Thou, Fen – beautiful goddess of the seals – thou shalt find thy way into the hands of these white monsters, there to work your feminine wiles to our racial advantage – get thee hence, while there is yet time! 
History
20th Century[]
1920s[]
_and_Fen_(Earth-616)_from_Marvel_Comics_Vol_1_1_0001.jpg){kind=link}
Original appearance
After successfully mastering their language, Fen returned to her father's kingdom to share all she had learned. Despite his misgivings, he allowed her to return to the surface to learn more about the surface dwellers so that her people could learn the best way to deal with them. However, Fen and Leonard McKenzie began to fall in love with one another. Soon they were married, and Fen could not slip away as easily as she had in the past. Also unknown to her at the time, her first night in marriage to Leonard found her pregnant. Her feelings for Leonard grew, as he almost died when betrayed by Paul Destine who left Leonard to almost die in an icy avalanche. Their bliss soon ended when Emperor Thakorr, assuming the worst, sent a raiding party to recover Fen, and seemingly slew Leonard before recovering her.[1][2][3][4]
In a presumably fictional account, Leonard McKenzie was left behind by his crew and Fen rescued him. Although the people of Atlantis were outraged by this, Fen kept Leonard in their undersea world to heal his broken leg and their relationship blossomed while Emperor Thakorr was away. However, public opinion soured even more when another expedition began blasting the ice above their kingdom again. Thakorr returned, furious to find a surface man and his daughter in a relationship and threatened to kill Leonard. Fen helped Leonard to the ship and they soon left the area. Later, it was discovered that Fen was pregnant. The birth was a success, and Namor was born. Thakorr decided that Fen and young Namor needed to go into exile for the next ten years until the baby grew up to be a boy and could be raised to be the next heir to the Atlantean throne.[5] However, it would appear that this exile might not have happened, or not has been as long as originally decreed. It was also later revealed that Fen had a certain amount of shame and guilt about her son's half-breed nature.[6]
Despite this, Fen saw that Namor was raised in the model of his royal heritage, and taught him about Atlantean history. When they witnessed Thakorr exiling the scientist Vyrra, Fen explained to young Namor that cloning was outlawed in Atlantis after a clone massacre generations earlier known in Atlantean history as "Night of the Long Spears".[7] She also nurtured Namor's interest in becoming a member of the Tri-Team.[8]
As Namor began to grow, Fen soon realized that, due to her son's hybrid nature, he had abilities that put him beyond normal Atlanteans. Such as the night that Namor was trapped above the Antarctic ice for over 24 hours, Fen discovered that her boy could breath above the surface,[9] his superhuman strength when after Fen was trapped under a ship mast,[10] and when Namor suddenly grew wings from his feet that allowed him to prevent himself and his mother from falling into an icy ravine.[11][12]
By this time, the people of Atlantis had migrated to a new home near the Pacific Northwest. However, they soon found their new home was over a patch of oil, which was slowly seeping into their realm from the cracks in the ground. When Namor began romancing surface girl Sandy Pierce, Fen encouraged the relationship, consenting to allow Namor to bring Sandy to his cousin's birthday.[13]
1930s[]
By the 1930s, Namor's relationship with Sandy was growing into a business deal with her father Henry Pierce, who had convinced Namor to allow them to dig the oil that was sitting under Atlantis. Fen was present when her father Thakorr met with Henry and brokered a deal to drill for the oil.[14] However, relations soon broke down and after a mutiny by Namor's cousin Beemer led to the drilling platform being destroyed. Their home was heavily polluted by the spilling oil, leading Fen and her people to once more return to their original home located in the South Pole.[15]
It was here that young Namor had his first clash with the Nazis, taking down a Nazi fighter plane even though he was not entirely sure what it was. Proud of her son's victory, Fen took the downed planes tail-fin and presented it to him as a trophy.[16] Later when stocks of walrus and seals became scarce in the area, the people of Atlantis feared possible starvation. During this time, Namor came with a story of his encounter of the Ice King. However, Fen dismissed the Ice King as nothing more as a figment of Namor's imagination. Namor, however, with the aid of the Ice King helped save his people by finding a new supply of food.[17]
