Home Is Where the Heart Is
Written By:
Dan Slott
Art By:
Michael Allred, Laura Allred,
Lettered By:
VC’s Joe Sabino
Cover Price:
$3.99
On Sale Date: May 18, 2016
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE
BOTTOM**
When Marvel first announced the new run on Silver Surfer with Dan Slott and Mike
Allred, I snorked. Good job, Marvel,
I thought, smug in my comics business superiority, you could have made me get a comic from either one of those creators,
but with them both on the same book I only need to buy one! Dan Slott is
one of my favorite writers, since that Spider-Man/Human
Torch four issue miniseries with the unfortunate-looking covers, and if you
have a problem with the Allreds’ artwork then your eyes are undoubtedly broken.
In fact, when I heard Mike Allred was connected with new stories of Norrin
Radd, I whacked my forehead like I coulda had a V8, because he’s perfect to
draw this chromed-out character from the cranium of Kirby. What I’m trying to
say is that I have very positive feelings about this comic book, and you can
read some of them in my review right now!
So uh, I don’t have to explain who the Silver Surfer
is, right? One time resident of the planet Zenn-La, saved it from being
destroyed by Galactus by becoming his space-surfing herald, found Earth and
decided to make a stand against Galactus to protect it…well in Slott and
Allred’s run, he’s been cruising the spaceways with Massachusetts native Dawn
Greenwood, in a series of very enjoyable adventures that some say are a little
like Doctor Who thematically, and by
that I mean they are definitely a lot like Doctor
Who thematically. It really has been a real fun comic to read, and this
issue opens with the Silver Surfer…dead?! Yep, he stopped the Illuminatrix, a
device from his homeworld of Zenn-La that was under the control of the Surfer’s
first love, Shalla Bal. What the Illuminatrix did was go around from planet to
planet, turning each of them into Zenn-La: paradises free of oppression and
hardship, but lacking in the arts and other forms of expression borne of
suffering. So uh...we all know that the blinkered paradise is better, right?
Like, art as an expression of social malaise can be appreciated because there
is social malaise—but if we can eradicate the problems, then who cares about
the art? Just give me my eternal ambrosia fountain and go on with your illicit
graffiti and maudlin poetry! Anyway, Silver Surfer hacked into the Illuminatrix
and changed every planet, including Earth, back the way they were by erasing
the very culture and history of Zenn-La! This left the invading force from
Zenn-La in all-white, featureless costumes and spaceships, sort of like the No
Frills supermarket wares from Repo Man,
except, uh, aliens and flying eggs. To do so, Surfer had to drain all of his
life force, otherwise known as he’s dead now.
But before he died, to connect himself to them and
then to protect them from the Illuminatrix, Silver Surfer gave rings made of
his cosmic silvery essence or whatever to Dawn, Alicia Masters, and the Thing,
and when they squeeze these back into his goopy armor he comes back to life a
little bit! But he is still very weak, so he’s rushed to the hospital a hero,
having saved Earth from being turned into a lame suburban strip mall. And this
is like an assembly of almost every hero currently operating in the Marvel
Universe, all rendered in Mike Allred’s style that just sends me soaring, I
love it so much. As they all hang out, crammed into Silver Surfer’s hospital
room during what are certainly not visiting hours, different heroes are
informed or sense that the once Zenn-Lavians are regrouping for an attack,
likely on a prone Norrin Radd! It’s time for Marvel’s heroes to go to work.
Thing tells his squeeze Alicia to stay behind, which Dawn finds endearing but
Alicia explains is merely strategic, and everyone else takes off to fight the
deposed Zenn-Lavians!
Now, if you are a fan of Mike Allred’s artwork, and
scenes of heroes fighting for righteousness against all odds, and if you enjoy
seeing ordinary people band together under a common cause in support of said
heroes, and in doing so become heroes themselves, then you may read on from
this point with glee. But if you do not like Mike Allred’s artwork or stories
about the triumph of humanity against adversity, then I need to ask: who hurt
you? What made your worldview so bleak that you simply can’t enjoy reading
about a bunch of do-gooders and average Joes enjoining the common cause to
protect a silver-suited space traveler? Because it is so much fun, and it
should read as so much fun, and if you look at the same pages I did, at all the
action in panels great and small, and come away thinking it sucks, then you
might have a brain tumor. Please, get yourself checked out. Despite the heroes
valiant efforts, however, eventually Shalla Bal crashes into the hospital to
confront a still comatose Surfer.
Dawn and Alicia are still standing at his bedside,
and Shalla orders them to stand clear. Alicia ain’t having it, though, and he
busts up her cane, Daredevil style, to reveal some billy clubs, Daredevil
style, and then proceeds to whup Shalla’s ass, Daredevil style. Indeed, it is
shown that there’s an inscription in braille on the billy clubs, and they’re a
gift from Matt Murdock himself! Everyone
in the Marvel Universe loves Alicia Masters and it makes me very happy for some
reason! Though Alicia gets some key blows in, Shallah eventually gets the
upper hand, and is about to blast Alicia to kingdom come when Silver Surfer’s
surfboard Toomee flies in front of the blast and takes its full brunt. His
connection to the board having been severed, Surfer snaps awake and says he’s
just had the craziest dream about turning Zenn-Lavians into the supermarket
goods from a film called Repo Man—Norrin
Radd’s seen it, too! Dawn stands between Silver Surfer and Shallah, but Silver
tells her to stand down, that he must stand and face the music for having
eliminated his own culture. And with that…Shallah shuns him, making him a
Zenn-Lavian no longer. Sort of anticlimactic, but that’s all wiped away with
the gushy good-vibes procession of diplomats offering citizenship to the
countries of the world, and he even becomes a citizen of Yancy Street! But the
most “feels” moment of the whole thing is when Dawn grabs his hand and says
she’d like to be his home, and he accepts, and everyone is all like awwwwww and you’re like I’m not even
crying shut up it’s a stupid comic book and then Dawn and Norrin hug and you’re
like whatever this is so stupid I’m going to the bathroom.
Leave to a comic book about an extra-terrestrial
alien with the power cosmic to have some of the most touching, human moments.
This series is also pretty funny, if laughing is something you enjoy. Not
enough good can be said about the artwork, the coloring handled by Laura Allred
complements the highly-detailed, stylized drawings of Mike’s perfectly, and the
drawings of Mike’s complement everything pure and right in this world. The
stories are always good and sometimes sublime—this particular story is pretty
good, made a lot more thrilling with the inclusion of much of the current
Marvel Universe playing backup. If you’re staying away from this title because
Dan Slott made fun of you on Twitter or because you haven’t enjoyed the Silver
Surfer character in the past, I recommend you swallow your pride and adjust
your preconceived notions and give this book a shot. I think it’s one of the
very best on the stands and I imagine any superhero fan would enjoy it.
Bits and
Pieces:
9/10
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