Marvel may have just discovered one of the easiest ways imaginable to make Fantastic Four fans nervous: put Sue Storm underwater with Namor and say absolutely nothing else. That is essentially what has happened with a new piece of Avengers: Doomsday promotional artwork tied to Marvel Snap. Vanessa Kirby’s Invisible Woman is shown descending through the ocean beside Tenoch Huerta Mejía’s Namor, apparently protecting herself inside a force-field bubble. For anyone whose Marvel knowledge begins with the MCU, it is a cool image.
For anyone who has read enough Fantastic Four comics, alarms immediately start going off. Namor’s attraction to Sue Storm is one of the oldest recurring complications in Fantastic Four history. Reed Richards has spent decades having the world’s smartest brain while occasionally dealing with the fact that an incredibly powerful underwater king is very interested in his wife.
Now Marvel Studios has finally put all three characters into the same cinematic universe. So yes, we understand why fans are wondering whether Doomsday is about to go there. But the evidence is more interesting — and considerably less definitive — than “Marvel confirms Sue and Namor romance.”
That underwater image definitely wants fans talking
The newest fuel came from promotional artwork connected to the December Marvel Snap season. As ComicBook.com reported on November 6, one image features Sue Storm and Namor diving together beneath the ocean, with Sue seemingly using her powers to create a protective bubble around herself. There is no kiss. No embrace. No obvious romantic gesture.
It is simply Sue and Namor together. Normally, that would not be enough to launch an entire round of relationship theories. These are superhero movies; characters team up constantly.
But these particular characters arrive with more than sixty years of comic-book baggage. The important thing is remembering what this artwork actually is. It is promotional material associated with a Doomsday game tie-in, not a frame pulled directly from the movie.
That means we should not assume the film contains this exact scene, that they are specifically visiting Talokan, or that the image reveals some secret plot point. What it does tell us is that Marvel’s promotional campaign is comfortable placing Sue and Namor together. And this is not the first time the movie has pushed them into each other’s orbit.
Tenoch Huerta has already teased Namor’s reaction to Sue
This is where things become much more interesting than a single piece of artwork. During San Diego Comic-Con in July 2026, Tenoch Huerta Mejía discussed Namor’s interaction with Sue Storm in Avengers: Doomsday. Speaking to ComicBook.com, Huerta described Namor being struck by Sue’s strength and determination.
He talked about Namor seeing someone who protects her family, protects her world and acts decisively as a leader. Huerta called her a “noble leader”, contrasting that leadership with tyranny. That is a surprisingly specific description of their dynamic. It also sounds extremely Namor.
This is a character whose worldview is dominated by sovereignty, strength and the responsibility of protecting his people. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever established that almost everything Namor does — however ruthless — comes back to Talokan. So meeting Sue Storm, someone prepared to put herself between danger and the people she loves, gives him an obvious quality to respect.
Huerta also indicated that Namor and Sue are not functioning as enemies in Doomsday. Faced with a larger threat, they need to work together. None of that proves romance. But Marvel clearly isn’t treating their meeting as meaningless either.
The comics make every Sue-Namor scene automatically suspicious
There is a reason Marvel fans cannot see these two standing next to each other without immediately thinking about Reed. Namor’s complicated fascination with Sue goes back to the earliest Fantastic Four comics. Marvel’s own Fantastic Four history places Namor among the team’s most important recurring allies and adversaries, while the character’s connection to Sue has repeatedly been explored across different eras and alternate stories. The tension began almost as soon as Namor re-entered Marvel Comics in Fantastic Four #4 in 1962.
Over the decades, writers have returned to the idea in different ways. Sometimes Namor is an aggressive romantic rival. Sometimes Sue is tempted by what he represents. Sometimes the whole dynamic exists mainly to irritate Reed. The important part is that Marvel does not need to invent this relationship for the MCU.
It is sitting there waiting. That makes casting Vanessa Kirby’s Sue and Tenoch Huerta’s Namor in the same Avengers movie very different from introducing two characters with no shared history. Every interaction can carry subtext even if Marvel never turns it into an actual affair. And frankly, that may be the smarter version.
The MCU’s Sue Storm is already deeply tied to Reed
A straightforward love triangle would also have to deal with what The Fantastic Four: First Steps already established about Sue. Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards and Vanessa Kirby’s Sue are not being introduced as two people who are still deciding whether they belong together. They are already a couple with a life together. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige described Reed and Sue in a Marvel interview about First Steps and Doomsday not simply as superheroes or astronauts but as a couple with an ordinary domestic existence behind all the cosmic insanity. That grounding matters.
