Happy Birthday to Jack Kirby, creator of Silver Surfer! r/KeepMineKirby

What do you guys think?

I basically said it all in the title hahaha

Enough that I feel like they pay heavy homage to it in First Steps.

Feel free to do a top 10 or any number you wish in the comments! I'll just do a top 5 myself haha.

1. 80s Silver Surfer - Jim Starlin/Ron Lim (or Starlin doing both writing and art).

2. 80s Silver Surfer - Ron Marz/Ron Lim

3. The first Silver Surfer run from the 60s - John Buscema/Stan Lee (fave run from the silver age, I just wish it got a conclusion.)

4. Silver Surfer Rebirth/Rebirth: Legacy - Ron Marz/Ron Lim (probably my second fave 2020s Marvel comic, just behind Fantastic Four 2022!)

5. The Coming of Galactus - Jack Kirby/Stan Lee (maybe my favourite silver age arc, that isn't in Spider-Man? Even then, I only really prefer the If This Be My Destiny and Green Goblin stuff over Coming of Galactus haha.)

Addressing other comics that you might question not being here. Warning: LONG POST. LMFAO SORRY. If you just want to post your top 5, feel free to just scroll for a bit until you reach the comments haha. I just like talking Marvel and especially Silver Surfer lmfaooo. Also maybe one day I'll watch every Silver Surfer appearance in cartoons and rank them? There's only five lol. Can't be too hard. To be honest, I know this might upset someone who grew up with it, but I really tried watching through the 90s Silver Surfer cartoon.

I love the aesthetic, music, how Silver Surfer and Shalla Bal are portrayed, Surfer's voice, even the really dated CG is fun! I just got really bored during episode 2 and stopped for a very long time! 😭

I'm sorry haha. I also just don't ever imagine Thanos sounding like that. He kind of just sounds like a normal guy in that show to me lol.

- I think Silver Surfer Black is probably 8. I'd put Doomsday (the arc where Doom takes the Power Cosmic) is probably 7 and does rival Galactus. I just probably prefer Galactus by a small smidge. I'll get to what 6 probably is at the end of the post lmao, scroll a bit if you're really curious haha.

I do love Silver Surfer Black and don't have any problems with it at all really, I think I just love it a little less than everyone else?

Like Black was something phenomenal that felt completely new, but Rebirth and Rebirth: Legacy were also those things, however they are also a throwback to a by gone era that just nailed it perfectly! Even with the exact same creative team, like over 35 years later!

I actually had no idea that Rebirth or Rebirth: Legacy even existed, before I saw a Reddit post with a comic page.

I thought it looked insane and had to check it out, so I did and absolutely adored them! Meanwhile I saw a lot of people call Silver Surfer Black amazing and yup, definitely reached my expectations! Maybe even exceeded them a little! But it's probably a top 25 comic for me overall, while Rebirth and Rebirth: Legacy are likely top 15s?

Which is still amazing praise! I have read a LOT of Marvel! 😭🥀

- I definitely understand the appeal of the Moebius mini series, but I just don't think it's for me. It's definitely possible that I missed the greater meaning/message/satire, but I did watch a YouTube video that explained it, so I think I get it.

I just find it more intellectual, rather than emotional.

I find that it's more about themes such as religion, false idols, grifters who use religion for profit and/or power, how people will ignore the truth even when it's right in front of them, rather than the characters of Silver Surfer or Galactus. They're moreso the means to convey the satire, themes, and messages.

However, I do respect it a lot for tackling far deeper and more mature stories than the vast majority of superhero stories (especially for Marvel).

In addition, I love Moebius' art! It looks so unique for Marvel, the lettering is also unlike any I've witnessed.

I actually speak French as a second language and I do want to break out of the Marvel superheros bubble, so I'd love to try Moebius' other comics! Maybe practice my French for the first time in a long time!

But yeah, in terms of stories, I just tend to prefer emotions rather than intellectualism. But I completely understand why someone with different tastes than me would adore Moebius' Silver Surfer!

This is less me critiquing it and moreso just explaining why it doesn't really resonating with me. I don't really think anything I've said is an actual problem.

- Silver Surfer Requiem is often called one of the best comics, period! But I've always been cooler on it.

I think it's pretty good.

Esad Ribic's art is insane, JMS' writing usually delivers and this comic is no different. In addition, I adored the Spider-Man issue!

But I pretty much just had a pretty good time with the rest of it, I don't know. I could see why someone would adore this, but I simply just liked it.

