Silver surfer

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Still image of the Silver Surfer at the Emerald City Comic Convention in Seattle, USA, 2008

The Silver Surfer is a comic book character from the superhero world of Marvel Comics , who was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee . It was introduced in the story The Coming of Galactus in the series The Fantastic Four in 1966, in a story that spanned three booklets. After several other guest appearances, the Silver Surfer received its own series in 1968, which was drawn by John Buscema . Jack Kirby drew the eighteenth and final notebook. Stan Lee created Kirby, an independent graphic novel with the surfer in 1978 .

A one-time Silver Surfer booklet, drawn by John Byrne , was published in June 1982. In July 1987, a regular series began, written by Steve Englehart and later Jim Starlin , drawn by Marshall Rogers and Ron Lim . Other authors and draftsmen followed. The last issue of this series, # 146, appeared in 1998. The graphic novel The Silver Surfer: Parable (in two parts, 1988/89), again written by Stan Lee, drawn by Jean Giraud , alias Moebius , won an Eisner Award in 1989 .

History of the Silver Surfer

The Silver Surfer was originally a Zenn-Lavian named Norrin Radd who lived with his lover Shalla Bal on the peaceful and highly developed planet Zenn-La in the Deneb system. When Zenn-La was attacked by the world-destroying Galactus ( The Devourer of Worlds and Third Force of the Universe ), the Silver Surfer offered himself to him as a herald to save his world. Galactus, the eater of the planets, also called the son of eternity and death, gave his new servant a silver shape, a surfboard- like means of transport and enormous cosmic powers, with which he u. a. Can heal living beings. The task of this herald was to search the universe for new planets on which Galactus could feed. His search is for uninhabited planets and his now impossible love for Shalla Bal.

Predecessors as Heralds of Galactus were:

  1. Gabriel, the Airwalker (a Xandarian)
  2. Firelord (Pyreus, also a Xandarian and officer aboard Gabriel's ship)
  3. Terrax the Tamer with his cosmic ax
  4. Nova (Frankie Raye, Fantastic Four # 164, who was the surfer's mate for a while)
  5. Morning
  6. Red Shift

His archenemies are the extra-dimensional demon Mephisto (first appearance issue # 3), Thanos of Titan, Super Skrull, Overlord, Morg, Terrax and Evil Nebula. The allies of the Silver Surfer include the Fantastic Four , Thor , Adam Warlock , Drax the Destroyer, Moondragon, The Infinity Watch .

The single series was discontinued because readers preferred to see him in other series. Due to the end of the series, in which the silver surfer apparently opposes the ungrateful people, a cliffhanger was created that the authors did not know how to handle. A later short series appeared in 1982 (John Byrne) and from 1987 (text: Steve Engelhart , from issue # 15 with great success Ron Lim as a draftsman, from # 34 Joe Starlin as a writer, who also designed the crossover saga The Infinity Gauntlet ) one new series. From issue # 111, the plot was changed under writer Ron Marz , the surfer traveled to the other end of the universe (Uni-Lord-Saga). On his return he finds Zenn-La devastated, another change in the storyline. It turns out that Zenn-La had long been destroyed by a new race, The Others , and Galactus had maintained it as an image for the past 50 years. In the following years, the surfer spent more time on earth with his new love, Alicia Masters. The series ended in late 2005. In February 1998 an animated film series was produced, but due to differences between Marvel and the television producer Saban it was discontinued after 13 episodes, but made the surfer more popular. A new mini-series Galactus: The Devourer was released in 1999.

Classic comic

When he first appears in the Fantastic Four series, the Silver Surfer is sent to Earth to prepare them to be devoured by Galactus. The Fantastic Four are warned by a cosmic being, The Watcher , who comes from an ancient race that normally only observes cosmic happenings. A fight breaks out between the surfer and the Fantastic Four, in the course of which the silver surfer meets Alicia Masters. This convinces him that the earth is worth saving. The noble feelings and the high ethical values ​​of his opponents speak to him. In the subsequent battle against Galactus, victory is only achieved through the use of the Human Torch, a super weapon, the Ultimate Nullifier , to steal from Galactus' spaceship and threaten to use it against Galactus.

Galactus refrains from destroying the earth and its messenger, the surfer, but curses them with the curse of never being able to return to his homeland and builds an invisible barrier that prevents him from leaving the earth. Nevertheless, the surfer is not accepted by the people and has to continue roaming the world as a loner . His main motive is to leave the planet and return to his world, but he has to realize again and again that he has to save the earth's inhabitants despite their enormous character deficits (war, lack of trust, excessive fear of strangers etc.), not even himself to violate his high values, which he internalized as Norrin Radd. Later Galactus lifts this barrier again, but only to deliberately deceive the silver surfer, as his great love Shalla Bal has apparently got involved with someone else. This deception fails in the end, but finally binds the silver surfer to the earth and thus to humanity, which continues to punish all his attempts to support with great contempt ...

In a second storyline of the German Fantastischen Vier, "Das Ding" comes up with the simple but saving idea that the surfboard itself could be the reason in another attempt by Reed Richards to free the silver surfer from his spell with high technology which is why the silver surfer cannot penetrate the barrier. The silver surfer then transforms his surfboard into pure energy, flies with the Fantastischen Vier in their spaceship over the border that has repeatedly thrown him back and then picks up the board (still in energy form). The Silver Surfer is free. He transforms the surfboard back into its original shape and begins his journey through space.

