Silver Surfer: The Man Behind The Cosmic Chrome (Origin Of Norrin Radd)

Posted By: Fenrir Moon and Ninjetta Kage

Written by Mamanin

The Silver Surfer: From Artistic Birth to Earth

Code Name: Silver Surfer

Name: Norrin Radd

The aliases he’s built up over his the years are the Herald of Galactus, Cosmic Wanderer, The Cosmic Surfer, Protector of the Universe, Champion of the Universe, Silver Savage, Skyrider, Sentinel of the Spaceways, Cosmic Messiah, Galatic Messiah, John Doe, Lightlord, Dr. Norrin Radd: Sorcerer Supreme, Doom-Bringer, and several more.

His Original home is Planet Zenn-La in the Deneb System, Milky Way Galaxy. Technically he is a citizen of the planet Zenn-La, with no criminal record. He no longer has a home but not because his planet blew up or anything… Ahem… But more of because he’s a cosmic space nomad. Just as he has no stationary home, the only thing you can really consider as his base of operations is his very mobile very powerful board which might as well be a part of his body… We’ll get to the board later, so stick around for the details… Continuing on;

Affiliations: He was an ally or part of the Heralds of Galactus, Dawn Greenwood, The Defenders, Secret Defenders, The Order, God Squad, Annihilators, Titans Three, and Star Masters.

Powers: The origin of his powers is Galactus, who imbued him with the power of cosmic to become his Herald. Besides giving this man some epic cosmic chroming and a sweet way to shoot through space, he gave him an absolute arsenel of abilities. What are these abilities you ask? They are-

Superhuman strength and durability, Flight with surfboard, Energy and matter manipulation, Absorption and manipulation of the universe’s ambient energy, Telekinesis, Limited telepathy, Illusion casting via telepathy, Intangibility, Invisibility, Pocket universe creation, Cosmic senses, and the ability to heal himself and others by using the power of cosmic to repair and reform damaged cells.

Now, on to his board. Are you ready for the board? Get ready, now duck!

The Silver Surfer’s board is construct of unknown material that seems to be made from the same silver reflective material as the Surfer’s body coating. There is nothing wrong with coordinating! The board is psionically linked to him and can automatically respond to his mental commands. It can travel separately from him and return to him if they’re split up for some reason. When he rides it, the Surfer’s feet automatically and practically fuses to the board’s upper surface. Not sure on if it’s the board doing this. Maybe it has something to do with the material they are both coated and or made of. This board can do more than look pretty, heel, and provide mysterious foot-clinging action though. It also has:

It can travel at superluminal speed, Time travel via superluminal speed, Limited dimensional travel, and even travel through time on rare occasion by going at speeds that break the time barrier… Safe to say, this is one amazing mode of transportation… It has the ability to phase it’s rider or riders into an immaterial form that allows passage through barriers and it’s probably pretty good for keeping someone from getting yeeted off the board by some stray space debris or something. Hey, I can see how that can come in handy.

Now, remember that pocket universe creation mentioned earlier in this video? Give a big thanks to the Silver surfer’s Space Surfing Board. Thanks to the board, the Silver Surfer can lock away living matter for extended amounts of time or even just destroy them within the board itself.

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The Silver Surfer, who was created by Jack Kirby as a supporting character of the Fantastic Four’s first run-in with Galactus. He felt that the character of Galactus’ power would have a herald- someone to scout ahead and search for the planets he can consume. The Silver Surfer’s board was thought of as the mode of transport as Jack Kirby was tired of characters using spacecrafts to travel through space. Instead, he had a the Surfer have a telepathically controlled surfboard that would hurtle him through space at astronomical speeds through the universe. Stan Lee wasn’t sure about Jack Kirby’s extra character in the Galactus story because of the unusual design but after learning more of the motives and role in the story, he accepted the character for the storyline and Silver Surfer was introduced. The Silver Surfer first appeared in Fantastic Four #48- The Coming of Galactus in March 1966, and appears in over two thousand issues of comics, but that’s not the start of his history.

The world he was from, his home world Zenn-La was an extremely long lived and technologically advanced as well as having had a worldwide utopia without crime, disease, poverty, or lacking resources. Norrin Rad was named after the revered scientist called Norrin Konn who had been responsible for raising the people of the planet from having been in a barbaric era to having become the utopia it had become. Jartran- his father had been the one to name him having revered the scientist. But Elmar, his mother had a different reaction to the change in culture and the people. She was unable to handle the extreme changes and the aimless hedonism that had begun to rise in the people and ended up committing suicide when Norrin was still a young child. A suicide that Norrin always blamed himself for.

