“Ah, the Silver Surfer.
For the uninitiated, SS was Norrin Radd, a dude whose planet was about to be consumed by Galactus, who is this enormous purple guy with a crazy helmet who runs around chomping on planets. Norrin was like, “Bro, if you leave my planet alone, I’ll seek out planets for you and guide you to them.” Deal struck, fist bump, Galactus gives Norrin the power cosmic, and everything is shitty because Norrin feels like a real asshole. Sure, he saved his planet. But now he’s dooming others.
Until Earth, that is.
Norrin brings Galactus to Earth, Reed Richards stops him with the Ultimate Nullifier, one of the cooler weapons in the Marvel Universe. Basically, it’s this little handheld doo-dad that, when activated, erases EVERYTHING. The universe, even. When Reed Richards waves it in Galactus’ face, Galactus has to back down, and during this whole hullabaloo the Silver Surfer betrays Galactus, so he’s trapped on Earth. Until Marvel comics came to their senses and realizes they had a character who could explore the cosmos and probably should do that instead of fighting the Hulk or something. And thus, Neil Degrasse Tyson, I mean, The Silver Surfer, was ready to rock!
None of this happens in this book, by the way. This is just the backstory that leads into this book.
I’ve always felt like Silver Surfer was a poorly-used character. All the possibilities in the infinite universe, and here he was, stuck on Earth. Shame. Now it feels like we’re going to get a little more of that exploratory vibe. Along with a human sidekick (who isn’t annoying, thank fuck) we’ll get to see some cool shit, I reckon.
It got me thinking about some other underused characters in the Marvel U, or characters that are well-known but don’t have the number of great stories they should.
GHOST RIDER-
Easily the coolest-looking character ever. A biker with a skull head. Not enough? Oh, the head is ON FIRE. How about now? Ghost Rider has the same problem as the Hulk. When you’re reading Hulk comics, you want to see the Hulk, but Banner doesn’t. You’re in direct conflict with the character in terms of what you want to happen. How’s that supposed to work?
DEADPOOL-
Deadpool is EVERYWHERE right now, which makes sense. He’s fun, and he’s got a cool costume. But am I the only one who has been pretty disappointed by the comics? I get a laugh here and there, but story-wise, I don’t know. Humor’s subjective, but it just doesn’t do it for me. I still haven’t hit on a Deadpool story that made me say, “Yes! THIS is the one!”
PUNISHER-
My favorite version of him is from Marvel’s Civil War. That was the most interesting, purposeful portrayal I could see, and it only worked because he was juxtaposed with other characters. There’s been some good Punisher/Daredevil stuff too, but overall it’s hard to have this character on his own. He’s just such a vengeance machine, which is exciting in a way, but doesn’t make him compelling as a character so much.
CYCLOPS-
He’s the leader of the X-Men, and his mutant power seems to be managing to be boring even though he’s the leader of the X-Men. There’s room to love Cyclops. Wolverine is a dick. I can’t fault Cyclops for thinking Wolverine is a dick. But man, snooze-city.
LUKE CAGE & IRON FIST-
A streetwise dude with unbreakable skin and a martial arts expert? How is this not THE premiere buddy cop comic of all time? This is fucking Rush Hour before Rush Hour ever happened. It’s Beverly Hills Cop. It’s all that stuff, except it’s not. It just never got there. Which makes me endlessly sad and if anyone from Marvel is listening, make this series, I’m happy to send you dozens of great one-liners for the characters. “You’ve been Caged.” Boom. Just thought of that. “You’ve been fisted.” See, that’s…okay, skip that one. But you get the idea. Make it happen.”