Namor Was Marvel's First Anti-Hero, 35 Years Before the Punisher's Debut

Marvel Comics' Punisher is the archetypal pop culture anti-hero, but the publisher actually set the precedent for characters like Frank Castle decades earlier with Namor the Submariner. Anti-heroes might feel like a modern phenomenon , but they have a long pre-history, and Namor's early appearances show Marvel was ahead of the curve on this trend.

In a 2011 interview with Alter Ego magazine, Marvel legend Stan Lee discussed an early Daredevil issue he wrote, in which he used Namor as a complicated, anti-heroic antagonist for the Man Without Fear.

In a way, this story laid the foundation for the subsequent success of the Punisher, and the proliferation of anti-heroes that followed.

Daredevil's Early Encounter With Prototypical Anti-Hero Namor Highlights The Submariner's Distinct