silver surfer - its a pity that for a surfer (whose supposed to be laid back) all he does is nag about his eternal servitude to galactus - maybe he's still dealing with his teenage angst.
i was never really into the marvel superheroes. silver surfer caught my attention when i bough a special release of SS drawn by moebius and written by stan lee! moebius is also one of the founders of Heavy Metal magazine, and created "blueberry" as well as setdesigns for the "alien" movie. i used to have all of the john difool series ... great work! and i guess i dont need to explain who stan lee is ....
History:
A "young" Elyna saw the Silver Surfer fight Galactus.
Astronomers discover that a giant spaceship is approaching Earth. Panic spreads, especially in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, the Surfer leads a lonely life, pa**ing himself off as a homeless man, in the ghettos of Los Angeles. He is being hara**ed by three LAPD officers when the ship lands and Galactus reveals himself. He claims he has come to offer mankind a better world if they agree to worship him.
Charismatic religious televangelist Colton Candell and his sister Elyna watch as Galactus reveals himself. Colton sees an opportunity and declares himself the apostle of Galactus-the-God, claiming to have summoned him to Earth by his prayers. But the religion of Galactus is one of chaos and society begins to crumble. Anarchy reigns.
The Surfer chooses to reveal himself to expose Galactus as a false god. Colton rejects him, but Elyna embraces his vision. The Surfer challenges Galactus, asking him why he broke his pledge not to attack Earth, to which Galactus replies that he has not, the Earthmen are destroying themselves.
While the world media watch, the Surfer and Galactus engage in battle, causing much devastation to Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, despite Elyna's words of reasons, Colton has become intoxicated with power and tries, in vain, to communicate telepathically with Galactus. The Mayor of Los Angeles comes to visit in an attempt to protect the city but is rebuffed by Colton's fanatic Chief Disciple. Elyna steals the Mayor's helicopter in an attempt to reach the Surfer but is shot by one of the Disciple's guards.
Elyna, wounded, loses consciousness and dies when her helicopter crashes; the Surfer might have rescued her if he had not been struck by Galactus, who thus displayed his total lack of compa**ion before the world media.
While the Surfer mourns Elyna, the world now rejects and turns against Galactus. The U.S. president orders his airforce to attack him, which they do just as Galactus was about to crush the Surfer. Realizing he has now lost his battle for the hearts and minds of Mankind, Galactus releases the Surfer and goes.
The U.N. would enshrine the Surfer instead, but realizing the danger for Mankind to rely on anyone else but itself, the Surfer instead proffers words of contempt who turn the crowd against him; only Colton understands he has done so on purpose, and begs him to come back, but the Surfer leaves to return to his loneliness.
Comments: The undersigned (who was co-editor on this book) was told by Stan Lee that he (Stan) wanted to do another stand-alone Surfer adventure, very much like the earlier Kirby collaboration, outside the regular Marvel Universe. Vague words about Hollywood were also mentioned.
Elyna's words about having seen the Surfer fight Galactus when she was young (about twenty years before?), the Surfer's own words to Galactus about their previous battle and the world devourer's pledge to not attack Earth, are certainly evidence that this story, if not conceived at this stage as a direct sequel to the previous book, could be construed as one. Hence the third book planned in the series which made it official.
The only discrepancy would be to reconcile the fact that the Surfer was seen rejoining Galactus at the end of the Kirby book, while he's eking out a miserable existence on Earth when the Moebius book opens, but certainly it is conceivable that, after having used the Surfer, Galactus being already depicted as more spiteful in the Kirby book, and perhaps following advice given to him by the resentful Master of Guile, would have simply redeposited the Surfer on Earth, exiling him once again...