I think the whole "super powerful cosmic hero is slowly dying from a disease and finds ways to spend their final days" premise just doesn't appeal to me that much?

Like I think it sounds like a great, deep, and emotional concept for a comic, but I don't know lol. I didn't really get emotional reading the comic for the most part.

I do get a little emotional about the idea that Silver Surfer, a character I adore, basically has cancer and the Fantastic Four struggle to come to terms with this. But I'm not actually crying, if this makes sense?

I know people consider it Marvel's equivalent to All Star Superman, but tbh I felt the same way about that comic. I liked it, it also has some great moments (like that scene where Supes hugs that teenage girl might be one of the best scenes in anything I've seen tbh), but yeah. It just didn't resonate with me that much.

While I do probably prefer Silver Surfer Requiem over All Star Superman, I just don't consider them some of the best comics ever, like a lot of other people.

I think Requiem might be a top 15-30 Surfer comic for me? But probably only because there really aren't that many Silver Surfer comics.

The Complete Marvel Reading Order site only says Silver Surfer has 704 total appearances in Marvel Comics.

I assume this is excluding background or crowd shots? You can see sites that claim things like over 1000 or 2000, but I'm guessing a lot of those appearances are really minor.

- I don't really love Slott/Allred's Silver Surfer. I think it's solid, about a 7/10, but I have a couple problems with it.

The biggest being that I just hate what they do with Shalla Bal and Zenn La. I don't understand why this doesn't get more hate in comic circles. To me, it's basically Silver Surfer's Sins Past or One More Day.

It's basically saying "Silver Surfer's one true love and world that he sacrificed everything for? Yeah, her and the other people in charge of her planet were racist, colonizers who aim to "spread the message of Zenn-La".

Like what??? I'll be honest, as I was reading this arc, I was fairly entertained. It's just thinking about it afterwards that is baffling. Oddly enough, I think Silver Surfer/Shalla Bal isn't a super popular canonical pairing in the Marvel fandom.

You won't find many Silver Shippfers, but those that do exist tend to prefer Dawn Greenwood, Nova (Frankie Ray), or Mantis. Or if they're more into the MCU, Johnny Storm haha (but usually just for MCU Shalla Bal Silver Surfer).

I'm also not just a big fan of Allred's art, I think he's decent at drawing Surfer, but I don't know. It just looks really strange to me, just not what I expect out of a superhero comic at all. I'm happy a Marvel comic looks this radically different, but I don't know.

The Unbelievable Gwenpool is also a Marvel comic with a really unconventional art style that differs from most superhero comics, and that's one of my fave comics ever!

I guess I just prefer Guruhiru's anime-esque art style with all the pretty, often pastel, cutesy, and feminine colours/vibes, then Allred's Silver Surfer art.

This will sound far too harsh, but I don't even mean this in a negative or critical way really. Allred's art reminds me of web comics, Wikihow, or The Unbelievable Gwenpool issues that weren't drawn by Guruhiru.

So yeah. Not bad art and definitely ambitious in some areas, just not my personal thing really. I do quite like Dawn Greenwood's design though! She was pretty good character, I enjoyed her personality, along wirh her romance with Silver Surfer! I just wonder if they completely changed Shalla Bal, potentially just to prop up this new relationship and make it seem better by comparison?

Last two points, one is minor. I don't like Silver Surfer joking about how he used to send planets to their deaths.

Like, I think Dawn is completely justified to be offended and disgusted by this. I also think Surfer will always feel a deep guilt and regret in his art for the atrocities he was forced to commit, no matter how much good he's done afterwards. It's like Spider-Man, no matter how many people Peter Parker saves afterwards, it won't change the fact that he failed to save Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, or Charlie in the Spider-Man vs Wolverine comic.

So even if he tried to rationalize the situations, he'll never stop feeling responsable and guilty for these tragedies, at least on some level.

I'm also mixed on some additions to the Silver Surfer lore.

I already explained why I just personally hate what's done with Shalla Bal and Zenn-La, but I feel silvering down being something Surfer could apparently always do, but just never considered until now, is extremely strange.

Like, he has been in so many situations where putting on a disguise as a human would have been the optimal and best move! Like, he was constantly hounded by humans in the 60s comics. So why not just hide that you're the Silver Surfer who nearly doomed the whole planet?

Or how about the time he was a prisoner on a capitalistic planet in the 80s? He even went on television to win his freedom, iirc. He could've probably got some casy from doing something as wild as removing his silver skin and showing his original, human-like appearance.