Soon after Namor returned home with the corpses of two surface divers whom he had killed, Fen commended Namor for his deeds, even though Namor felt shame. She told her son that he would be the vessel of revenge against the surface world in Atlantis' name,[3][12] and Namor was sent to wage war against the surface world.[18]
1940s[]
Fen soon began getting involved in Namor's affairs, and shortly after his kidnapping of surface woman Lynne Harris deemed the woman the ideal mate for Namor and demanded that they marry. After Namor recaptured her and brought her back to Atlantis, Fen cared for the woman until Lynne was forced to undergo surgery that transformed her into an amphibian.[19] However, when this plan ultimately failed, Fen encouraged her son to go out and begin adventuring once more.[20]
Following a Nazi attack on Atlantis,[21] Thakorr was gravely injured and Fen convinced the people of Atlantis to take Namor on as their new emperor until Thakorr's recovery.[22] Later, Namor ended up forcing Lynne Harris and her male companion Luther Robinson back to Atlantis, where Lynne was made into Fen's personal servant until they once more escaped captivity.[23] When Namor began rallying other undersea races to launch an attack on the surface world, Fen encouraged Namor's decision, even though it ultimately ended in failure.[24]
During one of Namor's more lengthy absences from Atlantis, his uncle Daka took over the Atlantean throne and had Fen and all of Namor's supporters locked away. When Namor returned to Atlantis, he freed his mother and the other captors and led them in a successful rebellion that saw Daka ousted from power.[25] Later, Fen had begun growing sympathetic toward the victims of World War II and convinced Namor to assist the people of France get a leg up on liberating their country from Nazi rule.[26]
However, this sympathy appeared to be short lived as Fen was soon tricked by the Nazis when they captured the Human Torch and amplified his powers, using the android to attack Atlantis. This convinced Fen to allow the Nazis to occupy Atlantis.[27] However, unknown to Fen, the Nazis were using her people to conduct horrific experiments on the people of Atlantis and create an army of Human Torch androids dubbed the Firebrand Squadron. However, Namor and Captain America were able to show Fen the errors of her ways.[6] After the heroes freed the Human Torch and destroyed the Firebrand Squadron, Fen was about to have the captured Nazis executed. However Namor stood up to her and ordered the Nazis turned over to the American military to face War Crimes trials at a later date.[28]
The Nazis soon returned to menace Atlantis again, this time under the command of Commander Kornstalk who attempted to poison the people of Atlantis by flooding their realm with copper. Although Namor went to stop Kornstalk alone, Fen led an army of Atlanteans to help, preventing Kornstalk from murdering her son.[29]
Namor was then absent from Atlantis for the remainder of the war and during his absence, Thakorr recovered from his injuries and regained his throne. Confused after his long recovery, Thakorr was then easily convinced by Byrrah and Warlord Krang to exile Namor. Fen convinced her son to leave to find his own place in the world until Thakorr came to his senses.[22]
1950s[]
When Namor was finally allowed back to Atlantis, he also resumed ties to the surface world. For the most part, Fen remained uninvolved in the activities of her son. However, when the Earth's surface water was stolen by the Lunarians of the so-called Second Moon, Atlantis was also at risk. Learning that her son was on the Second Moon, she used her seldom-used telepathic abilities to contact him and inform him that Atlantis was at risk. Namor then returned the water to Earth, saving the people of Atlantis.[9] When the mad telepath known as Destiny recovered the Helmet of Power he first tested its power on Atlantis. The resulting onslaught appeared to take the lives of both Princess Fen and Emperor Thakorr.[30] However, Socus, sorcerer of the Unforgiven Dead recovered the battered body of Fen and replaced it with the corpse of their dead queen Artys-Gran, as part of a plan to free the Unforgiving Dead and their ruler Suma-Ket and his people from the Grey Waters where they had been imprisoned for centuries.[31]
