Silver Surfer Epic Collection, Vol. 3: Freedom

Silver Surfer Epic Collection

by Stan Lee, Steve Englehart, John Byrne

The sentinel of the spaceways soars again! After years trapped on Earth, the Silver Surfer fi nally breaks free of Galactus' barrier and returns to the stars. His full power cosmic restored, he heads for Zenn-La...but the old saying holds true: you can't go home again. While the age-old war between the Kree and the Skrulls heats up once again, the Elders of the Universe target Galactus! COLLECTING: SILVER SURFER (1982) 1, SILVER SURFER (1987) 1-14, SUPER-VILLAIN CLASSICS 1; MATERIAL FROM EPIC ILLUSTRATED 1, MARVEL FANFARE (1982) 51 (SILVER SURFER EPIC COLLECTION VOL. 3)

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fantasy

488 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 2018

About the author

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

After years of being trapped on earth, The Silver Surfer, sentinel of the spaceways, is free to soar the stars!

The Silver Surfer has always been an enigma to me. Apart from his appearances in other books, I read very little of his appearances until the exemplary run by Michael Allred and Dan Slott. That series awakened a hunger not unlike that of Galactus in me so I picked up this volume. This collection collects material from SILVER SURFER (1982) 1, SILVER SURFER (1987) 1-14, SUPER-VILLAIN CLASSICS 1; EPIC ILLUSTRATED 1, and MARVEL FANFARE (1982) 51.

The book starts with the Silver Surfer still trapped on earth, battling Mephisto for the soul of Shalla Bal. With help from the Fantastic Four, the Surfer is freed and embarks on a series of adventures. The longest story involves the Elders of the Universe and their plan to take down Galactus while a second Kree-Skrull war looms in the background.

Steve Englehart penned most of the book with Marshall Rogers and later, Joe Staton, on art duties. I always associate the Englehart and Rogers for their Batman run but I really enjoyed their Silver Surfer tales. Staton is nearly as good as Rogers, quite adept pencilling at the Surfer's cosmic wanderings. The coloring in this volume looks a little odd, probably because it was meant for newsprint, not high quality quality paper.

Quite a bit of the book is driven by the Silver Surfer's complicated relationship with Galactus and his new herald, Nova, as well as Mantis and Shalla Bal. Did Englehart shoehorn Mantis into every series he did? The Silver Surfer is a bit more complex than I gave him credit for.

The machinations behind the scenes in the brewing war between the Kree and Skrull occupy a fair portion of the book and are heading toward something pretty spectacular in future volumes. One thing I really enjoyed in this volume was how the issues were largely self-contained but clearly part of a bigger whole. I imagine the fourteen issues Englehart penned in this volume would take about fifty in today's Marvel, although the title would probably be rebooted several times before it was finished.

For a bunch of comics 30+ years old, Silver Surfer Epic Collection: Freedom holds up very well. It entertained me quite a bit and made me hungry for more cosmic adventures of the Sentinel of the Spaceways. Four out of five stars.

[Sud666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up, I remember the first time I was introduced to the Silver Surfer. I have been a fan ever since. The Epic Collection Vol 3: Freedom is that series that brought the Silver Surfer to life for me.

This volume collects Silver Surfer # 1 (1982); Silver Surfer #1-14 (1987); Super-Villain Classics #1, Epic Illustrated #1 and marvel Fanfare #51. Masterfully written by Steve Englehart and quite well drawn by Mike Rogers, the 1987 run is a magnificent romp through cosmic events. The entire story arc is a top quality one involving everything from the Elders to Galactus. If you love your stories to be cosmic-then you will love this great series.

The first story has to do with Surfer rescuing Shalla-Bal from Mephisto and then leaving her on Zen-Laa with a fraction of his powers. It is a prequel for the Surfer Series of 1987. This is the aforementioned run that influenced my childhood. This 14 issue arc is truly spectacular. Surfer is allowed to leave Erth by Galactus, but in return, he must rescue Nova, Galactus' current Herald. This start of the story then turns in many directions with a nefarious plot by the Elders of the Universe to collect the Soul Gems in order to kill Galactus, to Surfer's evolving relationships with Shalla-Bal, now Empress of Zen-La and Mantis and, to top it off, we have the Kree-Skrull War breakout. Superb at every level! Even after all these years, this stands heads and shoulders above many of the current "cosmic" stories out there. As I said before, the art is also quite good and stands the test of time well. The sense of space and motion (Surfer) is well done and the entire book could have been well ahead of its time. Kudos to the artist!

The other stories are an Origin story for Galactus, which I thought was interesting. The last story is ghastly. It's awful and an "alternate" ending of sorts. I truly could have done without it.

