 Hi everyone, welcome to another exciting episode, the very first book review of 2019. I recently read, actually last year, the Silver Surfer Omnibus from Dan Slott and Mike Alred. This thing is a beauty. Now if you are not accustomed to omnibuses, basically it's just all the issues bundled up together. In this case, this has material from all new Marvel Now.1 and the 2014 Silver Surfer series which was 15 issues and then the whole rebranding Silver Surfer, the 2016 series 1 through 14. Silver Surfer is a character that for the longest of times was always this Shakespearean tragic cosmic figure that attracted a lot of readers. The character has gone through the ringer and he has been a part of so many epic Marvel cosmic storylines that it's a little daunting to just go ahead and say, hey, here's this standalone material that you can read for Silver Surfer or a character that is so prose heavy and he's so dramatic and just, I don't know, there's a weight to this character. Of course, his sacrifice and being a herald of Galactus and then rebelling and now just protecting the universe and making amends for his sins and all that stuff for being part of massive galactic genocide if you will and cosmic annihilation and all that stuff. Those are some heavy themes so the character for the most part has always been rather stoic, serious, and kind of unapproachable. Like I get it, there's no problem with a character being like this but it's not the go-to for new readers. Like they're not gonna go, oh yeah, I totally want to start with a character like this. Usually it takes them a little while. Fortunately, Marvel had the bright idea to get Dan Slott, who was writing Spider-Man at the time, to helm this mini- what would be a mini-series on Silver Surfer and getting the right pick to helm a book like this in the Allreds, of course, like Allred and his wife Laura Allred. This team is awesome, this story is spectacular and the series does so much in so little time. I was really impressed from the get-go-one. The art in it is just stunning, it's beautiful. I love Michael Allred's art, it is so detailed and fun to look at with its nostalgic 60s and 70s pop-ish influence and all that stuff. I love looking at Allred's art and just the bright idea of taking a character that was so serious and breaking him down to a more human level where we can have fun with this title. We can go on journeys and explore the universe and it doesn't have to be this operatic symphony. It can just be a really cool sci-fi adventure, man. You're surfing the cosmic waves and having fun, seeing all these wonderful creations of planets and alien creatures and scientific concepts and exploring with like metaphysics and mobius strips and all that stuff, it's a thing of beauty, man. Dan is able to, I see a lot of people make the comparison, like this is sort of like a Huvian Silver Surfer tale where you have the character of Silver Surfer and taking a human companion and going on many adventures and all that stuff. I don't know, I'm not a fan of Doctor Who, sorry, I know, I am a fool, but whatever. I guess the similarities are there, but it was, to me it was something much more than that. It was a story, one it was about family, two it's about the bonds that make us and just the splendor of life and how we can just celebrate it through the simplest of means and if you've read the finale you probably know what I'm hinting at and it basically starts off with Surfer being whisked away to this improbable place in the multiverse that has hidden away from threats, from cosmic threats and Surfer is to be their champion to fight against the Never Queen if you will, the embodiment of all the possibilities that have been, are and will be in the universe and we later find out that everybody in the paracon thing has a military motive and they each, everybody that's summoned there has a champion, they are summoned, not only are they summoned to the resort slash planet, well technically it's not really a planet but whatever. They are also summoned with a companion of sorts or somebody that that person values the most and will fight for to defend and whatnot and Surfer gets Dawn, Greenwood, this human character that we've never seen before and you're thinking like how is Surfer, you know, they're not really related or anything, they don't know each other but they will and that's sort of the thing and Surfer at the beginning of the story he mentions it like I am a defender for everybody and all the people of earth and all that stuff but later on through really specific motions we learn that it's more than that, that these characters are destined to meet and and be together if you will so that stuff happens I'm not gonna go further and because I want you guys to read it but the story takes a very interesting turn after these events the character of Dawn she's always been a little bit stagnant without noticing or without knowing why she lives in a little bed and breakfast in New England near the beach on a shoreline and it's really cool she lives with her dad and she helps him run the bed and breakfast and all that stuff and it's a very somewhat I should say popular tourist attraction a lot of people stay there and all that stuff and it's supposed to be like one of the finest spots in New England and all that stuff to just enjoy and relax and the character has never felt the need to explore to go out and see the world and I find that extremely relatable for everybody that has dreamt and wanted it's a more out of their lives and want to go out and do all these things but you're faced with the harsh reality of life and you can't do it and all that stuff trust me we've all been there so Dawn sort of represents us at the beginning of the story and later on as she interacts with the surfer and sort of humanizes the character through her interaction she's a little bit naive she doesn't really know anything about the cosmos and all that stuff none of us would and part of the charm of the story aside from the art is that we're seeing the cosmic tapestry if you will through her eyes as well the way that she's naming for example surfer's board that was actually one of my favorite parts in the book surfer always says to me my board or whatever and she thinks he's saying to me so the board is called to me I thought that was a pretty clever joke and it's stuff like that that brings a unique charm to the series that is wholeheartedly needed I didn't necessarily want to read this operatic adventure in space all that stuff I wanted that cosmic exploration through the eyes of a regular person having fun and discovering new things not necessarily someone that's trained in all of this like noran rad silver surfer so eventually the characters they're intertwined because of the empiric on thing and the mission that he set out to do we find out that it is not what it seems to be and throughout the entire series the story keeps progressing in a way where every single detail that you see relates to something later on or it calls back to something at the beginning of