. She appears keen to get away - she tells Namor her name is Vicki Starr, a schoolteacher, and that she was simply out for a swim when she got caught up in the storm. She says she has no idea how she appeared on the rock. As she runs off, Namor is puzzled that she didn’t thank him, and reflects on how he recently saved another, apparently ungrateful girl from drowning (in issue #50) who turned out to be his cousin Namorita.

We now cut to see Namorita (Nita) and Namor’s friend Mrs. Prentiss at home. Nita is busy painting up anti-Vietnam-War placards. Mrs. Prentiss expresses her concern that Nita’s participation in anti-War demonstrations may hinder her progress at school. They argue over whether students marching or perhaps instead a more competent authority should be deciding when to bring the troops home from ‘Nam. Mrs. Prentiss suggests that the students use their vote to settle the issue democratically. Namorita angrily objects to Mrs. Prentiss, saying that the country is too much of a police-state for democracy to work in this situation, pointing out the window to a peaceful demonstration being broken up violently by the forces of law and order. Mrs. Prentiss claims that the police are only acting in self defense and that the instigators of the riot are trouble makers. Nita retorts that Mrs. Prentiss is a big fan of Namor’s and that he is hardly democratic in his actions, and notes that in any case, the protest was organized by one of Nita’s teachers: Vicki Starr, Professor of Humanities. Mrs. Prentiss says that Starr must be very misguided and asks if she is out there leading the mob. As Nita tells Mrs. Prentiss that Starr went to beach over the weekend, Mrs. Prentiss spots a report in the newspaper of a car accident - it turns out Vicki Starr drove her car through a guardrail into the ocean and is now missing! Her body has yet not been recovered...

Nita is shocked and immediately calls Namor for help using her special earring (giving Namor something of a surprise to be hearing Nita’s voice all of a sudden). Mrs. Prentiss, Nita and Namor gather at the scene of the accident - Nita is convinced that Starr is still alive, and Namor vows to find her, telling the two women to return home, and warning that there is not much hope for Starr. Namor is uncertain if he is looking for the same ‘Vicki Starr’ he rescued the previous night. Although she must have been a good swimmer to survive the incident on the rock, there can only be a small chance she is still alive. As he searches, he comes across a bikini identical to that worn by Vicki Starr. A dolphin swims by - to his surprise it urgently prods him to follow. To Namor’s surprise, the pair of them come to a massive island he knows nothing about and the dolphin leaps out onto the shore with him! Namor tries to wrestle it back into the sea, when suddenly it turns into a woman - the same red-haired woman in a dress he originally saw on the rock. She announces herself as Venus, Goddess of Love (although Ares calls her Aphrodite) and demands Namor’s help in bringing peace to the mortals Earth, against the wishes of Ares who desires only bloodshed and devastation. Namor is skeptical of his chances against a god, but Venus suggests he use the sea to his advantage, where Ares will not be at his best. They turn to see that two nations have already started a war nearby. Venus seems to suggest that not only has Ares started this war, but he also created the continent they are standing on (Namor still has no idea where the land came from)! Venus warns Namor that unchecked, war will spread to all nations of the Earth. The two of them plan to lure Ares into the sea so Namor can fight him. Ares appears and chases Venus into the sea, pulling off her girdle, ‘Cestus’ (to remove her powers of love over men and gods) and tying her up so that she can’t interfere in his plans anymore. Namor swims down to the rescue and starts to fight Ares. Ares decides to turn into a shark, but this is no problem for Namor who wrestles him into submission. Ares then tries becoming a squid and squirts Namor with ink but this doesn’t stop him either. Ares next option is to turn into a swordfish. As Namor grabs the ‘sword’ of the fish, it turns into Ares’ real sword as he finally returns to his human form. Ares forces himself away from Namor and moves to finish off Venus - Namor has left him no choice but to kill her. Venus cries out to Namor to get her girdle back - he quickly creates a watery vortex around Ares, and uses the time to free Venus and give her girdle back to her. She zaps Ares with the girdle which saps his strength and Namor easily knocks him down. Ares is now apparently in love with Venus. She demands that he call off the war he just created on the brand-new continent, which he does, and with a bang, the continent disappears too! Namor and Venus are now alone on a rock in the middle of the sea again. A sword comes down from the sky as it did at the start of this episode and the voice of Ares calls down telling Venus to grab the sword and return to Olympus. She refuses, but in return must remove her girdle - she tells Ares to take his sword back. Namor is stunned by all this and even more so to find that Venus has turned back into Vicki Starr, her alter ego. She asks that he keep her secret, telling him that in fact Cestus will always be near when she needs it. Namor and Vicki return to see Nita. As Venus/Vicki returns to her teaching duties, Namor and Nita are skeptical over Vicki’s claims to be a goddess, although the name on her door Victoria Nutley Starr is somewhat suggestive!!