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| via Wikipedia |
My Recent Reads
Silver Surfer #12
Originally Published January 1, 1970 (new decade)
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Buscema
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| via Wikipedia |
- Nemesis: The Abomination, summoned by a coven of witches and warlocks, led by Nigel Carruthers
- We learn that among his many talents, the Silver Surfer has healing powers. What's more, he's willing to use this power to save his own adversaries.
Silver Surfer #13
February 1, 1970
Lee/Buscema
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| via Marvel Database |
- Nemesis: The Doomsday Man
Silver Surfer #14
March 1, 1970
Lee/Buscema
- Crossover: Spider-Man
- We are reminded, Earth's super-hero community still isn't sure what to make of the Surfer. Spidey sees him as a threat and picks a fight.
- In the course of the battle, the Surfer jeopardizes his own safety to rescue a boy, causing both Spidey and the ordinary human onlookers to reconsider their preconceptions.
Silver Surfer #15
April 1, 1970
Lee/Buscema
- Crossover: The Fantastic Four
- For the second month in a row, the Surfer shares his cover with another Marvel superhero: the Human Torch this time. Cancellation was looming. Sales for the title probably weren't so great at this point. Leveraging the more established characters was likely an effort to boost the appeal.
- An exploration of the Surfer's deep trust issues.
Silver Surfer #16
May 1, 1970
Lee/Buscema
- Nemesis: Mephisto
- The Surfer's least favorite demon holds Shalla Bal hostage, forcing the Surfer to attack S.H.I.E.L.D., led by Nick Fury. I learned some interesting history about that character in researching this post. In 1970, Fury was still white:
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| via Marvel Database |
- When Marvel re-invented Fury for Marvel Unlimited, the character's image was patterned after Samuel L. Jackson, several years before the actor was cast in the role for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Meanwhile, in Marvel's main canon storyline, Nick Fury, Jr. is the original Fury's African-American son - naturally, also based on Samuel L. Jackson:
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| via Wikipedia |
Silver Surfer #17
June 1, 1970
Lee/Buscema
- Part 2 of the Mephisto/S.H.I.E.L.D. story
- The Surfer manages to get out of his Faustian bargain, though he still makes a mess of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Shalla Bal slips away yet again.
- We are left with a cliffhanger and a tease: the Inhumans will be featured in the next issue.
Spider-Man was sometimes a jerk. It's probably one of the things that made him such a remarkable hero in early Marvel.
ReplyDeleteI mean, Superman was and has always been just... boring. It takes kryptonite to make him act like a jerk.
It took me a long time to appreciate Buscema as an artist. He did a long run on Spectacular Spider-Man (unless that was Sal, but I'm pretty sure it was John), and I was not onboard with the art for years.
Spidey can definitely be a jerk, and in his crossover stories in particular.
DeleteI can't say I feel too strongly about Buscema one way or the other. Kirby's FF work blew me away - far more so than I expected. To be honest, I didn't expect to notice at all. Buscema's is fine.
And I checked. It's Sal on Spectacular Spider-Man.
Ah, okay, then I like John's work just fine. I have some of his stuff I'm selling, right now, I think.
DeleteKirby was always iffy for me. There are times when his art is what can only be called genius, but a lot of his work became just too Kirby for me. Like it was Kirby imitating Kirby, if you know what I mean.
Sure. I mean Kirby and Buscema literally wrote a book on how to draw the Marvel way - clearly sticklers for consistency.
DeleteNick fury has a halted slowed aging process and all the ultimate bad ass Marvel characteristics created by Stan lee now pit him against Mr Glass, heck of a difference
ReplyDeleteUnbreakable reference...
DeleteDid the Silver Surfer ever have a crossover to the DC universe?
ReplyDeleteIt would appear there have been several. The earliest I found was a Rune/Silver Surfer two-parter in 1995. He has also had stories with both Green Lantern and Superman.
DeleteI have the Green Lantern crossover. I don't remember if I ever read it, though. Well, I'm pretty sure I did, but I have no memory of what it was about.
DeleteI hadn't thought of it before but they are parallel characters in many ways
DeleteIn practice, I suppose.
DeleteOther than, you know, the Green Lantern Corps.
A similar idea of powers granted to one deserving.
DeleteMaybe even similar powers, as long as GL is wearing the ring.
I don't know DC well enough to know if there's a better parallel. Superman, in some ways. Maybe there isn't one.
Maybe in the early days of GL there were more similarities.
DeleteI think DC has mostly wiped that out, though.
Unless they've fixed that stuff? I don't know.
DeleteI haven't read GL since the 90s.
I dove into DC when they did their big New 52 reset in 2011. The Green Lantern thread was my favorite. I can't say I've read any more since then.
DeleteAh, yeah, I forgot they re-set everything.
DeleteAgain.
And they've done it at least once since.
DeleteThey've done it something like half a dozen times.
DeleteIt's one of the things I can't stand about DC.
They should really try character development instead.
DeleteYeah, you'd think.
DeleteI mean, there's no real reason Superman -has- to be so boring, but DC seems just fine with keeping him as he was in the 40s.
And yet, he survives - thrives even. In nearly every poll ever conducted, he's #1 among American superhero characters. Even within DC, Batman is clearly the more interesting character and yet, he is always the runner-up. Superman is a symbol people respond to. I'm sure some brand marketing expert somewhere understands it all perfectly - probably teaches a freshman seminar on the subject.
DeleteOh, I understand why it is. It's the non-comic book crowd who find him easy to identify with. All those people for whom Superman is the easy answer to the question of which super hero you'd be. Which is probably -why- he's so bland, the whole mary-sue thing.
DeleteI'm sure it's related to why the DC movies are so horrible across the board.
Makes sense.
Delete