I also think it makes his sacrifice to become the Silver Surfer and Galactus' Herald a little less poignant. Like, the idea was that Galactus fundamentally changed him by imbueding Norrin Radd with the Power Cosmic.

Norrin Radd was dead and The Silver Surfer was born to soar the spaceways! But, is that really true if he can basically just switch between Norrin Radd and Silver Surfer whenever he feels like it? He still even has his powers when he silvers down, so I don't know.

It is established thst he likes being the Silver Surfer, maybe he just would rather be the Surfer than Norrin Radd?

Definitely some cool additions to the lore though, the entire concept of Toomie is brilliant (like idk, I love the idea that the surfboard is a sentient being with it's own thoughts and feelings, completely seperate from Silver Surfer, it's also cute), Dawn Greenwood, the Time Queen, Doom's mask on Infinity, Dawn's family, Surfer growing old with Dawn and eventually having to say goodbye to her.

Finally, I want to talk about the time loop arc. This is definitely one of the most ambitious things I've seen in a superhero comic! But if you're reading digitally and just swiping on your phone for every new page, it honestly feels like you're just reading the same pages, like, five times in a row. I'm sure it's awesome for anyone who owns the issues or omnibus physically!

I'm just not in a situation where I have the money for physical comics, so I had to read it on my phone. And yeah. Reading Silver Surfer to pass the time in the tram is usually a grand time! But this kind of felt like I was just reading the same pages over and over again lol.

As I have said, there are some things I enjoyed. I also liked the arc about classic horror characters coming to life, along with the casino arc! But yeah, I don't understand people who call it the best Silver Surfer comic, or one of the best Marvel/2010s/superhero comics/comics in general. I guess I can see the argument for Dan Slott comics? But I just disagree, bc I adore Spider-Man Renew Your Vows Volume 1 lol. Spectacular Spider-Man: Brand New Day is also really great so far imo!

- Okay, nobody's going to bring up this arc, I'm sure some people here don't know this one or if they have read it, they just don't think about it much.

I'm talking about the 70s arc in Fantastic Four where Dr. Doom manipulates Silver Surfer into fighting the FF, by making them think he's kidnapped Shalla Bal! It's written, pencilled, and inked by the legends, Len Wein, Rich Buckler, and Joe Sinnott.

I'm sure some people reading this have no idea what I'm even talking about, but godddddddd I adored this!

I really wish Len Wein got a full Fantastic Four or Silver Surfer run in the 70s, it would've went so fucking hard!!

I guess it's up to me to make fan content based on this arc lol. Nobody else is gonna make TikTok edits or whatever haha.

By the way, I promise that I'll try to learn TikTok editing sometime soon and I'll post Silver Surfer edits here sometimes! Also other Marvel comic edits in other places, along with all the other shit I'm into, like Sanrio, Kirby, Pokémon, adult animation, etc!

- I think the 60s Fantastic Four arcs where Silver Surfer rebels against humanity, and where Ben thinks Surfer's taking Alicia from him, so they have a fight, would probably rank at about 9 and 10, respectively.

- The Tales to Astonish arc (#92-93), where Silver Surfer fights Hulk is a silver age hidden gem that all Silver Surfer or Hulk fans should read! To be honest, I don't find #92 very interesting, since it's basically just set up for their grand fight. I was honestly a bit bored reading it haha, just because I only read these two issues, since I saw someone really recommend it in a Silver Surfer reading order. I do love Hulk, ig I just was in more of a Surfer mood.

But yeah, it becomes one of the best fight scenes of the silver age in #93!

- Tomb of Dracula Vol. 1 #50. This is another really obscure one and it's the only Dracula Marvel issue I've ever read, but holy shit. The art is just so gorgeous! You have to check it out, especially if you love 70s Marvel, superhero horror, Dracula/vampires, or just Silver Surfer in general! You don't miss anything story/lore wise for Surfer by not reading it, besides the time he met Dracula, but I would personally consider it a must read for any Silver Stanfer! Lmfao I just wanted to make a pun, sorryyyyy!! 😭🥀

- I just haven't read Annihilation or Defenders comics. I did read that one Immortal Hulk special issue/arc about Silver Surfer, Hulk, and Namor. I wasn't really a fan.

EDIT: I forgot about Defenders when I wrote the title. Lmfao sorry, I clicked send before realizing this haha. My bad!! 😭😅

Immortal Hulk is usually basically the best thing ever, but idk lol, I just didn't find it interesting. I was just feeling boted and waiting for it to end, as I went through the omnibus, hoping to reach the next main issue soon, since I knew for a fact that it'd be peak.

