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Hold up a minute, you can tell it's been decades since I read the comics, but they're ret-conning Namor? He's no longer Prince of Atlantis, he's ruler of some
HispanicIndigenous South American underwater realm called Talokan?Good lord, is nothing sacred anymore? I caught a glimpse of a trailer for "Wakanda Forever" and thought I saw Namor out of the corner of my eye, then went "Nah, what would Atlantis be doing in the story of the isolated futuristic African realm?" So it looks like I was right both ways - it's not Atlantis, but it was Namor.
Y'know, all this talk about making this movie for Black people, but this kind of choice just tells me it and the preceding one was made mainly for white liberals to go "Oh yah, colonisation so bad, White privilege awful!" about, especially when told by black activists going on social media about "white people don't go to this movie the opening weekend, let black people enjoy it".
Well to be fair switching it from Atlantis, given that Aquaman beat them to the punch movie wise (though Namor was first in the comics) is not a bad idea. Half human- half Atlantean dickish prince of Atlantis is already out there in the DCEU. You're already having to cope with the daft wings on his ankles and his switches between hero, anti-hero and outright villain, let's not make him have to climb too high a mountain
And Namor and Wakanda did have a war in the comics as well so they are pulling from that storyline pretty much whole cloth. Talokan is Atlantis just with a rebranding. Exact same storylines, war on the surface world etc. But it differentiates them a bit with DC Atantlis. I thought that part actually worked pretty well.
Yes, the wings on his ankles are stupid. Deal with it, kids. They made Aquaman cool (which, to be fair, he badly needed: a 'superhero' whose defining trait was that he could only stay out of water an hour was less than whelming), now I want my dumb 70s "everybody was on drugs and boy can you tell" comic book stories told straight (as straight as they can be, which isn't much).
Part of Namor's 'charm' was that he was a snob and a jerk a lot of the time (though he could rise above it at times). Why give him a ret-conned Pathetic Kicked Puppy Backstory? Original Real Namor would sneer this pretender into oblivion at the very notion that the Prince of Atlantis was ever reduced to such a state!
Original Namor has one card in his deck. Attack the surface world. Celestials attack earth and damage Atlantis - attack the surface world. Pollution - attack the surface world, Mind wiped - attack the surface world, mind restored - make peace.. no sorry I mean attack the surface world. Possessed - you guessed it. Someone stops his pet piranhas eating innocent civilians - attack the surface world. Dark Elves attack Atlantis - attack the surface world.
The most ludicrous thing about Namor wasn't his ankle wings, it was that every five minutes people would team up with him, despite him being the Atlantean equivalent of a badly trained attack dog. Even the Atlanteans finally realized that and rebelled and overthrew him. If anything he needs a troubled back story for some sympathy and to be softened a little to explain why his own people actually follow him.
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I have no idea but I wish it would spot. It reeks of the "bullies really just have low self-esteem" non-sense everyone was spouting off in the 90s.
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