the book I really really like that like it's a very vast story with dozens of characters but at the end of the day it's a very small story everything comes back to fruition everything returns to where it started with several of these characters there is a very particular issue which if I do remember yeah it says so right there it was the winner of the 2016 eyes in our ward for best single issue it is issue 11 from the first series or second series one of the two the way it was laid out is very special sort of this mobius strip and it's a very there's a particular way that you're supposed to read it you know you go a certain way and it's a very interactive cool experience and just reminds me of how awesome the comic book medium is and the series embodies that the ability to take the limitations of paper and 2d images and breathe live into it into sort of like this quasi 3d realm where you're interacting with the comic book and the actions that you take not only while reading it but while the physical motions and all that stuff impact the story in a subliminal or not so subliminal way and I thought man this this is why I love this medium the way that the story reflects on life and reflects on these characters but you can also interact with it at the page layouts and how everything is symbolic forget about the mobius issue the whole book I would say is sort of like this strip where the beginning of the story you know we start off on this grand epic adventure and throughout the way we see a lot of characters and we see a lot of small hints and sort of Easter eggs if you will and callbacks to certain other things within the book where at first you're like okay that that's a little bit weird but as the story progresses the snowball keeps getting bigger and bigger and it all comes back to that point of origin when we first started reading this story it's like this full epic beautiful concert of emotions that happen where you have a character meeting somebody for the very first time who's very naive and does not know how to progress forward all her life all that she knows is that little piece of island in New England or Bay if you will and suddenly she gets thrusted into this world this massive universe meeting supervillains and meeting freaking Galactus and all these other wonderful characters in the Marvel Universe hell even they do they even do a tie-in for Secret Wars and that was really well done you don't have to read Secret Wars at all to completely understand what's happening but if you've read it you can appreciate the event a little bit more because if when you're talking about the destruction of the multiverse this is something that this book would have to tackle as well and it does so in a pretty dramatic way that I was not expecting I really love that part I'd love the idea of like I said this or like the kids are saying this hoovy and adventure I guess with these two characters one is an overpowered cosmic being experiencing things not all not necessarily for the first time but experiencing similar things in new eyes the way that dawn is able to bring out the curiosity of a former astronomer who thinks he has he has seen everything in the universe but is seeing things for the very first time through the lens of a character in this case dawn who has never experienced all these things and isn't necessarily odd by every single thing there are some really cool planets there are some really cool characters we meet on and I mentioned it twice now eventually it all comes back it all comes back together there's a time travel there's alternate dimensions there are just weird wacky planets there are some really emotional and traumatic explorations of dealing with grief and loss the repercussions of what we do in life when we mess up when we screw up and how we atone for those sins but not necessarily feeling the guilt and and blame of what happened because you can't let that drag you down forever so the book I thought was really fun really clever beautifully drawn I loved the drawing so much the art is so poppy and vibrant and just great to look at and it has that emotional punch that emotional gut punch that you want in a story like this very rarely do we get a comic book series especially of the big two where the ending you're completely satisfied you don't need to read anything else from the after this book you're this is all 30 something all 30 issues here are all you need to really appreciate it and become a fan of these characters Dawn is extremely relatable she's extremely cute and smart witty and just real she's a real character same as Nora and rad silver surfer somebody that I thought was not necessarily boring but you know a bit overly dramatic with the whole Thor and Space Act if you will that's just a little joke don't get upset guys but I found him much more relatable and fun yeah it's not the most complicated cosmic story if you will but at the same time I beg to differ because the things that this book does when you read the whole thing it can leave a long-lasting impression that Dan was able to take these characters on a route that they've never been through and the weight of what one person can do for another can be really really impactful I loved it especially at the end those final three two issues there is some beautiful writing in there it is a beautiful story and you just feel complete it's a very bittersweet beautiful ending in my opinion and easily one of the best modern Marvel stories that you can read I whole heartedly recommend Silver Surfer if you can get the omnibus or if you can get the trade paper bags whatever you want you're gonna have a fun time man this is completely reader friendly it barely crosses over with anything just a secret wars and overall just a really fun view at the cosmic side of Marvel which is one of my favorites it is a rich tapestry of concepts of ideas of just straight-up alien planets that get explored in a nice fun and beautiful way this it was an awesome experience and I wholeheartedly recommend it in my honest opinion like I just said easily one of the best modern Marvel reads that you're gonna have so yeah do do check it out I probably left some things that I wanted to mention but overall I didn't want to spoil things just give you my overall thoughts and feelings about this book and what I thought about it but yeah just a fantastic experience guys have you read Silver Surfer let me know down below if not let me know what is your favorite cosmic Marvel read thank you so much we're welcoming 2019 I've already put up videos but this is the first book review in 2019 so thank you so much for the support let's make this a hell of a year we're switching things up we're doing things a little bit different this time around but hopefully you guys stick around and you like comment and keep subscribing to we can get them you can share this content or you can like me on your favorite social media platform either way I'd love talking with you guys hopefully you stick around because yeah I gotta go and I will catch you on our next video