Marvel's New "Marvel NOW" SILVER SURFER #1 is a really cool comic book. It has a classic feel to it. The storytelling is tight and the storytellERS know the core of the character they are dealing with. The dialogue isn't the best it could be, and certainly not the best we've ever seen in the Silver Surfer canon, but it is still better than average, and can be forgiven. Silver Surfer has always been a hard character to write dialogue for, and the overall story and art more than make up for the shortcoming in dialogue.
The theologically relevant thing about this story just is that it knows the core of Silver Surfer, who is a philosophically and theologically interesting character to begin with. The Surfer is a former herald of Galactus, literally complicit in the murder of billions upon billions of lives. In order to make up for past crimes, he has styled himself a protector of the entire universe, and he has on multiple occasions protected or helped to protect the whole of the cosmos. The Surfer has a high nobility about him, but it masks a deeper and very human internal struggle. The Surfer lives as one of the purest of heroes, in the style of Superman, but he has been in the past a terrible villain.
In this issue, the Surfer begins by saving an entire planet of diminutive aliens, who take to worshipping him as a god. The Surfer quickly tries to correct their mistake, and wants to dissuade them from their worship. It is very reminiscent of the scene in The Book of Acts where Paul and Barnabas are worshipped as incarnations of Hermes and Zeus after performing some miracles. It is comical but there is something profound in it all, as the men quickly try to correct the mistake and point the way to The True Savior.
In the Surfer's case, the issue is more complex, for the worship of the little aliens, and his attending correction, brings instantly back his feelings of remorse and repentance of his past life. He asserts, bluntly, that there is no redemption in any of his current deeds for his past deeds. His good does not balance out his evil.
It is an interesting question. Is it better for a reformed sinner to seek punishment for past sins or is it better to stay in the world, deal with the guilt and work to make things right, knowing you never really can? And indeed, no good deed in this world makes up for past sins. Karma isn't real, not as it is classically conceived anyways. I cannot make up for my past mistakes with present acts of virtue. Yet my salvation never depended on such acts. I am saved by grace, not by works. But being so saved, what is the proper response? May it not be to actually TRY to do what I know I never can, and live a life that covers my past sins?
The Surfer never experiences salvation because he does not know the kind of salvation we talk about in Christianity. Yet he remains ever an interesting case study in the repentant soul. Any comic that truly captures the essence of that soul is going to be fruitful for theological reflection. This issue of this comic certainly was.
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 3 Stars
Pacing: 4 Stars
Art: 3.5 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars
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