Warning: this article contains spoilers for Fantastic Four: Life Story #5!
In a striking retelling of the life of the Fantastic Four told as if their sixty-year comic history took place in real-time, Galactus just submitted the Silver Surfer to a horrifying fate. Marvel’s First Family have now been astounding fans for sixty year, showcasing countless adventures that have taken the team all over the world and around the universe. In their latest comic series, their story is told with much less wonder and brings the fantastical team down to Earth for a gritty and realistic saga, and unfortunately for the Silver Silver, it is a story that has no regard for the longevity of its characters.
In Fantastic Four: Life Story #5 written by Mark Russell with art by Sean Izaakse and Carlos Magno, the Silver Surfer has come to Earth to make Mr. Fantastic an offer. The Silver Surfer tells the Fantastic Four that they have four years until Galactus consumes the planet, while also presenting Reed Richards with a chance to save the Earth right then and there, which is to replace him as Galactus’ herald. Reed refuses, and the four years come and go, eventually leading to Galactus’ arrival.
Faced with the end of the world, Reed Richards flies into outer space to meet Galactus before he descends upon the Earth. Mr. Fantastic decides to take back the decision he made four years earlier, and flies into space to tell Galactus that he will be his herald in the hopes that it will save the world. Upon learning that Reed has agreed to become his new Herald, Galactus takes back the Power Cosmic he previously gave to the Silver Surfer while the two are floating in space. All at once, the Silver Surfer transforms back into his original form - one which cannot survive in space. Powerless to even attempt to fight for survival, while floating in the previously harmless vacuum of space, the Silver Surfer dies in one of the most hopeless and terrifying ways imaginable.
The Silver Surfer’s real name was Norin Radd of the planet Zenn-La, and he vowed to serve Galactus as his herald if the cosmic destroyer would spare his world. Galactus agreed, and Norin Radd became the Silver Surfer and served Galactus without question. In the original Marvel Comics continuity on Earth-616, the Silver Surfer leaves Galactus’ side to help the Fantastic Four save the Earth, and Galactus allows his servant to abandon him for fear of the Ultimate Nullifier. In this retelling of the Fantastic Four story, the Silver Surfer stays with his master until the very end, dying horrifically by Galactus’ hand. It's a move that only serves to make Galactus seem more alien and terrifying, fulfilling the promise of a dire threat Reed has known is approaching for decades.
Fantastic Four: Life Story is a heavy limited series from Marvel Comics, pulling no punches in the gritty realism of the short-term story. For instance, before the Silver Surfer’s death Johnny Storm died nearly a decade earlier in this continuity trying to stop a nuclear attack, and for the rest of the series the Human Torch remains dead, with no miraculous revival so that Marvel can use him again in the future. This story has no future; it is a self-contained tragedy of a family cursed with fantastic powers, living with the anxiety of a world-ending threat looming over them. In this alternate world of the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer doesn’t get the chance to be a hero or anything more than Galactus’ servant before suffering a horrible and terrifying fate.