Silver Surfer #47: Review

Mar 1991

Jim Starlin, Ron Lim

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Story Name:

Adam Warlock, protector of the Soul World

Review & Comments

Rating:

Silver Surfer #47 Review by Rob Johnson (December 11, 2020)

The trek towards the Infinity Gauntlet event continues.

Thanos takes time out from his fiendish planning for some more apps before next issue, as does Mephisto.
Big Red has a hand in Eric Masterson taking over as Thunder God in Thor #432. (#454 will reveal that he had even more of a hand than it appears here.)
Thanos will appear in his new stone thronehouse floating in space in Quasar #24 (which the Marvel Chronology Project makes its 1st app). He and Mephisto are visited by another godlike being Maelstrom. (Thanos' love Death will just miss him by showing up in #25. They haven't met since he became superior to her by obtaining the Infinity Gems in Thanos Quest.)
But Thanos and Death will be together to welcome Spider-Man (temporarily) to the after-life in SM#17.
Mephisto takes Cloak and Dagger (and Spidey again) to Hell in their (1988)#17, but in #18 he's temporarily called away by Thanos. (That issue is labelled an Infinity Gauntlet tie-in but the MCP puts it here before IG begins.)

Then next issue Silver Surfer confronts Galactus over the tampering to Norrin Radd's soul that Adam and Gamora detected last issue. And Warlock and friends come to a decision.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Silver Surfer #47 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

In #44 Thanos stole the souls of Silver Surfer and Drax the Destroyer with the Soul Gem. He presumably didn't know they'd wind up in Soul World within the Gem, as we found out last issue where they met Autolycus, Gamora and Pip the Troll. Drax was still driven to kill Thanos and decided the only way to get to him was to destroy Soul World. Gamora remained behind to delay the Destroyer while the other 3 sought out Adam Warlock who might be the only 1 who can stop him (since Surfer doesn't have his Cosmic Power here). They found him meditating on a tall spire of rock and Warlock flew off to deal with the problem.

Now the 3 laboriously make their way down from the pinnacle while the super-strong Drax finally lands a blow which lays out Gamora. Then he remembers he wants to destroy the World and he's figured out how to do it. He flies up into the sky, much higher than the tower of rock, powers up his fists and prepares to plunge down to split the world in 2. But Adam shows up to try and dissuade him. Of course the monomaniacal Destroyer won't listen to reason so they start to fight in midair. And soon Drax sends Warlock plummeting to the ground preceded by his staff. Which Norrin Radd sees from halfway down the rockface and thinks he may have bet on the wrong man.

But Warlock disappears in a flash of light before he hits the ground (as he did at the end of last issue when he jumped of the spire). Drax goes down to investigate but finds only the staff. He tosses it behind him but Warlock's hand reaches up to grab it and whack him with it. The fight begins again. Adam continues to try to talk the behemoth down while dodging his blows and getting in licks of his own. Eventually Warlock is on Drax's back with a choke hold. Drax finds it hard to breath but still flies them both up into the air and tries to shake him off. In the rarefied upper air he passes out and Warlock lets him fall to the ground. And Adam comments that Drax was beaten by his inability to conceive that his incorporeal form didn't need to breathe in Soul World.

The 3 climbers have now got here and Gamora is awake. They salute the Destroyer as a valiant but misguided foe, and then turn their attentions to the matter of Thanos. Adam thinks he has no chance of persuading Norrin (let alone Drax) to remain here and live in peace, so he agrees to send them back to the real world. Even though this will probably alert the Mad Titan to the potential threat from within his Soul Gem.

Warlock comments that here he finds relief from the conflicting passions that beset his mortal form. But he knows that this World isn't safe from Thanos and so the universe's problem is also his. Gamora fears that he means to leave them but Adam only 'exiles' Surfer and Drax from Soul World, at the same time promising them aid when they need it.

Drax and Norrin's souls return to their bodies on the ruined world where Thanos left them. Mephisto appears to warn his old enemy Silver Surfer that Thanos is off in a 'far-distant corner of the universe' contemplating what he can do to reality with the 6 Infinity Gems. But soon he will return with his plans laid.

Millions of lightyears away the devil rejoins Thanos who knows what he has just done. Mephisto claims that he just wanted to distress his old foe. Thanos says he'll have to send 'special agents' to deal with the annoying pest.

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