Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Silver Surfer is racing towards Earth to warn the heroes there of the return from death of Thanos and the menace he presents to the universe with the 6 Infinity Gems. The Mad Titan delayed him last issue with a monster (after Norrin Radd delayed *himself* by a side-trip to see Galactus in #48) and now he's going to take a more direct hand.
Surfer and his board are passing Earth's Moon when a blast sends him to its surface. Temporarily dazed he hears a voice telling him to wake up and recalls his father Jartran Radd waking him as a pre-teen to spend another day in pursuit of knowledge. But the voice is really that of a stone 'statue' of Thanos, actually his original body that Adam Warlock turned to stone in Marvel 2-In-1 Annual #2. It was left on Titan and Thanos animated it at the end of last issue.
Thanos claims that SS and he are alike in some ways. They are both expatriates from their homeworlds (Titan and Zenn-La). Norrin points out that Thanos killed his own mother and other Titanians. Thanos calls him righteous and unforgiving, which he senses hits a nerve. After an exchange of blasts where SS comes off worse, the villain considers using the Mind Gem to uncover Radd's hidden memories. But he decides against it because it would destroy Surfer's mind, and Norrin is too entertaining an adversary - and being a god now he can afford to let him live. So he uses a gentler mind-probe.
We see a slightly older Norrin Radd conducting a scientific experiment when his friend Shalla Bal asks him out to play in the perfect paradise that is their city and world. Robots do all the necessary work and the Zenn-Lavians are free to do whatever they want. But Norrin has learned from his scientist father that this existence has left most without purpose and robbed them of their spirit. So he bids Shalla-Bal goodbye and goes to see something scientific his father wants to show him.
Silver Surfer is resisting the mind-probe, so the stone Thanos beats the resistance out of him.
I think Norrin is a teen in the next scene where Jartran warns him against losing himself in momentary pleasures, especially drugs. And also warns him that such a civilisation can't continue forever - something will change.
Next we see him having his head depilated by a robotic laser, which is a sign of the state of manhood. We also learn that Mrs Radd was 1 of many who committed suicide in this 'perfect' existence, despite Jartran trying to share his strength with her. Jartran gets an award for an improvement of something like virtual reality entertainment. But he can't get funding for the kind of real science he'd like to do.
Norrin is now a grown man when his father has his award taken away because he stole another scientist's idea for his famous invention. Jartran tells him that it was a small part of his work that he neglected to give credit for. And Norrin realises that his father is fallible and walks away in disappointment.
But SS has now regained full consciousness and directs his surfboard to smash through stone Thanos, breaking him into bits. But the pieces re-coalesce and beat Surfer up again. And Thanos probes for the end of the story.
Shalla-Bal comes to Norrin with the news that Jartran has committed suicide. Norrin appears stone-faced and says he'll attend to the funeral arrangements after he's finished what he's doing. But when his friend leaves he allows tears to fall.
And then change does come to Zenn-La when Galactus arrives, and Norrin becomes his Herald in return for Big G sparing the world.
Thanos now declares noble Norrin Radd a hypocrite who wouldn't give his father the forgiveness and understanding that might have deterred him from taking his own life. And Surfer buried this memory. SS thinks this must be part of what Galactus did to his mind (to dull his conscience so he wouldn't baulk at delivering populated worlds to him, as we learned in #48). But Thanos claims that he didn't detect the hand of Galactus in hiding *this* memory.
Surfer's reaction is an even more powerful display of the Power Cosmic which atomises all of the statue apart from the head. Thanos can't be bothered to recreate the statue again. Surfer may continue to Earth, for all the good it will do him. But the 2 of them now know that Norrin's nobility is flawed.
The weary Surfer staggers back on to his board and completes the trip to Earth, crashing through the skylight of Dr Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum.