A short time later, I would find my own selfless and silver surrogate in the character of Marvel’s licensed toy character ROM, the space knight from Galador who sacrificed his humanity to beat back the cosmic scourge of the Dire Wraiths, and just like ROM, the Silver Surfer found himself among humans, stand-ins for the cultures and societies that they had both lost in their crusades.

It was Stan Lee and John Buscema’s take on the Sentinel of the Spaceways (after he was introduced by Stan and Jack Kirby in the pages of “The Fantastic Four”) that won big brother over, and I’m pretty sure he still has all his copies of the old Fantasy Masterpieces series from the late ’70s that reprinted the original Silver Surfer issues. He was a big fan of the character, and the character resonated with me too.

My older brother introduced me to the Silver Surfer. It’s a relatively simple ticking-clock plot with some mind-warping wrinkles that keeps readers guessing. There’s even a spin on the notion of going back in time to change one’s present that’s particular poignant and “on brand” for Norrin Radd even if it is different than what the MCU recently taught us about the quantum physics of real time travel in Avengers: Endgame. A recently-created villain takes center stage in the pages of this mini-series and serves as the story’s main antagonist while a much younger version of a planet-sized character becomes an unlikely ally. To say much more would rob readers of the joy of reading “Silver Surfer: Black.” Suffice it to say, the former herald of Galactus must make a sacrifice for the sake of others (but he’s used to that) that threatens to destroy or at least forever change him. Jumping off from events in Cates’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” series, the Silver Surfer finds himself marooned on a planet after being thrown through a black hole.

Silver surfer black