As promised, I'm here to talk about Ron Marz.
I recently read volumes 3 through 8 of the Silver Surfer Epic Collections. These collect Englehart (vols. 3-5), Starlin (vols. 5-6) and the first half of Ron Marz's (vols. 7-8 ) run on the character.
Steve Englehart
Englehart's run was my favorite. From the very first issue, Englehart develops the larger universe around Silver Surfer. He introduces the Elders, the Soul Gems, the escalating conflict between the Kree and Skrulls, Captain Reptyl and Clumsy Foulup, and, of course, Surfer's slow walk towards humanity in his relationships with Shalla-Bal, Mantis and Nova. Englehart deftly balances pulpy sci-fi action with larger conceptual characters. In one issue, Surfer is caught in the middle of a huge fleet battle between the Skrull and the Kree, in the next he's contemplating the inherent nature of different species.
Englehart's Surfer is a rage monster. He doesn't hesitate to fuck shit up. The ultimate resolution of Englehart's run is not the Surfer coming to grips with his past and getting over his guilt, but being ever so briefly given godhood by The Stranger.
Englehart's run starts off rough in large part because of the absolute shit artists they saddle him with, but then Ron Lim takes over around issue 15 and redefines the look of Surfer and the universe. Lim's artwork is a product of its time (late 80s Marvel house style), but he does a lot to emphasize the breadth and scope of the universe surrounding Silver Surfer. I can't imagine the book without him. Englehart's run feels like a complete 30 issue story during a time when things like long-form storytelling simply wasn't a thing in American superhero comics.
9/10
Jim Starlin
When Starlin takes over, all of Englehart's world building is immediately thrown out and the book narrows its focus to two characters: Surfer and Thanos. Thanos is your classic mastermind character. He has plans within plans. He toys with the hero when he can very easily kill him at any time. Every setback is just a ruse to throw the hero off. Etc. Etc. Everything that happens in Starlin's run is a prelude to the Infinity Gauntlet. But that also means that a lot of issues just feel like Starlin is spinning his wheels until Infinity Gauntlet is ready. Surfer gets trapped in the Soul gem for two issues. Thanos fakes his own death to throw Surfer off his trail for five issues. Surfer is trapped on a planet for three issues. The Impossible Man shows up for two issues to tell Surfer he will never defeat Thanos if he can't crack a smile.
The best Starlin issues outside Thanos's resurrection is the three issues where Surfer gets trapped on a planet. The plot is simple: Thanos is apparently dead. While wandering the cosmos, Surfer gets a message that Thanos left something for him in his will. So Surfer flies over to the planet to investigate and ultimately gets trapped there because the planet's currency is energy and all of Surfer's energy is drained upon arrival. Surfer then spends the next three issues trying to navigate an oppressive government bureaucracy (and failing) before figuring out a way to break free. The message of the story is "CORPORATIONS BAD!" but its good, classic sci-fi in spite of Starlin's retarded politics.
Starlin's Surfer is a pacifist, and Starlin begins the rather tedious trend of all of Surfer's character growth being in the form of getting over his guilt. Several issues end with the exact same plot point of Surfer declaring that he's finally gotten over his guilt and can move on to the next chapter in his life. Sadly, this trend continues into Marz's run.
All-in-all, Thanos is a fun character. He's a mastermind villain before mastermind villains became the mark of bad writing. Not everything lands, but the things that do are pretty solid.
8/10
Ron Marz
Ron Marz takes over after Starlin. Marz takes Surfer's pacifism to the extreme. Surfer went from blowing away tens of thousands of Kree during Englehart's run, to basically refusing to fight anyone for any reason. Drax goes from single-minded to retarded. We get some rather unnecessary detail about how Thanos killed his mother. And, for fucks sake, he kills Nova. During Englehart's run, Surfer is constantly remarking about how Galactus favors Nova and treats her better than he ever treated any previous herald. Then, during Marz run, all that's thrown out and Galactus never treated her like anything other than dirt. Then Marz fucking kills her for no reason.
Marz's writing can best be described as "serviceable." Gone is the depth of Englehart's run and the fun of Starlin's run. Marz is the kind of guy who, were he not Starlin's acolyte, would be relegated to writing fill-in issues and annuals. There's just nothing here that adds to the character of Silver Surfer or the greater Marvel universe.
6.5/10