Silver Surfer #18: Last Dance

The eighteenth issue of Silver Surfer would be the series’ last and it ends with a bang. The character’s creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are reunited in this issue. With a setting of the story being blue side of the moon that the Inhumans call home, Kirby does some amazing work in this issue.

After falling on the moon, Silver Surfer becomes an unwilling pawn in the war between Black Bolt and his evil brother Maximus for control of the Inhumans. After fighting both sides, finally snaps and attacks both sides.

The last page of the issue is the above splash page and it pretty much shows that Silver Surfer has had it with the universe. He’s done with humanity (and it’s Inhuman branch). That image of an irate Silver Surfer is just amazing and I’m so glad I read this series, if just for this.

Sadly, this was the last issue of the series and whatever direction the “savage” Silver Surfer would have taken is pretty much an unknown. This take on the character didn’t spill over into any of the other Marvel series at the time; he would reappear almost a year later in 1971’s Sub-Mariner.

 

(Black) Friday Fights #15: Black Bolt vs. Black Adam

Happy day after Thanksgiving! For you non-American readers, the day after our Thanksgiving holiday is called Black Friday; it’s a big shopping holiday to start the Christmas season. So what better way to have Black Friday’s Friday Frights feature two dark-clothed kings: Black Bolt and Black Adam.

In the Marvel Universe, Black Bolt is the head of the royal family that governs the Inhumans, a branch of mankind that evolved to have extra-normal powers like the mutants. Black Adam gets his power from magic, similar to Captain Marvel, and is the self-appointed ruler/protector of the small Middle Eastern nation of Khandaq.

On paper, Black Adam is much more powerful than his inhuman opponent. Adam is ridiculously strong, fast, can fly, pretty much indestructible. He is pretty much a Superman level opponent. Not only that, but he does have some magical abilities that are never clearly explained.

Black Bolt is no slouch either, but he can’t physically match up with Black Adam. He does have the ability to manipulate energy into anything from concussive blasts to creating force fields. There is also a reason he never (well rarely) speaks; his vocal chords produce a super-sonic effect, destroying everything around him. And with this power being so uncontrollable, he’s extremely hesitant to use it.

But when in combat with someone as powerful as Black Adam, he might not be as hesitant to bust it out. WINNER: Black Bolt, with a last-minute scream.