The Silver Surfer has watched the cycle of death play out many times across thousands of planets. It’s now his turn to join that cycle. Your Major Spoilers review of The Death of The Silver Surfer #1 awaits!

THE DEATH OF THE SILVER SURFER #1

Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Sumit Kumar
Colorist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
Editor: Tom Groneman
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: June 11th, 2025

Previously in The Death of The Silver Surfer: Norrin Radd was born on an alien world. He was later chosen by the world-eating being known as Galactus to wield The Power Cosmic and be his herald. Since then, The Silver Surfer has broken free of his ties to Galactus and travels the cosmos as one of the most powerful beings alive.

TARGET: SILVER SURFER

The Death of The Silver Surfer #1 opens up in the aftermath of a battle. Silver Surfer comes across a man who is mortally wounded. He thinks about life and death and what his role is in all of it, considering how much power he has. He then decides to save the man and end the civil war that led to the battle by disabling all the military equipment on both sides. Elsewhere, former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Koh gets ready for the Bureau of Alien Neutralization, or B.A.N. She is sent to Iowa to deal with an alien bug running amok, which she takes care of with extreme finality. Afterwards, she’s called into the office of Director Harmon, owner of Eaglestar, who bought the bureau. He says he needs to generate some growth for the company and to do that, he is sending her after Silver Surfer as a high-publicity target.

THE POWER COSMIC VS CAPITALISM

The Death of The Silver Surfer #1 is one of those comics that feels like it had to be a comic. The way this narrative bounces between heady, philosophical meditations on the nature of life and death, and the role power has in it, and laser-firing mech suits is a balance that really only makes sense in this medium. What’s good about this is that it feels like Greg Pak understands this. The opening sequence is a gorgeous series of pages packed with both written and visual metaphors that bounce between the majesty of the cosmos and a literal bug stuck on its back, with the narration seamlessly moving into dialogue, and then into action. The plot itself takes an interesting turn as it goes from this opening sequence about life and death, and then very suddenly moves into a story about capitalism and the idea of manufactured outrage against an outsider. Poignant for sure, but this switch-up doesn’t play out as smoothly as maybe it could have. Also, while The Silver Surfer has never been written as a particularly charismatic character, but here he’s written as being flighty and that’s it. This one-note approach to the characters extends to Koh and Hammond as well. Koh is a quintessential overachiever, while Hammond is just a cartoonish capitalist. They fit the story well enough, but lack depth to make them memorable parts of it.

GOOD VISUAL MISDIRECTION

The Death of the Silver Surfer #1 is an expertly laid-out comic book. While each panel is well drawn and colored, the way that these panels interact with each other is where things are really intriguing. Multiple times throughout this issue, they use clever misdirection. For example, in the opening sequence, while The Silver Surfer is standing over a dying man, who’s pleading for his life, it appears that Silver Surfer is focused on a bug on its back, when Silver Surfer decides to act it looks like he’s choosing the bug over the man, but then its revealed he’s fixing everything. There are also multiple instances where how one panel is framed and composed is repeated later, which helps with the cycle metaphor.

BOTTOM LINE: A GOOD STORY WITH UNINTERESTING CHARACTERS

The Death of The Silver Surfer #1 kicks things off in a good way by establishing that this is going to be a series with some big ideas and isn’t going to be the run-of-the-mill space lasers and monster sci-fi story. There’s a level of craftsmanship here that elevates it in ways that almost makes up for the lack of depth currently defining the characters. This issue presents the reader with a lot of options of where this series can go, and they all seem interesting. 4 out of 5 stars.

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