Silver Surfer And Wiki Research

I’m not a huge Silver Surfer fan. I always found too many writers focus on his isolation and guilt that came with being a former herald of Galactus. However, I certainly know more about him than the people defending the latest news from Marvel Studios. Fresh from surviving an attempt to fix the damages at Disney by getting someone on the board that might be an advocate of the shareholders (let’s face it, none of them care about the fans unless they’re smart enough to see the money in it), the first thing Bob Iger announced is that the next Silver Surfer, the first for the MCU, would be female, played by Julia Garner.

Of course the usual suspects on both sides chimed in. The actual comic fans complained that it’s not Norrin Radd, the Silver Surfer from the main comics, every previous Fantastic Four movie and TV show, The Super Hero Squad, his own cartoon series, and numerous video games. Instead they went with Shalla-Bal, using Earth-X as their example of why it totally works because it’s in the comics.

A lot of things were in the comics. Some you don’t want to show up again anywhere, inside or outside of comics. The sad part is, I could easily find more than the five I wrote about in that linked to article, the point being that “it was in the comics” isn’t enough. Especially when we’re talking about a Marvel Studios that insists creators and performers stay oblivious to the comics so they can make their stories instead of doing an adaptation or doing their own stories as unique IP. In their minds they’re trying to show they can make better stories than the comics. The media pecking order and snobbery in action, though studios not wanting to take risks and are satisfied with cheap marketing gimmicks isn’t helping.

What the defenders of girl Surfer fail to realise is that the fans are geeks. They know more about superheroes than your average sports nut knows the RBI average of their favorite baseball teams, and that knowledge goes back decades. They can tell when someone specifically went looking for wikipedia and fan wiki entries that prove their case, or in the case of Marvel Studios to make the story they really want to make. Of course, it’s all surface level. Going solely by the Marvel Database fan wiki I can show how terrible their research is, and I’m going to, but don’t forget as I go through this that the studios don’t care. They’re using intellectual properties of a form of media they look down upon as a cheap marketing gimmick. Any research I, the defenders, or even the comic fans who aren’t heavy into Marvel lore did in this whole TwitterX and blogging debate surpasses the folks happy about changes in something they aren’t going to spend time and money on anyway or the people working on it. WE care more than THEY do, and that already says little about the stewards of decades of history.

Taken from The Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe, something else they didn’t read.

Okay, so who IS Shalla-Bal? According to the Marvel Database, Shalla-Bal is the lover of Norrin Radd, the original Silver Surfer. In the main comic continuity, Earth 616 (put a pin in that), she was separated from Norrin when Galactus chose him as his herald, to spare Norrin and Shalla’s homeworld of Zenn-La from Galactus’ need to feed on planets. Go read her entry. Granted, her role seems to be mostly about torturing Norrin or having her get kidnapped, so maybe this is the usual suspects trying to continue making every girl a “girlboss”, but people are going to look this stuff up. Kind of like I’m doing now.

Her more recent status has been Empress of what’s left of Zenn-La and…here’s a funny part…Keeper Of The Great Truth, trying to spread Zenn-La’s culture, presumably by force. That ended poorly, and she and Norrin are split again as she declared him exiled. Dude gets tortured by Marvel writers worse than Peter Parker.

When was she Silver Surfer? Not in the main comics. Instead we have to turn to the pages of Earth-X, an alternate universe (Earth 9997) where Franklin Richards, Reed’s son, becomes the new Galactus because of a long story. Shortening it further, Shalla is given a portion of the Power Cosmic, acting as a “twin” herald along with Norrin, so the two could remain together. Yes, Shalla-Bal becomes Silver Surfer because of her connection to Norrin, the first Silver Surfer. The MCU writers and directors today hate that, as we saw with Carol Danvers’ origin being messed with. Also, they’re both dead. And since Earth 9997 isn’t referred to much this may actually stick.

It’s also not the only time she’s been a herald of Galactus. In Earth 8327 (I guess that should be Zenn-La 8327) she is given a golden version of Silver Surfer’s coating and dubbed Starglow in a story that continues to keep these two apart. While she’s appeared in other corners of the Marvel Multiverse, she hasn’t been a herald in any of them while Norrin’s been all over the multiverse. There have been a few other Silver Surfers or replacements as heralds of Galactus. Earth 829 gives us Hercules’ granddaughter Juno as Silver Surfer. Heck, in Earth 8417 AUNT MAY became a herald of Galactus. Why aren’t we getting Sally Field as Golden Oldie, saving the universe by feeding Galactus space Twinkies? Yes I’m serious (though the story isn’t), check the link! It’s not even a Hostess ad (Earth 51914). It would be more than May’s done in any of the MCU movies.

I’d make a hot girls reference but Marvel Studios hates hot girls as much as I hate bad puns. Only I’m more accepting.

Silver Surfer isn’t even the only herald in the main universe. No, I don’t think Silver Snowboarder counts because we don’t know what her deal is…or “their deal” according to the pronouns used in that wiki entry. Among the entries on Galactus’ heralds you’ll find the likes of Suzi “The Seeker” Endo (I guess her other identity, Cybermancer, wasn’t to Galactus’ liking), the mutant hero Dazzler for a hot second as part of Galactus’ issue with evil herald Terrax (maybe they should have made him the villain), and while not a girl, the fact that Galactus had a cat herald amuses me. Oh, not a real cat. That’s disappointing. As a matter of fact, fans have pointed to Frankie Raye, the herald called Nova (not to be confused with the Nova Corp, Marvel’s answer to the Green Lanterns) as the herald they should have gone with…although starting their Fantastic Four with Galactus and his heralds at all seems like using up one of the good stories way too early rather than establish the FF in the MCU properly. Will it give us a break from Doctor Doom, who seems to be the only FF villain writers know? Probably not.

I’ve probably confused some of you with these numbers. This is the last point I want to make as further proof the Marvel Studios people are doing the most surface level of research to get the results they want. Earth 616 is the main Marvel universe, aka the mainline comics. I knew how little they cared when I saw a clip from Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness when they declared his Earth was 616. That’s not how the multiverse designation works in the Marvel universe. 616 is a swipe at DC, who names its main universe Earth 1 and the Golden Age period on Earth 2…when they aren’t screwing over their own multiverse, but that’s another article. Every comic set in an alternate universe, from What If? to kids titles to novels to crossovers with other properties have their own designation. This is true of every licensed Marvel property dating back to the Captain America serials (Earth 600001 if you’re curious.) This includes the MCU, which according to the Database is Earth 199999, with some offshoots thanks to their own What If? series and Multiverse Of Madness.

So there’s your wiki level research, and with more effort than Marvel Studios and the representation crowd did. They didn’t do anything more than do a quick search for “Silver Surfer but girl”, when they had plenty of girl options for heralds. They didn’t just want a girl, they wanted that name, and everyone knows the Silver Surfer. Nobody knows The Seeker. I didn’t until putting in the work for this article, and it’s more effort than the actual creators put into it. Add in the rumors that both the FF and Shalla Surfer are going to be from alternate universes rather than a proper Fantastic Four introduction into the MCU proper and this doesn’t look like it’s going to be any more faithful than any other Disney-era MCU movie.