Silver Surfer #5 – Review

By: Dan Slott (story), Michael Allred (art), Laura Allred (colors)

The Story: The Lord of Nightmares has his worst nightmare.

The Review: Of all the new Marvel titles I’ve picked up this year, Silver Surfer is probably the one I find hardest to review. It’s not enough for me to say that I enjoy it, which I do consistently; if my love for chicken nuggets taught me anything, it’s that enjoyment is a poor gauge for quality. My difficulty with Silver Surfer is figuring out what kind of title it wants to be. Is there any depth to be had, or is it just straight sci-fi-adventure?

This issue pushes the series toward the latter. From front to back, the plot is completely self-explanatory and almost childishly simple: the Lord of Nightmares has fallen asleep and must be awaken before the night has ended lest the world sleepwalk in bad dreams forever. That this is a done-in-one should already tell you that Norrin and Dawn have little difficulty with his particular challenge, making the situation seem less dire than everyone hypes it up to be.

Silver Surfer #3 – Review

By: Dan Slott (story), Michael Allred (art), Laura Allred (colors)

The Story: To save the universe, Silver Surfer calls upon the powers of Larry, Curly, and Moe.

The Review: I’ve never much liked characters who had too many powers at their disposal, and Marvel definitely has a big share of them. From a storytelling standpoint, these kinds of characters just make things harder for the writer. It’s pretty hard to devise serious challenges for people like the Phoenix, Thor, or the Hulk, and even when you do, the power levels are so high that the story risks spilling out over the top. Superpowers too easily become an all-purpose tool in a character’s belt.

Take Norrin and his Power Cosmic, whose deus ex machina qualities make it virtually indistinguishable from magic. In this issue alone, Norrin uses the Power Cosmic to disguise himself, shield Dawn from the freezing vacuum of space, distract all of the Impericon’s guardsmen, and keep the entire pleasure planet running long enough for all its denizens to escape. The sheer utility of his powers causes Dawn to remark, somewhat uncomfortably, “That’s very…convenient.”

Silver Surfer #2 – Second Opinion

For our first review on this issue, click here…

The Review: I don’t go out of my way to read other people’s takes on the comics I review, but I come across them every now and then, and it’s always a fascinating experience. In this case, I was particularly interested that Newsarama’s Pierce Lydon panned
Silver Surfer #1, which I considered the best of the latest Marvel #1s. Now, it’s true this isn’t much of a paying gig for me, but I consider it my responsibility to suss out such drastic differences in opinion, if only to see if there’s something I missed.

While Lydon makes several criticisms that I’m ambivalent about,* the one that really caught my attention was his feeling that “Slott is missing the loneliness and rage that makes Silver Surfer an enticing character.” I wonder. As someone who’s vaguely familiar with Silver Surfer, but certainly no devotee, I feel that Slott is very well aware of the former herald’s tragic qualities, which manifest in his earnest determination to do right by everyone, to make up for past mistakes. But this is Marvel NOW! The point is to find new dimensions for these old characters, releasing them from traditional trappings.

Silver Surfer #1 – Review

By: Dan Slott (story), Michael Allred (art), Laura Allred (colors)

The Story: When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true—sort of.

The Review: Would you know it, this is my third Marvel #1 issue this week! That’s definitely something of a record for me, a self-professed DC man. Then again, I’ve never borne any antipathy towards Marvel, and I’ve always been interested in exploring more of that universe. If nothing else, reviewing so many #1s all at once makes for an interesting study in how different writers handle debut issues.

Of his peers, Slott strikes the best balance among all the essential parts of a strong first issue. Felipe Smith focused almost entirely on thrill rides on All-New Ghost Rider, while Ales Kot got so caught up in character development that he didn’t start working on Iron Patriot‘s plot until nearly the last minute. Slott manages to cover all these areas and do quite a bit of world-building besides, resulting in an issue really worth following.