This Doomed Land---This Dying Sea! * Prince Namor "Sub-Mariner" appearance
Tony Stark tries to convince a roomful of industrial businessmen to take up the environmental cause. He tells them of his recent experience as a cautionary tale:
Discovering a pipeline dumping chemical waste into the ocean, the Sub-Mariner plugs it and follows it to its source. On the surface, Tony Stark visits his Meridian Island Project where project head Blane Ordway shows him why he's fudged the budget: his new Solar Energy Converter. His chief assistant and fiance June Duncan informs Blane that the purification plant is backed up, and they discover toxic gas is spreading. Namor arrives and starts demolishing the facility, so Stark changes into Iron Man. During their subsequent battle Stark realizes Namor is correct to claim the plant is the pollution's source, as Blane cut corners to save budget to pay for the Converter, but since Namor won't listen to reason, Stark subdues him. He returns to the plant where Blane admits his mistake, realizing the Converter is now generating the gas. The Sub-Mariner helps Iron Man destroy the facility before everyone dies, but not before Blaine perishes trying to destroy the Converter himself.
The businessmen do not buy it. Claiming Namor was at fault for the problems of Meridian Island, and that it was just one case. They tell Stark that they have stockholders to impress now, and can't be concerned with thinking about problems that wont exist for a few decades.
