Stan Lee's 20 Greatest Marvel Comics Creations
6. Silver Surfer
Silver Surfer was thoroughly shafted by the silver screen. That’s been a recurring theme for the entire Fantastic Four quartet, but with his only appearance so far in their second (and worst) movie, he’s definitely suffered the most.
Silver Surfer is perhaps the greatest character born entirely from Stan Lee and longtime collaborator Jack Kirby’s ‘Marvel Method’. In brief, the method consisted of Lee producing a synopsis for Kirby to draw, rather than a full script. Kirby would do the panels, and Lee would then work in the dialogue.
However, during one such collaboration on Fantastic Four, Lee received the panels back featuring, in his words, ‘some nut on a surfboard’. From there, the two built one of the most heralded - if off the wall - characters in comic book history.
Surfer is not only one of the coolest looking characters out there, he’s one of the most noble. Defending Earth is a fairly common story, but the Silver Surfer has genuinely no reason to. He’s not from here, has no Earth love interest or friends... yet he betrays Galactus anyway, sacrificing his freedom because it’s the right thing to do.
Not bad for a nut on a surfboard.