Today's issue of Zdarsky's Invaders was... interesting. Some thoughts:
So "Machan/Tommy" is both a part of Namor, as he stated outright, AND acting independently from Namor's conscience. In essence, Xavier gave Namor DID (dissociative identity disorder) effectively creating a second personality within him, one who can act without Namor's main personality remembering. I'm wondering how far back this extends? Like, for example, who blew up the planet in Time Runs Out, Namor or Manchan?
Great to see Toro but his entry was kind of... weird. Why would Toro, whom, to the best of my knowledge, has never had a single conversation with Tony Stark, assume that Tony was the one that dragged Jim out of retirement? I mean, if Jim was pulled out of retirement to engage in Avengers business, the first "culprit" should be assumed to be Steve, who is Jim's friend and, as we saw in the first issue of this run, keeps in contact with Jim. I mean, I LOVED seeing Toro, finally, don't get me wrong. It's just a weird execution there. The irony in all this was that it was
Jim who recruited Steve to look into what Namor was up to, so didn't Jim discuss ANY of concerns, the ones he expressed in the first issue, with Toro the way he did Steve? And Toro and Bucky are BFFs, so why in the world would Bucky not mention any of what was going on to Toro? You'd think the Invaders would have a group text thing going on. "Hey, one of us is going off the deep end, time for an intervention, who's in?".
Steve blames himself for not being strong or smart enough to stop Namor. Of course he does. Takes the world on his shoulders, that one. Poor guy.
And speaking of Steve, the last page of this newest issue, the ones not written by Zdarsky but rather Clay Chapman, looks like Machan/Namor is now targeting Steve specifically.
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Why? Steve really isn't a threat to Namor, power-wise, like at all, I mean, I love Steve with all my heart, but Namor could wipe the floor of him
easily, and seeing how the Avengers are currently pissed at him, it's not like Steve has any pull/clout there currently, either. Unless he *is* a threat. Perhaps Steve is the key to unraveling everything somehow?
Either way, it looks like the Avengers book and the Invaders book are now firmly coming together since this issue specifically brought in the Russians. So the question of the hour: "Machan" changing Russians into Atlanteans will further piss of the Winter Guard. Simmering tensions between them, Atlantis, the Avengers and the Squadron Supreme all the more. All of which, as we know now, has been caused by Mephisto, who has been pulling the strings to set up these conflicts since the beginning of them. So is "Machan" and what he is doing a result of what Xavier did, or Mephisto? Inquiring minds want to know.
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