Following the death of his wife, Jartran gained a great amount of ambition and determination to raise their son to advance, to learn, and to seek out achievements instead of falling into the hedonism that was consuming the society. In adulthood, Norrin suffered another loss as his father had been accused of idea theft from another scientist and upon confronting Jartran over the accusations, having had negligence admitted to him. He was repulsed by the fact his father could do such a thing and withdrew from him. It wasn’t long after, that Jartran committed suicide as he had become depressed not only by his actions being made public, but the apparent lack of support from his first son.

Still having his dreams of helping the society become one of more substance, and believing that Zenn-La no longer had any more goals to achieve, Norrin became unhappy with the lack of challenges and struggles and restless to where his lover Shalla-Bal was troubled as she felt they had all they could ever want together and that he kept dreaming of more.

Before Galactus came flying at Zenn-La mouth first and with a hunger that won’t quit, Norrin Radd was an Astronomer of his people and actually the one to discover the impending doom coming their way. He convinced a Council of Scientists to let him take a spacecraft out to investigate something that had breached Zenn-La’s defenses. When he got there, he found out exactly what was in store for his home and people. Norrin couldn’t just let that happen. To get Galactus to spare his home-world, he offered himself up to become Galactus’ Herald. Though freedom is one of the things he cherished most, he relinquished his own.

After accepting Norrin’s offer to become his Herald and to sate his hunger in exchange for Zenn-La’s safety from digestion, Galactus used his powers to not only transform the young astronomer into a form taken out of a fantasies he had as a child, but imbued him with his own set of Cosmic powers and sent him forth to find suitable meals to beat back that eternal hunger. And so, the newly made Silver Surfer set forth Galactus Herald style, surfing through space and the cosmos for several decades if not a century.

Although he had a good time exploring the universe and different sights and experiences it had to offer, there came a growing problem. One that grew as steadily as his master’s appetite. He was beginning to have increasing difficulty in finding energy packed planets that didn’t also hold sentient life. His desperation to fulfil his duty to help satiate Galactus led him to resorting to dooming an inhabited planet to his Leige. This action and likely the guilt that came with it, caused Silver Surfer to almost go insane and Galactus ended up altering the Silver Surfer so that his emotions were locked away and his memory of his life as Normal Radd was repressed. This resulted in the Silver Surfer becoming less resistant to leading Galactus to inhabited worlds as his previous feelings of compassion had been repressed.

The Silver Surfer and the Symbiotes. During his servitude to his master and before having found Earth, the Silver Surfer actually came across symbiotes on an artificial planet called Klyntar. The planet had been overrun by the hive-mind symbiotes which attacked the Silver Surfer and attempted to imprison him within it’s core but the Surfer managed to break free and escape. You know that the symbiotes weren’t happy about this, but not only did he escape their slimy clutches but later, he sacrificed Joot, one of thier home-worlds, to Galactus to devour. Needless to say, they hate him. They hate him hard.

Earth. Though Watchers are only supposed to observe and never interfere, one particular one by the name of Uatu isn’t really known for his strict adherence to the rules and brought his hands into the affairs of lesser beings by attempting to hide the planet Earth from Galactus’ stomach when he discovered that the Silver Surfer was on his way to scout it. Uatu tried to hide Earth with the use of holograms of fire and debris but all that really did was make the poor residents of Earth end up in a worldwide panic and the Silver Surfer ended up finding that precious cosmic cookie anyways. Fortunately, the Watcher also warned the Fantastic Four of the danger that was on its way so when Uatu failed in trying to convince Galactus to spare Earth, he had other options to fall back on…. Like cranking up the Human Torch’s powers and let’s playing him through Galactus’ Worldship to retrieve the Ultimate Nullifier.

The Ultimate Nullifier is the only weapon known to be powerful enough to destroy an entire universe. It’s no wonder Galactus was so afraid of it he felt like he had to keep it right there on his ship where he could keep an eye on it…

The leveled up Human Torch managed to nab the Nullifier and was guided back to Earth by the Interactive-Watcher, where Mister Fantastic used the device to force Galactus to surrender. This achievement wasn’t all due to Uatu and the Fantastic Four though. Between the time of Uatu scaring Earth’s residents senseless with is attempts to save them through showmanship and Human Torch being given his level-up, time didn’t stop. Silver Surfer wasn’t just lurking there and sparkling in the sunlight. During the dinnertime shuffle, he met the then girlfriend of Ben Grimm AKA The Thing, Alicia Masters- a blind sculptress who was able to sense his inner good.

