Teaser introduction to the Silver Surfer and the Hero’s Journey

The trial period for the spinal cord stimulator is over; the leads have been out for two days now. Since I’m waiting to see about the permanent implant and I’m not sure how much wrestling I’ll do with pain until then, I’ll be reworking and reposting some series I’ve done earlier.

Many years ago, I remember asking my mother which superhero I most looked like.  She said I looked most like the Silver Surfer.

I wasn’t well acquainted with comic books at that time.  I knew of the ones that most children know of through Saturday cartoons, TV series, and blockbuster movies, but I didn’t really know of Surfer.

I’d seen the cover art for Joe Satriani’s “Surfing With The Alien” (which turns out to be lifted from John Byrne’s art for Stan Lee’s Silver Surfer #1):

 

I slowly learned more about the Surfer, however, especially when the Infinity Gauntlet crossover story in Marvel Comics hit.  The more I learned, the more I found I related to.  He’s a very deep, deep character, IMHO (despite what some Marvel writers have said on camera).

Then in 2008, Daisy Barringer asked VOX bloggers this question for the Question of the Day:

 What fictional character do you relate to most and why?

and this was my answer:

Not as I am, but who I must become.

When I reblogged this last year to kick off the series of the Silver Surfer and the Hero’s Journey, I added these words:

There are shades of the Monomyth in this herald from Zenn-La, but I ask a rhetorical question: how do you suppose I would see myself in Norrin Radd?

NEXT POST IN THE SERIES: A Hero’s Journey: Norrin Radd, the Silver Surfer

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Transformers and A Hero’s Journey: The Ordinary World is not so Ordinary

The Monomyth cycle begins with “The Ordinary World”.  According to Christopher Vogler:

The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma.  The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history.  Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is pulling in different directions and causing stress.

But we have yet to even meet the hero.  The movie instead starts with an ominous presentation of a strange, planet-like orb floating in space, then a peaceful planet called Lithone, inhabited by robots.  One scene is very reminiscent of ’80s culture of the time: robots chatting, laughing, and playing in what looks like a mall.  So what is this foreboding planet that descends on Lithone?

“It’s Unicron!”

With shades of the Death Star and Galactus (see my Silver Surfer posts), it becomes apparent that this Unicron intends to devour the planet, and it does– leaving only a solitary survivor that will be introduced later.

After the credits, we learn that not even the Transformers world (from the animated series thus far) is the same, or even ordinary.  The Autobots have lost their homeworld of Cybertron to the Deceptions, and have been forced to retreat to its moons.

In the next post of this series, we will find out what the Deceptions intend to do next, and meet Hot Rod, the hero of this tale, back at Autobot City on Earth.

 

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Further into the transformation (Zero to Hero Day 8)

The assignment for Day 8 is to create an About page, or revisit and improve the one you have.

This was no small feat!

First, I decided to hide all but one of the existing Pages I had written.

Two were about other blogs I work on.  I think promoting them will be covered better in a later challenge: Day Thirteen: Build a (Better) Blogroll.

One was about the last blogging platform I wrote at, and another blog that I contribute to for other bloggers that used that blogging platform, too.

The other three were all about this blog here, so it made sense to unite them into one: About the tao of jaklumen and the Hero’s Journey.  That page wasn’t easy to write– I decided to put up links to categories of blog posts I was especially pleased with.  But WordPress starts the Categories page with the newest post, ending with the oldest– and for categories having to do with the Hero’s Journey, it would be like reading a story backwards.

So for the Equilibrium and Silver Surfer categories, I had to sort through every post and include a link at the bottom indicating which post was next in the series.

I also used an image and a text link to each category.  It was hard to line up each image to each text link correctly.

It’s finally done… for now.  I had to revise things over 25 times.  I hope it’s worth it!  The Silver Surfer series will have some additions to it, but I need to get a copy of the Infinity Gauntlet graphic novel first.

Galactus is Defeated: Return With Elixir

And so The Silver Surfer regained his humanity, began to remember who he was, and rebelled against Galactus.

The human being Galactus refers to is Alicia Masters, who although blind, can see who the Surfer truly is: a hero.

But even this hero cannot overcome the one who imbued him with the ambient energies of the universe: the Power Cosmic. It will take a higher source, although, again, someone familiar.

