Issue(s): Silver Surfer #48
Cover Date: Apr 91
Title: "Confronting one's maker!"
Credits:
Jim Starlin - Writer
Ron Lim - Penciler
Tom Christopher - Inker
John Kewandowski - Assistant Editor
Craig Anderson - Editor

Review/plot:
Silver Surfer and Drax the Destroyer are flying back to Titan after escaping from the Soul Gem last issue. The Surfer mentions needing to warn Earth's heroes that Thanos is still alive, but then heads off in a different direction, telling Drax that he'll meet him on Titan later.

The Surfer is heading to Galactus to confront him regarding what Adam Warlock told him in the previous arc, about his soul being tampered with. The Surfer passes Nova, but wants to talk to Galactus alone.

The first thing we learn in the confrontation is that the design of the Silver Surfer comes from an adolescent fantasy of Norrin Radd's.

But more importantly, Galactus confirmed that he altered the Surfer's personality when he transformed him.

Silver Surfer demands that Galactus lift the mental block, and Galactus agrees. Nothing happens at first, but the Surfer soon starts feeling the guilt of the thousands of occupied worlds that he led Galactus to. Surfer envisions himself drowning in blood. Galactus shows a rare moment of empathy by reaching out and bringing him back.

The Surfer nonetheless rejects the idea that Galactus re-suppress his memories.

The Surfer leaves, warning Galactus that Thanos is active. And after the Surfer departs, Thanos shows up.

Thanos warns Galactus to stay out of his business, and as a demonstration of his power, he causes the world that Galactus was about to feed on to disappear from existence. Galactus still seems defiant after Thanos leaves, a fact that Thanos and Mephisto observe from afar.

At the end of the issue, Adam Warlock, still in the Soul Gem with Gamora, Pip, and others, resolves to return to the real world and join the struggle against Thanos.

The change in the Surfer might need to be explored more (and i'm a little unclear if it's his personality, his memories, or some combination of both that has been altered), but this is a nice middle chapter in the Thanos storyline. It's cool to see things from Galactus' perspective after the Surfer leaves, and it's nice to see Warlock is still in the story. Ron Lim's art continues to be great for this series, as good with depicting little things like the change in Nova's facial expressions as well as the cosmic stuff like Thanos showing up to confront Galactus.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• The Surfer first began to suspect that something was wrong with his memory when fighting Garnok Rebbahn in the back-up story from Silver Surfer annual #3.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Though the hype was on the mutants, this, David's Hulk and the last bit of Simonson's FF were easily the best stuff coming out of Marvel.

It's always nice to see those rare moments of kindness from Galactus.

Did not like the direction this series was taking. Bad enough that instead of the cosmic adventures the Surfer should have been taking, he was getting caught up in soap operas and old continuity. [Mantis and Nova for the former, Englehart and Starlin's characters for the latter] I always got the sense that 'this is not what the Silver Surfer should be doing.' The second Kree-Skrull war was about as good as it got, and this, sir, was no Kree-Skrull war. Demanding that Galactus return all his memories of the people he led to slaughter as his herald? Why? What's the point? If Galactus and his heralds are truly cosmic beings, then they are truly above the life and death of mere mortals. If they aren't, then it doesn't work.

As bad as this was, it doesn't compare to John Byrne's "Galactus vs. Darkseid" crossover, which used the characters in continuity and referred to this very issue as a minor plot point. At least Byrne's crossover had a good punchline [SPOILER WARNING: Galactus tries to eat Apokolips, and after finally crushing all resistance, sets up his machine and discovers that the planet has no substance whatsoever that he can use. He asks Darkseid why he futilely wasted so much time and so many lives to stop him, and Darkseid answers (roughly) 'look at me, look at this planet, what else am I going to do?' Great punchline for a lousy story, and it had the horrors of being in continuity too. Why Orion decided to save Apokolips instead of enjoying the show I cannot even fathom.]

Sorry for the digression, but I am absolutely not a fan of this era of the Silver Surfer. Except for Ron Lim's art.

Surfer here refers to his service of Galactus as being "decades", which is vague but gives us some idea of how long he thinks it was. (more than 20 years, less than a 1000?) i know there's some later retcons about Zenn-La, presumably at this point we're just meant to assume his people are long living.

In Silver Surfer 10, the Zenn Lavians were described as long lived.In Silver Surfer 5-6, his time of service to Galactus was described as "centuries".

I believe that the Zenn-Lavians have conquered aging and death. They live for centuries until they get tired of life and commit suicide.

Thanks, both. Sounds like the later Zenn-La retcon was even more unnecessary than I thought it was.