Review: Silver Surfer Vol. 3- Last Days
Quick Summary
Pros: All of the volume’s stories are creative science-fiction adventures that each stand out in a unique way. The largest story arc deals with some interesting concepts and moral questions that reflect back well on the main characters. The artwork looks beautiful and suits this series perfectly.
Cons: Some of the story elements are too rapidly paced.
Overall: The third volume in this series is just as wonderful as the first two. This book has an interesting story, gorgeous visuals, and a ton of creativity present through both. This creates a book where a large number of positives easily outweigh any negatives. Anyone who enjoyed the previous volumes should not miss this one and anyone who thinks they are interested in this series should read previous volumes to get to this point.
Story
Silver Surfer Vol. 3: Last Days, by Dan Slott and Michael Allred, easily maintains the quality of its predecessor. This volume contains stories that are thrilling, heartfelt, meaningful, and that allow the main characters to have plenty of time in the limelight. These stories all also have a creative science-fiction twist that allows them to stand out in their genre and that suits the series well. There are some story elements that feel a little rushed but even these end up turning out alright by the end of the collection. In general, this volume is great and works as another solid entry in this series.
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The first two chapters in Last Days are fantastic science-fiction adventures. The first is a weird trip through space and time that offers readers a chance to see a single string of actions from multiple viewpoints. The second is a creative pseudo-horror story where a sentient, idyllic world turns out to be harboring ulterior motives. Both adventures feel imaginative and work well with this type of storytelling.
The rest of the volume focuses on a story arc that has the universe end and tasks the Silver Surfer and Dawn with remaking it. This arc explores questions about whether perfection is truly possible and if reality is a preferable alternative to a “perfect” illusion. It uses these topics to explore the main characters, who both eventually chose to live in a universe that is “real” rather than one that is manufactured to be “perfect”. The entire arc also captures the wonderful sense of creativity and imagination that were present in the first two stories.
My only complaint with this volume is that the pacing still feels a little too rapid. The previous volume ended with Dawn ready to leave the Surfer and never look back. However, those problems are mended almost too easily and, thus, make the relationship between the two feel weaker. I still really enjoyed what happened within this volume but wish it had one or two more chapters to flesh everything out.
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Art
The artwork in this series continues to live up to the high expectations set when it began. Michael Allred’s work on Last Days looks beautiful and easily captures the charm present in the past few volumes. The work is detailed, well laid-out, and expressive on every page. It also continuously benefits from Laura Allred’s colors, which bring the visuals up to a whole new level.
Specifically, Last Days really flexes creativity even more so than before. Silver Surfer and Dawn look great as the comic’s centerpiece but the way they are constantly surrounded by an incredibly creative cast of supporting characters makes things even better. In addition, the unorthodox structures in the book’s opening chapter provide a visual accompaniment to the time-travel motif and allow the story to flow better. This is a book with art that helps set it apart just as positively as the story.
Continuity
Silver Surfer Vol. 3: Last Days continues the story from Silver Surfer Vol. 2: Worlds Apart (Review).
The story here continues in Silver Surfer Vol. 4: Citizen of Earth.
This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:
- This volume’s closing story arc is a tie-in to the world-ending events of Secret Wars (Review).
- The Silver Surfer’s first encounter with Doctor Doom, when Doom stole the power cosmic, is mentioned. This encounter took place in Fantastic Four #57, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four Vol. 6 (Review).