When Algae Attack!

Battling sea monsters is certainly nothing new for the Sub-Mariner:

But I think it's safe to say we've reached the bottom of the barrel with this one.

"The Invincible Seaweed Man." Try designing the masthead for that title. Thankfully, the Seaweed Man (I can't even type that without wincing) never got his own comic, nor did he ever catch on as a villain (though parts of him likely kept catching on pieces of coral and shale down in those depths). He was simply one of the deadly sentries that Namor had to overcome on his way to obtaining Neptune's enchanted trident. It's too bad Namor didn't have a trident on him here--he could have curled the Seaweed Man in it like spaghetti.

But, come on, this is the Sub-Mariner! He's gone head-to-head with Iron Man and slugged it out with the Hulk! A creature made of seaweed isn't going to give him much trouble. On the other hand, neither the Hulk nor Iron Man had a Grip of Doom^®:

Actually, it's a little astonishing that a creature made of seaweed has a grip of anything--but this mag is called Tales To Astonish, so it's covered its bases. Regardless, it looks like curtains for Namor. What a way to go out--smothered by seaweed. Krang and Byrrah are liable to have a heck of a laugh later at the pub over that one. But let's not count Namor out yet. Because the one sure way of prevailing against the Seaweed Man is by the use of:

JUDO.

I don't know how you apply leverage against seaweed, but there you have it. Namor doesn't consider himself out of the woods yet, though; in fact, he seems to regard the Seaweed Man as unstoppable, a creature he can only keep at bay for so long. So using the sea against the Seaweed Man seems like a good idea:

So that was Namor's epic battle with the Seaweed Man--and to hear Namor talk, you'd think he still has nightmares about this creature to this day. Come to think of it, "Stalked By The Seaweed Man!" is a sequel just waiting for a writer to tackle.  I hope he's up on his martial arts.