This Epic collection is a must-have for any Surfer fan. Even if you don't like Surfer, you may give this collection a try..it might make you a fan.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had a lot of fun with this one. So in the Stan Lee omnibus, Norrin was trapped on earth, this book opens up with him finally getting past the barrier. Now the name of this book, Freedom, makes sense. So after rescuing Galactus’ new herald, Nova, it’s time for the Surfer to finally head back home to Zenn-La. Funny thing is, all through the Lee omnibus, Norrin was all distraught over missing his love Shalla Bal and her being the same way. But now that he finally returns home, they don’t get together. Reminds me of Y The Last Man. She is now Empress of Zenn-La and said she has too much to do to be in a relationship. Damn, all that for this? 😂 Anyhoo, Surfer is now free to roam the space ways once again and he gets caught up in all kinds of stuff. The Skrulls and Kree are back at war, the Elders, Grandmaster, Collector and company have a scheme running to take out the Surfer and Galactus, Mantis shows up and we get some team-up action with Norrin and Nova. All with some great art throughout. Looking forward to the next volume.

[Tiag⊗ the Mutant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steve Englehart's Silver Surfer is pretty barebones in my opinion, too much focus on the Surfer's love life and not enough space adventure and intergalactic conflict, it gets old really fast. This collection gets fun around the 10th issue when Nova teams up with the Surfer. It ends with an origin story of Galactus drawn by Jack Kirby, which was by far the best issue.

[Malum · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, this is the first really good Silver Surfer run and certainly the first modern take on the Surfer divorced from the simple "monster of the week" stories that we previously got. The Surfer finally gets to leave earth and Englehart gives us a fun pulp space opera complete with godlike beings doing battle, galactic empires waging war, and plenty of love interests to show the Surfer "new ways to use his body" (I'm paraphrasing, but not by much).

There are also a few fun one-shots in here, and the whole package is well worth the read for Surfer fans or a good starting place (after the Fantastic Four Silver Surfer origin issues) for people wanting to start reading Surfer books.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 to 3 stars. It's got some great bright spots. Even some Kirby and John Buscema art. But the in the main, the story and the art is a bit flat and rudimentary. I'm still interested in reading more from this particular Surfer series. Might be a series that takes a while to get the bugs out.

[Mariano · Rating 3 out of 5]

- COSMIC SHENANIGANS
- Epic Marshall Rogers' art.
- That's some horny Surfer!
- The Kree and Skrull need to improve their war game.
- I like my Englehart more grounded.

[Vasilis Manias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μαγικός Ονειρεμένος Μοναδικός Αξιολάτρευτος Silver Surfer, μακράν ο αγαπημένος μου ήρωας από το σύμπαν της Μάρβελ (με τη λογική πως ο Θωρ είναι των Σκανδιναβών και το πράσινο μισό του Χαλκ το ψιλοβαριέμαι), ένα κράμα κοσμικής οντότητας και (εξω?)γήινης ύπαρξης, που θυσιάστηκε για να σώσει τον πλανήτη του, εξορίστηκε στο υπερπέραν δηλώνοντας υποταγή στον Υπέρτατο Παντοδύναμο Ανίκητο Galactus αναλαμβάνοντας την αποστολή να βρίσκει για εκείνον σύμπαντα με επαρκή ενεργεια για να καταβροχθίζει, για να φτάσει μέσα σε λίγα μόνο τευχάκια να υπερασπίζεται το ανθρώπινο είδος από κάθε είδους απειλή, ταυτοχρονα όμως να μη σταματάει στιγμή να αναζητάει το κορίτσι του για χάρη του οποίου είναι ικανός να φτάσει στην άκρη του σύμπαντος. Και όταν λέω στην άκρη, ΤΟ ΕΝΝΟΩ ΣΤΗΝ ΑΚΡΗ, ΛΙΓΟ ΠΙΟ ΚΕΙ ΖΜΠΡΩΧΝΕΙ ΚΑΙ ΒΡΙΣΚΕΙ ΤΟΙΧΟ.
ΦΑΝΤΑΣΤΙΚΟ ΦΑΝΤΑΣΤΙΚΟ ΦΑΝΤΑΣΤΙΚΟ σκίτσο και χρωματισμοί ΣΤΟ ΧΕΡΙ, φαίνεται το μεράκι και η τέχνη του μερακλή του καλλιτέχνη τι να λέμε τώρα, και φυσικά ένα κείμενο βαθιά υπαρξιακό και κοσμικό που πραγματεύεται την ύπαρξη (ανθρώπινη και μη) μέσα σε έναν μάταιο κόσμο που επαναλαμβάνεται βαρετά και ατελεύτητα.
Ξεκίνησα με τον 3ο τόμο της σειράς, ο πρώτος και ο δεύτερος είναι ήδη στο δρόμο, Galactus θέλοντος και Bookdepository επιτρέποντος.
Καλοκαιράκι, κόμιξάκια, μπάνια, παγωτά, όλα καλά, προχωράμε.
Και ναι, νομίζω είναι το πρώτο κόμικ που δεν κιτρίνισα, μη μου αγχώνεστε είχα ξεχάσει τα Στάμπιλο στο σπίτι.

[Shannon Schmelzle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this collection. Was it perfect? No. Then why give it five stars? Because I love it, warts and all.

So we do the thing that we always needed to do with the character, jail break him from Earth. Make Silver Surfer a cosmic character. In this we get Galactus, Elders, a new Kree-Skrull war, Infinity (here called Soul) gems, Mephisto, and Mantis.

Englehart was firing on all cylinders with this series.

