Sep 28, 2008

[Comics] Annihilation: Silver Surfer

Annihilation: Silver SurferMarvel Comics has always had its share of space-faring characters, and this goes all the way back to the times when the likes of Flash Gordon captured the imagination of the world all the way to the space race between Russia and the US, which naturally affected popular culture.

The Annihilation crossover series tapped into a lot of these classic characters related more to the space age style heroes and villains, many of whom we've not seen as much with a few others of greater fame.

Case in point is the Silver Surfer, perhaps one of the most famous of the space-faring heroes with one of the most interesting back stories around.

After the events in Annihilation: Prologue, the forces Annihilus, collectively known as the Annihilation Wave, have started their invasion of the positive universe in earnest. For the Silver Surfer, this disturbance presents itself to be a significant threat to the Marvel Universe. In Annihilation: Silver Surfer, we follow the story of the battle against the Annihilation Wave from his perspective and that comes with its natural set of supporting characters.

It turns out that Annihilus has dispatched a portion of his to hunt down and capture the former Heralds of Galactus. with the Silver Surfer being one of them, naturally he finds himself trying to investigate this threat and eventually bands together with other former heralds like Firelord, Red Shift and Stardust after discovering Air Walker in critical condition after the first rush of the Annihilation Wave.

Silver SurferImage via WikipediaI've always liked the concept behind Silver Surfer - in many ways the ultimate tragic hero. Gifted with amazing powers by the planet-eating Galactus, but of course with the price of forever serving him and aiming in the destruction of countless worlds. Even the way he eventually parted from Galactus' service was interesting where it was just out and out rebellion but an almost sad parting. The innate nobility of the Silver Surfer is always a key part of his character and is often why he continues to assist and aid Galactus when needed given how he still has some level of loyalty to the cosmic being.

Of course to deal with the heralds collectively in a single story is a definitely unique angle on the universe and one way to present just how powerful the Annihilation Wave really is. Despite each of the heralds commanding the Power Cosmic in their individual ways, even their combined might is hardly enough to keep Annihilus' forces at bay.

I guess what becomes the ultimate purpose of this series is to have the Silver Surfer one again take up the mantle of Galactus' herald in order to protect the world devourer and his necessarily role in the Universe. It brings us back to the original dynamic of the Silver Surfer series when he was first introduced into the Marvel Universe and presents itself with its own interesting angles of development.


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