Rating: 
Summary: Some of Stan's Best work.
Review: The Silver Surfer. The heroic and tragic man who travels the stars, forced to leave his homeworld and the woman he loves to serve Galactus. He rebells and then uses his cosmic powers to banish the forces of evil in the universe. This is Stan Lee at some of his best comic book work, second only to Spider-Man. It's a shame that the Surfer's own monthly comic was cancelled recently because of the poor writing of J.M. DeMatteis.
Rating:
Summary: The Legendary Stan Lee's Best Work
Review: There was always something about Marvel Comics which separated them from the pack, at least at the beginning. Whereas top competitor DC had cranked out superheroes for years, Marvel's heroes always seemed much more tangible, more human. Much of this is due to Stan Lee's writing. While descending into self-parody later, one cannot help but feel a frisson in reading Lee's early stuff: the angst-ridden Spider-Man, the tumultuous Fantastic Four, the tortured Hulk. Lee made heroes and comics that teenagers could identify with. And then he made the Silver Surfer. The Surfer was a mass of contradictions: a peace-loving alien imbued with incredible power in the service of world-devouring Galactus; a faithful herald who betrayed his master; an intergalactic traveller confined to Earth. The Surfer was so over-the-top, it was hard for anyone to identify with him. And yet we love him anyway. Why? Perhaps because the Surfer's alien naivete allows us to see the world anew. Or because Stan Lee's lofty prose finally seems to have found a suitable subject. Either way, I guarantee you'll love this collection of early Silver Surfer tales. Excelsior!
Rating:
Summary: Best Silver Age Art
Review: These look better in color, (and not that overpoweringly harsh color used in the Marvel Masterworks, but the subtle "cheap" colors used originally), though this B/W version is effective. Penciller Buscema reached a high point at this time, and had top inkers. Lee's writing is a bit preachy and high-minded, with Surfer redundantly turned into a Christ figure, always saving mankind from some menace, and uncomprehending mankind always reviling him for it. I was delighted by this stuff at age 13, and it holds up well. It was the last gasp of greatness before superheroes became (sigh) what they are today.
Rating:
Summary: Best Silver Age Art
Review: These look better in color, (and not that overpoweringly harsh color used in the Marvel Masterworks, but the subtle "cheap" colors used originally), though this B/W version is effective. Penciller Buscema reached a high point at this time, and had top inkers. Lee's writing is a bit preachy and high-minded, with Surfer redundantly turned into a Christ figure, always saving mankind from some menace, and uncomprehending mankind always reviling him for it. I was delighted by this stuff at age 13, and it holds up well. It was the last gasp of greatness before superheroes became (sigh) what they are today.
Rating:
Summary: Silver Age Angst At Its Finest
Review: This is a grand collection of stories from Marvel's greatest era. Stan Lee never wrote better and John Buscema's artwork is gorgeous. The first half of the Silver Surfer run consisted of double sized stories reflecting a larger scope. Lee took full advantage of it. My favorite was the double sized Stranger story which was extremely heroic and touching. All of today's comic creators should read this series of books and especially this one to see the way it was done right.
