Warning: SPOILERS for Silver Surfer: Black
The origins of the Marvel Universe are nearly impossible to pin down, but at least ONE major question has been answered: when space was cold and dark, billions of years ago... who or what sparked life across the emptiness of Marvel's Universe? And the answer is the incredible story fans of the Silver Surfer have been waiting for.
For all the ancient beings, Celestials, and embodiments of space and time that have been added or revealed throughout Marvel Comics history, you would think a universal starting point, a big bang, or an "in the beginning" would have been set in stone. But the closest Marvel has come to explicitly defining a "creation" of the universe, intended to mark a line between darkness and light, came just one year ago. The latest Venom series revealed the endless, black abyss that existed before light or life, and Knull, the ancient being that ruled it. Now, the final piece has been revealed: Knull ruled the dark... but it was the Silver Surfer that defeated him to bring light into being.
The cosmic lore at work is both far more complicated, and intentionally nebulous, but it's this major battle that forms the climax of the recently concluded Silver Surfer: Black series by Donny Cates and Tradd Moore. We can highly recommend it as a soon-to-be pivotal chapter in the history of the Marvel Universe, but in the interest of keeping the true reveal simple, we'll stick to the basics.
Hopefully most Marvel fans know the newest cosmic supervillain, Knull the God of Symbiotes. Not just the symbiote God, but the ancient being that inhabited the abyss, before the Celestials (shapers of life in the Marvel Universe) came barging in to cast light on the void. Knull fought back, pulling the living darkness around him into a single form--the first symbiote--and used that blade to kill challengers for the next billions of years. It was this story Donny Cates told in his Venom series, with Knull suggesting it was only his (temporary) death that allowed the universe, life, and light to flourish. But Silver Surfer: Black has called all of that into question.
The recent Guardians of the Galaxy reboot (also written by Cates) began by tossing cosmic heroes, Silver Surfer included, into a black hole. But the Silver Surfer: Black series reveals its title hero survived the black hole, ending up tossed out into an endless void... billions of years in the past. When Knull still ruled the darkness and sought to consume all light and life, as he does with the Surfer's. But with his 'power cosmic' fading against such a dark enemy, Norrin Radd--the Surfer, and guilt-ridden former herald of Galactus--decides his final fight has come. After watching billions die in service to cosmic "balance," Norrin decides he must give his life, and all the power contained within him, to defeat Knull and his evil hold on the universe. Which he does.
If the Surfer managed to defeat Knull so that life could grow as intended, that alone would earn him some credit to balance his crimes in life. But he does much, much more. By forming an alliance with Ego the Living Planet (still forming itself, with eons of evolution still to come), the Surfer requests Ego use its power to commune with the universe. In simple terms, tap into all life subsisting throughout space, insignificant and dark in the shadow of Knull, and channel that light and energy into the Surfer himself.
When pushed to his limits, the Surfer unleashes both power cosmic and the light of all "infant life," creating a small sun bright enough to drive Knull back. With a small, barren, desert world illuminated by this new sun, the Surfer forms and plants a single flower in the sand. At which point he erupts into cosmic flames and smoke, soon scattered to the solar winds. But as Cates' dialogue and Moore's art makes clear, this is not the end for Norrin Radd:
And then, from death, life. Over eons, my atoms fall like seeds scattered across the galaxy. Giving life to those planets I watched die. My consciousness scattered... I am aware of their mighty breath giving chase to the winds of infinity... Over and over, world across world, I have become such wondrous things. And then, as these planets blossom into the black, as they emerge and seed back into the great abyss, slowly, over endless millennia... I am remade. And in so doing, I remember who I am. Who I have become.
I am Norrin Radd. Creator and orphan son of Zenn-La. I am a noble light in great unending darkness. I am a friend. An ally. A lover. To most, a savior. I am known by many, universe-wide, as the Silver Surfer. The sentinel of the spaceways. The herald unchained. But not death. No longer that. The darkness I have given, now... balanced with the light I have shared.
Yes, that desert world seeded with life by Norrin turns out to be Zenn-La, his own world billions of years into the future. And the same goes for the life and worlds infused with life from the shining, living atoms spread across the entire universe. The story ends, as explained above, with Norrin Radd reconstituting himself, having created and fostered life throughout Marvel's Universe for eons. Having balanced the scales for destroying life (since he's the reason it exists in the first place), Norrin concludes the story alive, but drained of his silver power cosmic.
As he puts it: "my hands no longer drenched in red... I return. In the black." Which means his story is about to start anew in Marvel Comics. Readers who wish to see this historic reveal for themselves can find the full credits and series details below, with all five issues now available.
- SILVER SURFER: BLACK #1-5
- Written by: Donny Cates
- Art by: Tradd Moore
- Covert Art by: Tradd Moore
- Is this the end of Norrin Radd? In GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, the cosmos’ greatest defenders were thrown through a black hole — including the Silver Surfer! But his story doesn’t end there! To beat back oblivion and avoid losing himself to the darkness, the Sentinel of the Spaceways must call on all his inner light to save his own soul! With his Power Cosmic fading and the all-consuming darkness descending, will help come in the form of an unexpected ally? When the Surfer discovers something with the potential power to turn the tide, is he prepared to pay the terrible price for awakening it? And how does the Surfer’s predicament tie in to the sinister world of symbiotes? Donny Cates and Tradd Moore take the Surfer on a journey that will change him forever!
Silver Surfer: Black #5 is available now from your local comic book shop, or direct from Marvel Comics.
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