The latest revival of a Silver Surfer solo series is by husband-and-wife team Dan Chariton and Stacy Weiss. Silver Surfer creates an Ark to save Earth’s children. He identifies “special” or “gifted” children and takes them away from Earth.
So, basically, he’s a kidnapper. The first part of the story (#1-6) is about the mother of one of the children (who is African American, drawing parallels to the past takings of African youth as slaves), and Surfer is the villain. She has a psychic bond with her child, which causes Silver Surfer to feel remorse about kidnapping her.
Surfer is trying to keep his emotions out of the issue–he knows saving the children is the right thing, and doesn’t want his compassion to prevent him from doing his duty.
There’s also a storyline of NASA investigating the loss of the children–and the mothers of the disappeared–that presents other interesting “for the good of the many” ideas, as their methods are not always kind.
And in the very end, Surfer returns the children to Earth, of course, and all is well.
An interesting sci fi story, but not a great Silver Surfer tale. Nothing in his past suggests that he would be able to “turn off” his feelings and separate children from their parents.