| Silver Surfer #8 |
 |
 |
 |
| Monday, 19 January 2015 21:59 |
|
Everything is cute in a new relationship, until it isn't. Assuming that the Silver Surfer and Dawn are supposed to be forming a relationship, of course. Aren't they? Perhaps it's due to our being privy to the Surfer's thought-captions and the way he confides in his board like a lovesick teenager musing to a pet, but there's something kind of innocent to its approach. I'm wondering how much of it is assumed, as in, the whole "it can't be possible for two characters of opposite gender to share a lead role without falling in love" trope, and how much of it is a natural outcome of two people getting to know each other better.So you'd think Dawn would know more about the Silver Surfer's role as a Herald of Galactus before this, right? I suppose it's dramatically necessarily to make such a revelation as dramatic as possible, but it does paint the events of this issue as a bit forced, somewhat artificial. Most forced of all, however, might be Dawn's reaction. It would have guessed she might have allowed the Surfer a small chance for explanation, but instead she chooses to believe the alien creatures she's just met five minutes ago. But, hey, at least it sets us up for Dawn versus Galactus next issue, right?And… that's about it. The drama/dilemma is the entire set piece for this issue. It feels about right, since it's essentially a character-driven issue, but it also feels a bit heavy-handed, since every page is fraught with set-up to make the Surfer's past history and present relationship as Dramatically Poignant as possible.It makes me appreciate the humor inherent in making "Toomie," the Surfer's board, more and more into a character in its own right. It's a nice touch and provides an opportunity for a, ahem, sounding board for some Surfery musings, and I have a soft spot in my heart for animal (or at least in this case, animal-like) sidekicks. It has always been established that the board was an extension of the Surfer's power cosmic, so it kind of bends our expectations a bit and starts me on the road to question what intelligence and existence really means, but that's just the armchair philosopher in me, and I have to shut that guy up before he imbues my coveted desk chair with sidekick-level ideas.The whimsy of humor, and indeed the romantic underpinnings in the first part of the book, really comes to the fore with Allred's art. The fourth page has the Surfer talking to his board in what appears to be staged as a private conversation but is really taking place side-by-side with Dawn. Elsewhere, Dawn's command of the board's flight path is actually pretty fun and delightful. It IS space, after all, with no "up and down" in our traditional z-axis orientated world, something that artists could really have fun with if they let loose. (See also: Aquaman and underwater-related scenes.) Allred does, in fact, let loose with his character designs once again, as the story prompts him to include a wide variety of alien body types and fantastic alien landscape. The post Silver Surfer #8 appeared first on Weekly Comic Book Review. Read more: http://weeklycomicbookreview.com/2015/01/20/silver-surfer-8/ |
|
PULL LIST STATISTICS
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Latest News
�
09/10/10:Comic Archive now allows pick list generation • • 09/07/10:Our Weekly Comic Book Archive is now operational • • 09/05/10:Website Rewritten and Redesigned