Tenoch Huerta as Namor

I am kind of fascinated by the presentation of Tenoch Huerta as Namor in the new Black Panther movie. Not just because of the Central American aesthetic; that was definitely unexpected, though very welcome to me, seeing as it’s gorgeously rendered and a very cool artistic inspiration from a culture not previously much referenced in the Marvel universe. More because of the vibe they gave him.

Namor, like every other long-running comics character, has been interpreted in a variety of different ways, from imperious ocean wizard to smarmy undersea fuck boy. I confess I’ve always preferred the latter, watching him “hey, girl” at Sue Storm in front of her husband and scoff at people too unsophisticated to appreciate the charms of the shrimp queen. For years I’ve been cracking, “I can’t wait to see what twenty-five-year-old underwear model they cast to play him.” I was picturing a chiseled, smooth-skinned boy-man, preening and lip-biting as he imposed himself through ego and brazen sexuality. While there is a basis for Slutty Namor(TM), I admit the limits my particular biases and tastes on the topic placed on my imagination.

But Tenoch Huerta and the way they present him isn’t any of those things. In the trailers, he projects ten thousand percent, pure, weapons-grade MAJESTY. In real life, Huerta is a cute guy, even kind of sweet-faced. And you don’t get cast as an MCU superhero unless you’ve got BODY. But his beauty is in a shock and awe sort of way, blowing you away with his presence, his costume nothing but a few adornments meant to emphasize his status. Torque, headdress, jade jewelry. The bareness of his body seems to not to have any of the usual semiotics of nakedness— it’s not about honesty, or vulnerability, or even sexualization. It’s like a declaration of power, that his lack of concealment or protection of any kind is because he is too mighty to need it. More than anything it reminds me, weirdly enough, of dark Galadriel in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, beautiful and terrible as the dawn. Untouchable, imposing, and above all else, magisterial.

I was very surprised by it, but I’m super intrigued. This approach feels so fresh and I can’t wait to see what they do with it.