Silver Surfer #8

[history79]

Comments

[md84]

Technically, Heralds aren't supposed to do anything but paint a glorified bullseye on a planet and tell its people to GTFO while they can. Only the real asshole ones (that is, all of them but Silver Surfer) kill people before Galactus gets to the world.

Even more messed up, one Fantastic Four book explained that pretty much the only worlds that can satisfy Galactus' hunger just so happen to be worlds where sentient life is sure to appear. Planets like Jupiter and such won't cut it.

Letting Galactus starve isn't an option either for a number of reasons that have been given throughout his existence: he'll help restart the next universe, he keeps an even worse threat at bay, etc.

All in all, while Silver Surfer technically is an accessory to mass murder on an unprecedented scale, he's arguably the most justified one possible.

[captainbellman]

Eh, it's just an excuse to ripoff the "Oncoming Storm" persona used for the Doctor between 2005-2013 before "The Day of the Doctor" fixed it.

Otherwise there'd be, you know, a precedent for this reaction.

[arilou_skiff]

Err... Norrin has been doing this since WAYYY before 2015.

[dragontail]

Norrin sure was the "Oncoming Storm" long before the Doctor was, story-wise, in terms of galactic reactions to his arrival on any world. It's been part of the character for a long, long time. That said, it's en element of the character that's not been used a lot in recent years owing to the amount of times Surfer has since saved all of reality. But I can buy a world of Galactus survivors being less than impressed by anything a herald does by way of redemption.

[icon_uk]

I doubt the inhabitants of the worlds Galactus consumed, and their next of kin, really give that much of a darn about such semantics. The Herald found the planet, Galactuc came, trillions died. The Herald is responsible.

I don't recall much in the way of warnings to leave being given

[silverhammerman]

Strangely enough, when I read the original Galactus Trilogy for myself a while back, I never got the impression that Earth being inhabited was at all important to Galactus. Really it seemed that he simply didn't care that the people and they were completely irrelevant to his goals.

In fact it kinda seemed like Galactus didn't make a habit out of eating inhabited planets, given the way that Uatu tried to appeal to his sense of decency.

[md84]

In one FF story where Johnny became a Herald, he tried to find an uninhabited world that could sate Galactus' hunger. Unfortunately, every world that qualified had sentient life.

It's true that Galactus doesn't really care too much about the populations of the worlds he devours. Merging with the Power Cosmic seems to have buried Galan's empathy.

[captainbellman]

Soooo...still a giant "I wish I got to write Doctor Who" -fest with Allred doing his best to make it up to us with pretty art, then?

[icon_uk]

There are worse goals, and much worse outcomes.

[sagrada]

This does have some of the general tone, what with super-serious things going on with flagrantly ridiculous charcaters (so business as usual in comics!). But in this case I'd say it's really more of the same MARVEL Cosmic stuff in a slightly different perspective. The Surfer and Dawn remind me more of Drax the Batista Bomb and Cammi than The Doctor and any of his Companions.

Besides, who can honestly say they don't wish they could write for Doctor Who? I certainly can't hold that against someone!

[captainbellman]

There's a difference between merely wanting to emulate a work of fiction, homaging it affectionately, and derailing an already-established character to fit your fanfic ideas, in a way that feels incredibly jarring.

[thatnickguy]

It is pretty blatant. Heck, even the creative team admitted that was their intention in several interviews.

But of all the characters in the Marvel universe, I think Silver Surfer works oddly best for this. And I've heard the comic itself is pretty good.

[starwolf_oakley]

Jim Starlin and Ron Lim covered this once in SILVER SURFER #48. http://whencallsgalactus.com/2013/05/19/the-silver-surfer-48-past-sins/

"Galactus! Did you tamper with my conscience so I wouldn't be crippled with guilt over all the inhabited worlds I led you to?"
"Yes, Norrin Radd."
"Undo said tampering"
"All right."
"AARRGH! I'm crippled with guilt over all the inhabited worlds I let you to!"

[icon_uk]

This is different though, it's not his guilt, which he's processed, it's Dawn's reaction to the revelation which is the story.

[crinos]

Wait, why would she assume he was joking? Doesn't she have the power to instantly know when people are lying to her? Or does that not work on Norrin?

Or am I thinking of someone else entirely.

[sagrada]

I think the "cannot be lied to yet otherwise normal woman" is Verity in Loki: Agent of Asgard. So far as I've seen Dawn Greenwood has no such powers.

[crinos]

Oh right. Yeah, sorry, I got those two mixed up. I guess that would make more sense in the long run.

[burkeonthesly]

You might also be thinking of the brief part of the story where Dr. Strange stuck the Eye of Agomotto to her head and it revealed "the truth in all things" to her--including what Norrin's non-apology really meant.

[night4345]

Maybe you should have looked up who the Silver Surfer was before you went on adventures with him.

[sagrada]

It's not like she could just go on the MARVEL wiki and find out about him, I think the only real information that most people on Earth-616 have is that The Silver Surfer is some space dude who showed up a while ago. I really doubt they'd know he's been the Herald of Galactus.

Though I guess she could have called the Avengers Mansion, or some SHIELD hotline to find out if this random alien guy is legit or actually a horrifying supervillain...but thus far Dawn's been shown as not being too keen on looking before leaping.

[violetclm.livejournal.com]

If Kamala Khan can recognize weapons used by obscure supervillains down to individual battles, I'm sure this woman can look the Silver Surfer up on Wikipedia. Information clearly does exist.

[michaelhealy]

Due to the sliding time scale surely his first appearance was on CNN.

[md84]

So is this before or after Galactus went to Ultimate Universe and merged with Ga Lak Tus?

[silverhammerman]

I think this would have to be after that, I seem to remember a Guardians of the Galaxy guest spot that featured their latest revamp, which came after the whole Ultimate affair.

Between this and Galactus' upcoming appearance it Squirrel Girl it seems safe to say that everyone is quietly ignoring the Galactus/Gah Lak Tus merger.