Post by Prince Namor on Apr 7, 2024 18:11:32 GMT -8
Snowflakes & Liberal Know-it-alls both get it wrong: The Real reason for the 'controversial Silver Surfer Casting
by Will Byron
This’ll be a short one friends, as I’ve got all sorts of irons in the proverbial fire with the ongoing (and growing) pushback towards Roy Thomas and John Cimino’s villainy, as well as work on an article which proves conclusively just how fraudulent and inept the collected “comics journalism” community is.
In fact, this is a rather topical, pop-culture centric thing that I don’t even care about and am somewhat pressed to comment on because- per usual- I kept waiting for other people to get it and then have to write about it when they don’t.
So, if you care about such things then you likely saw the recent news that critically acclaimed actress Julia Garner was cast as the legendary herald of Galactus himself, The Silver Surfer. Strictly for the context of why I am writing about this, may I stress that I, personally, was indifferent to this casting- these characters aren’t real people and the MCU has surprised me before to say nothing of the fact that Garner is a talented actress.
But what’s kept my interest is seeing an ongoing discussion of why Julia Garner, a woman, would be cast as a historically “male” character- and then, the extremely straightforward logic of why both sides believe this occurred.
The answer has been laid out in front of you rather plainly. And it ties into what is going on with Roy Thomas and Wolverine at this very moment.
The tell-tale clue is the announcement that this version of the Surfer is a “Shalla-Bal version of the character”- and who created Shalla-Bal??
Stan Lee. She first appears in Silver Surfer #1 in 1968. And who created the Silver Surfer…? (*- it was brought to my attention to also include John Buscema who designed Shalla-Bal; that’s a fair point and I should but I don’t believe most Marvel Studios staff or the press involved in covering them will bring up or care about Buscema as they seldom reference anyone other than Lee.)
It’s important to note that the Silver Surfer as originally presented is one of the handful of characters that was inadvertently admitted by Stan Lee (and Roy Thomas, who was present the first time Lee saw the character) that was created and conceived by Jack Kirby. And, because they slipped that out, it’s never been able to be retracted- therefore, its commonly accepted that Kirby adds the Surfer into the story completely on his own, to Lee’s surprise.
That. That is it.
That is everything.
This specific issue is a slippery slope with Marvel and connects to them “suddenly” deciding to credit Roy Thomas- an Editor- with co-creation of Wolverine.
Both Lee and Thomas have gone on record several times about Kirby delivering his completed pages for Fantastic Four #48 and being surprised by the appearance of a gleaming figure soaring above the city as Galactus prepared to invade Earth.
“There, in the middle of the story we had so carefully worked out, was a nut on some sort of flying surfboard”. – Stan Lee, 1995
“Jack may have come up with the name ‘Galactus’, or I might’ve. I probably wanted to call him Irving. The thing came back and I could hardly wait to start writing the copy. All of a sudden, as I’m looking through the drawings, I see this nut on a surfboard flying through the air. And I thought, ‘Jack, this time you’ve gone too far.'” – Stan Lee
Note Lee’s “I could hardly wait to start writing the copy“- he refers to writing the dialogue to Kirby’s completed story, with margin notes to let Lee know what he was intended. Granted, Lee changed some things to further the narrative to his own direction but essentially, Kirby was directing the stories. He delivered the Surfer as a completed character with definite intentions.
Mark Evanier, a man lacking in empathy who has a pathological need to be seen as an authority, wrote in his terrible Kirby biography:
“Jack saw the Surfer as a creature formed of pure energy, one who had never been human, which explained why he’d been roaming about the Fantastic Four comic, asking Earthlings to explain love and hate and other (to him) alien concepts. In Stan’s story, the Surfer had been a man on another planet who sacrificed human form to save the woman he loved.” – Mark Evanier, Chili Eating Contest Champion
When Lee took the character away from Kirby he thought to use it as his grand statement, the mouthpiece for his philosophy, such was the hubris of Lee after experiencing minor celebrities on college campuses. (We might also make a connection towards universities therefore always being useless for the money, if so-called college-educated people lapped Lee’s bull
up but that’s another column)
Lee was so ambitious he decided to launch a double-sized Silver Surfer solo series that would be his ultimate work as an author. (Which is why a young Jim Shooter ghost-plotted some of those stories, but I digress. Geez, lots of asides today.)
(The dialogue of someone trying to make the word limit of their English paper. Art: Buscema/Sinnott)
So that’s all. That’s it– that is the distinction of WHY there has been a woman cast as the “Shalla-Bal version” of the Silver Surfer. Conservative fans think it’s “woke“. Liberal fans think it’s “progressive“. It’s neither. It’s neither. It’s Marvel and Disney, who are corporations, serving to control their intellectual property rights and keep any and all attention away from figures like Jack Kirby, the primary and main architect of the Marvel Universe as we all know it.
That’s why Julia Garner was cast. That’s the only reason. Stan Lee created Shalla-Bal. Shalla-Bal originates in Lee’s solo Surfer series. Lee is documented as crediting Kirby with the idea of the Silver Surfer. That’s it. This is just a variation of Roy Thomas subverting the creation of Wolverine, with Marvel Studio’s helpful assist!
For the record, my own beliefs are far, far, far from the conservative viewpoint so this article is not intended to take a political side. Republicans. I’m just genuinely surprised that not one “comics journalist” or outspoken fan with a ghastly YouTube channel was able to figure this out, regardless of their political viewpoints or their degree of sexism.
Comic Book Resources could have sussed this out. The Beat could have put fans hip to it. Any number of comics-related press might’ve simplified this and reported on the actual multifactorial decision process that led to this so-called “controversial” movie casting. And saved me twenty minutes!
