There are a lot of comics out there, but some just stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we’d like to draw your attention to Marvel’s exquisite five-issue mini-series “Silver Surfer: Black.”
Who is this by?
“Silver Surfer: Black” is the product of a trio of comic book superstars: Donny Cates, Tradd Moore, and Dave Stewart. Cates’s recent work has secured his place in Marvel’s pantheon of contemporary superstar writers alongside the likes of Jason Aaron and Jonathan Hickman with his inventive takes on decades-old characters. With “Silver Surfer: Black” he gives us something new again by giving us something old. More on that later. Tradd Moore is the celebrated creator of the Luther Strode series and the co-creator and artist of Aleš Kot’s sublime futuristic riff on Romeo and Juliet from Image “The New World.” Dave Stewart needs no introduction to fans of the comic book medium, but those only familiar with his muted Mignolaverse-style are in for an eye-popping high chroma treat here.
Jumping off from events in Cates’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” series, the Silver Surfer finds himself marooned on a planet after being thrown through a black hole. To say much more would rob readers of the joy of reading “Silver Surfer: Black.” Suffice it to say, the former herald of Galactus must make a sacrifice for the sake of others (but he’s used to that) that threatens to destroy or at least forever change him. Hint: It’s in the name. A recently-created villain takes center stage in the pages of this mini-series and serves as the story’s main antagonist while a much younger version of a planet-sized character becomes an unlikely ally. There’s even a spin on the notion of going back in time to change one’s present that’s particular poignant and “on brand” for Norrin Radd even if it is different than what the MCU recently taught us about the quantum physics of real time travel in Avengers: Endgame. It’s a relatively simple ticking-clock plot with some mind-warping wrinkles that keeps readers guessing.
My older brother introduced me to the Silver Surfer. He was a big fan of the character, and the character resonated with me too. It was Stan Lee and John Buscema’s take on the Sentinel of the Spaceways (after he was introduced by Stan and Jack Kirby in the pages of “The Fantastic Four”) that won big brother over, and I’m pretty sure he still has all his copies of the old Fantasy Masterpieces series from the late ’70s that reprinted the original Silver Surfer issues. A short time later, I would find my own selfless and silver surrogate in the character of Marvel’s licensed toy character ROM, the space knight from Galador who sacrificed his humanity to beat back the cosmic scourge of the Dire Wraiths, and just like ROM, the Silver Surfer found himself among humans, stand-ins for the cultures and societies that they had both lost in their crusades.
To briefly recap the Surfer’s origins, after Norrin Radd agrees to be Galactus’s herald in exchange for sparing his home world of Zenn-La (a decision that also costs him the love of his life Shala-Bal), Norrin is bestowed with a makeover, a celestial surfboard, and the power cosmic by his new boss, and it’s an immense power that he wields reluctantly because he is riddled with guilt for the repercussions of his decision to save his world at the cost of countless others. Cates, who (according to his afterword in issue one) scrapped his original script for the first issue when he heard the news of Stan Lee’s passing, taps into the character’s austere mythology in “Silver Surfer: Black,” and it feels like a revelation, particularly on the heels of Dan Slott and Mike Allred’s less melodramatic, more irreverent, and pop art-inspired take on the character. Here there’s a cosmic nobility to his actions that few have been able to capture since the Stan and John era. Cates’s reverence for Lee’s spin on the tortured character is palpable, but where Lee and Buscema’s character was sometimes plagued with introverted meditation, hesitation, and inaction, Cates and Moore’s version suffers no such indecision. He knows what he must do even if it means his end, and the book is all the better for it.
Continued belowSome may find Cates’s script for “Silver Surfer: Black” to be a bit too wordy, but surely a little verbose inner monologue for one who has spent so long in the void of space can be forgiven, particularly when it’s this space opera poetic. Again, we’re channeling Stan here, and after all, Cates had to keep up with the accompaniment of Tradd Moore’s artwork that swirls around Cates’s narration boxes and word balloons like a symphony. No one has ever seen anything like Moore’s take on the Silver Surfer. While Jason Latour’s rendition of the character in the recent “Defenders” one-shot was more scruffy and grounded, Moore moves the needle the other direction and into the kaleidoscopic and hallucinogenic territory of imagined deep space. Figures warp and perspectives shift with every page turn. Moore’s command of line is undisputed, but here he shows his underappreciated mastery of shape and form. It’s an overused phrase, but the book is a visual feast that even Surfer purists will have to acknowledge as a worthy entry into the character’s publication history.
It doesn’t hurt that the series ends without putting everything back in the box where Cates and Moore found it. The Silver Surfer is changed by the story’s conclusion, perhaps in ways readers don’t expect, and what that means for the future of the character, we can only guess. It will be worth seeing what the next set of creators do with the character. It will be worth even more if Cates and Moore revisit him in a sequel.
As a final note: the back cover dedication to Stan with a panel from “Parable” (with art by the incomparable Moebius), from which Cates cribs a line for the final issue of his series, was a bittersweet coda to this remarkable mini-series.
If you can’t get your hands on the single issues, it’s of course available through Comixology where you can also preorder the digital collected edition available on December 11 for $9. It will surely show up on the Marvel Unlimited subscription service in the coming months too. For me, the best way to experience this story will be in Marvel’s forthcoming Treasury Edition-sized collection. Tradd Moore’s artwork demands to be viewed at a larger scale. Here’s hoping for presentation and production values similar to Ed Piskor’s “X-Men: Grand Design.” It arrives in stores just in time for Christmas too. Assuming you’ve been good this year, treat yourself.