I can not emphatically enough say that if someone was interested in getting into the classic version of the character, skip Epic volume 1 and start here. Here is pretty much everything you need to know about Silver Surfer. He surfs the cosmos. He falls in love at the drop of a hat and is extremely melodramatic about everything.

Plus in this volume you get a classic origin of Galactus done by Lee and Kirby as well as an originally unpublushed Silver Surfer #1 that would have been Englehart and Buscema on the book, but was aborted and Buscema was replaced by Marshall Rogers.

Speaking of artists, they are all pretty solid here. You get a little classic looking Buscema and Kirby, then for the majority of the ongoing you have Rogers, who I was largely unfamiliar with, but found to be a solid artist, and eventually he was replaced by Joe Staton, who likewise wasn't amazing, but was solid. Personally, I'm looking forward to my favorite SS artist coming in, I think in the next volume.

Love this. If your interested in the character, check it out. And then keep going. As of the writing of this review Marvel has published a straight line from volume 3 until volume 9 and believe me, the middle collections there are some of the most classic Thanos stories.

[William Cardini · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely a nostalgic read for me. I've read the individual Silver Surfer issues collected here several times before and a much later issue of Silver Surfer vol 3 was one of the first comics I bought off the grocery store newsstand when I was a kid. The first 14 issues of vol 3 are the bulk of this collection and Steve Englehart crafts an excellent space opera adventure that can be a bit over the top but is still an exciting read with some moments of cosmic grandeur and surprising twists.

The art by Marshall Rogers isn't quite as beautiful as John Buscema's in Silver Surfer vol 1 or as thrillingly pugnacious as Jack Kirby's original stories but Rogers shines in his layouts (especially the rescue sequence in Silver Surfer vol 3 #1) and he colors his own pencils which leads to some cool effects and interesting combinations of screentone and color.

Since I've read and own the majority of these comics as individual issues, the highlight of this volume for me is the crisp reproduction and the inclusion of Marvel Fanfare #51. That issue publishes an alternative conception for Silver Surfer vol 3 as a 12-issue limited series still written by Englehart but drawn by Buscema instead of Rogers, where the Surfer remains imprisoned on Earth within Galactus's barrier. Someone at Marvel changed their minds and we got the ongoing vol 3 set among the wider universe, and I'm glad we did, because I love cosmic superhero comics and I really enjoy the whole saga of the Elders and the second Kree-Skrull war, which begin in the 14 issues of vol 3 in this epic collection but don't end until later issues that have yet to be collected.

[Zack! Empire · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really nice collection that showcases the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe. There's a lot of powerful beings out there, running around and they are all handled nicely. Honestly, the Elders of the Universe look kind of ridiculous, and some of their names are out right silly, but the story of them trying to find a way to kill Galactus, is pretty awesome. There's also a good amount of time spent explaining why Galactus is neither good nor evil. He simply IS.
But, of course, the book is about the Silver Surfer, not Galactus. It's pretty easy to see why he is so well thought of. He certainly has depth as a character. He has a noble quality to him, but he can be pushed too far, and, boy, an angry Surfer is one scary guy.
This was a seriously good read, especially if you like Marvel's cosmic side.

[Ekenedilichukwu Ikegwuani · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art in this collection is AMAZING. The storytelling is really good, but it's kind of weird that the Silver Surfer is kind of just falling in love with every woman he gets paired up with in the story

[Maik Krüger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now, that's epic.

[Thomas McCullough · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Silver Surfer had always been my favorite super hero in terms of his abilities and powers so I was delighted to find a compilation of all the Surfer's adventures in an Epic Collection broken up into several volumes.

A fun read as a fan of the Surfer though if you are not already interested in Silver Surfer the stories and writing might seem a little sub-par to really draw you in compared to some of the other top-tier heros such as Spider-Man.

I enjoyed the cosmic drama and had a lot of fun learning and reading about one of my favorite superheros in a beautifully edited 400 page volume.

[Greg Trosclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am biased and love almost any story featuring the Silver Surfer. In this volume the highlight is the first 12 or so issues of his 1980's series written by Steve Engelhart and drawn by Marshall Rogers. I wish that Marvel had collected the preceding run as well as it would bridge the gap between this storyline and the re-introduction of Thanos. This is a solid read and actually holds up better than I remember.

[Doug Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great start to a long running series, it does a good job of expanding on the cosmic side of the marvel universe. as someone who hasn't read a lot of the stories that are wrapped up in this, I still found myself with a good understanding of what was going on. the characters are great and writing is very enjoyable all around.

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

For an older book it was surprisingly not THAT difficult to get through.

Art was gorgeous- this is the most Gene Roddenberry ass shit ive read in a while.

Great mixture of epic scif-fi aesthetics and hippy dippy heartwarming themes of love

[Marian Weaver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once you get past the astonishingly purple prose, it's a pretty damned good read. Never read much about the Surfer before, so it's nice to have some more holes in my knowledge of the Marvel universe filled in.

[EOIN · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the lofty speech patterns, the universe-in-jeopardy story; and the scenes arguing morals with gods - bnut mostly I liked the semi-closure this gave me for the unfinished 'silver surfer' cartoon from the 90s