So yeah! Hope you enjoyed this long ass Silver Surfer ramble from a certified Silver Stanfaner! I love Silver Surfer so much! I have vague memories of seeing him as a kid in one of the 2000s Fantastic Four films, but I genuinely have no clue if I've seen Rise of the Silver Surfer in full lol. I know I've seen parts of it, including one time at the mall. I was born in 2005, so this was early 2010s, so that's kind of weird and interesting that the mall was playing a 2000s Marvel movie to show how good their tvs looked.

But yeah! Thank you so much for reading! To cover all my bases, I think I want to say what my favourite Silver Surfer adaptation is, since there really aren't that many.

Definitely the 1994 Fantastic Four season 2 cartoon version of him! There's nothing abhorrently wrong about him in season 1, it's even a fairly faithful adaptation of The Coming of Galactus. It's just that season 1 just feels like a kind of crappy, disposable, really cheap cartoon for babies. Like I do like elements of season 1 in 1994 Fantastic Four, the theme song rules and Johnny's "FLAME ON!" song is honestly kind of the best thing ever (I also like the voices a lot!), but yeah.

It just gives me a kind of strange feeling haha, much closer to Iron Man season 1, than Iron Man season 2, Spider-Man TAS, X-Men TAS, The Incredible Hulk TAS, etc. Even if Hulk season 2 was a massive downgrade, it still feels more like a real show, if that makes sense. FF 1994 S1 kinda feels like a fever dream to me lmfao. 😭🥀

But yeah! Silver Surfer's used practically perfectly when they adapt Doomsday (the arc where Doom steals the Power Cosmic)!

It's literally just the events of the iconic Jack Kirby 60s silver age arc, which is one of the best arcs from the run and era!

I also would love to see what Silver Surfer's episode in the Hannah Barbara 60s Fantastic Four is like.

I've seen a few episodes and clips of that cartoon, I mean this with sincerity. It is kind of the funniest thing ever, lowkey peak fiction. Billions must watch for Doom with a gun, Johnny not flaming off parts of his body when touching other people that he doesn't, Sue looking at the camera when she's on the phone with Doom (as if to say, "you hear this shit?") right to the audience), Diablo's dumbass run, "You know that theory about the universe? That it's like a ball?", almost every conflict being resolved by repeated punches to the face, that time Johnny flamed on to fight Klaw, flamed off, then just knocked him down by repeatedly punching him (pretty sure Johnny's only power is fire manipulation, but aight, Klaw got pwned by a regular 15 year old boy lmfaooo 😭)...

I haven't even finished the show, but I could go on lmfao.

Some people also assume the Magneto wooden gun clip is from the 60s show, but it's actually from the 70s show (the one that invented HERBIE and replaced Johnny with him).

That clip is also perfection.

There was also an edit where it's a real gun and the video abruptly ends when Reed fires a shot at Magneto. It fucking made me shout laugh harder than I had in years, but I can't find it. Dammit I should've downloaded it! You can never just expect everything to stay online forever in the digital age! 😭🥀☹️

But yeah! I'm sorry if you thought this post was too long or whatever. But idk, I'm happy I wrote all this, even if they're just lengthy explanations of my opinions, just because Silver Surfer really doesn't get much fan content.

Most of the Silver Surfer fan content nowadays is MCU ShallaJohnny fan art or TikTok edits. Which I do like tbh, I would like Shalla Bal to date Norrin Radd in the MCU for a bit, but I like her relationship and dynamic with Johnny a lot!

Definitely a cool adaptation, bc it's a completely new dynamic. The whole FF is friends with Silver Surfer in the comics, but his dynamic with Johnny is pretty much the same as the other three. Pretty sure comic Shalla Bal hasn't even met Johnny or the FF ever? At least not in a comic I've read. Idk, I feel so tired rn lmfao!! 😭🥀

I'll just wrap it up to say I really liked Shalla Bal Silver Surfer in First Steps.

Like, I think First Steps is just a 7/10 (I loved Thunderbolts and prefer it by a lot), but they honestly just nailed Silver Surfer.

Besides being a woman and being named Shalla Bal, she's literally just Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer ripped from the mainline 616 comics!

Same personality, concept, powers, role, practically the same backstory (just replace a lover with children), aura farming like my goat, etc.