But that’s not the kind of they do, so… you’re stuck with Four Color Sinners for the time being. Yer welcome.
by Will Byron
This’ll be a short one friends, as I’ve got all sorts of irons in the proverbial fire with the ongoing (and growing) pushback towards Roy Thomas and John Cimino’s villainy, as well as work on an article which proves conclusively just how fraudulent and inept the collected “comics journalism” community is.
In fact, this is a rather topical, pop-culture centric thing that I don’t even care about and am somewhat pressed to comment on because- per usual- I kept waiting for other people to get it and then have to write about it when they don’t.
So, if you care about such things then you likely saw the recent news that critically acclaimed actress Julia Garner was cast as the legendary herald of Galactus himself, The Silver Surfer. Strictly for the context of why I am writing about this, may I stress that I, personally, was indifferent to this casting- these characters aren’t real people and the MCU has surprised me before to say nothing of the fact that Garner is a talented actress.
But what’s kept my interest is seeing an ongoing discussion of why Julia Garner, a woman, would be cast as a historically “male” character- and then, the extremely straightforward logic of why both sides believe this occurred.
The answer has been laid out in front of you rather plainly. And it ties into what is going on with Roy Thomas and Wolverine at this very moment.
The tell-tale clue is the announcement that this version of the Surfer is a “Shalla-Bal version of the character”- and who created Shalla-Bal??
Stan Lee. She first appears in Silver Surfer #1 in 1968. And who created the Silver Surfer…? (*- it was brought to my attention to also include John Buscema who designed Shalla-Bal; that’s a fair point and I should but I don’t believe most Marvel Studios staff or the press involved in covering them will bring up or care about Buscema as they seldom reference anyone other than Lee.)
It’s important to note that the Silver Surfer as originally presented is one of the handful of characters that was inadvertently admitted by Stan Lee (and Roy Thomas, who was present the first time Lee saw the character) that was created and conceived by Jack Kirby. And, because they slipped that out, it’s never been able to be retracted- therefore, its commonly accepted that Kirby adds the Surfer into the story completely on his own, to Lee’s surprise.
That. That is it.
That is everything.
This specific issue is a slippery slope with Marvel and connects to them “suddenly” deciding to credit Roy Thomas- an Editor- with co-creation of Wolverine.
Both Lee and Thomas have gone on record several times about Kirby delivering his completed pages for Fantastic Four #48 and being surprised by the appearance of a gleaming figure soaring above the city as Galactus prepared to invade Earth.
“There, in the middle of the story we had so carefully worked out, was a nut on some sort of flying surfboard”. – Stan Lee, 1995
“Jack may have come up with the name ‘Galactus’, or I might’ve. I probably wanted to call him Irving. The thing came back and I could hardly wait to start writing the copy. All of a sudden, as I’m looking through the drawings, I see this nut on a surfboard flying through the air. And I thought, ‘Jack, this time you’ve gone too far.'” – Stan Lee
Note Lee’s “I could hardly wait to start writing the copy“- he refers to writing the dialogue to Kirby’s completed story, with margin notes to let Lee know what he was intended. Granted, Lee changed some things to further the narrative to his own direction but essentially, Kirby was directing the stories. He delivered the Surfer as a completed character with definite intentions.
Mark Evanier, a man lacking in empathy who has a pathological need to be seen as an authority, wrote in his terrible Kirby biography:
“Jack saw the Surfer as a creature formed of pure energy, one who had never been human, which explained why he’d been roaming about the Fantastic Four comic, asking Earthlings to explain love and hate and other (to him) alien concepts. In Stan’s story, the Surfer had been a man on another planet who sacrificed human form to save the woman he loved.” – Mark Evanier, Chili Eating Contest Champion
When Lee took the character away from Kirby he thought to use it as his grand statement, the mouthpiece for his philosophy, such was the hubris of Lee after experiencing minor celebrities on college campuses. (We might also make a connection towards universities therefore always being useless for the money, if so-called college-educated people lapped Lee’s bull
up but that’s another column)Lee was so ambitious he decided to launch a double-sized Silver Surfer solo series that would be his ultimate work as an author. (Which is why a young Jim Shooter ghost-plotted some of those stories, but I digress. Geez, lots of asides today.)
(The dialogue of someone trying to make the word limit of their English paper. Art: Buscema/Sinnott)
So that’s all. That’s it– that is the distinction of WHY there has been a woman cast as the “Shalla-Bal version” of the Silver Surfer. Conservative fans think it’s “woke“. Liberal fans think it’s “progressive“. It’s neither. It’s
neither. It’s Marvel and Disney, who are corporations, serving to control their intellectual property rights and keep any and all attention away from figures like Jack Kirby, the primary and main architect of the Marvel Universe as we all know it.That’s why Julia Garner was cast. That’s the only reason. Stan Lee created Shalla-Bal. Shalla-Bal originates in Lee’s solo Surfer series. Lee is documented as crediting Kirby with the idea of the Silver Surfer. That’s it. This is just a variation of Roy Thomas subverting the creation of Wolverine, with Marvel Studio’s helpful assist!
For the record, my own beliefs are far, far, far from the conservative viewpoint so this article is not intended to take a political side.
Republicans. I’m just genuinely surprised that not one “comics journalist” or outspoken fan with a ghastly YouTube channel was able to figure this out, regardless of their political viewpoints or their degree of sexism.Comic Book Resources could have sussed this out. The Beat could have put fans hip to it. Any number of comics-related press might’ve simplified this and reported on the actual multifactorial decision process that led to this so-called “controversial” movie casting. And saved me twenty minutes!
But that’s not the kind of
they do, so… you’re stuck with Four Color Sinners for the time being. Yer welcome.
