The Silver Surfer

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Bradford Wright

The Silver Surfer is a superhero appearing in Marvel comic books. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1965, the Silver Surfer is a noble alien endowed with the "power cosmic." He travels throughout the universe on a surfboard championing good over evil. During the late 1960s the Surfer's comic book became unusually "adult" in tone as the character became a vehicle for Lee's existentialist musings and commentary on the failures of human civilization.

The Surfer won a sizable cult following especially among college students. But it was too small to support the series, which was canceled after only a few years. Nevertheless, Lee's ambitious writing influenced young creators seeking to "make a statement" even in a medium widely dismissed as ephemeral by the mainstream public. And the Surfer's audience later grew; Marvel revived the character's series in 1986, and it remained a popular title in the 1990s.