It’s been a long time since we had a stand alone Silver Surfer book, and the character hasn’t been appearing all that often even as a guest. And speaking of characters we don’t hear from that often…
The Champion literally explodes on the scene while Silver Surfer is dialoguing with the Fantastic Four. He’s here on behalf of the Skrull empire, who have kidnapped Nova (formerly Johnny Storm’s girlfriend Frankie Raye, now herald to Galactus) and are using her to blackmail Galactus into helping them fight their war against the Kree.
Surfer and Champion battle, Surfer wins, and that means Champion is now his servant. Not sure why, but that’s Champion’s logic. So, Surfer decides to go save Nova.
But, you’re thinking, he’s still trapped on Earth by the barrier created by Galactus, right? Wrong. It turns out, G’s barrier only prevents Silver Surfer’s board from leaving Earth. So Silver Surfer changes his board into cosmic energy, steps across the barrier, and then re-forms the board.
Huh?
Why did it take him over a decade of comics to figure this out?
But OK—this is how Steve Englehart gets Surfer free so that he can tell space stories. Fine.
He makes a beeline for Galactus, his eyes picking out his former master’s form a million miles away. And while Galactus’ initial reaction is to disintegrate him for breaking through the barrier, he stops when the Surfer tells him he’s here to help Nova. The Surfer even senses that Galactus is in love with Nova, “as a man cares for a woman”.
So, Surfer and Galactus team up—and in the process, Galactus reveals that he is in love with Nova. Surfer is successful, and Galactus removes the Earth barrier so Surfer can come and go as he pleases.
Putting to one side the silly “escape from the barrier” loophole, this is a good issue. It’s also giant-sized, just like the first Silver Surfer series, written by Stan Lee.
That was one hell of a “silly loophole”, too. Check out ‘Fantastic Four’#155, when the Surfer actually breaks through the Barrier using sheer momentum and determination. Galactus thought of that, too, and erected some very serious secondary back-up measures to keep the Surfer on Earth. I guess Englehart “forgot” about those. My interest in this exemplary character took an 80% nosedive when his Earthly imprisonment was written out of the storyline. The Silver Surfer in outer space really doesn’t work at all. I don’t give a crap about all those alien races and their problems. The Silver Surfer works best in relation to Humanity, not the Final Frontier. This is also true of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, but that’s a post for another time. In another recent post, I described how the Surfer’s imprisonment on Earth is analogous to a normal human being with a functional automobile being restricted only to the city he/she lives in, given a reasonably-sized city. Yes, it’s going to piss you off quite often, and you will occasionally feel the need to lash out at your fellow citizens. But the whole “gist” of Marvel Comics are supercharacters with flaws, and, quite often, considerable tragedy. Daredevil is blind, Professor X is a paraplegic, Wolverine is a psychotic, the Thing/Hulk/Man-Thing are monsters, Cyclops can kill people if he isn’t super-careful at all times, and so on, and so on, and so on. The tragedy of the Silver Surfer used to be, at least, for committing the “crime” of defying his Master, and thus, saving the Earth and the Human Race from utter destruction, he has to spend the entire rest of his immortal ( as far as we know ) existence on the planet that he thinks so much of. Its sheer, epic, poetry!! All NEGATED, now, by some bubbleheaded edict which says, “Okay, we’ve exhausted all the story possibilities of the Silver Surfer trapped on Earth- ( WRONG ) so, let’s set ’em free!!!!!!” Well, in the thirty-six years it’s been since the Surfer was freed, I have read as many ‘Silver Surfer’ comics as can be counted on one hand!!! It just stinks!! How much MORE interesting would the Surfer be by now, development-wise and character-wise, if he had been still stuck on Earth all this time!! To use an appropriate expression, it would have been a QUANTUM LEAP!!!! ( meaning: NO COMPARISON!!!!! ) Yeah, by now, ol’ Norrin would probably be a lot meaner, but that is called CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, and that is what drives GOOD DRAMA!!!! Now, today, after all his travels throughout the Cosmos, he is basically just a laid-back surfer-dude drifting around doing good deeds. Interesting, for sure, but not AS interesting!! I would haved LOVED to have followed a Silver Surfer trapped on Earth since 1966 ( allowing for the Marvel Time-Compression ) by now, meaner and bitter, which would have had an interesting effect upon his war with Mephisto, as well as the way in which he deals with his opponents, ( a lot more no-nonsense ) and it would have had an interesting effect upon his relationships with the global ( primarily American ) superhuman community. But- it’s all gone NOW!!!! We’ll never know NOW!!!! And this once-great character, once the “Statement Piece” of the Marvel Entertainment Juggernaut, is now reduced to being a washed-up, played-out, mediocre, ho-hum, who-gives-a-crap Marvel Superhero of yesteryear. By the Great Bird of the Galaxy, I’m glad I just got all that off my chest!! I feel much better now! Excelsior!