The Silver Surfer is rad. Norrin Radd, that is. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966--the same year the Beach Boys released Pet Sounds and at the tail end of the beach party movie craze (Beach Blanket Bingo et al.)--the Silver Surfer first appeared in Fantastic Four as the alien herald of Galactus, Devourer of Worlds. Two issues later, after the Silver Surfer has betrayed him, Galactus strips the Surfer of his space-time powers, effectively stranding him on earth. This paved the way for the Surfer's solo series, which debuted in 1968 and lasted 18 issues. As a nearly all-powerful outsider observing the tumultuous earthbound events of the late '60s, the Silver Surfer spent a lot of time lamenting (out loud, for the reader's sake) humanity's urge to destroy itself. The series was fairly preachy and not particularly fun. I'm not surprised the series barely lasted two years.
The Silver Surfer's first appearance, from Fantastic Four 48 (Mar. 1966).
Seventeen years later, the Surfer was given his second ongoing series (technically considered volume 3 because of a one-shot published in 1982). Written first by Steve Englehart (later by Jim Starlin) and illustrated initially by Marshall Rogers and Joe Rubinstein (later by Ron Lim and Tom Christopher), Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four figures out a way to free the Surfer from his earthbound restriction, allowing him to once again travel the galaxy. As a result, this new Silver Surfer series initiated some of Marvel's most cosmic stories (the second Kree-Skrull War, the Infinity Gauntlet saga) and featured Marvel's spaciest characters (Galactus, Thanos, Nova, the Eternals) of the late '80s and early '90s. As a sci-fi nerd, this made Silver Surfer one of my all-time favorite series.
In issue 12, the reptilian space pirate Reptyl has captured the Silver Surfer and Galactus's latest herald, Nova, and is sheltering the Elder known as the Contemplator from Galactus. Clumsy Foulup (don't ask) rescues Nova, who in turn rescues the Silver Surfer. It's a good issue, but it ends with one of the more unexpectedly shocking moments in a Marvel comic book supposedly approved by the Comics Code Authority. Reptyl suddenly turns on the Contemplator and, well, eats him:
This may not seem like such a big deal in 2017, what with shows like The Walking Dead available on basic cable, but in 1988 this moment was a little too much for my 14-year-old brain. To say it scarred my psyche would be overstating it, but let's just say it was not my favorite comic book-reading experience. Nowadays, of course, I look at this sequence and struggle to put myself back into whatever adolescent mindset I'd been in that reacted so negatively to such a cartoony sequence. But I think that was the shock of it: the series's motifs and, more importantly, Marshall Rogers's art style (especially in terms of Reptyl's "funny animal" design) didn't adequately prepare me for a moment of cannibalism.1
Regardless, this event didn't prevent me from enjoying this series for many more years to come.
1 Is it really cannibalism if a member of one sentient species eats a member of another sentient species?
