'Silver Surfer' Comes To Marvel Animation Age

[Stu]

Hey,

This site has been many, many months in the making but always got pushed to the backburner, but now, finally The Silver Surfer comes to Marvel Animation Age!

Big thanks to Arsenal for undertaking the tedious task of reviewing each episode, and Bird Boy for the design/button. Also, much thanks to Crossdive. To view the site, click on the banner below.


http://marvel.toonzone.net/silversurfer/banner.jpg (http://marvel.toonzone.net/silversurfer)

Up next: More retrospectives.

Comments?

[Arsenal]

Words truly did fail me several times throughout the process of reviewing this series. I liked the comic book versions of several of these characters, especially Galactus, Thanos, Ego and Nova.

However, the Silver Surfer was never a personal favorite. He, like Dr. Strange, work best in ensembles when they can bounce off different-minded and powered characters.

This version of Norrin Radd had the bad habit of monologuing. And not good monologuing, very stilted Elizabethan monologuing. He needed another character to cut through the pomp and circumstance. Consequently, episodes tended to have an upswing whenever Nova appeared.

Villains were hit and miss. The creative team nailed Galactus and did right by Nebula during her limited screen time. (Nebula's dialogue got a boost from a solid voice actress, the same woman who performed Callisto in X-Men: TAS.) However, they never quite got Thanos right. They had the right idea--he's an emotionally arrested narcissist--but they didn't execute it well. Ego was a misfire.

The aliens were all pretty generic. The Skrulls were not well differentiated from the Kree. The trolls and Winnum (sp?) were underdeveloped as a culture and species. The characters and concepts never got as weird or imaginative as the Kirby/Lee duo when they were first creating these characters. (I did like the Wanderers though.)

For all the show's thematic aspirations, I guess I would count the series as a failure... but an interesting failure.

I've always said it is better to miss a 3-pointer than a foul shot. At least you have to put effort into the 3-pointer. This is a missed halfcourt shot. The creators tried to do something audacious and original, both visually and writing-wise. But it didn't quite pan out.

[Caswin]

Good website, well-handled. (Although it seems to kind of want a 'bios' section). My favorite episode, based on the scripts, at least, was "Innervisions", but that might just be me. In the defense of his monologuing:

If a character is cold, don’t have her say “I’m cold.” Make her shiver or cinch her jacket tighter. The audience will understand.Well, even if he's one of the worse ones, you can hardly say Surfer's the only animated Marvel hero guilty of this. :P I'm looking at you, Spider-Man, Flaming Torch, Thing, and that's just the ones I've seen at all recently...

EDIT:

http://marvel.toonzone.net/silversurfer/episode/return/33.jpg

"SHAAALLLAAA!!!"

Another point in favor of bringing back caption contests?

DOUBLE EDIT:
"End of Eternia"? Got He-Man on the brain?

*Hopes for a DVD set... no, seriously, as long as they at least include the script for Part Two*

[Arsenal]

Yeah, other heroes use an internal monologue. But Spidey, Human Torch and The Thing all have a better sense of humor than Silver Surfer. It gets awfully dry when somebody can go seven episodes without cracking a joke.

[batgirl2007]

Nova even joked about that once. When Spidey monologues its okay because he's either thinking about important stuff or expressing his feelings or narrating (or all three at once). But when Norrin Radd does it it sounds ..dumb.

[Spider-Man]

I still think this is one of Marvel's most udner-rated series. Sure the main character was brooding pretty much all the time and rarely cracked a smile but that's just a part of who the character is. I'm sure they could have lightened him up though. I felt the Kirby-style artwork was succesful for the most part. Some of the poorer animated episode looked clunky but man did Galactus look awesome when we roared onto screen. I still love that epic sounding theme song too.

[Caswin]

I still think this is one of Marvel's most udner-rated series.I maintain my belief - and extend it, to a somewhat more limited extent, to its one-season brethren Spider-Man Unlimited and Avengers: United They Stand - that it would be more fondly remembered had they not ended with a cliffhanger.

but man did Galactus look awesome when we roared onto screen. I still love that epic sounding theme song too.Agreed.

[batgirl2007]

The CGI Galactus looked awesome and the Kirby-style art made the series faithful to the comics.

[Antiyonder]

Worth the wait, though I'm surprised that you didn't comment on the circumstances concerning the air date of Forever War. As you probably remember, the episode was held for summer airtime, but without no advertisements. And I was lucky to enough to tune in to the channel when I did.

Also, what were your thoughts about Return To Zenn-La as far as the citizens behavior and interaction towards The Surfer, if you don't mind me asking.