Marvel Animation was on a roll in the 90’s. With the X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons runaway hits, they took to the cartoon medium in a kind of frenzied state with varied results. Iron Man, Hulk, and even the Avengers hit the screen in animated form making viewers think that it was the 60’s all over again and Marvel Comics had arrived to take over (Fantastic Four had already been on the small screen for some time with its 1990’s incarnation). With the exception of the X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons, all of these projects had a vital quality in common, they were unwatchable (granted, I have a soft spot for the FF and kind of like the 90’s series but I’d never subject anyone else to it… well maybe my wife, I guess). The exception to this rule is the superb Silver Surfer cartoon series that has gone all but unnoticed by cartoon scholars.
The reason for the lack of praise for the series, to my knowledge, is that so few people even know that the Silver Surfer cartoon exists. Even a Marvelite like myself took about 10 years to actually catch a full episode. In New England, the series was aired at some absurd hour so that I only caught a portion of an episode, and even then by accident. I was struck almost immediately by the closeness to Jack Kirby’s line work in the design of Galactus and the spooky manner in which John Buscema’s soulful searcher was caught in animated form.
The Silver Surfer has been a part of Marvel Comics cartoons since the 1967 FF series (and was even adapted into several episodes of the 90’s series), but he never really seemed to convey the majesty that Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and John Buscema imbued him with.
The stories in the Silver Surfer cartoon are just as faithful as the designs, which makes me wonder how the series got green-lit. A cartoon following the existential escapades of a lovelorn galactic navel gazer can hardly sell action figures and breakfast cereal, so how did this thing get off the ground? The answer may come by way of Marvel’s financial worries that caused the cartoon to end prematurely with a cosmos- exploding cliffhanger. In any case, the product that survives the untimely ending of the cartoon is a wonder to behold.
Aside from Spider-Man, the Silver Surfer remains Stan Lee’s most personal contribution to the world of comics. The character of Norrin Radd lives on Zenn La, a planet of near idyllic bliss. A man born into the wrong time, Norrin is frustrated that there is nothing for him to do in this world. I always took this attitude to reflect author Stan Lee’s living in an era without a war to go to. TV auteur Patrick McGoohan spoke of this as well, stating that he belonged to the first generation of men who did not fight in a world war. I’m not suggesting that McGoohan or Lee are war mongers, but there must have been a feeling of inadequacy when they did not have a group of army buddies to drink with as their fathers and grandfathers had. Zenn La is also a planet of technological marvels, making the pursuit of such accomplishments pointless. This leaves Radd with the time honored question , ‘what am I for?’
When the world devouring entity known as Galactus arrives to gobble up Zenn La, Norrin Radd sees at last the reason why he has such a courageous streak without a cause. Sacrificing himself up to the towering being, Norrin Radd offers himself as the one thing that Galactus does not have, a herald. Norrin Radd’s masterplan is to seek out uninhabited worlds for Galactus to devour and thereby save countless civilizations from extinction. Of course this act requires that he cast aside his humanity and the love of his life, Shalla Bal, the only person to reciognize just how special Norrin Radd is.
After being transmuted into a new being, Norrin Radd forgets his plan, his homeworld and the love he has lost. He only knows that he serves Galactus as the Silver Surfer.
One of the most amazing adaptations of comicdom’s most soul-searching superheroic characters, the Silver Surfer cartoon remains out of print due to legal wranglings. It never ceases to amaze me that while I can purchase the complete collection of Hey Vern, It’s Earnest episodes at the local K-Mart, TV programs like this remain unseen.
… the humanity.
