Writer : Donny Cates

Art : Tradd Moore, Dave Stewart, and VC’s Clayton Cowles

Cover Price : $3.99

Release Date : July 17, 2019

After being drained of his power cosmic, and his hand turning black, the Silver Surfer must now face the Knull, the God of the Symbiotes. Let’s see what happens…..

Issue 2 opens with the Surfer reminiscing about some of the horrible things he’s witnessed in his past. He also remembers facing the King in Black long ago. He remembers the Symbiote planet, it being dark, and not really a planet at all, more of a cage. A cage holding the King’s children. He could also sense rage, death, and fear. Fear of the Surfer. Fear because billions of years ago the Surfer made the King bleed.

We then see the Surfer and the King of the Dark battling. Later the King sends the Void Knight to kill the Surfer. The Surfer breaks free but begins to hear the symbiote talk to him, telling him that he can’t defeat the King and to flee. He begins to feel the symbiote and is cold, and afraid.

The King raises her acolytes to guard her kingdom, as she goes to destroy the star the Surfer created.

As the Surfer flees the symbiote talks to him and tells him he knows all about him and his past because the symbiote can see into his mind. As the symbiote moves up and turns his whole arm black, it seems to care about the Surfer and ask if he’s ok, and tells the Surfer that “a planet will be your salvation.” We then see a planet called Ego and it asks if Surfer wants to kill a god? To be continued…..

There’s a whole lot of symbolism in this issue. Light, dark, good, bad etc…. nothing new to the comic genre but Cates/Moore/Stewart do a great job with the words and art to really make it fresh and relevant.

If it seems like whatever Cates touches turns to gold for Marvel, it’s for good reason. He’s good. Really good. His use of the recap page and the way he’s written the first 2 issues of this series make someone like me who is by no means a Marvel or Surfer expert feel completely comfortable and in the know.

The Surfer is a very complex character. Cates takes the Surfer’s 50+ year history and breaks it down and touches on his quilt, heroism, repentance etc… all in one issue.

Art is completely subjective but I really like how Moore/Stewart do space scenes. The double page spreads really show not only how colorful, but also how dark space can be.

Final thoughts

Donny Cates and company bring their “A” in this great issue of self reflection by the Surfer as he deals with not only the Knull, but the symbiote as well.

9/10