When Strikes the Savagely Sensational New Silver Surfer!

In September of 1970, Silver Surfer readers were presented with a tantalizing, and potentially terrifying, cliffhanger:

A startling scene which unfortunately coincided with the end of the series' 18-issue run, due to disappointing sales. Of course the more jolting news came in the "Stan's Soapbox" segment of the Bullpen Bulletins page for that issue which announced the departure of artist Jack Kirby, who apparently had turned in his work for the story with one foot out the door, leaving his celebrated run at Marvel Comics for greener (and reportedly fairer) pastures--though if you were still on page one, his name on the story's credits might likely have had you wondering as to whether he was taking over the book as its regular artist.

Yet there was still the matter of the Surfer's final dramatic scene, one so compelling that it would necessitate being followed up on before any future appearances for the Surfer could be arranged. How surprising, then, to see its ramifications dispensed with so quickly, when the Surfer is brought back into circulation five months later (as part of the newly-formed "Titans Three"):

As cooling-off periods go, the Surfer's surely sets a new standard.

But almost 29 years later, writer Eric Stephenson dusts off that dangling plot in order to resolve it in the Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man series, which in this case turns time back to shortly after the Surfer's battle with the Inhumans takes place--where we find a delegation from the Great Refuge contacting S.H.I.E.L.D. (which has had first-hand experience with the Surfer's apparent brand of madness) to alert Nick Fury and his organization to what they believe to be the Surfer's unprovoked aggression.

It's a decent connection to Stan Lee's prior story, though the Inhumans fail to mention that their own actions in this matter are proof that there's enough blame to go around here.

Nevertheless, the stage is set to finally explore in full the scene which closed that decades-old story--and on a calm afternoon in New York City, the Silver Surfer's newfound rage finds release, and a certain web-swinging hero finds himself the only one who can stem the loss of life.

(Efforts which will hopefully include his own!)

While our subject is the Silver Surfer, you'll nevertheless find this three-part tale an excellent Spider-Man story that might have slipped easily into earlier continuity (which would have taken place shortly before the wall-crawler's life-or-death battle with Doctor Octopus where George Stacy lost his life). Given what we know of the Surfer's power, Spidey literally has his hands full dealing with the incredible amount of damage the Surfer is inflicting on the city. But Stephenson stays true to the character by putting front and center the motivation that has become a constant in Spider-Man's life: that no matter the threat, he will not shirk his responsibility when lives are at stake.

With so much happening at once, there is little time or opportunity for Spider-Man to make sense of the Surfer's actions, while the up-to-speed reader can only assume that the Surfer's frustration with his treatment by humans has finally reached a point where he's simply refused to lie down and take it anymore (to use a human idiom). Unfortunately, Spidey hasn't the luxury of knowing what's happened, forced instead to engage with the Surfer one-on-one in order to defuse the situation--and while that may seem to be an exercise in futility for such mismatched opponents, Stephenson and artists Keith Giffen and Andy Smith provide a well-paced and even thrilling demonstration of how effective Spider-Man's fighting style can be against even the likes of the Silver Surfer, a style which almost certainly must include a talent for dodging death.

While it's true that when such danger threatens, all of Marvel's heroes often seem to be oblivious to it except for the story's title character, it's rather curious to see the Baxter Building a conspicuous landmark in sight of the carnage without the Fantastic Four taking any action to intervene--and equally curious that the Inhumans didn't make the FF their first stop, rather than SHIELD. (This would have been around the time that Magneto and the Sub-Mariner joined forces to attack New York, so there's no question the FF were in residence, if otherwise occupied.) Stephenson would eventually deal the FF in, to a minimal extent; but frankly this turns out to be such a well-produced Spider-Man story that you may not even miss them.

Yet Spider-Man is correct that he's mostly keeping the Surfer occupied and little else. Face-to-face, he is no match for this opponent, nor is he as successful at avoiding the Surfer's attacks as he would be against Firelord--and so it's only a matter of time before the inevitable occurs.

We'll have to take Stephenson's word on what figure Spider-Man spots out of the corner of his eye--for the life of me, I can't make out either a person or a trench coat from the panel provided by Giffen/Smith, though it's an important scene that suggests there's more going on here than any of us (including Spidey) realize. That said, it's a bit of a stretch for our hero to add two and two and come up with "the answer" on the spur of the moment; this person could have been an innocent bystander who just happened to be in Central Park at the time (along with who knows how many others).

Yet of course it's high time the curtain was pulled back to reveal the true villain in all of this--one whose power to influence emotions is a serviceable explanation for both the Surfer's explosive outburst and the fact that he was able to make later appearances with little mention of this incident.  Though for Spider-Man, the consequences at present are no less dire!

NEXT:

WHAT is Psycho-Man's plan?

WHY is the Surfer's emotional state so important to him?

WHO knew that the Surfer revered Earth's heroes? Is Spider-Man chopped liver?

(And for Spider-Man, will all of these points be moot in a moment?)

Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #4 Script: Eric Stephenson Pencils: Keith Giffen Inks: Andy Smith Letterer: Benchmark Productions