Silver Surfer: World’s Apart Review

This is Jason David Frank and you're listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. to bring back

for another round of Silver Surfer Talk, Matt

Felicent, my fellow Cinemakeak man, how's it

going? Hey Dan, glad to be back. Yes, we are

continuing our discussion of the Silver Surfer

series by Dan Slott and Mike Albrey, we're talking

about volume two. If you have not checked it

out, go to the episode post and you can see our

first discussion. Previously where we got into

the first volume also talked about Matt's background

into comics What brought him into them what brought

him out and now we're gonna continue that conversation

as we look at volume 2 And going back to that

first volume and one thing we talked about is

how by the end of it You felt like it really

got its legs and started going So now that we're

in volume 2 did it continue that momentum did

it falter at all? And how did this stack up compared

to the last one? Oh, man, so I think in the first

volume, we all know Silver Surfer, right? So

we have to get to know this Dawn, the new character,

and then see how they interact. And so it was

slowly building up that relationship. And then

by the second one, I feel like they had the relationship

and the stories were interesting and they were

way more foreign rather than being on Earth,

like these... terrestrial stories that make an

interesting cosmic character, which is what you

want in a Silver Surfer book. I feel like I liked

Dawn less in this one. But that might just be

because she's at conflict with the surfer at

one point and it's like I want to give the surfer

the benefit of the doubt because I love him and

I've been reading his comics for years and she

should just know that he's a good guy now. Yeah,

I mean he didn't mean it when he killed trillions

of pound trillions of people like he was under

the spell of Galactus. Yeah, man, don't be asking

for receipts on some dude's past. Yeah, yeah,

I can kind of understand that. I do think like

you mentioned this the second volume does pack

a lot more story and I mean you even have the

one where where you know they go off into that

like void and he's trying to find dawn and we

get a lot of flashbacks into all these different

adventures that happened previously and it was

like wow you know it really covered a lot of

ground really shortly and it really seemed like

this volume specifically again was focusing on

developing that relationship between dawn and

and super surfer you know providing conflict

obviously by the end of it but Did you feel like,

besides the fact that she kind of is a little

bit more adversarial by the end of it, I think

most of this book is hinging upon that relationship.

Did it work for you in this volume, besides the

issue that you brought up? Oh, I love it. And

I love that that very first comic is like the

thesis of this volume where it's like, hey, Surfer,

you need to feed me. Hey, Surfer, I need to go

to the bathroom. I'm a human. Like, we can't

just fly on a board for... three months straight.

They have this thing where it's he's getting

to know her and she's getting to know him at

the beginning and then by like the second or

third issue oh it's been months now and like

I couldn't be without this this uh you know tagger

on. It develops their relationship in a very

real and meaningful way which I feel like is

something that's oftentimes skipped over in uh

like I want to say in comics but in all things.

Like if you look at the Thor -Jane Foster relationship

in that first Thor movie, they did do a good

job. And though this is not a romantic relationship

necessarily, at least not at this point, that

has even more meaning to me that they've spent

issues and issues developing just a friendship

necessarily. And there's definitely love and

trust there, but like they did such an amazing

job slowly building this relationship in a very

meaningful and real way. while not necessarily

losing the small stuff of, hey, I need to eat,

while still being able to turn that into a great

Silver Surfer joke. Yeah, yeah. I love, you know,

basically you're seeing Silver Surfer see this

world that he's been traveling through fresh

eyes in a lot of ways. And, you know, you mentioned

that opening of the volume where, you know, she's

being a nuisance, maybe, but the fact that she

has to eat and go to the bathroom and whatnot.

But how, by the end of that issue, that relationship

is a little bit further established where her

human tendencies allow him to see something that

he really never saw before. You know, they sit

down to watch the nebula expand or explode and

how her naivete comes in to benefit him in different

circumstances. And she's not necessarily just

a figure for damsel of distress, which she could

easily be. But, you know, she certainly is her

own character with you know, her own capabilities

and they play off each other really well. Yeah.

