Ride the Wave!!!
The Silver Surfer rides again, and this time, he is riding like a shiny Doctor Who. In an early interview, Dan Slott admitted that the current story for the Silver Surfer was one that carried a certain connection to the Doctor in Silver Surfer’s female “companion”. This episode is the finale of the first arc, ending the story of the heart of The Never Queen and Zed and his Impericon.
I loved this story, and I really enjoyed that it worked as both a standalone Silver Surfer story, but also to really delve deeper into the companion, Dawn Greenwood, and her past. The artwork has been fantastic, Mike and Laura Allred have really found quite a colorful universe for our shimmering metallic protagonist to play in, and the results are some very vibrant and breathtaking pages and panels. Dan Slott has found a way to make Norin Radd more human, without losing too much of what makes the Silver Surfer who he is. The big difference is the connection to a human female, much as it is with Doctor Who; it helps to keep our hero grounded, and gives him a bit of a reality check when necessary.
The last page has quite a stellar example of such a reality check, with a great piece of observational humor from Dawn Greenwood. She seems like a really solid counterpart to the otherwise stoic and rather unflappable Surfer, and together, they have some genuinely cute moments together. My favorite panels are when Silver Surfer goes on a lengthy monologue to Dawn while riding on the Surfer’s board through space, and he remarks “this is the longest you’ve gone without saying anything, why?” only to find out that Dawn has been holding her breath because she assumes she doesn’t have air to breathe. This is followed by a wonderful bit of banter between them, where all of Dawn’s questions as to the why and how of things is answered with “the power cosmic”. This seems unimpressive to Dawn and, for myself at least, quite humorous to the reader. Also, the story of the Never Queen and her true love, Eternity, was a really beautiful and poignant side plot for this issue, and is one that I wish could be delved into more deeply. The whole visual with the toy monkey (its on the cover of the issue, so its not really a spoiler) was also something that I hope comes back in future stories, and it looks like it will. Maybe The Never Queen and Eternity will be something that Silver Surfer comes back to (I hope, anyway).
This book has been wonderful to look at and a ton of fun to read, and it has really been doing the Silver Surfer justice in my book. This story has just begun, and I hope that Dan Slott and the Allreds can take these characters on even more crazy and multicolored, fantastical interstellar adventures, and that by the Power Cosmic, I can come along for the ride.
