Here Comes the Silver Surfer

Judging by the trailer for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer--not to mention the well-placed, life-sized promotional displays of the supposed supporting character surfing his way through theater lobbies across the country--it ought to maybe be the Fantastic Four whose names follow that colon.

The Silver Surfer, it seems to me, has already stolen the show.

And just who is he, anyway? The Silver Surfer is, in a way, the Superman of the Marvel Universe. I recall fondly those slow summer days of my youth arguing with the purveyors of my local comic book shop, the place my friends and I hit up time and again whenever we needed a 4-color fix, as to which invincible alien would win in a fight. Superman vs. Silver Surfer ... now there's a storyline!

In any case, comic book fans were first introduced to the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four #48, first of a 3-part series (#48-#50) now commonly known as "The Coming of Galacticus." It was March of 1966, and the height of the Silver Age of Comics. Created by masterminds Stan Lee and Jack Kirby--who also brought us such Marvel mainstays X-Men, The Hulk, Spiderman (Lee) and Captain America (Kirby), just to name a few--Silver Surfer was a fantastic hit with fans.

Today, a NM (near mint) copy Fantastic Four #48 sells for upwards of $1,500 on ebay, by the way. Lesser quality copies might still be found retailing for a few hundred dollars a pop at scattered comic book shops across the states. Especially now that the Silver Surfer is a movie star, supporting role or not.

In that series, readers met Galacticus, Devourer of Worlds, who feeds off living planets to sustain his boundless energy source, the Power Cosmos. Earth was next up on the menu. The Silver Surfer, as the herald of Galacticus, was an interstellar maître d' of sorts, leading the godlike entity across the universe to his next meal, and announcing his arrival to the helpless inhabitants of these hapless worlds. In return for these services (and so he could perform them in the first place) Galacticus had imbued the Silver Surfer with a small portion of his Power Cosmos.

This Power Cosmos was something to behold. With it, the Silver Surfer can travel at super-stellar speeds, even through hyperspace. Physically, he can sustain virtually anything that might harm lesser superheroes and can (of course) augment his strength to nearly limitless proportions. And, most impressively, the Silver Surfer can command, control, and to some degree even transform energy itself--bending the very stuff of the universe to his will. He can heal others, or destroy them just as effortlessly with an energy blast. He can not only phase straight through the Chrysler Building--as so spectacularly demonstrated in the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer trailer--but through all solid matter like a knife, as they say, through butter. Only the object the Silver Surfer has just passed through remains intact--that is, so long as he wants it to remain intact.

Daunting stuff.

Yep, I'd say Superman would be in trouble. Big trouble. Seriously, with Kryptonite so readily available to the likes of Lex Luthor, how hard would it be for the Silver Surfer, screaming across the stars at twice the speed of light, to locate the stuff?

Back to The Coming of Galacticus story arc: In a nutshell, the Silver Surfer, who turns out to be a bit of a deep thinker with a sensative, complex soul, falls smitten for the planet Earth, or , more accurately, a striking young earthling by the name of Alicia Masters. He abandons his duty as herald to the Devourer of Worlds, betrays Galacticus, and thereby spares our happy little planet from the, well, galactic appetitive of that celestial being.

A bit miffed at this betrayal, Galacticus banishes the Silver Surfer to Earth, or, more precisely, to within Earth's atmosphere. Yet he retains his Power Cosmos. And so, Earthbound, the stage is set for all manner of mayhem and adventure with the Silver Surfer and the likes of Ben, Johnny, Susan and Reed of the Fantastic Four.

Comic book fans were not content with the supporting role, and Marvel judiciously gave the Silver Surfer his own title in 1968. Will movie fans follow suit?