The Four Color Media Monitor

Several days ago, ComicBook announced Marvel's publishing a miniseries titled Death of the Silver Surfer, and the excuse for this story appears to be that it's set in a future timeline:

Silver Surfer is going to meet an untimely fate in the comics before joining the Fantastic Four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe later this year. Norrin Radd patrols the spaceways with the Power Cosmic as the Silver Surfer, former Herald of Galactus. Silver Surfer is one of Marvel’s most recognizable cosmic heroes and has fought alongside the Fantastic Four on numerous occasions against the Devourer of Worlds. As Marvel prepares for the premiere of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Silver Surfer will headline a new limited series that, according to its title, will conclude with his death.

ComicBook can exclusively announce Death of the Silver Surfer, a five-issue limited series by writer Greg Pak and artist Sumit Kumar, with covers by Dike Ruan. The series appears to take place in the future, with Silver Surfer returning to a war-ravaged Earth and a big target on his back. Silver Surfer will encounter a human that Pak describes as “the most human and yet the most formidable rival Norrin Radd has ever had.” Fans can look forward to appearances by the Fantastic Four and Galactus, along with the introduction of new characters.

This sounds like little more than a few specials produced in the early 2000s titled "The End", and the human they speak of may be a woman. It may end up being an unsurprising deceit about the Surfer supposedly dying, based on whether it's set in a future time, but all the same, this is not something to care about. What could be something to care about would be if, under a better management, Norrin Radd and Shalla-Bal tied the knot and ended his saga there. But that's not what they're doing here, and the same mentality that led to breaking up Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson obviously has a terrible effect on how stories like this are handled too.

One can also make a valid point that, if Marvel really did want audiences to be excited about the new FF movie, they wouldn't publish a story with such a downbeat theme. Why do they even say fans can "look forward" when there's nothing to be excited about anymore? The Silver Surfer's legacy came to an end at the turn of the century with the conclusion of the 1987-99 volume, and what's come afterwards has been nothing short of banal and appalling.

Labels: bad editors, dreadful artists, dreadful writers, Fantastic Four, golden calf of death, golden calf of villainy, marvel comics, msm propaganda