Category: Timeslip
Last article published: 14 November 2007
This is the 8th post under this label
In Timeslip, a hot artist of today is taken back to 1962 (or in this case, 1966) and gets handed an assignment by Stan Lee. So what happens when Jeff Smith has to design the Silver Surfer without input from Stan or Jack?
From the assignment, Smith's indie spirit makes he make an important change, and not just in terms of graphics...
This is a Surfer devoid of guilt or regret, a Surfer made alien to emotion, even to loyalty. A Surfer who craved Galactus' power and meant to steal it. And it gets more complicated from there. But graphically, the Surfer is more alien too, as is his surfboard:
I suppose the Surfer's board in the proper MCU is silly. What is an alien being doing with Earth sporting equipment? Jack Kirby would take this further at DC when he introduced his New Gods' version of Death as a cosmic skier. One the one hand, it makes sense for a modern redesign to do away with it. On the other, it's surprising that the impulse comes from a writer/artist of such whimsy. You'd think Smith would have doubled down on the surfboard.
But you decide, gentle reader. Is this as heinous as the Galactus cloud of the movies? Or do you grok it?
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