By Simon Spurrier & Tan Eng Huat (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2749-9
Although pretty much a last minute addition to Fantastic Four #48-50’s ‘Galactus Trilogy’, Jack Kirby’s scintillating creation the Silver Surfer quickly became a watchword for depth and subtext in the Swinging 1960s Marvel Universe, and one character Stan Lee kept as his own personal toy for many years.
Tasked with finding planets for space-god Galactus to consume, one day the Silver Surfer discovered Earth, where the latent nobility of humanity reawakened his own suppressed morality; causing the shining scout to rebel against his master and help the FF save the world.
In retaliation, Galactus imprisoned his one-time herald on Earth, making him the ultimate outsider on a planet remarkably ungrateful for his sacrifice. In 1968, after increasingly frequent guest-shots and even a solo adventure in the back of Fantastic Four Annual #5, the Surfer finally got his own (initially double-sized) title at long last.
The last questing, vital soul of a soft and decadent civilisation, Norrin Radd allowed himself to be transformed into gleaming herald in a Faustian bargain with Galactus to save his home-world Zenn-La from the planet-devouring cosmic entity. His eventual emancipation never gave him the opportunity to permanently return to his place of birth, nor settle down with his lost love Shalla Bal, whom he had forsaken for a life of service to the Great Destroyer.
The Silver Surfer was always a pristine and iconic character when handled well – and sparingly – yet once he gained and sustained a regular comic book presence in the 1980s he became somewhat diminished; less… special.
After a strong start his adventures became formulaic and even dull. In reworking the character for the modern market, a huge amount of the mystique that made the critically beloved but commercially disastrous Christ allegory from the Stars a cause celebre was lost.
In recent times the Space-bound Scout has been used more sparingly and with greater innovation as in this fanciful fable from scripter Simon Spurrier, artist Tan Eng Huat and colourist Jose Villarrubia, originally released as a four-part miniseries in 2007.
Adrift and aimless, the Silver Surfer glides through the trackless void, pondering the nature of life and how vastly varied but fundamentally similar it seems throughout creation, when he is suddenly attacked by organ-pirates determined to reduce him to saleable spare parts…
When a colossal starship drives off the grisly bandits the sky-rider meets the sublimely civilised Explorocrat Ruqtar Koil, urbane envoy-at-large and dutiful Minister Plenipotentiary of the star-spanning Ama Collective.
Norrin is extremely impressed with the grandiose, genteel and winningly cultured fellow voyager and the vast peacefully utopian alliance of scholars and explorers he represents, as epitomised by their holy credo the Binarc – “to improve ourselves, and seek others who wish the same 
However, after accepting an invitation to visit Ama-Prime, the Surfer experiences a few nagging doubts after meeting the autocratic and far too unctuous Empress, but is easily assuaged by the calm serenity of her manifested paradise world.
Some time later his peaceful reveries are interrupted when Koil begs a small favour…
Brekknis is a poor and primitive “ripening world†whose unhappy natives are currently under threat from a ravening demon apparently made from old ghosts. Dispatched to assist the lowly aborigines, the Explorocrat felt the Surfer’s power might be beneficial, but when the Silver Sentinel sees how the Ama envoy treats the poverty-stricken people his suspicions return.
Brekk leader Accordite Tol-Wes paints a very different picture of the Collective: one of haughty disdain, galling paternalism and enforced cultural solidarity. To ensure right and rational thinking, the Ama long ago closed all the Brekk churches and temples…
When the demon manifests it is revealed as a monstrous monolith of rage comprised of broken war-machines and slaughtered soldier’s spirits screaming “vengeance for genocideâ€â€¦
After the Surfer’s incredible Cosmic Power dispatches the creature, a strange thing happens: the stunned and grateful primitives fall to their knees and declare Norrin to be their promised messiah the Lightlord…
When the Empress visits her troubled and uncivilised Brekknian children, her offhand manner and an assassination attempt – quickly thwarted by the Surfer – inexorably ramps up festering tensions and the Star-born Scout clandestinely confers with Tol-Wes for the other side of the story.
Long ago the Brekk were a militant and warlike people who found a measure of peace in a new religion which united their world. However when they tried to take their gospel to other worlds, they quickly encountered the atheistic Ama Collective who took them into their star-girdling fold and made them quit their extreme and foolishly fanatical ideas of Faith and higher powers…
Now with the Lightlord’s long promised return, the Brekk will rise and throw off the yoke of the impious invaders…
Refusing the ridiculous role of messiah, Norrin attempts to defuse the escalating situation, but is attacked again by organ pirates and succumbs to a force even greater than his own…
Koil and the pirates are working together and the Sky-Rider is simply an expendable piece in a vast Machiavellian game. Crucified on Brekknis, the Surfer realises that the Ama want a final war with the Brekk, but he has tragically underestimated the fanatical missionary zeal of the equally blood-hungry, faith-fuelled fundamentalists…
Refusing to be a figurehead for the forthcoming madness, Norrin flies away but discovers a horrific secret: the Ama are holding hostage the offspring of a sublime trans-dimensional being, forcing its “mother†to reshape events in ways that will make the outcome of desired conflict a brutal certainty…
Confronted at last by a truly innocent victim in this sorry affair, the Surfer tries once more to broker a ceasefire but, with both rationalist autocrats and religious maniacs determined to exterminate each other, is at last forced to combat the bloodshed with his own brand of overwhelming firepower and desperate duplicity…
Sadly, some things, such as prejudice, hatred and fanaticism are beyond physical force or reasoned argument…
This is a sharp, cynical political allegory of colonial expansionism and callous manipulation delivered with classic British wit, dry understatement and heartfelt, bitter resignation, cloaked in the gleaming armour of a spectacular cosmic action-clash, courtesy of the splendidly imaginative art and colours.
This slim but beguiling tome also includes a cover gallery by Michael Turner & Peter Steigerwald and a sketch section featuring Tan Eng Huat’s remarkable concept designs for the many and varied aliens populating the tale.
© 2007, 2008 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.
