Everything so far has been speculation, Marvel themselves have not even confirmed it is Namor and not another ancient kingdom. I'm gonna lay my final thoughts on this subject for now until we get some actual concrete official proof of anything up to and including seeing the movie in theaters this November because I really love this character a lot and I want the best chance for his character to finally step into the spotlight and get the recognition he deserves. I do not trust Marvel Comics. I do not trust the MCU. I more than most am very critical about the MCU which is why it almost pains me to try to put a defense in until I am proven wrong by the movie.
1. Mesoamerican Native Atlanteans:
- I have all long said that the Atlanteans have been coded as an "Other" aka non-white undersea race. While they are a fictional race they are still coded as Indigenous People of Color. Which is why I would have been happy with any kind of nod/acknowledgement to that. An acknowledgement to Namor being Biracial. It more than anything is the core of his character and why he is the way he is, his people were done a grave injustice, and he is the Avenging Son for a reason. However Namor struggles with his surface/white/human side as well, which makes the Atlanteans mistrust him. He is literally a character with his feet in two worlds yet unable to fully belong to either. He is an angry and deep feeling character who has a very strong moral center that does not always line up with surface humans. He is a protector of his people and his home, the oceans. So far we have no knowledge if Fen/Leo is even going to be mentioned, nor anything else.
We all know that the core original concept of Namor from his creator Everett was not Atlantis, however that is and has been Namor's long standing backstory. Golden Age Namor Comics even mention Atlantis long before Aquaman's Silver Age retcon to become half human/half atlantean like Namor. So yes, Namor does have claim, he does have a right to be called an Atlantean in the movies, and a right to showcase Atlantis and be true to the comic lore. And it is
deeply unfair that because Aquaman is the more popular character that he will always be seen as the original King of Atlantis instead of Namor. It's unfair to us as Namor fans to have to give ground to this when we have spent years already dealing with this from DC/Aquaman fans and then for Marvel/MCU to not even say he is from Atlantis/have any ties to his long standing Lore, because "they are too worried to be similar to Aquaman". It makes me mad, it makes me upset because it is
not fair. So yes, I can understand how Namor fans don't want this change, and it has nothing to do with race or not wanting a Mesoamerican Native Namor. It has everything to do with the fact we have waited years and years for Namor to show up on screen and if we are lucky Marvel might drop a line like "Oh they are where the myth of Atlantis came from but actually they are the X people and their city is called X" and use Namor's name and nothing else. By that point would it not have been better to simply use Mesoamerican Lore in a respectful way to showcase Latino/Native Mexican representation?
Myself I am on board with the Tenoch casting, I am interested in the Mesoamerican Native Atlanteans, I do
HOPE that MCU Namor will be good and as one fan put it very neatly:
"I worry too, but I think there's solid reason for hope. There has always been a thread of indigenous identity in Namor and his people, so turning that subtext into text isn't a transformative change, it's an evolution of a concept already present. It's additive, not subtractive."
2. We as Namor fans have been bitching and moaning for years that Marvel has never given Namor any kind of world building, we have cobbled together Lore from every comic read, we have waited for someone to see the potential of Atlantis, it's mysteries and stories, and I will be the first to admit that Namor needs a big push to get out of this cycle of Marvel using him and destroying Atlantis. I don't want to disregard any of Namor's past or his Lore at all, but I want Marvel to build on that. We need new stories, new concepts to weave into the web already laid out. The sad and very true fact is that Marvel does not care about Namor because they do not see him as a money maker, and only having scores of fans suddenly knowing of Namor through the movies will ever move them to give the character a push because they want to make money off of that.
This has a very real downside of going the Quicksilver route, in which a character is introduced into the MCU, his entire background and personality is changed and all they kept was the name/powers, and then it did nothing for him in the comics and Quicksilver has been in comic limbo since 2018 because of MCU synergy. I have already lived through what happens when one of my favorite characters is done dirty by the MCU. I already know the outcome and what fan response will be like. I was there to see the change in fan perception of Quicksilver before and after the MCU, and now I can't even go into a single search or tag about Quicksilver without seeing that terrible MCU version of him who literally dies in the first movie he is in. This is why I hope Namor's inclusion in the mcu will be different, because I already know how bad it can get.
3. Just give the movie a chance. The MCU will never truly base Namor off a direct comic to screen adaptation, because they haven't done it for any of their other characters either, characters that are much more popular than Namor.
Do I want all of that? Hobo Namor, the Invaders, Jim Hammond, Betty Dean? Yes, of course! However this is a Black Panther movie, things are not going to happen that don't tie into that. It sucks that Namor is once again being connected to Black Panther when I know as a character he has never needed them to tell his story. Unless Marvel does the impossible and actually gives Namor his own movie and his own solo plots not connected to Black Panther or the Avengers then I will not be expecting them to actually include all the plots and things I love about his Lore. I am already scratching my head wondering why Namora? Why her instead of Nita as a family member? Nita is much more well known and more popular than Namora if they needed a family member. If they needed a female Atlantean in general then why not Dorma? We literally have so little information that getting upset over anything that isn't even proven doesn't actually matter at this point.
Everyone is of course free to hate and speculate on whatever rumors come out but as for myself I will continue to wait until I get the full picture of what is happening. I support Namor's character above all else and it's the only reason for me to have any interest in the MCU these days otherwise I would just continue to ignore the MCU as I've been doing.