This second one is just peak. I don't know. I

love that first issue so much where like he pulls

out her tonsils like, you know, she's being annoying.

It's like, oh, I've got my tonsils are swollen.

They pulls them out. And she's like, you need

to get me ice cream to make up for it. And he's

like, but you're not in any pain. I use the power

cosmic like I'm the greatest surgeon in the universe.

And but then, you know, that that ice cream leads

to an adventure. Then everything after that like

it's it's great the way they interact and I love

that and you wouldn't have gotten that without

that first volume and And so it's such a great

setup and it's such a great payoff. Yeah. Yeah,

I love and I love the Snowball effect of a lot

of these plots right where you like you mentioned

it starts out. I was just going for ice cream

It starts off. It's just like looking at this

beacon and it just evolves into something a lot

more something as innocent as letting her drive

this surfboard leads them to discover, you know,

a planet that was hidden from him. And then,

of course, we get the Galactus piece at the end.

That's probably something we can talk about,

too, is, you know, that piece of her discovering

his past and him coming to terms with it. And

I love how there was like a callback to a joke

that was made. I don't remember what issue it

was that he had where it's like, I judged your

planet and you passed and And her realizing just

the weight of what that actually meant and like

realizing like, well, that's kind of sadistic.

And I'm like, yeah, that's kind of true. Again,

it goes to the show just that even though Silver

Surfer is certainly not the herald that he once

was under Galactus, he still doesn't, I think,

have a full grasp of humanity like someone like

Dawn does. Yeah, he's got a little bit of that

that dr. Manhattan quality to him which which

makes dawn so important to kind of bring him

back to reality because if you're just That nearly

a god that can surf the entire galaxy with without

someone some mortal to bring you down to earth

So to speak and I imagine it could just be numbing

Yeah, definitely and we talked about last time

how there were some double plate spreads that

were at times hard to follow. I feel like this

volume even like it doubled down on those there

were a lot of them. I felt nearly every some

of the stories where it was almost every piece

was told in these not splash pages but certainly

double plate spreads with like concept panels

laid out. Did any of those other issues occur

where you felt like you got lost in some or did

you felt like this one they were a little bit

more easy to follow? I think Rather than maybe

having having you know two or three localized

towards the end I would have you know one every

quarter on this one But honestly the first one

comes like three pages in right when she's like

I need to go to the bathroom I need to I need

to eat I need to go to the bathroom But what's

funny is that like I didn't even realize it until

I got to? Well, I mean There was no chance of

me realizing that I had messed up on the one

page like sometimes you get down to the The next

panel and it's like does this work? It was almost

like they condensed both pages into just the

one page because she goes hey I got a I got a

pee and he goes okay, and then she goes hey I

got to eat but if you look over on the other

pages It's showing them stopping somewhere for

the bathroom is showing them stopping somewhere

for the food And so it's like it did the same

concept to me even more effective when I read

it accidentally wrong Yeah, just the in a way

that repetition of that actually ends up working

out because it's having that pattern. I guess

it works either way. It's like a paludrome where

I work backwards or forwards. It's similar to

that. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like by the end

of the book, by the end of the second volume,

it comes up that that style of layout comes up

so much that if I mess it up, it's on me at this

point. They've established that this is what

they're going to do and this is how it's going

to read. And so if I'm not Investing myself in

the book enough to realize that then I blame

I blame the reader User error as I say For sure.