First Steps also puts the Richards family itself at the center of the Fantastic Four story, with Franklin becoming enormously important to their future. So if Marvel wants to acknowledge Sue and Namor’s comic-book chemistry, it does not need Sue suddenly deciding that the king of Talokan is preferable to her husband. There are far more interesting ways to play it. Namor could be attracted to her.
Sue could recognize qualities in Namor that she respects while rejecting his more dangerous instincts. Reed could notice that Namor is interested and absolutely hate it. You get the classic Fantastic Four tension without reducing Sue to a prize two powerful men are fighting over.
Sue and Namor may work better as two leaders than as lovers
Huerta’s comments actually suggest that Marvel could be building something more substantial than simple attraction. Sue and Namor have something fundamental in common: both understand what it means to protect a world. Namor rules Talokan.
Sue entered the MCU as part of a Fantastic Four that are not merely superheroes but major public figures in their own reality. Doomsday then throws those characters into a crisis involving worlds colliding — something Kevin Feige has explicitly teased while discussing the movie. That creates a fascinating ideological pairing.
Namor is willing to do almost anything to guarantee his people’s survival. Sue is fiercely protective too, but her moral boundaries are very different. Put those two characters in a situation where saving one world might mean sacrificing another and suddenly their dynamic becomes much more interesting than “Namor thinks Sue is attractive.”
They could genuinely understand each other while violently disagreeing about what protection requires. And if a little comic-book flirtation sneaks into that relationship? Reed Richards is probably going to have a very long day.
The underwater setting could be important without being romantic
The new artwork also immediately raises the obvious question: are Sue and Namor going to Talokan? We do not know. The image shows them underwater, but neither Marvel nor Disney has confirmed that the artwork depicts a literal scene from the film. Still, the pairing makes sense.
Namor’s entire civilization exists beneath the surface, while Sue’s force fields give her one of the Fantastic Four’s most useful tools for operating in hostile environments. If the heroes of Doomsday split into different groups to deal with a multiversal catastrophe, pairing Sue with Namor could simply be a logical mission choice. It also gives Marvel an excuse to connect two corners of the MCU that have barely interacted.
The Fantastic Four come from another universe. Namor has largely existed within the Wakandan side of the MCU. Doomsday is exactly the kind of movie where those walls disappear.
And yes, Reed Richards is absolutely part of this conversation
Pedro Pascal is officially part of the enormous Doomsday ensemble alongside Kirby and Huerta. Disney’s 2026 D23 presentation also reaffirmed Pascal, Kirby and Huerta among the film’s stars. So Marvel has all three pieces of the classic dynamic available. That does not mean a triangle is confirmed.
Reports claiming the movie features a full Reed-Sue-Namor romantic storyline remain speculation rather than something Marvel has announced. But there is now enough verified material to say the Sue-Namor relationship itself matters. They share scenes. Huerta has discussed Namor being impressed by Sue.
Marvel’s promotional material is putting them together. Their comic history is impossible to ignore. The safest prediction is not that Sue cheats on Reed or that Marvel suddenly turns Doomsday into an underwater romantic drama. It is that the filmmakers know exactly what fans will think when Namor meets Sue — and they may have some fun with that expectation.
Marvel might get more mileage from the tension than the romance
This is the version we would much rather see. Let Namor admire Sue. Let him flirt if that fits the scene. Let Sue respect his devotion to Talokan while making it completely clear that Reed is her husband.
Then let Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards attempt to process all of this while Doctor Doom is busy threatening multiple universes. That sounds much more like Fantastic Four. The comics have always worked because this family can deal with impossible cosmic problems while simultaneously dealing with extremely human irritation, jealousy and affection. Avengers: Doomsday does not need to break Reed and Sue apart to honor their history with Namor.
It only needs Namor to look at Sue Storm for slightly too long. We’ll understand. Avengers: Doomsday is officially scheduled to hit theaters on December 18, 2026, with Disney confirming Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal and Tenoch Huerta Mejía among its massive ensemble. By then we’ll know whether that underwater artwork was merely clever marketing or the first hint that Reed Richards is about to discover one of the Fantastic Four’s oldest headaches has followed him into the MCU.
