Essential Silver Surfer, Vol. 2

Essential Silver Surfer

by Stan Lee, John Byrne (Illustrator), Steve Englehart

After years of Earthbound exile, the Silver Surfer soars the seas of space once more and finds plenty of peril awaiting when the Elders of the Universe try something new: all-out war on Galactus! Plus: space piracy, intergalactic war, doppelgangers and the Surfer caught in a four-sided interstellar love triangle! Guest-starring the Fantastic Four, the Eternals, and Annihilation's Ronan and Super-Skrull! Plus: a rare glimpse of a path not traveled on an alternate Earth! Collects Silver Surfer (1982) #1, Silver Surfer (1987) #1-18 & Annual #1 and Marvel Fanfare #51.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Anthologies

584 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 1990

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

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very nice collection of these classic Silver Surfer stories. Great art and stories. Recommended

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.6 stars

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 to 3.5 stars. Silver Surfer has always been a favorite character of mine and this omnibus collects the first 18 issues of the second ongoing series for the former "Herald of Galactus." This is a great introduction to the character, showing all of his awesome physical power, together with his inherent loneliness and his essential humanity. Recommended!!!

[Matthew Ledrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing how much of this Silver Surfer run was all heading towards the Infinity Gauntlet. The Soul Gems (later Infinity Gems) were a major part of this run, in every story. It's great reading if you're in the mood for large-scale cosmic silliness. :)

[Ian Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This omnibus edition takes the first 18 issues of the 1980s run of the Surfer plus a few extra bits and pieces. I first came to the Surfer in my teens through my brother’s copies of Stan Lee’s Origins of Marvel Comics trilogy wherein he detailed how Marvel became the powerhouse it was. I started buying my own comics at around the time of The Infinity Gauntlet and the middle of Ron Kim’s superlative run of artwork for the comic so the storyline and events were not unfamiliar to me and it was nice to see how a few of the storylines I came into the middle of had begun.

It’s a beautiful looking comic. Even in black and white it looks gorgeous. The storylines are easy to follow and the characters easy to differentiate and the mix of Earth and Cosmic settings is ridiculously well done. The only downer for me is that sometimes the segueing from one plot into another doesn’t click as neatly as you might want. There’s also - and it’s really churlish to complain about this in a comic that’s part of a history as convoluted as Marvel’s - the problem of the info-dumps which often feel clunky or shoehorned at the expense of the main plot.

But for longtime fans like myself, this is great fun.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Silver Surfer is probably Stan Lee at his most "philosophical" and while I think he's an incredibly overrated writer--his SS is arguably his best work outside of his 100 issue Fantastic Four run.

The masterclass of Englehart and Rogers make a much less New Age/Spiritual comic and instead make it a world building and explorational space opera. Celestials, Elders of the Universe, etc.

[Jdetrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Steve Englehart! Not only did he make the Silver Surfer interesting, but he made Marvel space opera interesting, which is harder than it looks.

[Jon Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Silver Surfer is my favorite comic book super hero bar none. The Surfer is one of the purest superheroes but is prone to existential crises about his place in the universe, etc. I find this combination fascinating. He is an extemely powerful being but is often plagued with a very human self doubt. Of course he always manages to rise to the occasion despite impossible odds like any good superhero.

The problems the Surfer encounters are often of a cosmic scale which transforms them into much more complex moral issues than are usually tackled in superhero comic books. The surfer often has to consider the greater good of the entire universe where there aren't necessarily clearcut good guys and bad guys (take the nature of Galactus needed to consume planets for enegry or the Kree/Skrull War for instance). This moral ambiguity makes the book much more compelling than most.

The Surfer roams the universe in search of meaning and usually only finds wrongs to right. His story delves into the origin of the (Marvel) universe and verges on quasi-mytholgy/religion by way of science fiction. This is the most fascinating of all the aspects of this series to me. It attempts to explain exactly how and sometimes why this hypothetical universe exists. It is a glimpse into a more complete universe than say The Punisher's.

I picked up on this series somewhere around issue 20-something so I had never read any of these first 18. It was wonderful to have them all in one place rather than try to track down the issues one by one in shops (I can never find this first part of the series in stores anyways). Only thing is that it's in black and white. Would love to have seen it in color but it does give you an interesting perspective of the artwork. Speaking of which, I don't much care for Marshall Rogers' version of the Surfer. I am partial to Ron Lim's but that may because Ron Lim's was the first Surfer I saw when I was a kid and it has become my archetype.

Very enjoyable reading.

[Gordon Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to be honest by saying that I did enjoy the original series of The Silver Surfer. It was fun, however,the 1987 series should be regarded as required reading. It seems to have a little of everything. In the original series, the surfer is forced to remain within the Earth's atmosphere. In this series he is taken away from the Earth in a way that is even too simple for Reed Richards to figure out. He is then pardoned by Galactus and so the adventure begins. What you can expect to find are a Kree/Skrull war in which the Skrulls,who are shape-shifters, have lost their ability to change and must remain in the last form they have chosen,discussions on religion and the Silver Surfer's place in the universe, discussions on whether humanoid alien beings evolved or are in fact another race of humans, the gathering of the soul gems in which the Surfer manages to outwit the Kree Supreme Intelligence rendering him mindless, the Surfer being torn between the loves of Shalla-Bal and Mantis, and a showdown between the Elders of the Universe and Galactus that sounds like it came right out of Greek mythology if you are familiar with the Greek Gods' attempt to defeat Cronus. The entire book is filled with epic moments and I recommend it to anyone who likes a good story whether you read comics or not.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silver Surfer is an interesting character that's had a bit of a tricky relationship towards the rest of the Marvel universe. He's cosmic, and alien, full of sleekness and speed, but given the nature of a shared Marvel universe, he spent a lot of time trapped on Earth, which eventually started to become a major limitation on the character.

Englehart tosses all that aside, returning the Surfer to his cosmic roots and using him as a tool to explore the intergalactic portion of the MU. There's lots of stuff here - a new Kree-Skrull war, soul gems, the In-Betweener, Galactus, and the Elders of the Universe to name a handful. If you're a fan of Marvel's cosmic stuff - especially as done by individuals such as Starlin or Marz, both of whom followed Englehart on this title - this is a great book to check out.

[Joel Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume sees the Silver Surfer finally freed from his earthly imprisonment and introduces many new interstellar storylines and plots involving Galactus, the Kree, the Skrulls, the Celestials, and the Elders of the Universe! The Silver Surfer also forms many new romantic entanglements and loyalties. An excellent collection of the Marvel Universe beyond Earth!!!

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a comic of its era it was well done. More profound than others, but still a comic book. Good junk-food.

[Todd Glaeser · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun time but I think the art suffers from the lack of color. It also made me miss the Surfer in the Endgame film.

[Joshlynn]

Sweet phallic surfboard, bro.