“Temptation”
Creative Staff:
Story: Ron Marz
Art: Ron Lim, Don Ho
Colors: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
What They Say:
The Sentinel of the Spaceways has taken the son of Captain Mar-Vell, Genis, under his wing, but even the Power Cosmic can’t replace the love of a father! The Surfer knows something that might just be able to soothe a broken heart, but is it worth a clash with THE INFINITY WATCH? Beloved creators Ron Marz and Ron Lim return to a story from their celebrated run on Silver Surfer and they’re not the only time travelers…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After the recent Ghost Light series for Silver Surfer, I was feeling the need for a bit more of this great character. While that title didn’t feature him as heavily as some others, it was solid. But discovering that the glory days team of the 1990s Silver Surfer was doing a new limited series with writer Ron Marz, who crafted some great stories back during my heyday, had me on board with ease. Ron Lim’s talents never falter in my mind and while he retains a lot of the same style over the years it’s grown well in subtle ways and the strong color design from Fajardo helps accentuate it as does the way Don Ho inks his pencils. The combination is fantastic across the border and takes me back to a certain time and place while still being very much of today with what it’s doing.
This opening issue is certainly interesting and it hits the plot points quickly. Silver Surfer has been working spending time with Genis, the son of Mar-Vell, to train him and to help live up to his father’s legacy. The cold open is a fun bit without much context needed of an alien machine the size of a city that’s basically a weapon moving through space. The civilization in question died hundreds of years earlier but its weapons of war still exist and are on track for Earth. Geni isn’t able to do too much but we see how Surfer deals a crippling blow to it and it was largely done on faith in his cosmic powers. That’s both good and worrying in its own way because you want someone like the Silver Surer to have, you know, a plan. But it provides some quick action and introductions before the pair return to Monster Isle where they’re basically hanging out and I assume reside when on Earth these days.
Where things go a bit odd is that the Surfer suggests taking the Time Gem from Gamorra’s room while she and the Infinity Watch are away so they can travel back in time and show Genis the father he never met in action. The idea is supposedly to inspire him and while Genis is wary, how can you not trust the Silver Surfer? It’s a decent bit that takes us to a time when Captain Marvel dealt with some Kree sentinels by protecting some Badoon refugees and it has a great Kirby-esque look to it that really resonates. The problem is that while Genis gets a good look at his father, the Surfer reveals himself to be Mephisto, which has me raising questions about everything we’ve seen so far, and sets up the real Silver Surfer for some justice by the infinity Watch who have been fooled as well. It’s not bad per se but it’s all presented so quickly and with such a superficial feeling that it reminds me of the old 80s comics in both good and bad ways.
In Summary:
To some degree, I’m not sure what to make of this. It has some of the good and bad of days of old and even at times feels like it’s right out of the 60s with how it approaches executing the story. There’s an appeal to that in trying to recapture that style with a character like this but it also feels like it just moves to things out of the blue and oddly enough. This was my first experience with Genis so that didn’t make too much of an impact on me but I can appreciate the idea and the way he was both reticent to do this but also tempted. I really enjoyed the artwork, especially in the trip back in time, and just the general flow and feel that we always get from Ron Lim’s take on the Silver Surfer and how he moves. I’m curious to see how the second installment goes but it’ll have to really get me to keep going.
Grade: C+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: September 6th, 2023
MSRP: $3.99
