Silver Surfer #1-4

Silver Surfer #1-4

Originally released in 1968

Written by Stan Lee

Art by John Buscema

I'm used to Silver Surfer as a supporting character, so I decided to read a series that focuses on him instead.  I went back to the 60's for this one, with Silver Surfer's solo series, which is set during a time where he's trapped on Earth as a result of rebelling against Galactus in Fantastic Four #50.

The Silver Surfer admires Earth for its beauty, which makes him even more frustrated with humanity as a result.  He views humans as unruly children - while they're admirable in some ways, they seem far too eager to damage or destroy their planet.

I was concerned that this was mostly going to be what the series was about - the Silver Surfer tries to live his life on Earth, but humans are too distrusting, paranoid, and violent, causing him to grow increasingly frustrated with mankind.  It's understandable why this message would be included, particularly in the late 60s, but even by the start of the second issue, it was getting a little repetitive.  Thankfully, this changes as the series goes on.

After unsuccessfully trying to make his way around Earth, the Surfer reflects on his home planet of Zenn-La and how he became the Herald of Galactus.  The Silver Surfer's backstory is oddly similar to Kang the Conqueror's - on a utopian world, he alone craved the excitement of exploration and discovery, and wished to break free from the stagnant nature of his society.

When he was known as Norrin Radd, the love of his life was a woman named Shalla-Bal.  When Zenn-La's defenses proved ineffective against the cosmic might of Galactus, Norrin made an offer - in exchange for sparing Zenn-La, Norrin would become a scout and herald for Galactus, finding planets without life for Galactus to eat.  There would be times where Galactus's hunger would grow too great and he would target the nearest planet instead, but this would save lives in the long run rather than Galactus targeting whichever world is nearest to him.

The Silver Surfer views himself as above humanity, but he is not without his flaws.  He is naive and trusting to a fault - when an alien race known as the Badoon arrive on Earth in secret, the Surfer visits their spacecraft and trusts everything that they have to say, having learned nothing from the time when he had his power drained by Doctor Doom.  It's only when a human woman, who the Badoon had captured to learn about Earth and its languages, informs him of their plans that he takes action against them.

The Badoon send their ultimate warrior after the Surfer, but the warrior is cloaked - the Silver Surfer, with his cosmic senses that "can sense a gust of wind halfway across the galaxy", can see his foe clearly, but as for the people of Earth, they're under the impression that the Silver Surfer appeared in the middle of New York and started blasting buildings.

This causes him to develop a bad reputation, to the point where every action is interpreted as something awful, even when he's only trying to help.  Oddly enough, despite his struggles with finding a place that will accept him, he doesn't even mention or consider the Fantastic Four.

As a back-up, the Silver Surfer's comics also feature stories involving the Watcher.  These appear to be reprints of older stories, though in the Silver Surfer's first issue, it goes over the origin of the Watchers as a race.  It's an interesting contrast with Zenn-La - the people of Zenn-La had vast space programs, but they stopped exploring because they felt that they had seen all that there was to see.

Meanwhile, the Watchers sought to use their advanced knowledge to uplift other species, only to grant atomic energy to a race that would ultimately use it in a devastating war.  This caused them to take up their vow of non-interference, even though they could have simply taken things slower rather than jumping straight to nuclear energy. (though given the fears of the Cold War, it's understandable why this was their reason for their vow)

Issue 3 introduces Mephisto, who benefits from humanity's ever-growing vices and sees Silver Surfer as a potential threat.  If he could help humanity to find a better way and become a kinder society, then Mephisto's own forces would dwindle.

To try and prevent this, he lures Shalla-Bal to Earth in order to show her to the Surfer, before dragging her to the depths of hell. (or at least the part that Mephisto calls home)  Presumably, he intended to hold her hostage and return later to tempt the Surfer, but the Surfer follows him there with hilarious effortlessness.

Mephisto's efforts at tempting or killing the Surfer prove useless, and their purity and the strength of their love sicken him, forcing him to send Shalla-Bal back to Zenn-La and the Surfer back to Earth.  Still, just seeing each other was enough to raise both of their spirits, so Mephisto's plan seriously backfired.

Issue 4 is one of those classic "who would win" kind of issues, where Loki attempts to pit the Silver Surfer against Thor.  He promises to bring Shalla-Bal to the Silver Surfer in exchange for the ex-Herald defeating Thor - Loki is aware that Mephisto tried this same sort of thing very recently, but he's confident that he'll succeed where the devil failed.

The theme of the earlier issues remains, with Silver Surfer trying to live among the animals rather than go near humans while bemoaning the greed and self-destructive nature of humanity.  Loki arrives to test the Silver Surfer's power, and when he's confident that the Surfer can fight Thor, he sends him to Asgard, getting around Galactus's barrier in the process.

Odin knows the truth, but refuses to act because he seemingly knows that it will all work out, so a fight breaks out between Thor and the Silver Surfer.  As it becomes clear that they've been deceived and manipulated, Loki chooses to remove any evidence that he was involved by sending the Silver Surfer back to Earth.

I wasn't sure about these issues at first, as I was worried that it would go through the same plot points over and over again (the Surfer tries to help, it's misinterpreted, people turn angry/violent, the Surfer rants about humanity, repeat), but it changed things up enough as time went on.  Between the Surfer, Mephisto, and the Asgardians, the writing is extra-dramatic with characters hamming it up all the while, though I like the doomed romance between the Surfer and Shalla-Bal, which is handled better than some of Stan Lee's other romance arcs. (though it would be nice if Shalla-Bal was more active, like if she tried to track down Earth's location or something like that)