Sometimes it can be challenging. I think this

one worked really well I especially like the

when we get into the endless sea of night that

storyline and Where you just you just have them

and it's just like panels with with nothing but

black in the background and just a slight outline

to kind of showcase of different panels and how

they laid out. I thought that was interesting

because up to that point we're in this world

where there's so much to it, there's so much

detail, but I think it really showcased how much

emptiness there was in that sequence. I love

that sequence for a number of reasons. One, I

love when artists do interesting things with

Page layouts, maybe if like a whole page is a

one room, but there's panels throughout that

room Like I love that and and I love this where

it's like these disjointed dark panels Because

they're lost in this darkness and it's like very

clearly like they're all wibbly wobbly They're

all this black space and then like it would go

into like a memory It's like full color and vivid

like it was with just black panel or black Edging

down the sides to let you know that server surfer

and to me are still adrift And it would like

go back and forth between these like these great

solid bright memories And then these dark disjointed

panels And it was just a great a great way to

visually represent something that you just couldn't

get in a book Yeah, yeah, I thought that was

that Piece was pretty brilliant. Just and at

first honestly, I missed it I'm like I was just

focusing on the story that was in between and

then I looked over I'm like, oh wait, there's

silver surfer traveling throughout. I'm like

that's just a pretty cool idea I love how we're

already getting callbacks to some of the sharks

and for more big sharks from the the last storyline

how they're coming to try to get silver surfer

I think that's who they are but uh And I love

the alien creatures in this and I mean we get

like a hillbilly aliens that have a a floating

Winnebago, and I'm like, I have no idea why that

works, but it just does. Again, it goes back

to just like, they're going for it, and it makes

no literal sense, but I think for this comic,

it works. It's so great because it's like, that

story would never work as a whole comic, right?

Because at one point, it's four hillbilly facebillies

holding down Silver Surfer on the board, and

it's like, that wouldn't happen, right? but that

silver surfer just breaks away and turns a potato

into a wedding ring and it's yeah like i it's

it's so charming i mean yeah i mean not very

often a superhero solves problems through literally

you know potato wing rings so yeah transmutation

is just another one of the power cosmic's many

abilities as i mentioned it is very convenient

at times you know and then obviously finally

by the end we get to this volume the guy you

assume they would be getting to eventually and

that's Galactus. Were you surprised that he showed

up already you know I know they're obviously

when you have Silver Surfer eventually you're

gonna get Galactus in some form or did you feel

like it was fitting for what they were doing?

