Tenoch Huerta‘s Namor is perhaps the biggest character from Marvel comics being introduced in the film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with a new magazine cover giving us our closest look yet at the Mesoamerican-inspired reimagining of the superhero and frequent antihero.
Empire Magazine showed off the new cover of their latest issue in a Twitter post with Namor sporting an eye-popping headdress imbued with feathers. The cover also featured Angela Bassett’s Ramonda and Letitia Wright’s Shuri looking appropriately regal.
In the comics, Namor is the ruler of Atlantis, much like DC’s Aquaman. But following DC getting ahead of the curve by releasing their Aquaman film in 2018 starring Jason Momoa, which featured the underwater realm Atlantis inspired by Greek myth, Marvel Studios wisely chose a completely different ancient civilization’s legend as inspiration for their cinematic underwater world.
Rather than Namor’s home being called Atlantis in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, it is known as Talocan, as We Got This Covered previously reported. This is thought to be inspired by the ancient Aztec paradise known as Tlālōcān.
On the basis alone of distinguishing one superhero movie franchise from another, Marvel’s altered origin for Namor makes total sense. Plus, it offers a remixed version of the character that is intriguingly original and sure to make for a suitable civilization to stand tall alongside — or perhaps even do battle with — the legendary nation of Wakanda.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever also stars Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Michaela Coel, Florence Kasumba, Riri Williams, and Martin Freeman.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever comes to theaters on Nov.11.