Thanks to the awesome generosity of our own Icctrombone , I read Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Silver Surfer graphic novel this weekend. Thank you, my friend! You have a Galactus-sized heart!

I don't know why the book was not reprinted yet. It certainly deserves to be, if only for the excellent Kirby art.

Here's a little review :

Very nice read, with Kirby providing his typical energetic art and Lee his usual grandiloquent prose. I was surprised (though not unpleasantly so) that Joe Sinnott inked the book instead of Mike Royer, who was a frequent Kirby collaborator in those days. (I mean, it's not that I prefer one over the other, but I was expecting Kirby to ink himself of, barring that, Royer. Sinnot does bring a certain classic FF vibe, though!) Glynis Wein's colours never disappoint either.

I'd be interested in reading more about the book's genesis; Stan's introduction, in which he describes the "Marvel method", might not be the most reliable source; it was a kind of generic text piece, not delving into details. Was it an attempt by Stan and Jack to try their hand at a more "serious" comic, one that would be sold in bookstores? And if so, was it something both men felt really involved with, or was it a side-project? If it was a case of "This will be our magnum opus, old comrade!" I would have expected Jack to ink his own work... or at least to provide the cover, which was done by Earl Norem. Personally, I felt that while the book is not separated in chapters (something that Kirby often did on his own titles), it was still episodic; there are several places where one could definitely place a "continued next issue" blurb. I could have seen it packaged as a limited series, even if those weren't quite a popular format yet. So in that sense it felt a little like something that was done piecemeal rather than a big project we stop everything else to concentrate on.

The story as a whole is a revisitation of the entire concept of the Silver Surfer, complete with its biblical overtones. It's independent of Marvel continuity as stated above, but we still get to see Galactus; in that sense, it's akin to the Stan Lee/Moebius Silver Surfer graphic novel from a decade later. That, however, is a path fraught with danger as we'll see below. Sure, it's easy to introduce the Surfer and Galactus as space aliens, with no mention of super-heroes, and proceed from there; however, care should be given not to rely later on bits of continuity that come from old comics and not from the graphic novel itself.

The plot goes like this (spoiler alert, naturally) : As in the three issues of Fantastic Four that introduced Galactus, the Surfer finds our planet for his master to devour. We paltry humans manage to find favour in his eyes, and he turns on Galactus. He is then banished here for his trouble. Galactus is then upset at the loss of his herald and intends to win him back, which he first attempts by creating Ardina, an ideal female companion for the Surfer. She attempts to convince the hero of mankind's worthlessness and of the desirability to wash his hands of us and leave with her to explore the cosmos once again, but he is adamant; he will not turn his back on mankind even after suffering repeated abuse from its worst elements. Galactus then changes his tactics; he destroys Ardina and gives the Surfer a choice: «you resume your role or I eat the Earth». The Surfer complies. The end.

While it all makes comic-book sense, when we stop to think about the plot we realize that Ryan George would have a field day with it.

The overall arc is something like the book of Job, with a demiurgic figure trying to get a man to turn his back on virtue by showing him how bad things are for him and how better they would get were he just to relent. Because we want to focus on the Surfer's plight, we have to get rid of the preliminaries as quickly as possible, and the set-up is dealt with rather succinctly.

Unlike what happened in the pages of Fantastic Four, the Surfer is not given time to develop his bond with humanity; he zooms around a few times and is amazed by how beautiful our planet is and how noble we appear to be (yeah, right! tell me how ou feel about that in a few dozen pages, Norrin!)

It's rather unconvincing, if you ask me; without something like the link between the Surfer and Alicia Masters, there is little emotional reason for him to suddenly turn his back on all he was up to then. Why save us, and not the previous planets he led Galactus to? In the comics, it was understandable since the Surfer was originally a complete alien, who awakened to the possibility of compassion upon meeting Alicia. That was later retconned when the Surfer was turned into a normal humanoid named Norrin Radd, who accepted to be turned into the Silver Surfer to save his planet, and whose conscience had later been silenced by his master. But here? Here we have the worst of both worlds: the Surfer is still Norrin Radd from Zenn-La, and nothing is said about his morality having been put on hold; it looks as if Earth is just exceptional among all the planets of the universe -something I don't buy for a second. I mean, how can one say humanity is so wonderfully diverse if you compare it to, say, the Skrulls? A Skrull can look like literally anything! The Surfer's change of heart therefore feels forced.

Likewise, the speed of the first pages mean that Galactus shows up in a very anticlimactic scene. "Oh no, it's too late, Galactus is HERE!" and then the man shows up, in the last panel of the page, in a close-up of his head and shoulders. The arrival of Galactus deserves nothing less than a splash page, methinks!

But then we get to the gist of things. Galactus is able to manifest his guile as an independent entity, once again evoking the Book of Job (with Satan being the one who comes up with a plan to test the virtuous hero. Galactus has his own little Satan on hand -although he talks like Loki).

Tempting the Surfer away from his newfound ideals and his desire to protect us is an interesting concept story wise, but the whole exercise is hard to understand for a newcomer; why, could they ask, isn't Galactus eating the Earth anyway? In the comics, he was prevented from doing so by a promise he made to Reed Richards; here, nothing of the sort happens. The Surfer rebels, Galactus zaps him to exile him to Earth, and then... the space god just leaves, saying he's really hungry. Nothing is stopping Galactus from eating the Earth, unless it's a desire to bide his time and get the Surfer to choose *him* over the Earthlings. That, however, is not made clear, even if it would also be an interesting parallel to the Book of Job. It felt as if Stan was just using established continuity (Galactus doesn't eat Earth unless given leave to) without referring to it, and it's not the only time that happens; for example, when the Surfer tries to zoom away into space, he slams into the barrier that prevents him from leaving Earth. But that barrier too had been a plot-mandated retcon in a later issue of the Fantastic Four; here as in the original trilogy, the Surfer is initially zapped and loses his ability to travel through outer space with no mention of any barrier. That's until the plot takes us to it, and then it's not even introduced as a concept; it's just mentionned as if we were supposed to expect it to be there.

A plot point I dont get is that the Silver Surfer and Galactus could readily reach a compromise; the former would resume his service to the latter if the latter spared the planet. But no, Galactus insists on recovering his herald AND on eating the world, while the other means to die before he gives us up. Neither will budge on the issue, so conflict is unavoidable; and yet, that solution is exactly the one reached in the end -with no acknowledgement that it should have been the very first proposal on the table, and after much unnecessary brouhaha.

I may seem overly critical in the paragraphs above, but I should emphasize that these nitpicks did not prevent me from greatly enjoying the book! It's not as if standard super-hero comics shine with their logic. Kirby's art is as good as ever, and the dialogue is very Stan Lee-esque in its over the top nature and its down to earth humour. The way the book begins and ends in a symmetrical way is pretty cool as well (we start with Galactus' closed fist from which the Silver Surfer is about to begin his flight, and end with the same fist into which he has just flown back).

Mostly, the book is true to the nature of the main character; his selflessness, his courage are as present as ever.

My favourite scene, I think, is when the Surfer is almost burnt to a cinder by his master and collapses to the ground, all charred and crumpled. But he then draws energy from the Earth and is rejuvenated... he's doing exacty the same thing as his master, albeit on a smaller scale. It could be interpreted as a statement about good and evil just being a matter of scale, something Galactus himself often alludes to when explaining that humans don't care about the ants they trample.

In any case... thanks again, icctrombone, for a great read! I owe you one!

The 6 issue limited series Kitty Pryde and Wolverine from late 1984 timeframe.