| Comic Review | A.C. Hall |
Stan
Lee Meets Silver Surfer
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Mike Wieringo
Plot: Continuing this series of bizarre one shots in
which Stan Lee meets characters that he created, Stan Lee meets
Silver Surfer. No, I’m not making this up.
Review: This comic is actually broken up into four
separate stories, so I’ll review each of these separately to
begin with.
First up is the main attraction of the book and is written by
Stan Lee himself. While kicking back in his office reflecting on
how quiet his life is, Stan Lee is teleported up to Galactus’s
spaceship. Galactus explains to Stan Lee that he needs to go
talk to Silver Surfer, and teleports Stan onto the Surfer’s
board. What follows is Stan Lee getting annoyed by Silver Surfer
and his constant speaking in riddles. Finally Galactus shows up
and basically just says “See, I told you it’s annoying. He talks
like that all the time.” However, once Stan is teleported back
to his home, he takes some of the Surfer’s words to heart and
learns a valuable lesson about peace.
Next up is a story by Paul Jenkins. It’s about a young lad who
is trying to draw comics. Stan Lee shows up and begins giving
the kid a hardcore critique. Through the magic of talent, Stan
Lee shows the little boy how to write and create exciting
comics. Stan Lee then gets back in his time machine and returns
to present day, revealing as he leaves that the little boy is
none other than writer Paul Jenkins.
Thirdly is some comic strip thing about Stan Lee having a party.
Finally, the biggest section of the book is a reprint of Silver
Surfer #14, originally published in March of 1970.
Overall I thought this book was really awful. I’ve been
bewildered by these books since I heard about them, but gave
this one an honest chance nonetheless. What I found was
something that just didn’t make much sense at all. It was
supposed to be campy and fun and just seemed to fall flat in
every way. Stan Lee’s story is just totally silly. Which I get
it, it’s supposed to be, but it’s not silly in a good way. It’s
silly in a roll your eyes and wish you could get back the four
minutes you just wasted sort of way. The Paul Jenkins story was
at least slightly entertaining, if not a bit contrived and
again, silly.
The book as a whole is meant as a celebration of Stan Lee’s
sixty five great years at Marvel. If you’re a huge Stan Lee fan
and love the somewhat campy style of comics from the early days
of Marvel, then you may want to pick this up. However, if you’re
just looking for a decent read, there’s really nothing to be
gained by reading this comic. The art is decent, the writing’s
not so decent, and the overall purpose of the book is lost on
me. Stan Lee is a great man whose legacy and amazing
achievements deserve to be celebrated by all of us. However,
paying four dollars for a contrived and silly book made up
mostly of an old reprinted issue from 1970 isn’t really the way
to do that.
Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of
Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance
preview books for review purposes.
