Silver Surfer #1-18 Original Series Talkback (Retro Spoilers)

[Antiyonder]

The Surfer has had some ups and downs after being exiled to Earth. Such as having his powers stolen from Doctor Doom, a misunderstanding with the Hulk and having a series that would be canceled after 18 issues. (Cover courtesy of Amazon.com)

SILVER SURFER



Writer: Stan Lee
Pencils: John Buscema and Jack Kirby

Story: Though he sacrificed his freedom to save Earth from Galactus, humanity is anything but grateful for his actions. In this series The Surfer's origin and his name is revealed. The Lord Of Lies, Mephisto is introduced to the Marvel Universe. Watch as The Silver Surfer comes across The Badoon, Loki, Thor, The Overlord, The Stranger, The Abomination, Spider-Man, The Human Torch, S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Inhumans!

This series can be found collected in The Essential Silver Surfer Volume 1.

Note #1: #18 ends on a cliffhanger which wouldn't be resolved until Webspinners: Tales Of Spider-Man #4-6 (1999).

Note #2: Thought this would be good to have up, since there is a talkback for "The Coming Of Galactus".

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

I heard that Stan Lee originally slammed John Buscema's work in issue 4 (Thor vs Surfer). The story was that John walked into the office with the pages of artwork (copies, I guess?), and Lee would rip each page up in front of John like this: "Crap." *Rip* "Crap" *Rip* "Crap" *Rip*. Bad day at the office?

Years later, of course, he called John and told him what a classic issue that was, but at the time, it really upset John since this was one of those issues he had actually tried to do something different with.

I really liked this series, but I think Lee didn't really know where to go with Surfer. You can only have the Surfer whine about missing Shalla-Bal so many times and have her tease and get whisked away from him so many times before readers got tired of it.

[Antiyonder]

I'm wondering what was really planned for the Surfer beyond #18. Has anyone at Marvel ever metioned what was to come of his plans to get even with mankind?

Also, I heard his appearance in the pages of Sub Mariner refered to the Surfer calming down. Can anyone give me more detail on that?

[Darklordavaitor]

Ironic. One of my favorite comic book stars, and I only have the Masterworks with the first six. I wish I could add more to the conversation, but due to this obstacle, I can't. But anyhow, "The Power and The Prize" (AKA Mephisto's first) was truly a great story.