Rating:
Summary: A pure soul seeking its true home
Review: Unlike the work of people such as Frank Miller or Alan Moore, comics like these are seldom mentioned by those who wish to stress the medium's full potential; still, the depth of this volume's stories is underrated. The Silver Surfer is a very rich character whose origin and situation can be read in a myriad of ways, notably because Lee and Buscema use central ideas of ancient philosophy and religion (mainly Gnosticism and Neoplatonism). As a whole, the series can be read as the adventures of a soul seeking its true home. This home is not Zenn-la (where the Surfer's beloved Shalla-Bal lives): as the first issue makes clear, life on that planet didn't truly satisfy him in the first place. When Galactus threatens his people, the Surfer sacrifices himself and is stripped of his body, gaining instead an ethereal form. Despite his new master's dubious plans, he is initially enthusiastic about this sudden transformation - on Zenn-la, he had been yearning for transcendence while all of his compatriots wallowed in excesses of all kinds. Once he rebels against Galactus, he is turned into Earth's daemon (protector), roaming around without much freedom. This pure soul is trapped in a prison from which it tries to break free throughout the book's stories. What gives him hope in spite of his deceptions, much like Plotinus and the other Neoplatonists and Gnostics, is the conscience he has ('I serve none but the conscience within my breast!', #4). This conscience never departs him, even as he faces Evil in its most horrific guises; among other opponents, it enables him to defeat an evil clone (#7) - their physical form was identical, but their souls weren't. (It is symbolic that when the Surfer seems the closest to change his ethics - the last page of #18 - the series is coming to an end.) The Surfer's nostalgia for his true home is sublimely rendered by Buscema's powerful, poignant illustrations, especially when they're inked by Joe Sinnott (witness pages 1, 6, 17, 31 and 38 of the first issue). This volume is both inspired and inspiring, and should not be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Reintroducing the Silver Surfer, Sky-Rider of the Spaceways!
Review: When the Silver Surfer was given his own comic book, a bi-monthly oversized title, there was a rather significant retooling of the character. When the Silver Surfer first came to earth in "Fantastic Four" #48 he was the herald of Galactus, zipping around the universe finding planets for his master to eat. After his first battle with the F.F. the Surfer encounters the blind Alicia Masters who hears a certain nobility in his voice. However, the Surfer declares that "nobility" has no meaning for him. Alicia, who has never sensed "such unimaginable loneliness in a living being," convinces the Surfer to challenge Galactus, who is defeated. But for effrontery Galactus removes the Surfer's space-time powers. The surfer will roam the galaxy no more. Stan Lee and John Buscema reintroduced the Surfer by revealing his origin in the first issue and for the first time we learned of how Norrin Radd had lived a troubled life on the planet Zenn-La, with his beloved, Shalla Bal. The planet had lived in peace for generations and Radd despairs over the idea of paradise unearned. Then Galactus shows up and Zenn-La proves defenseless before his power. Norrin Radd flies to meet the invader and offers to be his herald, thereby solving the problem that Galactus eats inhabited worlds because he does not have the time to find planets where no intelligent life exists. Transformed into the Silver Surfer, Radd says a farewell to Shalla Bal and heads off on the path that will lead him to be exiled on Earth. This origin makes some radical changes in the Surfer, because if you take this issue as gospel and apply it retroactively you have to wonder why the Surfer was no longer looking for planets without intelligent life when he landed on Earth (What about Mars? Venus? Jupiter? Or would Jupiter give Galactus gas?). But the main addition is the whole back-story of Norrin Radd, which adds another layer of tragedy to the Surfer being trapped on Earth. You also have John Buscema as the Surfer's artist, and while it might be heresy his version actually looks cooler than Jack Kirby's. Including in "The Essential Silver Surfer, Volume 1" are the first eighteen issues of "The Silver Surfer" and a Lee and Kirby Surfer adventure form "Fantastic Four" Annual #5. In the mix are the Surfer's first encounter with Mephisto (#3), a battle with the Mighty Thor (#4), a brief reunion with Shalla Bal (#11), an encounter with Spider-Man (#14), a battle with the Human Torch (#15), and a two-part return engagement with Mephisto (#16-17), who ended up being the Silver Surfer's main enemy in these comics (Mephisto is behind the villains in issues #8-9 as well). Jack Kirby draws #18, where the Surfer fights the Inhumans. There are a few less than stellar issues, such as the encounter with the Frankenstein monster (#7), but overall this is a good series, especially the early ones where the stories are 40-pages long and where the crossovers where more limited. Keeping the Surfer out of the mainstream Marvel Universe was one of the things that made him so special, which is why the longer this series went the less special he became. That is why Volume 1 is the one most worth having, even if these comics are reproduced in black & white (and why Volume 1 of the Marvel Masterworks series devoted to the Surfer which reprints the first six issues in color looks so attractive to fans of the character).
