Random Back Issues #64 - Silver Surfer #13

Ah, just in time for the 3 p.m. Emo Monologue. If we missed it, we'd have to wait for the 3:15 p.m. Emo Monologue!

There was only comic out this week I wanted, and I wasn't driving 45 minutes to get Way of X #3. So, the first issue of Silver Surfer I ever read instead. Englehart's well into the Kree-Skrull war that would run the entirety of his span on the book. But this issue is really more about maneuvering and backstabbing within the respective sides.

We open with three Kree trying to assassinate Nenora, currently running the Empire because the Supreme Intelligence has gone mad from trying to combine blue and pink Kree minds into one within itself. The assassination runs smack into Ronan the Accuser, who promptly kills the three of them, and hurls a little racial invective at the last one before melting his face off at point blank range. A racist, lethally violent cop. Unheard of.

Nenora rebuffs Ronan's attempts to cozy up to her, telling him the Surfer has been attacking their border worlds recently, even after she agreed to let him and Zenn-La remain neutral in the war. Ronan's stoked to see how he stacks up and leaves Nenora to gloatingly monologue about how she's actually a Skrull now in charge of the Kree Empire. Only three people know this, and she already killed one of them, her own lover, and is making plans to deal with the other two.

The other two includes one of the five Skrulls claiming to be the true Emperor, and Nenora feeds him information on where he can score a great victory by ambushing a Kree armada. She assures him the Kree defense shields will be down.

Spoiler alert: They were not down. Word of Kylor's defeat reaches yet another of the five, S'Byill, who sends one of her agents to Earth as part of a big scheme that will play out later.

In other threads, the Surfer has currently teamed up with Nova to find the Contemplator, one of the Elders of the Universe, on behalf of Galactus. The Elders tried killing him as part of some big scheme to cause the end of the universe, so they could be big deals in the next universe like him. Brilliant plan. That's the best they could cobble together with literal billions of years? The Heralds find what's left of the Contemplator's head, the guy having been killed and partially eaten by space pirate Captain Reptyl. Except, Death decreed the Elders can't die after Grandmaster pulled that stunt where he stole her power and tried to end existence in those Avengers Annuals.

After the Surfer spends a few minutes moping over Mantis' recent apparent death, he and Nova set off and come to a world the Surfer recalls having visited before. A Kree border world, which doesn't respond well to his arrival since he was just there rampaging. Ronan shows up and when Nova protests the Surfer's been with her this whole time, he encases her in a bubble of absolute zero and declares 'accusation is punishment', whatever the fuck that means. He and the Surfer fight a bit, Ronan appears to have the upper hand, but gets caught with the old "mentally command my board to smack you in the head" trick. 

 

Surfer says Kree science is impressive, but he's the Silver Surfer, and he and Nova leave to find the imposter. The Surfer's able to track the energy signature to another world, even as Nova wonders how someone could impersonate the Surfer. His look sure, but his power is another matter. Well, they'll find out because the imposter is waiting for them. Meanwhile, Ronan's back on his feet and made some adjustments to prepare for a rematch.

[9th longbox, 240th comic. Silver Surfer (vol. 2) #13, by Steve Englehart (writer), Joe Staton (penciler), Dave Cockrum (inker), Tom Vincent (colorist), Ken Bruzenak (letterer)]