The Watcher gives the Fantastic Four the means to defeat Galactus: an artifact from his home world called the Ultimate Nullifier.

Also known as “Return With Elixir”

Although Earth is saved, once again, our hero must pay the cost, and the Silver Surfer is pushed all the way back to the Ordeal.

How dare you, Surfer.

What?

NEXT POST IN THE SERIES: Stranded on Earth: The Surfer’s Belly of the Whale

Sacrifices: Norrin Radd’s Threshhold

The Call to Adventure is not without sacrifice.

So it was too, with Norrin Radd.

Not only would he say goodbye to his world, but to the love of his life, Shalla-Bal.

She accepts the sacrifice…

…but parting is such sweet sorrow.

Furthermore, as “herald”, it is possible that not all life can be spared, as Galactus declares:

When hunger truly strikes, I will not hesitate to feed.

This is the crossing of the Inner Threshhold, and also the Ordeal. Such Temptations and Challenges, so to speak, will turn up later again in the story of the Silver Surfer.

NEXT POST IN THE SERIES: Norrin Radd becomes the Silver Surfer: Death and Rebirth by Transformation

Norrin Radd meets Galactus: The Inner Call to Adventure

Who is The Silver Surfer?

We discover later he is Norrin Radd, a citizen of a world called Zenn-La.  Though this world is presented as a utopian ideal, there are hints of a decline.  Although Zenn-La society was long-lived, technologically advanced, and seemingly free of suffering, it was too much for his mother, and she took her life.  It was also to the undoing of his father, Jartran, as well, as he committed suicide after accusations of intellectual theft.

Although his father had pushed him to pursue self-mastery in study and achievement to response to the hedonism of Zenn-Lavian society at the time, it was not enough for Norrin, who later delved deep into Zenn-La’s ancient and primal past to find challenge and struggle he could not find in his present society.

Enter Galactus, the World Devourer, who threatened to consume Zenn-La to satiate his hunger.  This is where the Inner Call to Adventure begins.  After convincing a Council of Scientists member to provide him with a spaceship, Norrin faced Galactus, and pled with him to spare his world.

Norrin Radd appeals to Galactus to spare Zenn-La

Galactus imposed a condition, however, to grant Norrin’s request.  Norrin must agree to serve him, and find worlds uninhabited of life; for Galactus had no time to distinguish such worlds while feeding his hunger.  While Norrin quickly agreed, Galactus informs him that such an obligation is not temporary:

This job is eternal, man of Zenn-La.

Thus we arrive to the Inner Threshhold as well.

NEXT POST IN THE SERIES: Sacrifices: Norrin Radd’s Threshhold

The FF4 meet the Silver Surfer: The Outer Call to Adventure

What I think is especially compelling about the story of the Silver Surfer is that it is presented in layers.  He was introduced in Marvel Comic’s Fantastic Four title, issue 48: “The Coming of Galactus!”

The Call to Adventure

The Call To Adventure is not for the Silver Surfer, but is externalized to the Fantastic Four.  (The internal call will be explained in the Surfer’s origin story, where Norrin Radd becomes The Hero by way of Galactus.)  They are squarely in the realm of the Known, while the Surfer is an Unknown.

The Silver Surfer sends Galactus a signal from Earth

The threat, as is discovered later, is Earth’s impending destruction, to feed the hunger of a cosmic being called Galactus.

Galactus arrives on Earth

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A Hero’s Journey: Norrin Radd, the Silver Surfer

He is sometimes called “Christ on a surfboard”, but I have yet to see many writings that tie this Jack Kirby comic book character to Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth.

Especially compelling is his origin story, which fairly quickly traces elements of the Hero’s Journey in his transformation from Norrin Radd to the Silver Surfer.

The Silver Surfer gazing on the world he dared to protect

But even in extended stories such as the Infinity Gauntlet (which is said to really be about the Surfer, despite affecting all characters in the Marvel universe at that time), there are still emphases of the Monomyth.

Both ideas will be explored in future posts. Previous articles from this blog will rise to the present again (some have already), to show that the current focus I have taken here has had seeds planted in musings of the distant past. Perhaps eventually I will show you, dear readers, of why I find the Silver Surfer such a personally compelling figure…

NEXT POST IN THE SERIES: A Hero’s Journey: Summary of the Silver Surfer

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