The teaser for the Black Panther sequel revealed a new version of Namor, played by Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta, ruling a kingdom that ditches established Greek fantasy aesthetics for a distinct Mesoamerican flavor. Today, Tlapoyawa is an archaeologist, author, and ethnohistorian whose work centers on Mesoamerica, a bubble region that encompasses ancient civilizations - including Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Toltec, and more indigenous peoples - spanning contemporary Mexico down to El Salvador and Honduras. It was kismet when the trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever premiered at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con. That appealed to me as a Chicano kid - a non-white hero as one of the original Marvel heroes.” “If you look at the older comic books, it always talked about Namor and his war against the white man. “He didn’t look like a white guy.” Namor’s otherness resonated through the screen to Tlapoyawa, who describes himself back then as “a young, angry Chicano” trying to figure out his place in the world. “I was like, ‘That guy looks different,’” Tlapoyawa remembers. Namor in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. In contrast to DC’s conventionally handsome Aquaman, Namor’s features in the cartoon - all pointy ears and jet black widow’s peak - hinted at what he is: an outsider antihero who cooperates with the Avengers only when it’s in his favor. Namor the Sub-Mariner, the abrasive king of Atlantis, is one of Marvel’s earliest characters, having made his comic book debut in 1939.
The plot is a boilerplate ’80s cartoon - the group, stranded on an island, is picked off one by one by the Chameleon.
The episode, “7 Little Superheroes,” delivered Avengers: Endgame-levels of spectacle by gathering Spider-Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Firestar, Iceman, the obscure Shanna the She-Devil, and Namor into a single episode. “It was on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends,” Tlapoyawa tells Inverse, recalling the 1981 animated series. He remembers, in particular, the first time he laid eyes on Namor the Sub-Mariner. Before Kurly Tlapoyawa became an archaeologist specializing in Mesoamerican civilizations, he was a young Mexican-American kid watching cartoons.
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