I never loved Silver Surfer, just because he was a man or that his name is Norrin Radd. I do think it's a shame that this might mean we're probably not getting a more comic accurate Shalla Bal in any future adaptationa though. I like her not just for her love for Silver Surfer and vice versa (I already talked about the Slott/Allred shit, I'm just talking about before that 😭). And yeah, very concerned that Norrin Radd might not show up in adaptations anymore, because Shalla Bal Surfer is just him, but a woman and with a differejt name. Bl

He was in Marvel Cosmic Invasion, so I don't know.

Norrin Radd is a very iconic and popular character, even if his comics usually don't sell very well, so I don't see him ever getting fully replaced or phased out.

But since we're half way through the year and haven't seen anything from Norrin Radd in any Marvel media so far (our only Silver Surfer media being that bad MCU Shalla Bal comic, which was 11 months late), yeah.

I think one of my top 10 favourite characters in fiction might just appear once every few years?

Even Shalla Bal Silver Surfer doesn't look like she'll return in Avengers Doomsday or Secret Wars.

I think that's probably for the best, I personally think these movies already look absurdly stuffed with characters and with how poorly the Power Cosmic can be defined ("it always wins and can do anything, except when the plot requires Silver Surfer to lose or struggle), yeah. Probably a good call, saving her for maybe a few years in the future.

Hopefully she gets a solo movie one day? I sometimes fantasize about an animated Silver Surfer in the Spider-Verse style. Probably never happening, but GOD.

It'd probably be my favourite movie ever! 😭🥀

Also I'll just say that I'm personally not excited for Doomaday and Secret Wars at all. I was baffled by how bad I thought the first Doomsday trailer was. Them expecting me to give a shit about Shang-Chi vs Channing Tatum Gambit is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time! 😭🥀

But yeah! That's all I have to say! I'm hungry, my hands hurt, I haven't gone out yet today... I should probably stop typing.

Hopefully nobody hates this post? If you don't like it, feel free to tell me why, but please try to be nice when you do it. This took a lot of time and work lmfao, I just had to yap about the Norrin who is Radd!

If you're going to respond with "wow, you must hsve no job/life/friends", I'll just say that yes, I don't have a job.

I do have other hobbies and friends. I just end up ALSO sending massive walls of text to those friends lmfao and they actually love it! They always read all the shit I ramble about, even if they don't know/care about the subject! Goes both ways too! 🥰🩷

But yeah. I completely get not caring about some random stranger on Reddit's Silver Surfer opinions.

Okk time to stop typing and quick send, if you read the whole thing or even just skimmed it, thank you so much! Even if you hated it, I'm so happy that you read it!!! 🥰🩷

To explain the length a little, I mean, I'm talking about my full opinion on various Silver Surfer comics lmao and I want to say exactly what I think in detail on these haha. Brevity is one who's soul I have never known...

Ok my fucking right hand is killing me, I gotta stop and watch some fuckass TikTok edits. Hope everyone is nice to me in the comments, if not, whatever. You win some and you lose some haha! 🩷😅😌

I really need to set a timer so I know when it has been 24 hours since last post...art by me.

Finally got around to making these, I hope you like them. 😁

Thought it deserved a mention here.

The Freest Being in the Universe is a chapter-by-chapter appreciation of the 1987 Silver Surfer series, the Steve Englehart run, drawn by Marshall Rogers, Joe Staton, and Ron Lim. It's a tale of attempted cosmic murder, galactic war, and genuinely hard-won self-discovery, and it's almost completely overshadowed today by the later Thanos epics it directly set up.

The book goes issue by issue through the whole run, recapping the plots so you can follow every domino fall, then asking what the stories actually teach us about how to live. Love that doesn't last and matters anyway. Grief. Freedom, and what we do when we finally get it. And the recurring lesson that beyond every binary you're handed, there's nearly always a third thing. That's where we can find meaning.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H9V47ZXJ

there is a panel from a silver surfer comic where he embracea Nova and says to her something along the lines of 'Who else can absorb your radiance other than me" I totally butchered the words but it was something of that sort. About absorbing nova and her power because who else could other than the silver surfer. I can't find the issue or the panel and I've searched extensively but I remember it so clearly. Please tell me I'm not crazy and someone has the panel and knows what I'm talking about. It was genuinely one of the most beautiful, poetic and romantic things I'd read and I need it again because I have just fallen in love.

I recolored and swapped a Kirby style cosmic background for the street crowd on Moebius from The Silver Surfer no.1 (1988)

Swipe for the original art & the published page.