This shipped today...
But how does it compare to the Epic Collection "Freedom"?
The Epic Collection contains...
- "The Answer" from Epic Illustrated #1
- Silver Surfer (one-shot, 1982)
- Silver Surfer (1987) #1-14
- Super-Villain Classics (Galactus) #1
- Marvel Fanfare #51
That's a good collection. But the omnibus contains everything from the Epic Collection, plus...
- Silver Surfer (1987) #15-33
- Silver Surfer Annual #1-2
- Silver Surfer: Parable (1988) #1-2 (Stan Lee & Moebius)
- Silver Surfer: Judgement Day (1988 graphic novel by Stan Lee & John Buscema)
- Silver Surfer: The Enslavers (1990 graphic novel by Stan Lee & Keith Pollard)
- Fantastic Four #325
- A story from Marvel Comics Presents #1
- ...plus a ton of pin-ups and extra features.
Now... when is Marvel going to reprint the 1978 Silver Surfer graphic novel by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby?
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In 2025 I find myself torn between reading old favorites (which I have read many, many times), and collections of newer favorites (which I may not have read since their initial release in periodical format) from those expensive collections I drop so much money on. (I really must get started on those if I want to get my money's worth out of them because I have only a limited amount of time left on this Earth.) Case in point: Return to the Spaceways omnibus. I always like to "read up" to the volume in question, but that can be time-consuming. Then it occurred to me: I don't have to read every Silver Surfer appearance leading up to it (although I could if I so chose), only select ones. Silver Surfer (1968) #1-18 is one of those "old favorites which I have read many, many times." I don't remember exactly the last time I read it, but I know that it's been at least 15 years. So I decided to start there. I just finished #18, but I am relectant to slow my roll by posting about each and every issue, but here is a summary:
#1-7 - double-size
#18 - Jack Kirby
Silver Surfer #18 ended with the Surfer vowing to become the enemy of all mankind.
Jack Kirby introduced the Silver Surfer in the pages of Fantastic Four #48, then Stan Lee pretty much took him over, developing the character in a direction other than Kirby originally intended. Kirby's original intention was for the Surfer to have been a tabula rasa created by Galactus, who would come to learn about humanity from living among us; the Zenn-La/Norrin Radd origin was Stan Lee's idea. As developed by Stan Lee and John Buscema, the Surfer became a leaner, less muscular character who used his cosmic powers less often, but tended to moralise about violence and alienation a lot.
I don't know what, exactly, prompted Lee to turn the series over to Kirby for its final issue, whether it was due to decreasing sales or a desire to placate the increasingly dissatisfied Kirby or what, but Kirby's new direction was never developed or follow up on. He bopped around the MU for a while (including, noteably, a stint with the early Defenders), but Lee took a proprietary stance toward the Surfer, and guarded his appearances by any writer other than himself jealously. When Len Wein became writer of the Fantastic Four, he lobbied Roy Thomas and Stan Lee for permission to use the Surfer in Giant-Size FF #4, and that permission was granted. (The story actually appeared in FF #155-157 for reasons we need not go into here.) When Wein was promated to editor of all Marvel's color comics (after just a few weeks on staff!), Roy Thomas stepped in to write #156-157.
FANTASTIC FOUR #155-157:
The reason I skipped straight to this one is because the Silver Surfer first appears, rushing on scene as if from Silver Surfer #18, with the intention of killing the Fantastic Four. Actually, he has come from Latveria, where he has found who he believes to be Shalla Bal, suffering from amnesia, and "married" to Dr. Doom. Doom promises to restore her memory and free her, if only the Silver Surfer will kill the FF for him. He agrees, but actually conspires with his erstwhile victims to turn the tables on Doom. As it happens, Doom admits that "Shalla Bal" is actually a young Latverian woman who bears a striking resemblance to Norrin Radd's long-lost love, whom Doom hypnotized. BUT THEN! On the last three pages it is revealed that the behind-the-scenes manipulator is Mephisto, and "Helena" is the real Shalla Bal! Instead of sending her back to Zenn-La at the end of Silver Surfer #17, instead he sent her to Latveria where he engineered the whole scenario just to mess with the Surfer's mind. the story ends with Shalla Bal, still believing herself to be Helena, staying behind in Latveria.
There are multiple reasons why I like this story so much. First, it's a follow-up to perhaps my very favorite Fantastic Four story, #57-60; second, it features the Surfer's arch enemy in a surprise role; third, it progresses the Silver Surfer/Shalla Bal dynamic; and fourth: Roy thomas, Len Wein, Rich Buckler and Joe Sinnott. The story is built around a metaphorical game of chess, from opening gambit, through middle game, to endgame. And if you've ever wondered about the title of the last chapter, "zugzwang" means "the unfortunate compulsion to move" -- when a player must yield an advantageous position because he can't skip a move.
To me the original Kirby concept for the Surfer as portrayed in the FF was the way to go - a being with incredible power who is emotionally still a child. I didn't find Stan's philosophizing, angst ridden version particularly interesting. And apparently neither did Kirby.
