“This volume ends on such a high note!
Okay, a quick rundown for those who are total noobs.
Once upon a time there was this planet called Zenn-La. It was awesome despite having a name that sounded like what someone with a huge Bob Marley tapestry would call his apartment. Everything was really cool until Galactus showed up.
Galactus is this elemental force, basically. He doesn’t actually have a form, he just appears however your brain interprets what it’s seeing, which for 90% of the universe means interpreting this elemental force as a dude with a purple getup and giant purple hat.
Galactus eats planets. That’s what he does. He eats the entire planet, everyone dies, and oftentimes this means the extinction of an entire species.
Norrin Radd, despite having the name that someone who lives in Bob Marley tapestry apartment would have, says, “Galactus, hold the phone. I’ll cut you a deal. If you leave Zenn-La alone, I’ll be your herald.”
For those unfamiliar with intergalactic heraldry, that means he’ll sort of be like Galactus’ hype man. He comes out, warms up the crowd, and then Galactus comes in and brings down the roof. Or eats the planet. Whatever.
It works for Galactus because he’s like, “Well, it IS pretty draining to just walk around space until I find a planet. Alright, deal!”
So then Norrin Radd gets a bit of the Power Cosmic, he turns from what looks like a King and I version of Yul Brynner into a chrome space dude, and he takes off and looks for planets for Galactus to eat.
For centuries, he does this. Until he comes upon Earth where he finds the inhabitants to be really rad and he doesn’t want them to all die. Depending on whether or not you consider the second Fantastic Four movie to be canon (I suggest you do not), this may also be influenced because Jessica Alba looks like a former lover of Norrin Radd. Which means aliens look like Jessica Alba. Could be a lot worse.
The Surfer rebels, fights Galactus, and holds him off long enough that Reed Richards invents the Ultimate Nullifier, a little button that, if he pushes it, existence will be wiped out, including Galactus. Mutually-assured nullification at its best. Galactus, faced with this button, says, “Alright, fuck this shit” and then he curses the Surfer to be trapped on Earth for a while.
Fast-forward a few years and we’re in the book I’m reviewing now.
Here’s what’s kinda stupid about the Silver Surfer story. Everyone blames him for bringing Galactus to their planet. If the Surfer came and Galactus followed, then that sonofabitch Surfer must pay!
Which SORTA makes sense. But on the other hand, Galactus is an elemental force that eats planets. He would be eating planets regardless. It’s possible he wouldn’t have eaten a given planet if the Surfer hadn’t brought him there. But that also means that a DIFFERENT planet was spared. So it kinda evens out, assuming that the Surfer isn’t bringing Galactus exclusively to planets because, I don’t know, he’s some kind of space racist or something and he brings Galactus to planets where he thinks the people belong on the back of the space bus. If you catch my space drift.
But everyone just gets pissed off at the Surfer for bringing Galactus around. Which seems a little unfair to me.
However, at the end of this volume, I think we get an idea of the scale of what he did, and, for the very first time, we get the beginning of a redemptive story for the Surfer. It’s a very effective, touching idea, that someone could possibly atone for the death of trillions of people from countless planets. “