She pleaded with him to spare Humanity and her heartfelt pleas and the beauty of her spirit got through the numbing and smothering that had been done to his own emotions. He broke out of his apathetic state and ended up joining the forces against the very one he was Herald to. He fought along with the Fantastic four, helping fight Galactus off long enough for the Ultimate Nullifier to be retrieved.

Needless to say, Galactus wasn’t happy. He showed his hanger and disapproval by punishing the Silver Surfer, exiling him onto Earth. Not only was Surfer exiled there, but Galactus actually constructed a cosmic energy barrier that was tuned into him specifically, to keep him trapped inside. Think invisible fence… but the guy can’t just take a deep breath, running start, and dive through anyways. Trapped there and with Galactus having left him, the Silver Surfer fell into a depressed and wandering state. He traveled the world, trying to learn and adapt to the new home he believed he would be stuck on forever. In the beginning, his appearance was met with fear and hatred to the point where countries would fire weapons of mass destruction at him as he flew overhead.

This has been part one of Silver Surfer, the man behind the cosmic chrome.

What happened after the Silver Surfer was contained within the prison his master had erected? That’ll come in part two of our Silver Surfer Series.

We’ve told you how the Silver Surfer made his introduction to Earth in the comics, now it’s time to hear our theory on how he may show up in the Marvel cinematic universe.

While Galactus may have had his Herald cruising through the cosmos and looking for planets for him to consume, this doesn’t mean that it is the only thing he has had him do. It wouldn’t be reaching far to say that the events that took place during the original Guardians of the Galaxy could have begun the chain reaction leading to the Silver Surfer honing in on Earth.

Most people following Marvel know that the Infinity Stones are a huge deal. They hold an obscene amount of power and aren’t supposed to be able to be wielded by mortals. Peter Quill, also known as Starlord, made some serious ripples when he- with the aid of the other Guardians of the Galaxy, managed to not only wield the Power Stone, but survive without any known permanent damage.

Previously, he was only just building up his reputation and most people didn’t seem to be able to identify him just from looking at him or knowing his name. After the stone though, it wouldn’t be hard to believe that not only did he have a lot more fame and a lot more eyes on him, but he would have drawn the attention of powerful beings. The incident would have been like a flare going off. Or dinner bell. One that could have drawn the attention of Galactus or his Herald.

It wasn’t long after, that a series of metaphorical flares were sent out into the cosmos as another improbability to the universe happened in the form of Wanda Maximoff pulling off the feat of actually destroying one of the Infinity Stones. The Mind Stone, to be exact. It would have taken grand and intense power to have done such a thing, and it was piggybacked by another intense use of power when the stone was reformed, then followed by a event that affected the whole universe.

The majority of the action that took place during Endgame had been hosted on or around Earth and the events that took place during and after Endgame could have drawn the attention of this cosmic entity along with many others. If the original snap and the sudden shift in the universe didn’t draw his attention the second snap surely would have. Then, there are events that arose such as the surge and display of legendary power in the Wanda Vision series. Though Peter Quill, AKA Starlord, hadn’t been involved with the events happening on Earth at that time, and even left at the end of Endgame, Earth has most likely become a point of interest for many powerful beings. Especially since the time when the Celestials came to Earth and created the Eternals. But, we’ll get into that in a future article.

Though his hunger is all encompassing, Thanos was a space explorer in his previous life so not only would the massive wafts of power smell like an appetizing feast, but if there is any of that explorer left in the fused being, it would likely have him more prone to wanting to find out what had gone on.

There’s something amazing you get from looking and reading the comics that you just can’t get from just listening about them. Why not pop by your nearest comic store and take a look? If you like what you’ve heard during this article and want to experience the story for yourself, here are three comics you might be interested in: Fantastic Four #48- The Coming of Galactus , The Silver Surfer issue number one, and Silver Surfer: Black #2

Please check out the video, narrated by Ninjetta Kage

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The resources used for this article were marvel.com, marvelfandom.com, comicvine, and the three comic picks we’ve chosen for today.