Silver Surfer Black (2019) - Team Up's Comic Corner

Silver Surfer Black (2019) 5 Issues

We are keeping it cosmic this week in the corner. Last week we talked about a legendary cosmic character and today we are talking about one who is arguably even more famous. The Silver Surfer, and his recent mini-series Silver Surfer Black. This series explores what happens after the surfer is thrown into a black hole and what he does to save himself and possibly the universe. 

Let’s start with a quick look at who the Silver Surfer is. First created by Jack Kirby for Fantastic Four #48 in 1966, the silver surfer is a humanoid alien with metallic skin and a cosmic surfboard that allows him to travel faster than the speed of light. Originally an astronomer named Norrin Radd on the planet Zenn-La, he sacrificed himself to save his home world from Galactus the world eater. In doing so Galactus gave Norrin a sliver of his power, which gave him his silver skin and surfboard, and made him his herald so that the Surfer could find planets in which Galactus could feed on. Cut to his arrival on earth and his encounter with the Fantastic Four, who convinced Norrin to betray Galactus to help them save earth, which resulted in the Surfer being exiled from his position. Now that we know a bit about this crazy guy, let’s get into this story. 

This story starts in a recent Guardians of the Galaxy book at the reading of Thanos’ last will and testament. As the mad titans words are spoken aloud to the crowd of who’s who in the cosmic realm of Marvel Comics, a black hole opens up and swallows many of the heroes and villains in attendance. The surfer uses his powers to save many of those who fell with him, but he could not save himself. Pulled through the void into darkness the surfer wakes up on a strange planet at a time when the universe was only just created and is confronted by three strange characters who speak in a strange language “Our Master Is God.”

A fight ensues and to defeat them the surfer creates a small sun, from his power cosmic, to light and burn away his attackers. But in doing so his hand starts to turn a black color. With his attackers unconscious, the Surfer goes to investigate the monolith the creatures where guarding only to have a hand reach out and grab him by the neck, it is the darkness itself, god of the all black, creator of the Klyntar (that’s the real species name of the symbiotes like Venom and Carnage). It is Knull. 

With the villain set up and the slow dying of his cosmic power as depicted by the black spreading over his body the series gets really surreal and cosmic. As the series goes on Norrin meets a young Ego the Living Planet and a few other surprising characters before the end of the story which brings our main character full circle back to the present timeline. This book was created by Donny Cates, which you may remember wrote one of the Cosmic Ghost Rider series. And while that book was all about delivering laughs and violence, this series is all about the spiritual and mental journey Norrin needs to go through in order to come to terms with what he has become since leaving his old life behind. 

I loved it, I think you’ll love it, go read it and find out for yourself. It’s a great look at the universe as it was forming in the Marvel Universe. And the journey he goes on could leave you a but misty eyed at time. That’s all for today, leave your thoughts in the comments and any other comics that you think deserve the spotlight in the coming weeks! See you next week and don’t be afraid to crease the corners on a good panel!