Silver Surfer vs. The Flying Dutchman. Seriously. And yet, it isn’t terrible.
Mephisto transforms Joost van Straaten, aka the ghostly Flying Dutchman, into a powerful spirit called The Ghost.
Silver Surfer is drawn in to fight The Ghost so he’ll stop scaring all the nice people in New York City.
It’s odd that it takes Silver Surfer two issues to defeat this guy, but he’s gone up against all kinds of much bigger threats and he can take them down in just under 30 pages.
Stan explains why in a note at the end of issue #8: They were running behind on their publishing schedule.
So, despite his own recent edict against “to be continued” tales, this one goes on for two issues.
And believe it or not, van Straaten returns to fight The Avengers in their comic, issue #131 (as part of the Legion of the Unliving).
As usual, Mr. Ekko, you are being a little hard on the comics. Having the Silver Surfer battle the legendary Flying Dutchman was an actual inspired stroke of genius. It’s safe to assume that most comic-book readers of any era are unfamiliar with the Flying Dutchman, a deficit that Stan the Man deftly tackles in this inspired two-parter, which was, of course, initially intended to be a double-sized one-shot, as the previous seven excellent issues were. But since you have already covered this point, I will defer, and stick to my own. I would just like to proudly point out that I fell into the extreme minority of comic-book devotees in 1969 who was already well-versed in who the Flying Dutchman was, prior to reading this for the first time in that storied year. I don’t understand why you think the Surfer should have made short work of the Flying Dutchman. Even before Mephisto endowed the Dutchman with a power-upgrade, the Dutchman was already a ghost, loaded with all the unearthly attributes possessed by the spectral set. Even if Stratten were just a ghost alone, the Surfer could not have handled him. He’s a ghost! Living, physical beings cannot affect ghosts! The Silver Surfer is undeniably stupid-powerful, but he is not a supernatural being, like Dr. Strange or Dr. Fate. The Flying Dutchman could terrorize the Surfer for the same reasons he could terrorize any other living being: He’s a ghost! Boooooooooo-oooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t see how the Silver Surfer could stop the Ghost. Being a being of the physical realm, his powers would be wasted and ineffectual against ghosts. And on top of that, Mephisto hooks ol’ Joost up with nifty new superpowers expressly designed to destroy the Surfer! Noooooo, no- Norrin’s not gonna be able to just blow THIS guy off!! As we saw in the following issue, Norrin was able to defeat the Spectral Terror, but it wasn’t a day at the park! Since, in 1969, supernatural threats were still taboo in comics due to the tenets of the Comics Code Authority, which was still a going thing at the time, the Ghost was actually a radical concept. I’m glad Stan and Marvel were able to get away with it at the time, but in just three more years, the CCA would lighten up considerably, allowing for mature and tasteful portrayals of such classic horror concepts as ghosts, vampires, werewolves, witches, zombies, etc. But I really enjoyed “Now Strikes….the Ghost!!” As a matter of fact, I bought an excellent condition copy of it just two days ago!! Far out!!!
I don’t think I”m being too hard on this book. “C” grade just means that it’s “average” compared to other Marvel books at the time. At the time, you had Hank becoming Yellowjacket and marrying Wasp. Stan Lee and Big John B were doing Amazing Spider-Man. Gene Colan was on Daredevil. Herb Trimpe was starting his long run on Hulk…1969 was a good year for Marvel, and this issue of Surfer was a pretty standard representation of that level of quality. Not great, not bad.