# Sell me on Silver Surfer **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 4, 2018, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260 "2018-07-04T01:25:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/1 "2018-07-04T01:25:45Z")
When I was 12 in 1966 I discovered Silver Surfer in a Fantastic Four comic at my barber’s. I was already a cynical brat and wrote him off as a cheap cash grab at the Surf market. I couldn’t imagine “losers” fifty years later still buying that crap, and FF was so lame I thought it was a DC property so I could safely ignore them. I guess not. Recently Disney bought him and FF from Fox and there is probably going to be an attempt to work them into the MCU, as if that weren’t too crowded already, so I need to find something unlame about Marvel’s beach boy. Is there anything? I mean he surfs through the universe, FFS! ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/2 "2018-07-04T01:52:44Z")
Surfy hangs with cool jungle animals: [![](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/94/c4/64/94c46464f161f682c632260386a716b7.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/94/c4/64/94c46464f161f682c632260386a716b7.jpg) He once went into Sub-Atomica and this bitchin’ black light poster was the result: [http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3831/9264381199\_9e35a43159.jpg](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3831/9264381199_9e35a43159.jpg) Aside from the shitty FF flick he’s in, he appeared in the shittier _FF_ TV animated series (1966-70) voiced by Vic Perrin (a.k.a. The Control Voice of\* The Outer Limits\*) as well as his own muddled TV animated series (1999). He also figured prominently in perhaps the only memorable line from _Breathless_ (1983): “The Silver Surfer sucks!” His cultural penetration therefore predates and surpasses that of most Marvel characters. Plus he looks cool. And he’s Norrin Radd. The real question is how can one not be into Surfy? ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/3 "2018-07-04T03:21:14Z")
The old old comics if you want. An 80s series (90s)? featuring him is supposed to be well-liked. I personally found him too ‘human’…and gabby…and just not my taste. But he does have a critical interaction with Thanos if you want to look into that. He has a nice appearance in the Avengers a couple of times featuring Molecule Man. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/4 "2018-07-04T03:54:16Z")
80s I started paying Russian women to give me Yeltsin’s. Uninstering cuts, she was hot, easily fixed with a wash. I don’t give a shit about my cut if she’s hot. I’m an asshole. Before a clip I sat in the lot, watching a sunspot with my far own eyes. I saw NPR an nounce Henson’s death. B ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/5 "2018-07-04T04:04:20Z")
DC’s heroes differed mainly by power set and costume; they were otherwise kind of interchangeable up through the Silver Age. Not so with Marvel; the Fantastic Four didn’t really fight criminals per se, and the Sub-Mariner occasionally WAS a criminal. The Silver Surfer had motives that were not immediately apparent to humans, which was a very refreshing change: an alien who thought like an alien. ---
**Author:** ![sohvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sohvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sohvan)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/6 "2018-07-04T06:51:07Z")
The Silver Surfer works for Galactus, who is one of the most interesting comic book villains. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/7 "2018-07-04T07:12:59Z")
I’ve read a few Silver Surfer stories and the only one I liked was [Parable](https://www.amazon.com/Silver-Surfer-Parable-Stan-Lee-ebook/dp/B00GHY5SZU). Story by Stan Lee, art by Moebius. Gives you an idea of what the Silver Surfer is all about. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/8 "2018-07-04T07:28:52Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > 80s I started paying Russian women to give me Yeltsin’s. Uninstering cuts, she was hot, easily fixed with a wash. I don’t give a shit about my cut if she’s hot. > > I’m an asshole. Before a clip I sat in the lot, watching a sunspot with my far own eyes. I saw NPR an > nounce Henson’s death. B This is some truly wacky stuff, for the OP to be adding to his own thread. Maybe he read a few Silver Surfer issues, and felt enlightenment. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/9 "2018-07-04T07:31:50Z")
> [@sohvan](#): > > The Silver Surfer works for Galactus, who is one of the most interesting comic book villains. Well, he originally worked for Galactus, yes, serving as his first Herald. He left Galactus’s service, and there’ve been a number of other Heralds over the years, but I think that the Surfer has been on and off the Worldeater’s payroll repeatedly over the years. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/10 "2018-07-04T10:44:27Z")
The Silver Surfer’s sole value is the unintended humor in Stan Lee’s writing, as he seriously tries to be epic. Even as a child, when Galactus presents him with the “perfect conveyance” and reveals a surf board, I went “he’s gotta be kidding!” And I was rotfl at “Now GO, and find worlds to assuage my endless hunger!” (There are two more "GO!"s on the panel, but I can’t recall the rest.) And I seriously wanted to smack Radd upside the head because he repeatedly passes on acceptable planets because they _might_ develop sentient life someday, then he leads the son of a bitch to Earth? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/11 "2018-07-04T14:33:13Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > And I seriously wanted to smack Radd upside the head because he repeatedly passes on acceptable planets because they _might_ develop sentient life someday, then he leads the son of a bitch to Earth? That was from a retcon some years after his initial appearance. They explained it by saying that Galactus had been monkeying with the Surfer’s subconscious. My all-time favorite Surfer story is the one where Mephisto tries to get him to sell his soul. Stan Lee’s “epic” dialog fits with the scenery in that one. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/12 "2018-07-04T14:55:20Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > This is some truly wacky stuff, for the OP to be adding to his own thread. Maybe he read a few Silver Surfer issues, and felt enlightenment. 😉 Nope. Thought he was lame first time, every time. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/13 "2018-07-04T15:32:04Z")
Some comic historians you guys are. Lee didn’t create the Surfer or the surfboard, [Kirby did.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Surfer) > [@](#): > > As Lee recalled in 1995, “There, in the middle of the story we had so carefully worked out, was a nut on some sort of flying surfboard”.[10] He later expanded on this, recalling, “I thought, ‘Jack, this time you’ve gone too far’”.[11] Kirby explained that the story’s agreed-upon antagonist, a god-like cosmic predator of planets named Galactus, should have some sort of herald, and that he created the surfboard “because I’m tired of drawing spaceships!”[12] ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/14 "2018-07-04T17:10:24Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Some comic historians you guys are. Lee didn’t create the Surfer or the surfboard, [Kirby did.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Surfer) Yeah, but the people in this thread are complaining about the writing, not the artwork. ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-on-silver-surfer/817260/15 "2018-07-04T18:00:22Z")
This is probably not the bonus you’re looking for, but The Surfer used to hang out with Joe Satriani. And he has his own song.😃 [\