Powers and abilities

The silver surfer possesses an enormous cosmic power (the power cosmic ). They were bestowed on him by Galactus when he transformed Norrin Radd's body. The surfer has the ability to channel the cosmic energy present everywhere and to radiate it in a concentrated manner. He is able to use the energy offensively and destroy entire cities with rays from his hands, but can also use the forces to move individual molecules and thus change the color of a flower, for example. However, he cannot transform one element into another.

Its silver skin can only be penetrated by a few forces in the universe. The inside of his body is also exceptionally resistant to attack. It can brave the heat in close proximity to the sun to a limited extent. The surfer can withstand vacuum, speeds close to that of light, but also hyperspace without any disadvantages. His senses, enhanced by cosmic energy, enable him to perceive traces of energy through concentration. Life energy in particular can be located for him. With the help of his cosmic powers he can strengthen and heal living beings to a certain extent. However, the surfer is unable to create life or raise the dead again. He does not have to eat and breathe as he receives his life forces directly from cosmic energy. His body wouldn't need sleep, but his mind needs the ability to dream.

If the silver surfer reaches 99% of the speed of light, he can put himself into hyperspace. It is also able to compress its body's own matter to such an extent that it can penetrate into the microverse. He also used his powers once to travel through time. Usually, however, this doesn't seem to be possible.

His “surfboard” consists of an unknown material and was created by Galactus at the same time as the surfer. It has the same properties and looks as the surfer's silver skin. Apart from Galactus, few powers are likely to be able to influence it. The board is psionically connected to the Silver Surfer and can be controlled mentally by him. However, nothing is known about the exact nature of the connection. Obviously, like the surfer himself, it uses cosmic energy.

Television series

In the cartoon series , which was also broadcast in Germany , the silver surfer travels, contrary to the comic, through the entire universe. At first he doesn't know anything about his fate, because Galactus has blocked his memory and memories are only accessible later. From this point on, the servant of the world eater Galactus rebels against his master.

In addition, there is a person called The Observer (see above) who is central to what is happening and who is supposed to observe the universe and record all significant events without intervening directly. However, he violates this when he warns the residents of Zenn-La about the arrival of Galactus. The series was discontinued after the 13th episode because of the great differences to the comic and ends with a cliffhanger , eight more episodes were written, but never produced.

Movie

The surfer plays an important, eponymous role in the second part of the Fantastic Four film series, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer , for which he is brought to life by the effects company Weta Digital based on a human model by Doug Jones using a motion capture process has been. The film was shown in German cinemas on August 14, 2007.

Others

Dating from the 1987 album Surfing with the Alien of Joe Satriani shows the Silver Surfer on the cover. The song styles range from high spirits to melancholy, which are comparable to the moods of the surfer during his travels. Satriani also refers to the Silver Surfer in his 1989 album Flying in a Blue Dream entitled Back to Shalla-Bal . Furthermore, Ibanez brought out a special edition of the Joe Satriani signature model as a Silver Surfer Edition for the 20th company anniversary together with Joe Satriani .

In 1999, Hardy Hard released the title Silver Surfer . The cover of the record also alludes to the silver surfer known from the comics . In January 2009 Dave Darell ft. Hardy Hard published their joint interpretation of Silver Surfer 2009 in electro house guise.

On their album “Schwer Scheff” the band Die Schröders dedicated a 14-minute track of the same name to the Silver Surfer.

On the 1997 released album Accident of Birth by Bruce Dickinson is the title Darkside of Aquarius . The song has a classic doomsday theme , initially four horsemen appear. Towards the end, the Silver Surfer unexpectedly joins them to save the world.

Silver Surfer appears as a theme in the erotic thriller Breathless ( Breathless , 1983) with Richard Gere in the lead role on (music in pop style remake of the classic cool Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard). There, the narrow-gauge crook Jesse (Richard Gere) loves fast cars, Jerry Lee Lewis and the cartoon hero Silver Surfer.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ First appearance in: Fantastic Four # 48–50, March to May 1966. Own issue: Silver Surver # 1–18, August 1968 – September 1970. Unsuccessful at the time, as initially very extensive with 72 pages (about 40 pages of comics) and too expensive, 25 cents instead of the usual 12 cents for 36 pages, the bimonthly magazine with # 9 thinner (20 pages comic) was then discontinued.
    The Silver Surfer appeared in German-speaking countries as early as 1966. The HIT Comics series of the Bildschriftenverlag published FF # 48 and # 50 as issues 8 and 10, FF # 49, the middle part of the story, only appeared years later in HIT Comics # 229. In the publications of the Williams publishing house, the silver surfer was called Silberstürmer. He appeared there in Fantastischen Vier , numbers 44–46, and his own series (SS # 1–11) ran in the Thor issue (# 1–32). The SS Hefte 1-5 reappeared in Marvel Classic , Volume 2, May 1998 (from Panini Verlag ) and SS # 6-18 with further material in Marvel Classic , Volume 7, September 1999. After the Condor Verlag had the rights acquired, the original name Silver Surfer was used again. The first appearance was republished in the FAZ Comic Bibliothek , Volume 4, Fantastic Four .
  2. ↑ The scripts of the planned episodes silver-surfer.us; Retrieved March 5, 2007