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I'd be down for more of the Surfer, but at this point it would be interesting to have him getting more involved with things on Earth, as opposed to only dealing with all things Galatic.
While the Marvel spotlight is most often shone upon registration acts, political coups and villainous takeovers, there’s actually a good reason why it’s referred to as the Marvel “Universe”. Somewhere out there, in a galaxy far, far away, exists an almost separate macrocosm of characters that has been the home to a considerable amount of great storytelling: from Annihilation to War of Kings, from the Nova Corps to Guardians of the Galaxy, the cosmic side of Marvel has been allowed to shine over the past few years.
The vast majority of the credit has to go to the writing team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, the masterminds behind War of Kings and current writers of both Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy. During War of Kings, we saw the Inhumans, the Shi’ar and the Kree doing their thing. Recent issues of Nova have given us Quasar and Ego, the Living Planet while the Guardians of the Galaxy has been sort of an Island of Misfit Toys for Marvel’s cosmic characters. Star-Lord, Adam Warlock, Drax the Destroyer and even Rocket Raccoon have found a home in the Guardians. We’ve seen appearances from Killraven and the original Guardians of the Galaxy, but there’s one cosmic character that seems conspicuous by his absence.
Former herald of Galactus turned Sentinel of the Spaceways, the Silver Surfer has been a mainstay of the Marvel Universe since his debut in Fantastic Four #48. He’s been trapped on earth, set free to roam the cosmos and once again become the herald of Galactus. The Surfer has gone from being a semi-divine creature with seemingly limitless power but no understanding of good or evil to a guilt-ridden melodramatic poet. A friend to mankind as well as an enemy (usually due to the machinations of a super-villain), the Silver Surfer has literally been to Hell and back since he was introduced.
It’s not as thought he Surfer has been completely out of sight or mind in recent years. He was involved in the Planet Hulk storyline and recently showed up again on Sakaar in order to give Galactus the cosmic treat of “Old Power”, which was supposed to keep the big guy full for thousands of years. A battle ensued that ended up costing Skaar’s mother her soul. An earlier version of the Surfer, transported through time by the Grandmaster (not to be confused with Grandmaster Flash), showed up to reform the Defenders, but… well that doesn’t really count. But for the most part, the Surfer hasn’t been too prominent, which is odd considering how much prominence the Marvel’s cosmic books have had.
Neither the Surfer nor Galactus were seen during War of Kings and they haven’t been heard from in the aftermath either. You’d think that a giant hole torn in the fabric of space and time might be a big enough event to rouse the curiosity of these two interstellar interlopers, but they haven’t popped up yet and it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll show up any time soon. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As any good geek knows, a toy or comic gains value not only because it’s hard to find, but also because it’s in mint condition. And why is it in mint condition? Because someone has been taking good care of it and keeping it up on the high shelf where the bratty little kids can’t get to it.
Fans of World Wrestling Entertainment are likely familiar with this method of keeping a character with immeasurable power fresh. Basically, it works like this: The Undertaker is awesome and kicks all sorts of ass. But like the Silver Surfer, he’s too powerful and the act eventually gets stale. So what do they do? Create a storyline in which the ‘Taker spends 6 months out of the year on the shelf. Then when he comes back, everyone is clamoring for his return and though he’s only been gone for half the year, it seems like it’s been decades since we’ve seen him. Boom – the powerhouse returns and everybody’s buying tickets to see him unleash the Power Cosmic on unsuspecting fools.
The same basic concept worked with Thor as well: If you can’t use him correctly, don’t use him at all. Thor had been the victim of poor sales and terrible writing for years until Marvel finally wised up and just got rid of him. They teased returns here and there, such as the now-legendary clone Thor (or Clor, if you will) and by the time the Thunder God actually did come back fans were tearing their hair out waiting for his return. The same method can and likely will work for the Silver Surfer. It’s not as though he’s completely out of the picture; but little teases in Skaar and Hulk can get the ball rolling and hopefully that tiny snowball will grow into a massive boulder tearing through the Marvel Cosmic Universe like that boulder that tried to kill Indiana Jones. Only shiny!
Long story short: let everybody forget about him for a little while, then when the time is right, bring him back to kick all of our asses.
We’re sick and tired of events. We can’t wait for this Siege business to wrap up and it hasn’t even started. We just want to go back to a regular Marvel Universe. War of Kings literally just finished and we’re certainly not clamoring for another event or crossover just yet. At least, not while Blackest Night is eating up most of our paychecks.
But it will happen and it will probably happen sometime next year. There has to be another event and if it’s one that takes place in the depths of space, we’ve already got an idea for how it could go down. Perhaps a certain world devourer (juiced up and driven crazy by his addiction to Old Power) could make his return, heralded by a chrome-plated version of Matthew McConaughey… now that’s the type of event that would require the combined forces of Nova, the Guardians of the Galaxy and maybe even the Inhumans. That’s the kind of event we’re talkin’ about!
I'd be down for more of the Surfer, but at this point it would be interesting to have him getting more involved with things on Earth, as opposed to only dealing with all things Galatic.
I'm with Lister, but on the other hand, Marvel cosmic has done a good job of handling cross overs in the individual books. A person could have read Nova or Guardians and never picked up anything else during War of Kings and still read a good story that progressed in a logical manner. This is the big difference for me between the cosmic events and the others of late. Taking a time out to have some event rip through a title and then try and go back to the larger story is broken. Stop it.
I guess I'm a bit greedy, I don't want an event, I want a series. I'm tired of scrounging around the titles hoping for a Surfer cameo. Only to find him just used to move someones plot along. Sorry, I still have nightmares from the Fantastic Four issue when the Black Panther put Surfer in some armlock that he couldn't get free from. . . WTF! Another thing I don't want/like is Artsy art.I like good ol' fashon comic book art illustrastions not oooh every panel looks like a painting. Feel like I was kicked in the balls with "In Thy Name" saw the cover and thouught "Hell Yeah, now we're talkin!" Opened it up. . . His board looks like a freakin popsicle stick, like it was crafted from a singe piece of 2x4.
I definitely agree on the whole cooling off from a character for a while thing...they need to do it with a good deal number of characters who even now are getting stale, overused and overbearing.
But Silver Surfer is definitely one of my fav marvel characters and i will defer to marvel that they can bring him back to the forefront now that the 20 year mutant mayhem has come to an end as an AUTOMATIC SALEs winner. They are going to actually get more creative and innovative with one of the main greats.
I loved Annihilation and Annihilation Conquest. I really enjoyed (but not "loved") the War of Kings. I am enjoying Nova and Guardians. I have very issue of the Englehart/Starlin Silver Surfer series and Quasar. So I am kinda a big Marvel cosmic fan. And even I am not looking forward to Realm of Kings.
It's too much, too soon. We needed a cooling period between events. The cosmic side of things was going so well for many years, I'd hate to see it fall apart as it gains more readers. The rift and the fallout of the War of Kings could have been handled in regular episodic books. There was enough fodder there for years of stories and new mythologies. There was no need to make it into an event. I'll read it, but I just am afraid that DnA may be going to the well once too often... love 'em tho!