"Communion Part 3"
Writer: Dan Chariton & Stacy Weiss
Artist: Lan Medina (p), Avalon (i)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Plot:
Incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital after being assaulted by a rapist, street-corner palm reader Denise Waters dreams of her daughter Ellie who was mysteriously abducted by the Silver Surfer. Meanwhile billionaire Stewart Acheron makes a public plea for information about his own son’s abduction. Hearing from Waters, Acheron has a face to face meeting in which she relates the story of the Silver Surfer abducting her autistic child. While events transpire on Earth, somewhere in space the children and others learn to use their innate mental skills from a race of alien beings that are allied with the Silver Surfer.
Comments:
Having read almost every issue of the Silver Surfer ever published, I must say that this is the most unusual story to feature the former herald of Galactus. Many of the stories preceding the current series focused on the Silver Surfer’s cosmic powers and abilities when it came to challenges of a more physical nature. His foes were generally other aliens or alien races threatening either Earth or the Universe as a whole. The stories of the past were often mired in a form of pathos popular of stereotypical 1960s hippie-style freethinking, also referred to as naval gazing, although I don’t think the Surfer has a bellybutton. Granted those were usually fun stories, but ultimately a limited form of storytelling that lead to declining readership and ultimate cancellation. Dan Chariton and Stacy Weiss have chosen to concentrate their focus on the alien and unknowable aspects of the title character, and that may have its pitfalls as well. Ultimately the authors run the risk of potentially alienating their audience by depicting a character that is so far from the common human experience. Much of this issue, like the previous two, has very few pages staring the Silver Surfer. Instead we are introduced to more human characters dealing with the abduction of their children, which although many young readers may not relate to, I and many readers my age who are parents find it a terrifyingly real prospect. The stories become more pertinent and engaging because the focus of the series so far has been on humans dealing with an issue that is only made uncommon because of the abductor. The revelation of the children’s whereabouts adds to the mystery of the events; who are these aliens, what do they want and why has the Silver Surfer allied himself with them by abducting children with certain mental skills? None of these questions are answered in this issue, but I expect them to be revealed soon.
Lan Medina draws in a realistic style that clearly depicts both the events on Earth and in space – rendering the alien ship and its inhabitants in a way that doesn’t appear hokey. To further ground the alien scenes within a reality the reader can understand Medina uses in his fore and backgrounds pop-culture imagery taken from the minds of the children. To further depict the alien’s strangeness, Medina implies through glyphs scattered throughout the ship a past shared culture or universal consciousness with the inhabitants of Earth. The digital inks were done by Avalon Studios and the colors were done by Edgar Tadeo. Although the inks had a few rough spots and there were lines that could have used a bit more character, overall a competent job. I’m not sure how much of a trend digital inking will become, but I still prefer the traditional methods; although in time, like my appreciation of digital color, that may change. Speaking of digital color, Tadeo does a top notch job. Much better than issue two which had colors that appeared muddy and flat; although judging from online previews that may have been due to printing problems. Lastly the cover looks like crap, it’s dark and boring. I’m not sorry to see Milx go onto another project.
Final Word:
Although the aforementioned Milx going AWOL plagued the schedule of Silver Surfer, potentially scaring off readers, I would recommend it to anyone wanting to try something different without leaving the confines of a mainstream comic.
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