Product Description

Witness the birth of the Sentinel of the Spaceways, as humanoid being Norrin Radd becomes the Silver Surfer - Galactus' first cosmic-powered herald and one of Marvel's most noble heroes! Collects Silver Surfer #1-18; Fantastic Four Annual #5. All-new edition!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40573 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Customer Reviews

Reintroducing the Silver Surfer, Sky-Rider of the Spaceways!
When the Silver Surfer was given his own comic book, a bi-monthly oversized title, there was a rather significant retooling of the character. When the Silver Surfer first came to earth in "Fantastic Four" #48 he was the herald of Galactus, zipping around the universe finding planets for his master to eat. After his first battle with the F.F. the Surfer encounters the blind Alicia Masters who hears a certain nobility in his voice. However, the Surfer declares that "nobility" has no meaning for him. Alicia, who has never sensed "such unimaginable loneliness in a living being," convinces the Surfer to challenge Galactus, who is defeated. But for effrontery Galactus removes the Surfer's space-time powers. The surfer will roam the galaxy no more.

Stan Lee and John Buscema reintroduced the Surfer by revealing his origin in the first issue and for the first time we learned of how Norrin Radd had lived a troubled life on the planet Zenn-La, with his beloved, Shalla Bal. The planet had lived in peace for generations and Radd despairs over the idea of paradise unearned. Then Galactus shows up and Zenn-La proves defenseless before his power. Norrin Radd flies to meet the invader and offers to be his herald, thereby solving the problem that Galactus eats inhabited worlds because he does not have the time to find planets where no intelligent life exists. Transformed into the Silver Surfer, Radd says a farewell to Shalla Bal and heads off on the path that will lead him to be exiled on Earth.

This origin makes some radical changes in the Surfer, because if you take this issue as gospel and apply it retroactively you have to wonder why the Surfer was no longer looking for planets without intelligent life when he landed on Earth (What about Mars? Venus? Jupiter? Or would Jupiter give Galactus gas?). But the main addition is the whole back-story of Norrin Radd, which adds another layer of tragedy to the Surfer being trapped on Earth. You also have John Buscema as the Surfer's artist, and while it might be heresy his version actually looks cooler than Jack Kirby's.

Including in "The Essential Silver Surfer, Volume 1" are the first eighteen issues of "The Silver Surfer" and a Lee and Kirby Surfer adventure form "Fantastic Four" Annual #5. In the mix are the Surfer's first encounter with Mephisto (#3), a battle with the Mighty Thor (#4), a brief reunion with Shalla Bal (#11), an encounter with Spider-Man (#14), a battle with the Human Torch (#15), and a two-part return engagement with Mephisto (#16-17), who ended up being the Silver Surfer's main enemy in these comics (Mephisto is behind the villains in issues #8-9 as well). Jack Kirby draws #18, where the Surfer fights the Inhumans.

There are a few less than stellar issues, such as the encounter with the Frankenstein monster (#7), but overall this is a good series, especially the early ones where the stories are 40-pages long and where the crossovers where more limited. Keeping the Surfer out of the mainstream Marvel Universe was one of the things that made him so special, which is why the longer this series went the less special he became. That is why Volume 1 is the one most worth having, even if these comics are reproduced in black & white (and why Volume 1 of the Marvel Masterworks series devoted to the Surfer which reprints the first six issues in color looks so attractive to fans of the character).

Nostalgic and escapist yes, but superb artwork.
Well it's all here the whole first series of the Surfer's own comic, a mere 18 issues, although the first 7 issues were double sized, including the Badoon tale which I remember owning decades ago.
Starting with the origin issue expanding on the Fantastic Four tale of how Norrin Radd becomes the Silver Surfer a herald for the planet destroying giant Galactus in order to save Zenn-La, his home world, then becomes trapped on Earth. A tragic hero who is misunderstood throughout this entire series a point which contributed to its early demise.
The first proper tale is against the alien Badoon, a reptilian race who would come more to the forefront in other Marvel titles.
He meets his real nemesis in issue 3, Mephisto, the lord of Hell, as the Surfer's attempts to force people to live in peace could upset the balance of good and evil and reduce Mephisto's supply of souls. Then he is tricked by Loki into visiting Asgard and taking on Thor and the assembled Norse gods.
He befriends a scientist Al Harper who tries to help the Surfer escape from Earth but the Stranger's bomb kills Harper who knowingly sacrifices himself to defuse the bomb. Suffering from an abundance of mistrust and hatred he journeys into the future to see if the barrier is still there only to find he can now leave the Earth but it and his home planet have been savaged by the powerful mutant Overlord. After a few bouts with the Overlord the Surfer goes back in time to prevent the accident that led to this creation.
The Frankenstein tale is a strange one and quite weak, the villains looked more like the old X-Men foes Mastermind and Toad when I first saw them. Frankenstein creates not the archetypal monster but a duplicate of the Surfer who is dispatched eventually as he has not the Surfer's ingrained battle skills.
The series then moved from 40 page epics to normal 20 page comics with an absolutely brilliant tale that was planned as a 40 pager with Mephisto returning and resurrecting the Flying Dutchman, this has a particuarly good ending with Mephisto losing out on all fronts. The Surfer's love, Shalla-Bal appears in a tale where he tries to find peace in a South American village but the local dictator has other plans. Shalla-Bal is injured in the fight and the Surfer sends her home to be cured.
The series then kicks into full action with regular Marvel Universe characters appearing as the Abomination is brought back to Earth by witchcraft. Then an out of control robot is despatched. Spider-Man appears as again the Surfer's actions are misunderstood then as a counter-balance the next issue the Fantastic Four, especially the Human Torch fail to try and get the Surfer's help in the space race as he misunderstands the humans. Mephisto tries to use a kidnapped Shalla-Bal to get the Surfer to destroy SHIELD. He then places her inside SHIELD HQ to try and get the Surfer to kill her unintentionally. All the previous tales are superbly drawn by big John Buscema.
Jack Kirby fittingly takes over the pencils for the last issue when having had enough of humanity the Surfer is tricked by Maximus into attacking the Inhumans and ends up on the last panel deciding to take the battle to humanity. This he would have to do in guest slots in other comic magazines as the title was cancelled. It was nearly 2 decades before he had another chance at a solo comic.
You see a pattern forming here from very early on almost like the last scene of the original All Quiet on the Western Front, just as he reaches for the butterfly, but played out far too long. In the end it appears the constant chest beating about man's inhumanity could not be sustained much longer and the comic was cancelled at the right time for fond memories to remain. For that reason I can only give it 4 stars.
Now almost 40 years on you can see that cancellation was the right editorial choice at that time and has detracted nothing from the comic, it was still a pleasure re-reading these tales again.

The best of the Marvel Essential series? Could be
Black and white reprint of the the first 18 issues of Marvel's Silver Surfer from the 60's. The Essential series are all great fun for comics fans but the quality of the art and stories varies greatly, even within each volume. This volume stands above the rest for it's consistant quality, and is vastly superior to many of the volumes starring better known heroes like Spiderman and the X men. It has plenty for the new comer, the nostalgic fan or anyone who has enjoyed the recent run of Super hero movies. I recommend this volume to anyone lookng for a cheap introduction to classic 60's comics, the Marvel style or super heroes. Any existing comics fan who doesn't already have it should feel daft and order this book immediately.