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Overanalyzing Anime
Blog Owner & Lead Writer
This third issue of Silver Surfer: Black, just like those the two that proceeded it, begins in the past. Or, really, the future. (Time travel is funny that way.) The issue begins with a panel of the void, which is then followed by a panel of an objectively beautiful woman who is calling out to Norrin. The next panel transitions back to the darkness, followed by a panel that intermixes the woman with the darkness of the void. I like this because it illustrates the fact that, to Norrin, this woman is able to cut through the darkness of the void.
Silver Surfer: Black frequently deals with the idea of lightness and darkness, so the use of this artistic technique – specifically the panel wherein her face breaks through the darkness, as if Norrin is opening his eyes to see her – is brilliant and really speaks volumes about what this person means to our protagonist. Even if you removed the text bubbles, it would still be clear that this person is significant, and I like when artwork can evoke emotion without having to say anything.
The pages that follow are pretty great too, but for different reasons. The artwork is phenomenal throughout, but more so than that, what these pages mean for Norrin as a character are extremely important. Throughout this story we’ve seen Norrin come down on himself pretty hard – and I’m not going to say that it’s not warranted. He’s played a role in some pretty atrocious things over the years and the notion that he’s haunted by it makes sense. What good person wouldn’t feel horrible after playing an active role in the destruction of countless worlds.
Well, this scene gives us our best look at how he views himself, as he and this woman – Shalla-Bal – discuss the idea of starting a family together, only for it to be interrupted by… Death. Now, obviously, this entity looks pretty familiar – more familiar than the guy who was lying in that bed with Shalla-Bal; and that’s, obviously, intentional. It’s meant to show us that Norrin sees himself as Death. And that’s important to understand. Norrin is the hero of this story, but the guy doesn’t feel that way at all. This is how he sees himself, and it’s pretty disheartening.
Something to also take note of is the fact that this version of him seems to be fully consumed by the darkness that’s been slowly eating at his left arm since issue number 1, wherein he launched a star out of his hand. We find out in this issue that the darkness is actually, “rapid atomic degeneration” – which I think is pretty RAD… You see what I did there? I made an acronym because… you know, the first letters spell out… RAD. Funny…right?
Anyway, this version of Norrin seems to be fully enveloped in that darkness. The being then, without saying a word, proceeds to destroy the planet.
Interestingly enough, the way in which it goes about doing so seems very similar the way a Symbiote might attack. The reason I find that so interesting is because Knull is considered to be a being of darkness, and I wonder if that style of attacking is common amongst beings of darkness. Or, perhaps, maybe Norrin’s nightmare was just influenced by his recent encounter with Knull and the Symbiotes. Reality can often influence dreams like that.
But, anyway, now we find ourselves back in the present. Which is the past. Which is… yeah, whatever.
Anyway, Ego and Norrin engage in a conversation about what they will do about Knull, but really, nothing gets accomplished. I will note that, at the end of the issue number two, Ego makes this badass comment about, “shall will kill a God?” and I thought that was… I mean, totally badass. But then, in this issue, he says, “You wish me to join in your war against Knull, the Void King,” but it was him that posed that aforementioned question. It made it seem as though Ego wanted to wage war against him – so much in fact that, at the time, I had preemptively planned to title this episode “war of the worlds” because, you know, Knull has a planet, Ego is a Planet, and it works as like… a play on that movie… ya know Whatever. But now Ego is acting all brand new and shit and I don’t like that.
Anyway, the conversation doesn’t really go anywhere because Ego is having health issues, and Norrin needs to go in and fix it. The next few pages are pretty damn epic, I have to say. Tradd Moore’s artwork works well in these scenes, and the way in which Don Cates describes what Norrin is going through as he traverses the inner workings of Ego is.. well, the man knows how to write some pretty intense scenes, and this is a perfect example. Ego’s body is inhospitable and the combination of Moore and Cates make that perfectly clear, which makes all of it very epic.
However, the best part of this story comes from its surprise ending, which sees Norrin coming face to face with Life-Bringer One – the Cosmic Incubator of Galactus! And… boy, that’s a lot to deal with. But, let’s take a look at how this could all play out.
The most obvious course of action would be for Norrin to remove Life-Bringer 1, the result of which would bring forth Galactus and he would begin his journey of seeking out and devouring worlds. A journey that will one day bring him to the planet Zenna-La, where he will encounter a young Norrin, and choose him to be his Herald. I imagine we’ll see Norrin struggle with making this decision, but it’s my belief that this is how things will have to go.
But, things could be different. We could see Norrin try and kill Galactus while he’s still within the incubator. If Donny Cates previous work – namely, Cosmic Ghost Rider, which saw Frank Castle go back in time in an attempt to kill Baby Thanos. Yes, this is a real story – if that’s any indication of what we can expect from this story, then there might be a chance that Norrin might attempt to do the same thing. However, that does create a problem, namely the fact that such an act could change the course of history.
The reason I don’t think this will work is because, while I imagine that Norrin couldn’t care less about his own fate – in fact, I imagine he’s embrace the idea of this version of him never being created – he would have to take into account that all the good he’s done in his life would also be erased. He’s helped out in a number of important battles throughout the years, and if Galactus is never born, then that means he, too, will never gain access to the Power Cosmic and who knows what that could mean for the universe. It would be interesting to see the story go this route, but I doubt it will.
Another option is a variation of the one I think will happen – wherein Galactus is brought forth and, instead of doing his own thing, he goes and wages war with Knull. That would be… damn. That would be a damn good battle. Especially if you throw Ego into the mix and it’s just a free for all between these Celestials with Norrin just caught in the middle… I’m with it! I’m all in on that! That would be absolutely wild! But, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
I’m not going to bother with a score because this is less a review and more so just me talking about how bad ass this comic is. So, yeah, be sure to check out my website because I’ve been sprucing it up a bit. I did an actual review on the latest issue of Immortal Hulk, so check that out! I also did a review on this book called Suicide Notes that I read that I felt was pretty great! So yeah, check my site out, follow me on Twitter, on Instagram, like my FaceBook page, and subscribe to my YouTube Channel!
Until next time, folks!
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