_buried_in_old_Atlantis_from_Tales_to_Astonish_-96.jpg){kind=link}
Fen's grave in old Atlantis
Meanwhile, when Namor went to clash with Destiny, the villain used the Helmet of Power to strike Namor with amnesia and went into suspended animation himself. Namor spent the coming decades wandering the surface world trying to remember who he was.[30] The people of Atlantis buried what they thought was the body of Princess Fen on the site of old Atlantis[32] and the people of Atlantis went to colonize another part of the ocean.[33] Elsewhere Socus had hidden away the body of Fen, using his magics to restore her body and slowly transfer the mind of Artys-Gran into it, while slowly trapping Fen's mind in the corpse of Artys buried in her grave, which would be a process that would take years to complete.[31]
Modern Age[]
As Timed Passed[]
As Princess Fen lay dead in her grave, the people of Atlantis became nomads after their most recent settlement was destroyed in atomic bomb testing. About 10 years ago, Namor's memory was restored by the Human Torch of the newly formed Fantastic Four. Fearing his people dead, Namor waged war against the surface world for a time.[33] Eventually, Namor found his people alive and well, and he took over as their ruler while settling them in a new Atlantis.[2] Over the years Namor's rule and his opinions over the surface world had been turbulent. Eventually, Namor's memories of Destiny were restored,[30] and he eventually avenged the death of his mother when Destiny, in a fit of insanity, leapt off the roof of a building, believing that the Helmet of Power could grant him the power of flight.[34]
Pawn of Suma-Ket[]
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Mother and son reunited
Over the years, Fen's body recovered from the fatal injuries sustained during the fall of Atlantis, and while the mind transference was still incomplete, Socus began manipulating events to suit the needs of Suma-Ket's return.[31] Part of this was facilitated when Namor's warlord Warlord Seth was seemingly slain in battle.[35] Socus had commanded the Faceless Ones to bring Seth to his domain and worked on healing him over the coming months as well, Seth fully believed the woman who was prisoner with him was the true Princess Fen.[36] Eventually Artys-Gran/Fen was released to carry out Suma-Ket's plan to free themselves from the Grey Waters, a plan that required the spilling of the blood of Atlantean royalty, and then a sacrifice at the gates of Atlantis. However the body of Fen was not completely under the control of Artys, and when Fen learned the location of her son, he came to rescue her during a period in which his memory was erased by the mystic known as Master Khan.[37] However they were soon captured in a Latverian fishing vessel being tested by that nation's monarch Dr. Doom. The pair struggled against the ship's crew, but Fen's weakened state out of water and Namor's own amnesia led to their defeat.[38] Namor broke free and managed to escape, leaving Fen to learn Doom's plan; he intended to harvest all the oceans' fish in a bid to control the world. But before he could continue on this plan, Namor returned with a vengeance.[39] Namor then sank the vessel, and as his memory was restored to normal, defeated Doom in combat. Suddenly, Master Khan launched his next attack, trapping Doom, Namor, and Fen, as well as allies who had come searching for Namor which included: Namor's cousin Namorita, Iron Fist, Colleen Wing, and Misty Knight. They all soon found themselves shrunken down in size and trapped in a bottle which Khan then took possession of.[40]
_and_Artys-Gran_(Earth-616)_from_Namor,_the_Sub-Mariner_Vol_1_35_001.jpg){kind=link}
Queen of Atlantis
Khan then returned them to New York where he posed as Namor and began trying to financially ruin Namor's organization Oracle Inc.. The heroes managed to break free, and Fen witnessed as Namor seemingly slew Master Khan by ripping his head off, but the expansion of the water and ship in the bottle caused massive damage to the Oracle Inc. building in the process.[41] Suddenly the scene was visited by an Atlantean scouting party led by Lord Vashti who told Namor that strange happenings were going on in Atlantis and that Seth had returned seemingly from the dead. The Atlanteans were shocked to see Fen apparently alive and well, but Namor was not so quick to accept that this was his mother and not some impostor. As they traveled to Atlantis to investigate the trouble, suddenly Namor's scout ship was attacked and destroyed. While Namor was busy fighting off a massive sea-creature apparently summoned by a dead body, Fen's ship continued on to Atlantis.