SILVER SURFER (1982):
Next up on my list is the 48 page one-shot from 1982 by John Byrne (plot/pencils), Stan Lee (script) and Tom Palmer (inks/colors). It recaps the Surfer's origin, then recaps FF #48-50, then goes right ot the Surfer's latest failed attempt to breach the barrier. After that, Mr. Fantastic approaches the Surfer with a solution that can be utilized only once; if he should ever return to Earth after being freed, he will once again be stuck forever. The plan works and the surfer return to Zenn-La only to find it devastated. Apparently, at some point after Galactus was betrayed by his herald, he returned to Zenn-La to sate his hunger (which is fine, but we have seen life on Zenn-La as normal as recently as Silver Surfer #16). Anddar Bal, Shalla Bal's father, reveals that his daughter was taken from Zenn-La by Mephisto (again, SS #16), and the Surfer realizes that the woman he encountered in Latveria (in FF #155-157) must have been the real Shalla Bal after all.
Deciding it is better to be trapped on Earth with his one true love than to have the freedom of the spaceways without her, he returns to Earth. Mephisto is really playing the long game here; what he set up in SIlver Surfer #17 (1970) does not pay off until now (1982). But just as the surfer confronts Mephisto, he sends Shalla Bal back to Zenn La! the surfer pursues her, but cannot pass the barrier, so he infuses her with a burst of Cosmic Power which allows her to restore Zenn-La to life.
This story inspired me to write the one-and-only story submission I ever sent to Marvel. At the time, I did not realize that Stan Lee maintained, for the most part, a propriatory "hands off" policy as far as the Surfer was concerned; I only knew that the surfer was one of my favorite characters and didn't appeared all that often. Given that, it seemed a shame to me that the Silver surfer should be stuck on Earth if Marvel wasn't going to use him all that much, anyway. Mini-series were just becoming popular around that time, and one of the stipulations Marvel had concerning tham is that the main character(s) must go through some sort of change or life-altering event throughout the course of the series. To that end, I submitted a plot for a four-issue limited series in which the Silver Surfer would gain freedom from his exile at last.
I don't remember much about it, but it concerned Silver Surfer seeking Reed Richards' help to use Dr. Doom's time machine in order to send him to the past, before the barrier existed. To his surprise, the barrier existed in the past as well. After returning to the present, with the help of Dr. Strange, they determine that the "barrier" is not physical at all, but exists only within the Surfer's mind. Carl Potts was submissions editor at the time, and he explained to me that Stan Lee reserved use of the Surfer pretty much for himself. (I wish I still had that rejection letter, but I haven't seen it for years... decades.) Not too much longer after that, Lee did allow Steve Englehart to write such a story, which was (needless to say) far, far better than mine would have been.
I'm going to take a break from this discussion for a while in order to read Fantastic Four #242-244...
...and "The Last Galactus Story"...
...neither of which have anything to do with the Silver Surfer, but that's what I'm in the mood to read right now.
Next up, before I delve into the 1987 ongoing series, is a "trilogy" of stories illustrated by John Buscema: "The Answer" (sctript by Stan Lee), Marvel Fanfare #51 (with Steve Englehart), and the Judgment Day graphic novel (also in collaboration with Stan Lee).
"The Answer" is a little eight-page epic (no pun intended) from 1980 which helped launched Epic Illustrated magazine.
Marvel Fanfare #51 features an out-of-continuity tale featuring Mantis and her son. (See "Celestial Quest" discussion for further details.)
Judgment Day is illustrated in full-page panels and features Nova (and Mephisto).
This brings up up to the launch of the 1987 ongoing series. Here is what writer series Steve Englehart has to say about the first 20 issues:
"Like the other series of this time at Marvel, such as FANTASTIC FOUR, SILVER SURFER goes through three phases.
"It began when Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter asked me to do a SURFER book. I was pleased to be asked, but remembered that the character had been reserved for Editor Emeritus Stan Lee. Jim was clear in his response: the current Powers That Be had decided the Surfer could make the company money, and should.
"So, if I were going to do the Surfer, I wanted to get him off Earth. He had been trapped here, denied the vastness of space, since his first epic in FF #48-50, and I felt that situation had long outlived its interest. For one thing, despite everyone's affection for the character and some good people giving it their all, he had never sold. The Surfer seemed like he ought to be great, but he wasn't. Nevertheless, I was told he had to stay on Earth.
"So I wrote a #1 issue, and plotted two more, under that restriction. But I kept bugging Jim, and all of a sudden, for whatever reason, I got my way. The Surfer could fly free. That first issue was shelved and I started over with a new #1. That "earthbound" first issue later appeared as an "imaginary story" in MARVEL FANFARE.
"But we were off to the races at last. I got the Surfer into the grandeur of space, and for the first time ever, he sold.
"I also got him a woman who was equipped to share his life. In the earthbound #1, and then alternatively in the spaceborne #3, he met Mantis, the Celestial Madonna. He met all the great beings of the Marvel Universe, and I mean Universe. Galactus, Eternity, the Elders, the In-Betweener, the Supreme Intelligence, the Soul Gems... The Silver Surfer was finally where he belonged!"