Silver Surfer Epic Collection, Vol. 4: Parable

Silver Surfer Epic Collection

by Steve Englehart, Stan Lee, Ron Lim (Illustrator)

Timeless tales of the Silver Surfer! Galactus’ latest meal, the powerful Elders of the Universe, isn’t sitting well — and only the Surfer and Fantastic Four can cure his fatal case of cosmic indigestion! Meanwhile, Norrin’s relationship with Nova hits the rocks thanks to Firelord; Ego the Living Planet seeks to consume the Surfer; and a Kree/Skrull conflict builds to a boil! Plus, the incomparable Stan Lee returns to script two standout sagas: Mephisto bedevils the Surfer in a graphic novel drawn by the legendary John Buscema! And visionary talent Moebius illustrates a thoughtful epic, wherein the only one who can stop Galactus from leading mankind to its doom…is the Silver Surfer!

COLLECTING: Vol. 4: Silver Surfer (1987) 15-23, Silver Surfer Annual (1988) 1-2, Fantastic Four (1961) 325, Marvel Graphic Novel: Silver Surfer (1988), Silver Surfer (1988) 1-2, material from Marvel Comics Presents (1988) 1

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Superheroes, Collections

504 pages, Paperback

First published June 21, 2022

About the author

See also John Harkness.

Steve Englehart went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After a stint in the Army, he moved to New York and began to write for Marvel Comics. That led to long runs on Captain America, The Hulk, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, and a dozen other titles. Midway through that period he moved to California (where he remains), and met and married his wife Terry.

He was finally hired away from Marvel by DC Comics, to be their lead writer and revamp their core characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern). He did, but he also wrote a solo Batman series (immediately dubbed the "definitive" version) that later became Warner Brothers' first Batman film (the good one).

After that he left comics for a time, traveled in Europe for a year, wrote a novel (The Point Man™), and came back to design video games for Atari (E.T., Garfield). But he still liked comics, so he created Coyote™, which within its first year was rated one of America's ten best series. Other projects he owned (Scorpio Rose™, The Djinn™) were mixed with company series (Green Lantern [with Joe Staton], Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four). Meanwhile, he continued his game design for Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Brøderbund.

And once he and Terry had their two sons, Alex and Eric, he naturally told them stories. Rustle's Christmas Adventure was first devised for them. He went on to add a run of mid-grade books to his bibliography, including the DNAgers™ adventure series, and Countdown to Flight, a biography of the Wright brothers selected by NASA as the basis for their school curriculum on the invention of the airplane.

In 1992 Steve was asked to co-create a comics pantheon called the Ultraverse. One of his contributions, The Night Man, became not only a successful comics series, but also a television show. That led to more Hollywood work, including animated series such as Street Fighter, GI Joe, and Team Atlantis for Disney.

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Now quite as good as the previous volume, but still enjoyable. Ron Lim comes in as the main artist and that was a nice addition. Love how he draws Silver Surfer and everything else in this book. Starts of with an annual from the Evolutionary War. Here we find, dare I say, Kl’rt and Silver Surfer working together dealing with the Eternals and the High Evolutionary. It was cool to see Karkas back in action. Then it’s back to where the last book left off with the Elders and Galactus. He took care of them but they are still a literal pain in his side. To help, Norrin enlists the help of Reed and Sue which leads to another dimension and the coming of the In-Betweener. Not the best name but a cool concept for the character. Plus, since he grew to Galactus’ size, it made for a nice giant slug fest in space. Some characters who I thought were done for, make a return and we get a Silver Surfer vs Ego battle. The Marvel graphic novel, Judgement day was solid. Here, John Buscema got to do his idea of making a comic with one picture per page. No panels. Mephisto is back with another scheme for SS. Then I finally got to read Parable at the end. While short with only two issues, it was really well done by Stan and Moebius. On to the next one, The Return of Thanos.

[Mariano · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good read, but I feel It's too continuity heavy. Every time I feel that I'm reading a part of another story. There are a lot of editor notes that reference other stuff and a lot of flashbacks and recaps. So it didn't feel like a smooth.

Then there are the two graphic novels. The Buscema one has amazing art but so boring to read. The story doesn't make any sense. Parable is a masterpiece, Moebius is amazing as always and I feel this must be one of the best plot's from Stan Lee.

[Space Dragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to finally read his own series, there was even two issue were it only was the surfer without the FF. Those two stood most out to me. The art was great. Love the artists way to draw muscular people and buts.
The two one shots, Parable and Judgement Day was gorgeous to look at, but the dialog was written by Stand Lee, so you could skip most of it.
btw what was the thing with having the annuals being victim for the crossover hell that basically have plagued American comics since the late 80s?

[Shannon Schmelzle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid collection of older Silver Surfer materiel.

I will start off by saying that I don't think this is quite as strong as the last volume. It lacked the cohesion of that volume, what with this one containing two seperate annuals that had to do with bigger stories that didn't play out in this collection, as well as an original graphic novel and the Moebius illustrated miniseries. So the story very much jumped all over the place.

Illustratively I think this book knocked it out of the park. It starts off with the debut of my favorite Silver Surfer artist, Ron Lim, and then we have Buscema and Moebius. Even some early Valentino on a couple short stories in one of the annuals. Just fantastic.

But I enjoyed the continuation of the Kree/Skrull War we get even if its not much. We finish of the Elders vs Galactus story in pretty epic fashion.

[Greg Trosclair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read but not a great read. I enjoyed the storyline from the monthly books but was not as enthusiastic about the Graphic Novel, Judgement Day not the Moebius drawn Parable. While neither story is terrible they are written by a past his prime Stan Lee and neither fits where the character was. I loved the art in both stories though so cannot give the book a lower rating.

[John Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked up due to Moebius comics at the end. Enjoyed the series but not surprising the last two issues and Moebius are the clear standouts. His art always just looks fresh.

[Nick Lafontaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

First half stuff is good but not great. The parable storyline was absolutely fantastic. Didn’t know Stan Lee had that in his bag