Rating:
Summary: Reintroducing the Silver Surfer, Sky-Rider of the Spaceways!
Review: When the Silver Surfer was given his own comic book, a bi-monthly oversized title, there was a rather significant retooling of the character. When the Silver Surfer first came to earth in "Fantastic Four" #48 he was the herald of Galactus, zipping around the universe finding planets for his master to eat. After his first battle with the F.F. the Surfer encounters the blind Alicia Masters who hears a certain nobility in his voice. However, the Surfer declares that "nobility" has no meaning for him. Alicia, who has never sensed "such unimaginable loneliness in a living being," convinces the Surfer to challenge Galactus, who is defeated. But for effrontery Galactus removes the Surfer's space-time powers. The surfer will roam the galaxy no more. Stan Lee and John Buscema reintroduced the Surfer by revealing his origin in the first issue and for the first time we learned of how Norrin Radd had lived a troubled life on the planet Zenn-La, with his beloved, Shalla Bal. The planet had lived in peace for generations and Radd despairs over the idea of paradise unearned. Then Galactus shows up and Zenn-La proves defenseless before his power. Norrin Radd flies to meet the invader and offers to be his herald, thereby solving the problem that Galactus eats inhabited worlds because he does not have the time to find planets where no intelligent life exists. Transformed into the Silver Surfer, Radd says a farewell to Shalla Bal and heads off on the path that will lead him to be exiled on Earth. This origin makes some radical changes in the Surfer, because if you take this issue as gospel and apply it retroactively you have to wonder why the Surfer was no longer looking for planets without intelligent life when he landed on Earth (What about Mars? Venus? Jupiter? Or would Jupiter give Galactus gas?). But the main addition is the whole back-story of Norrin Radd, which adds another layer of tragedy to the Surfer being trapped on Earth. You also have John Buscema as the Surfer's artist, and while it might be heresy his version actually looks cooler than Jack Kirby's. Including in "The Essential Silver Surfer, Volume 1" are the first eighteen issues of "The Silver Surfer" and a Lee and Kirby Surfer adventure form "Fantastic Four" Annual #5. In the mix are the Surfer's first encounter with Mephisto (#3), a battle with the Mighty Thor (#4), a brief reunion with Shalla Bal (#11), an encounter with Spider-Man (#14), a battle with the Human Torch (#15), and a two-part return engagement with Mephisto (#16-17), who ended up being the Silver Surfer's main enemy in these comics (Mephisto is behind the villains in issues #8-9 as well). Jack Kirby draws #18, where the Surfer fights the Inhumans. There are a few less than stellar issues, such as the encounter with the Frankenstein monster (#7), but overall this is a good series, especially the early ones where the stories are 40-pages long and where the crossovers where more limited. Keeping the Surfer out of the mainstream Marvel Universe was one of the things that made him so special, which is why the longer this series went the less special he became. That is why Volume 1 is the one most worth having, even if these comics are reproduced in black & white (and why Volume 1 of the Marvel Masterworks series devoted to the Surfer which reprints the first six issues in color looks so attractive to fans of the character).
Rating:
Summary: SURFS UP
Review: While I have most of these tales in their original form (plus the Surfer's first FF appearances), I was glad to find them collected here in one volume (even if they are in b&w). It was always hard to find back issues of this comic (same with Nick Fury, Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D.) so this was a good way for me to finally get to read the ones I'm missing (less expensive too!!!). By the way, don't let the cover of this book mislead you. This volume contains Silver Surfer #1-18 (not 17) and the Surfer's first solo adventure appearance in Fantastic Four Annual #5. Be sure to check out SS #18 and the FF Annual story as they were penciled by Jack "King" Kirby himself. Norrin Radd never looked so good.
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