So I've never read an ongoing Silver Surfer book,

so I don't know what the usual time is. Really,

you sent me all the books to the suggestions,

and I was like, oh, Silver Surfer, and I looked

that up, and it was interesting. And I was going

to order just the first volume, and I saw Galactus

on the cover. And I know, don't trust a comic

book cover, man. Comic book covers are the worst

things in the universe. But I was like, well,

I love Galactus. He's probably my favorite. cosmic

force in the Marvel universe I like I find his

stories interesting and compelling because he's

like a force of nature rather than a villain

and so that's always makes for an interesting

story and I was like I gotta pick up that second

book if the first book's any good and the second

book is good plus Galactus then I'm down so like

I was expecting him just because I had seen the

cover Well that that will do it for sure though

as you said, I don't know many covers I picked

up in the 90 that that's like this character

will fight this character almost only one will

survive and then they both do and it's like that's

Or they show up on the last panel and they're

like really angry and then the second panel of

the next book their friends. Yeah Exactly, exactly,

but I do like how they eventually got to it though,

right where you have this world that is just

the the refugees of the planets that galactus

killed and destroyed and just the fear that they

have of someone like silver surfer and the realization

that he slowly goes through realizing who all

these people are and obviously this is as we

mentioned in the opening kind of where we get

that breakdown from dawn realizing what silver

surfer has done but i was you know i was surprised

i think in a sense that made sense because you

had to get to silver surfer's past eventually

because it's that thing that's kind of hanging

in the background where she like, yeah, she's

falling for this guy or the relationships really

building, but she doesn't know this really big

thing that he used to do. I liked how you see

how devastated she is and how it like rocks her

world. But then finding out and seeing and putting

her in a situation where she is willing to really

make the same choice and come to realization

of why he did what he did rather than him just

explaining it. It set it up to where she had

to kind of do. do the same thing and to understand

exactly why he would go and sacrifice himself

for galactus yeah it's a real kick in the gut

that this last story where where uh she feels

like like she can't trust him anymore and uh

like how could anyone ever murder someone else

let alone trillions of people but then right

by the end of it she's making that same choice

and uh It has me more so than seeing collects

on the cover of volume 2 the end of volume 2

has me interested in volume 3 Like cuz it's like

where do they go from here? Like how will their

relationship continue? You say it goes on for

another couple more volumes like I'm interested

see where it goes. Yeah, and I thought honestly

because it's been a while since I read this first

volume I'm like wait, does she become a herald

of Galactus? Is that where it goes? You know,

it's it could you know, that could happen that

was a really powerful moment too where you see

him like knowing what that means to her and knowing

what what would happen with that and like doing

everything he can to prevent it and skipping

over one of the best pieces of this volume when

he literally is surfing a moon and you know throwing

it into galactis which i thought was like that

you know that's a pretty badass moment oh it's

so good like every moment of that of that move

because it's like Everyone's like, what is he

doing? And she's like, he's surfing. He's surfing

the moon. And then there's like two pages of

him just like riding the moon like it's his surfboard

into Galactus' face. But he's Galactus. Like,

it's so good. They did an interesting thing where

they did a fight between Surfer and Galactus,

something we've, you know, we've seen this before.

This happens occasionally. But like, and you

know how it's going to end, right? Because Surfer,

Galactus could just revoke the server's powers

right couldn't you do that yeah i mean that's

what he he kind of thought he did but super surfer

i guess turned his power off before he could

fully do it turned it off you know he used he

used human deception to defeat galactic It's

so good to do the exact opposite of what happened

in the first one, right? The first one I talked

about how he's got this near infinite power and

nothing can beat him. So you have to do these

intellectual stories to make it interesting,

right? But then he fights someone that is more

powerful and it still has to have an intellectual

solution because that's the way he's going to

win. Yeah. It's also kind of interesting that

it's not silver surfer that ends up winning the

day I mean he helps but it's really dawn and

really them giving up and just like fleeing that

ends up Yeah, yeah where you know, they can't

defeat him like, you know, he they they realize

that there's no winning So they have to just

run away and fight another day. Yes, I say it's

not even like a victory or even a stalemate really

like they ultimately This planet is lost. This

culture, derived of a million different cultures,

is shattered and fragmented. And who knows if

it'll survive. Galactus doesn't get his prize,

but no one wins. And that's the best they could

have hoped for. Yeah, yeah. And I do like the,

you know, as we talked about, where we see Dawn

make that sacrifice, but how it came to be, like,

why would she do that for people that she didn't

know, but seeing where You literally have an

entire planet, like, giving themselves up individually,

but Galacta's not caring because it's like, I

already destroyed them, like, why do I care?

But there's something about humans that he's

like, yeah, they make good hero. It's like they,

you know, they have the right ingredients, I

guess. But so I thought the realization or how

it got dawned to the point where she would sacrifice

herself made sense without it feeling forced

or it felt very organic in how it occurred. Yeah,

and what's so great about that Spartacus, I am

Spartacus moment that they have is that these

people have lost everything. They've lost everything

and they don't want to lose everything again.

Whereas Dawn hasn't lost anything. She's at her

peak life. She hasn't used them for anything

until she met the Servo Surfer and that's when

she's finally living. And so like what she's

offering is so much more to someone like Galactus

than what all of these refugees could ever offer.

Yeah, yeah. We do get even somewhat more background

to her that we didn't talk about, like where

the polka dots come from and where they're established.

Obviously it's a big reference to Kirby and Kirby

dots, but it also has a personal story to her

and how her father used it to identify her, using

a bumblebee costume or something of that nature.

I like that there was reasoning behind almost

everything. Character decisions, even costume

choices. yeah like that was such a striking moment

like in that very first volume when after we've

had the the childhood and then the the grow up

scene where they they show uh dawn's sister at

all these different places and she's got this

bumblebee theme and it's like when you when you

see the the first panel where they're like five

it's like yeah sure that they've kind of got

like a bug thing going. But then when they're

adults and they still have it going, it's like,

oh, okay, I get it. But then in volume two, it's

like, no, this is how my dad used to be able

to tell us apart because we're twins. And that

can be difficult for some parents. It's a payoff

for something I didn't know I needed a payoff

for. And it's just the way it layers onto itself

that if you're there and you're paying attention

and it can just keep building. Yeah. And I'll

say that. That's something that doesn't stop

and as I mentioned last episode the last time

we talked about this It's something that is built

in and it's like layer upon layer Where there's

even you know more payoffs with certain story

elements that will be coming in the future And

how they relate to what's here. It's it's it's

all connected like this is clearly Mike all right

and Dan slot went in this with a certain plan

and idea And it wasn't one where, like, you know,

I have six issues that I know I can write, and

then after that, let's see where it's going.