[42] With the Artys-Gran persona taking control, Fen reclaimed the Atlantean throne. When Namor arrived he was perturbed to find his people openly accepting "Fen's" rule. Things were distracted further when Namor's old ally Tamara Rahn came with his old foe Tiger Shark to warn him of the Faceless Ones massacring people outside of Atlantis. Fen took control of the situation and ordered Tiger Shark imprisoned. Meanwhile, Socus tricked exiled Atlantean royal Byrrah to go to the Grey Waters where he was sacrificed. His blood allowed Suma-Ket to finally cross over from the Grey Waters with his armies, but could not leave the blackened depths without the blood of the true ruler of Atlantis. This slaying of Byrrah also allowed Gran to take almost total control of Fen's body.[43]
_and_Artys-Gran_(Earth-616)_from_Namor,_the_Sub-Mariner_Vol_1_39_001.jpg){kind=link}
Trapped in the body of Artys-Gran
Attributes
 |
Powers
- Atlantean Physiology: Fen possessed the standard abilities of a member of her race.[47]
- Superhuman Strength: Fen had enough strength to lift 2 tons.[47]
- Superhuman Durability: Fen could resist extreme water pressures and temperatures.[47]
- Superhuman Speed: Fen could swim at 30 mph.[47]
- Decelerated Aging: Like all Atlanteans Fen aged slower than a human.[47]
- Enhanced Vision: Fen could see in the murky ocean depths.[47]
- Telepathy: In at least one instance, Fen showed the ability to telepathically contact her son, Namor.[citation needed] However, this form of communication required much concentration.[citation needed] Thus, she did not use it often.
- Magic: While inhabiting the body of Artys-Gran, Fen learned to use some of the Old Ones' dark magic.[31]
Paraphernalia
Transportation
See Also
- 53 appearance(s) of Fen (Earth-616)
- 3 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Fen (Earth-616)
- 8 minor appearance(s) of Fen (Earth-616)
- 25 mention(s) of Fen (Earth-616)
- 6 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Fen (Earth-616)
- 9 image(s) of Fen (Earth-616)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Fen (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ Saga of the Sub-Mariner #1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fantastic Four Annual #1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Marvel Comics #1
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #1
- ↑ Sub-Mariner Comics #32
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #3
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #20
- ↑ Namor #1
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Sub-Mariner Comics #36
- ↑ Sub-Mariner Comics #37
- ↑ Sub-Mariner Comics #38
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Saga of the Sub-Mariner #2
- ↑ Namor #5
- ↑ Namor #7
- ↑ Namor #12
- ↑ Sub-Mariner Comics #41
- ↑ Sub-Mariner Comics #42
- ↑ Marvel Mystery Comics #2
- ↑ Marvel Mystery Comics #12
- ↑ Marvel Mystery Comics #13
- ↑ Sub-Mariner Comics #1
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Saga of the Sub-Mariner #5
- ↑ Marvel Mystery Comics #18
- ↑ Human Torch #5 (Fall)
- ↑ Marvel Mystery Comics #24
- ↑ Marvel Mystery Comics #30
- ↑ Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #2
- ↑ Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #4
- ↑ Marvel Mystery Comics #37
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 Sub-Mariner #1
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 31.4 Namor, the Sub-Mariner #39
- ↑ Tales to Astonish #96
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 Fantastic Four #4
- ↑ Sub-Mariner #7
- ↑ Sub-Mariner #21
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 Namor, the Sub-Mariner #36
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #29
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #30
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #31
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #32
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #33
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #34
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #35
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #37
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #38
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #40
- ↑ 47.0 47.1 47.2 47.3 47.4 47.5 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #14
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 14