Donny Cates (Cosmic Ghost Rider) pens this epic tale that seems to play fast and loose with the rules of physics. And I must say that I am really torn to be a fan of Silver Surfer: Black or to be it's biggest critic.
I've never really connected with much of Marvel's cosmic stuff. This book with it's flashbacks and flash forwards is a little hard to follow. There's even a time paradox! I think… Plus at one point the Surfer claims that he's billions of years old. This really seems to contradict the Galactus Saga that occurred in issues #48-50 of Fantastic Four. But I will admit, I’m not really caught up on my Norrin Radd comics.
One thing I cannot downplay is the artwork. Tradd Moore is freaking amazing. It's like year 3000 type advanced stuff. This psychedelic look at the cosmos has so much tiny detail to it, I wonder how long it took The Luther Strode artist to complete all 5 issues that comprise this volume.
Donny Cates notes that Stan Lee's death was announced as he was writing the fifth and final issue. As Silver Surfer has long been considered Stan's best work - by fans and the Man himself, Cates was inspired to change this book's ending. In the afterword, Cates says that he erased the entire last issue script and started over. He wanted the ending to honor Stan Lee's positivity that he exuded to his reading public.
I really would have liked to have seen what Cates' original script was going to be. I know it's all erased now. But a recreated rough draft inclusion in the sketch book section would have been nice. I like knowing about deleted scenes. It would have been cool to compare what was with what could be. Especially since missed opportunities is a theme of this story.
Silver Surfer: Black was an interesting read. The art was a masterpiece. The story was as confusing as a lecture on advanced physics could imaginably be. I understood each scene. I just couldn't figure out the right order in which the plot was to have taken place.
Expect a lot of tinkering with the Marvel timeline when reading this.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
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