I felt like within these first two volumes, there

was a clear plan in place, and they're, you know,

they're layering it bit by bit. Yeah, and it

works so well. Was there anything else you wanted

to bring up or discuss regarding this? Oh, man.

I know that I'm going to keep reading. Like,

I'm definitely going to buy volume three before

too long and get into that one because, like,

I love it. I'm so excited for it. I don't know.

I think I enjoy it more now that I've had a discussion.

Because I remember thinking about it last night

where it's like, it's got all these elements

that I love, right? I love the humor. I love

the silly. I love just the visuals of all of

these weird aliens. And I love the interaction

between the two characters. But I don't know

if I love the whole thing. And then we sit down

and you're like, yeah, but what about this? And

I was like, yes, yes, I do love this thing. like

a whole lot yeah it's so good and it really gets

me yeah when i first read this i actually jumped

in like actually i realized i jumped in The beginning

of the galactic story like that was the first

issue I read with just I forget why I just remember

just seeing silver surfer I'm like, oh, I know

so for surfer and I want you know I was somewhat

confused at the times I had no idea who dawn

was but I was out it was not reading comics from

like regularly So I just assumed that this is

a new character, but going back and reading this

fully again Beginning to end. It's uh, yeah,

it's similar to you I've grown in appreciation

with it a lot. Just it just doesn't it's not

afraid to be goofy, but With that, it's also

really endearing and sweet at times. Such a great

story and it works so well for its medium. That

said, we're sitting here, we're talking, we're

singing high praises. This is not a book for

everyone. I can't think of a single friend to

really suggest this to. One of the things I love

about buying trades is loaning them to other

people so that I can have that conversation later.

And there are very few people I can think of

that would get anything out of this. Yeah, yeah,

I have a chocolatey talking in circles with he's

a huge silver surfer fanny He owns the entire

run of the first the silver surfer comic from

the 90s I'm like am I and I and I thought about

recommending this to him I'm like I don't think

he would like it because it's it's so out of

the norm for the character And he needs like

not a dr. Who fan at all So he wouldn't really

appreciate that influence at all. So I agree.

I think there are some people that would because

it does change some things that alter some things

like the board is more sentient than it typically

is, from what I can remember, and he can power

down, and he doesn't really talk about his original

love when he was Norn Rad all that much, it's

more focused on Dawn. So for some people that

like the traditional Silver Surfer story, even

though this has Galactus, it might be a little

bit out there for them, but I think for those

that it's meant for, it works really well, I

guess. Yeah. And besides, like, how long has

he been the Herald of Galactus? Like, centuries,

right? Like, there's no way his old wife is around

anymore, right? I don't think so. I don't know.

I think she's long gone, I would assume. Because

even in this, he was centuries old since he's

been the Herald of Galactus, based upon the fact

that you have millions of different planets on

this one planet. you would think it was some

time. I would think Galactus doesn't need to

eat three meals a day, I could be wrong. Oh no,

he's definitely one of those wild cats that eats

once and is good for a month or two. Yeah, like

a python. I would like to see that drawn where

after he eats a planet he looks really fat because

he's got a big ball in his stomach. Oh, you know

that that's been drawn. Well, I think the tick

did that because they had a spoof of... Galactus

and one of their cartoons if I'm not mistaken.

Oh, I'm sure All right. Well that'll bring us

to the end of this week's episode Matt if people

want to get in contact with you Talk to you more

would be the best way to do that. Oh, I'm always

at that Fritley son if you got anything to say

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