Silver Surfer Annual 1 - The Evolutionary War

The Surfer comes back to Earth to have his DNA mapped.

Silver Surfer Annual #1

1st story: Adam
(At least that's what the internet thinks this story is called. The title lettering is extremely hard to read.)
Story: Steve Englehart
Pencils: Joe Staton
Inks: Joe Rubinstein
Letters: Ken Bruzenak
Colors: Tom Vincent
Editor: Craig Anderson
Chief: Tom DeFalco

Silver Surfer was the other big new successful series of this time and again one that's difficult to fit into a major Earth based crossover event. The whole thrust of the series was to get the Surfer away from Earth and into outer space where he encountered all the major cosmic races and entities. Meanwhile the High Evolutionary is focused on a plan to advance life on Earth. Somehow these two very different approaches have to matched.

The solution was to have the Evolutionary interested in the genetics of humanoids and seek to have the Silver Surfer's DNA mapped. For this he turns up at Olympia, home of the Eternals, and talks these beings into agreeing to undertake the task. Meanwhile the Surfer has decided to return to Earth to find the son of his recently deceased girlfriend Mantis though once he reaches the planet this gets forgotten for the rest of the annual.

Part of the complication is that this annual, more than most in this period, is wedged firmly into the ongoing narrative of the regular series. As a result the Surfer suddenly has to find a reason to be brought to Earth and then forget about it, before continuing his regular adventures. To tie things in with the regular narrative even further this issue also sees the resurrection of the Super Skrull, who has been spending a long time as disembodied radioactive particles orbiting the Earth but has now been resurrected as he could potentially restore his race's ability to change shape. Consequently this annual feels more like a special of the regular series than a chapter in an ongoing saga. It also brings the Surfer into contact with one of the most confusing sets of beings in the Marvel universe, the Eternals.

The Eternals were created by Jack Kirby during his mid 1970s return to Marvel and the series reflected his interest in the ancient astronauts theory that postulated Earth had been visited by aliens long in the past and much mythology was based on these meetings. As recounted by the Evolutionary in the opening pages the Eternals were created by the Celestials as an advanced race and went on to inspire many legends. The problem is that the series appeared to be intended by Kirby to take place in its own universe but later Marvel writers incorporated it into regular continuity which threw up its own problems, not least because the Marvel universe already depicted the Greek Gods and other pantheons as actual beings and so the Eternals had to co-exist with them and be confused for them. There's a brief attempt to try to unpick this mess here when the Surfer tells the Eternals that during his exile he spent time on Olympia and the Eternals' city that has reportedly existed for thousands of years simply wasn't there then but this annual would prove to be the series's only encounter with the Titans of Olympia (although their cousins on Titan would appear many times under later writers) and the revelation is not followed up on. The Eternals themselves are not very impressive, being easily talked into agreeing to map the Surfer's DNA to help the High Evolutionary's plan with no signs of coercion or any real exploration as to why they find his vision attractive. Later the Surfer is able to talk his way into leaving with no great debate either.

There's a real retro feel to this annual, right down to its use of the 1960s series logo instead of the current one and a strong homage to Kirby in the artwork whilst the story is the Surfer's first full adventure on Earth since his exile was lifted. Unfortunately it can't hide the sheer pointlessness of the tale. The Super Skrull's revival could have been handled in the regular series whilst the High Evolutionary doesn't return at the end so the entire attempt to map the Surfer's DNA is ultimately redundant to the general scheme. Big crossover events often wander into series that are ill fitted for them and have a completely inconsequential and forgettable encounter and this is a strong example of this.


2nd story: Nova! Moth to the Flame
Story: Steve Englehart
Pencils: Ron Lim
Inks: Chris Ivy
Letters: Ken Bruzenak
Colors: Tom Vincent
Editor: Craig Anderson
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Nova arrives back at Galactus's ship to find her master in pain. He needs very specific help and charges her with contacting the Silver Surfer to find Sue Richards.

This isn't so much a story as a bridging scene to set-up the storyline in the next few issues of the regular series and also to get the Surfer back from Earth. It's also notable for being Ron Lim's first work on the series that would go on to make his name though here he's drawing Nova and Galactus far more than the Surfer. As a result there's not too much to say about this tale beyond how it continues the pattern of firmly anchoring this annual into the narrative of the regular series although at the cost of confusion for passing readers since how Galactus came to eat the Elders is not explained whilst the Surfer rapidly forgets his search for Mantis's son. Otherwise it's a nice showcase for the series's new artist.


3rd story: Mantis!
Story: Steve Englehart
Pencils: Ron Lim
Inks: Randy Emberlin
Letters: Ken Bruzenak
Colors: Tom Vincent
Editor: Craig Anderson
Chief: Tom DeFalco

This is another brief scene as Mantis wakes up having lost her memory of all the events since her wedding to the Cotati and finds herself living on Earth under the name "Mandy Celestine" and lacking her empathy with plants. So she remembers her human friends and sets out to find the Avengers.

There's a bit more to say on this one. A pin-up elsewhere in the annual presents Mantis as dead (she was seemingly killed in issue #9 of the regular series) which hints at a great struggle to get her back into the series over editorial objections and we'll see the character again in both of the other series written by Englehart at this time, West Coast Avengers and Fantastic Four. Steve Englehart's website details his side of some of this but to the best of my knowledge his various editors have not put their version out there in as much detail though Sean Howe's Marvel Comics: The Untold Story does give a rather different reason for why Englehart left West Coast Avengers. But whatever the truth of the behind the scenes situation the result is that over the next few months Mantis will leap from title to title as she searches for her memories and her son. Here the character's amnesia works to cover up


4th story: The High Evolutionary: The Men, The Mine, The Mountain!
Story: Mark Gruenwald
Pencils: Paris Cullins
Inks: Tony DeZuniga
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Gregory Wright
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The saga continues with the land in the Balkans now identified as the site of Mount Wundagore. This begins to hint at the problems ahead because many different characters have had aspects of their backstories linked to the mountain over the years and this saga has to untangle them all. Here were see Herbert Edgar Wyndham and Jonathan Drew discovering a seam of uranium that will finance their plans and commissioning a citadel from a scientist who also wants to build an interplanetary spacecraft. There's some pretty advanced ideas for events set in the early 1930s as we learn the planned Citadel of Science will be able to travel into space itself. Meanwhile the mountain is plagued by a mysterious creature and Wyndham's mysterious benefactor returns to gift him Moloid workers to dig the mine and build the Citadel before disappearing.

This saga is starting to wade through the quagmire and it could do with some more helpful narrative captions. The mysterious stranger who gave Wyndham the genetic code and then the Moloids is never named and a caption tells us Wyndham never discovered who he was which means a key part of the story is simply explained away as a stranger wanting to foster scientific advancement. The scientist who designs the Citadel would appear to be an established character from the Marvel universe but he's using the German name "Horce Grabsheid" and is not explicitly identified as who he will become. As a result of too much info being dumped instead of explained this is the least satisfactory chapter of the saga so far.

Other material includes a gallery of pin-ups all by incoming penciller Ron Lim and inked by Joe Rubinstein. Details are given about each of the key characters in the series. Overall this is an okay Silver Surfer annual with good back-up features and a main story by the regular writer that seeks to advance ongoing plots but once again it's a very poor fit for The Evolutionary War event which really needs some chapters of much greater substance.