Silver Surfer

The Silver Surfer is a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, he first appeared in Fantastic Four #48.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Born Norrin Radd on the idyllic planet Zenn-La, to save his homeworld he volunteered to serve the planet-eating entity Galactus, who travels the universe looking for energy-rich planets to consume. Galactus accepted the young mortal's sacrifice and imbued him with a portion of the Power Cosmic transforming him into the Silver Surfer. He served Galactus for an unspecified amount of time until he came to the planet Earth.

On Earth the Surfer encountered a number of individuals whose nobility and honor touched him such as the Fantastic Four and their companion Alicia Masters. The Surfer chose to rebel against Galactus and attempted to prevent his master from consuming the Earth. Galactus was eventually driven off but as punishment for his rebellion the Surfer was confined to Earth thanks to a barrier which affected only him.

The Silver Surfer is a unique product of the Marvel system of comic creation. Unlike the full scripts employed elsewhere creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would discuss general storylines or plots initially but leave the specific story elements to the penciller (this was especially so in the case of Kirby). Reputedly, Kirby created the character of the Silver Surfer reasoning that a cosmic predator of planets should have some sort of herald. Lee was surprised by this creation but, taken by the noble features of the new character that Kirby had pencilled, scripted him, adding to his characterization.

Though Kirby is clearly the primary creator of the Silver Surfer, Lee enjoyed the character and decided to feature him in his own comic magazine. Unfortunately Kirby was unavailable and penciller John Buscema was chosen as the artist for the brief run (18 bi-monthly issues). The Silver Surfer comic and character allowed Lee to script some of his most thoughtful and introspective stories. Thematically the stories dealt with the inhumanity of man as observed by the noble yet fallen Surfer. After his own comic was cancelled the Surfer continued to make sporadic appearances as a guest star or antagonist in other comic books. A personal favorite of Lee's, a number of specials and graphic novels featuring the character have been published over the years.

He was given a chance at a solo title for the second time in the 1980s where he finally managed to escape the confines of Earth and left for the spaceways. This series was originally written by Steve Englehart and illustrated by Marshall Rogers, and later written by Jim Starlin and drawn by Ron Lim. Starlin was later replaced by Ron Marz as writer, and later in the series' publication George Perez and J. M. DeMatteis had brief stints at writing the series as well. The series was ultimately cancelled in the 1990s due to low sales, but was revived most recently in 2003.

The graphic novel The Silver Surfer: Parable (originally serialized in two parts in 1988-1989) was scripted by Stan Lee and drawn by Möebius.

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A silver surfer is a senior citizen who uses ("surfs") the World Wide Web.