When Marvel Comics began publishing superhero comics, the company had taken over Timely Comics and Atlas Comics. This means there were several characters to pull from, but Marvel instead mostly chose to start from scratch, using old comics like Journey Into Mystery to introduce actual superheroes, while also creating new comic books based on heroes like The Fantastic Four. However, Marvel did pull in some older Timely characters created as heroes during World War II. Marvel brought in Captain America in the pages of the Avengers and then reintroduced one of his Invaders teammates in The Fantastic Four.
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Marvel Comics released Fantastic Four #4 on February 8, 1962, and in that issue, Marvel brought back the Timely Comics hero Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Not only did the Fantastic Four bring in Namor, but he ended up being the first mutant in Marvel Comics, beating the X-Men by a year.
Marvel Comics Reintroduced Namor, The Sub-Mariner, as the First Mutant
In Fantastic Four #4, Johnny Storm met a seemingly unhoused man on the outskirts of the Bowery. Johnny had run away from the Fantastic Four and was hiding to keep them from finding him. While reading an old Sub-Mariner comic book from the 1940s, he admitted that he remembered his sister talking about him being a real World War II hero. That led him to meet Namor, who had amnesia and had no idea how long he had been wandering, not knowing who he was.
However, when Johnny used his powers to shave Namor, he recognized him immediately. He helped get Mamor to safety and then dropped him in the water, which immediately restored his memory. However, this backfired when he found Atlantis destroyed, with evidence that the humans did it by testing the atomic weapons in World War II. He then threatened to destroy all humanity, which was only stopped when Namor fell in love with Susan Storm at first sight and ended up fleeing the Fantastic Four in the end.
This was the start of two things. First, Namor went from being a Timely Comics superhero during World War II who helped fight Nazis and fascists, and now he was a villain because he believed humans destroyed his home. He would return just two issues later, teaming with Doctor Doom, and then again three issues later when the team was at its lowest. He has since become one of Marvel’s most powerful antiheroes, and Namor is a man who has switched from a villain to a hero more times than most.
However, this was also the start of the mutants in Marvel Comics, although Namor wasn’t called one until later. It wasn’t until Fantastic Four Annual #1 in 1963 that Namor was referenced as a possible mutant. That comic came out on July 2, 1963, while The X-Men #1 came out on the same day, officially showing the first named mutants in Marvel Comics. This means that Namor debuted as Marvel’s first mutant 17 months before Marvel ever used the term for the first time. At the same time, Namor’s first Marvel appearance also came 23 years after his first comic book appearance in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 in 1939, one year after Superman’s first appearance in DC Comics, and a year before Batman’s first appearance, making him one of the first heroes ever to appear in comic books.
While Marvel Comics likely didn’t have any plans for the Sub-Mariner to be a mutant when he debuted in 64 years ago Fantastic Four #4, he was still the basis for mutants. These are heroes who had no real origin story for receiving their powers, and instead were born with them. This retconned Namor’s original status as an Atlantian superhero and made him a lot more complicated while also helping to build the new hero archetype that the X-Men would master over a year later.
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