The beginnings of the SILVER SURFER solo comic, lovingly reproduced in this high-quality, reasonably-priced trade paperback editions, were, as you may know, Marvel writer and editor-in-chief Stan Lee's attempt at getting the superhero genre to grow up a bit. That the attempt was only intermittently successful is hardly the worst of failings - too often, critics label as "pretentious" anything that labors to rise above the hackwork and pablum we are usually offered, leading us to conclude that... they prefer the hackwork and pablum? God only knows. Anyway, although is hardly a Watchmen-level breakthrough, it's pretty heady stuff for its time; Lee's dialogue is at its most endearingly exclamatory, florid, and pseudo-philosophical; John Buscema's compositons and layouts have never been more adventurous or striking, and one can see with greater clarity than ever every stroke of Joe Sinnott's and Sal Buscema's pen and/or brush. And the Surfer? Well, he's just the coolest darn Christ figure to ever hop on a surfboard and sky-ride through the spaceways. But you already knew that, didn't you?