Essential Silver Surfer Vol. 1
Stan Lee, John Buscema and friends
Reprints: Silver Surfer #1-18 (August 1968 – September 1970)
Get this for: whiny Silver Surfer is whiny — four stars
The Essential Silver Surfer Vol. 1 is one Essential collection I dreaded rereading, because I knew that it collected the original Silver Surfer series of the 1960ties, written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Buscema. I also knew that in Lee’s hands, the Surfer’s personality was a bit … melodramatic and self-pitying, shall we say? Throughout the series he’s flying around the world, his noble brow creases with the sorrow of being exiled on Earth away from his beloved Shalla Bal, amongst a hopelessly primitive race of barbarians suspicious of each other and of him. Every other issue sees him get caught up in a fight not his own, as people respond with aggression, hatred and fear against him. It is somewhat tedious reading just one issue, let alone all eighteen of that first series.
Now I’m sure the story of how the Silver Surfer came to be is well known enough not to tell again; how when Stan Lee got the first pages back for Fantastic Four #48 with the first appearance of Galactus, there was a second figure there, a silver figure on a silver surfboard added by Jack Kirby, how Lee got enamoured of him and give him a bigger role in the story and brought him back a few times as a guest star. His solo series was a logical outgrowth of this: the Surfer had always been popular in his appearances and for Lee it was a chance to do something different, from the heart. This was a prestige project for Lee, which is also why the first seven issues were doublesized, 68 pages rather than the usual 32.
Sadly it failed however. The series was no success and with the eight issue became a normal, 32 page sized comic, but only lasted for ten more issues. Issue 18 would be the last, ending on a cliffhanger. The unusual — and expensive — format cannot have helped, but I think the general mopiness of the Surfer himself was the greatest culprit. He was just too depressed and depressing and much more so than any other Marvel hero, seemed to exist in a state of stasis, never catching a break and nothing ever changing for him. He alternates between wanting to be accepted by humanity and wanting nothing to do with us and it’s all a bit tedious.
What makes up for this, more than made up for this even, is John Buscema’s art. I love his late sixties, early seventies style, also seen on Fantastic Four and Thor after Kirby had left those titles. His figures are all bold and imposing, his heroes standing widelegged and ready for action, his villains looming and smoldering with hidden menace. And while the men are handsome or brutish, his females are all beautiful. Buscema’s best work on the series may have been issue four, which saw the Surfer being manipulated by Loki to take on the Mighty Thor. Buscema has great fun drawing all the Norse gods as well as the battle between these two heavyweights.
The switch back to the normal thirtytwo page monthly comics format did not do the series well. Lee had less room for his (unsually even for him) verbose stories, while with the pressures of a monthly series the art started to suffer as well. In the first seven issues John Buscema had been inked first by Joe Sinnott, then by his brother Sal Buscema, both enhancing his art. From issue eight however he was inked by Dan Adkins and that combination is decidedly weaker. I’ve never liked Adkins, who I’ve never seen do anything interesting either as a penciller or an inker. Here he weakens Buscema’s penciling, overshadowing it with his mediocre inks.
Essential Silver Surfer Vol. 1 is the collection of a flawed series, interesting as such if somewhat of a slog to get through and much redeemed by the great artwork.