That cell doesn't have a toilet, but you don't think of the Surfer as having to use one...

Concluding the "Dynamo City" saga, Silver Surfer #43, "Termination" Written by Jim Starlin and Ron Marz, pencils by Ron Lim, inks by Keith Williams. The Silver Surfer waits in a cell for trial, with his friend Zeaklar. The old-timer was knocked out last issue, and still hasn't regained consciousness. Having nothing left to lose, the Surfer fights the guard robots, and gets nowhere.

Knocked out again, the Surfer wakes up midway through the trial, as the robot prosecutor accuses him of attempting to murder the Great I. (The judge and jury are robots as well, which again makes me think Dynamo City's upper class were all robots, exploiting the meatbag peasants.) The Surfer exclaims he did not, and the Great I is a vegetable anyway; but his remarks are stricken from the record. For good measure, the defense attorney is unplugged, since it would be a waste of power, the judge tells the Surfer he's guilty as hell. Finally bound and gagged, a litany of witnesses for the prosecution testify; some of whom had actually met the Surfer. The jury renders the verdict:

The Surfer and the still-out Zeaklar are taken to the Termination Platform. While he never thought he'd go out like that, the Surfer does seem to be at least a little relieved that his ordeal there will be over. Worse, Zeaklar finally wakes up, and the Surfer has to tell him they've been tried, found guilty, and about to be executed. Oddly, he's not worried, as the Termination Platform lights up...

...and teleports them into space! While Zeaklar has to suck vacuum for a few seconds, the Surfer's powers return and he creates a cube of oxygen for him. Zeaklar had realized the Surfer was slated for execution, then remembered the method, and that it wouldn't hurt him. He was also smart enough to realize he could get out as well, if Dynamo City wasn't smart enough to use an alternative method of execution. Which is exactly what the arriving guard robots suggest: being sore losers, they try to take the Surfer and Zeaklar back. As you might expect, the Surfer isn't having that.

Destroying the robots, and reconstituting his board, the Silver Surfer plans on tearing Dynamo City apart. Zeaklar protests, and the Surfer asks how, since he was held there for ten years? (It was three years! That's the second odd number error in this storyline...) Zeaklar points out the city's got a ton of robots, and at some point the hull would get breeched, killing the people. The Surfer agonizes over that for a moment, but the only move left is to walk away, giving the cheerfully freed Zeaklar a ride home.

So, what's the moral of Dynamo City? Bureaucracy is evil, but doesn't think outside the box? You can't lay faith in any outside force saving you, since like Drax, it could be hopelessly inept. Ditto any appeal to authority, the I's not listening. Or, is the moral that the only way to deal with a corrupt system is to fold and walk away? I like to think the moral is that when the Surfer was forced to be Galactus's herald again, Dynamo City was the first place they went.

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The Silver Surfer is having trouble brooding without his board...

Silver Surfer #42, "A Second Chance" Written by Jim Starlin and Ron Marz, pencils by Ron Lim, inks by Tom Christopher and Christopher Ivy. Still trapped in Dynamo City, the Silver Surfer is at a loss for what to do next; and old-timer Zeaklar tells him "the same thing everybody else does: you keep right on trying and failing and trying again." That cheerful pep talk is followed by explosions, as all good pep talks should be: the city's security robots are on the losing end of a battle with Drax the Destroyer. Finding proof Thanos was still alive, he got the Surfer's whereabouts from one of the city's robots and came to get him. The Surfer jumps at the chance to get out of there, and Drax takes off...without him! (As mentioned, Drax was pretty severely brain-damaged at that point.)

The incident does snap the Surfer out of his self-pity: the universe could be in danger, and he can't waste his time there. He resolves to explain himself to the city's ruler, the Great I...except he can't get in to see him. Back to self-pity, then. Zeaklar also points out that like himself, the Surfer already has three strikes, and the city law gets tough on the fourth offense: termination. The Surfer figures he has to get out on his next try, then.

A passersby makes a suggestion: energy-casters are hired to make light-shows over the city once a week, cheap entertainment for the masses. The Surfer would be perfect for that, either to earn credits and buy his way out, or use the power against the government, or to merely escape. He invites Zeaklar to come with him, to help with the negotiations.

Reviewing the contract, Zeaklar realizes they would be charged for the power, and would end up owing the suits money. Unfazed, the Surfer tells him to take the deal: he's going to get out, or die trying. Even that plan hits a snag: a power damper prevents the Surfer from pulling enough juice to escape. But maybe he could get to the Great I...

During his light-show, the Surfer's cosmic senses come back. Sensing no evil from the Great I, he makes a break for him, using all the power he was able to absorb. Finally before Dynamo City's ruler, the Surfer makes an empassioned speech, imploring the I to stop the bureaucratic evil done in his name...before realizing the I can't hear him. An upper-crust suit (another robot? Was the whole city robots enslaving aliens?) explains the Great I is senseless, but an immense data processor; and that the Surfer is in a lot of trouble.

As the Surfer is beaten and dragged off by security, Zeaklar realizes his friend is doomed...when it seems he has an idea. He rushes forward and kicks one of the security robots, and is promptly one-punched unconscious. The two are dragged away, to Termination Court...next Friday, the conclusion of "Dynamo City!"
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This issue features my favorite Silver Surfer cover, but I didn't scan it...

Silver Surfer #41, "Job Hunting" Written by Jim Starlin, pencils by Ron Lim, inks by Tom Christopher. Trapped and powerless on Dynamo City, the Silver Surfer is forced to try to find gainful employment, so he can make fifty credits for the exit tax and get out of there. After a long wait in line, a robot interviews the Surfer, who isn't exactly work-force material, and sheepishly admits his last job was Herald to Galactus:

Although he gets a job lugging girders around a construction site, the Surfer is fired when he overheats; his silver skin roasting him. Now a vagrant, he is directed to Tent City, a shantytown home for Dynamo City's underclass. Some are trapped there like the Surfer, but for others this is just a setback on the road to fabulous wealth. (Or not.)

The Surfer meets Zeaklar, an old man who's been stuck in Dynamo City for three years. He explains the underground economy, which pays in food or goods, but never credits; keeping the poor workforce right where the city wants them. Run by the never-seen "Great I," the city is supposedly a masterpiece of free enterprise, where anyone can make it big. In reality, that's propaganda, and the bureaucracy is a never-ending series of hoops to keep the poor jumping through. It's a theme Jim Starlin's used before, and I would love to go with him to say, the DMV. That would be a hoot.

A small urchin tells the Surfer he could sell his dreams, which would be broadcast as entertainment. Then, he could earn the five credits (it was fifty last issue!) and get out, but Zeaklar warns him of the negotiators. Still, the Surfer blurts out his price (200 credits, so he could take 39 people with him) before hearing their offer...

The broadcast doesn't go especially well either, with the Surfer strapped to a chair and mind-probes ripping out his memories to show. It does give Ron Lim five or so pages to run down the Surfer's history, which seems to run from sad to sadder. And then it gets worse: violated and enraged, the Surfer tries to restrain himself until he gets paid. And he gets: two credits.

The Surfer gets roughed up by the guard robots, and thrown out into the street. When he wakes up, even his two credits are gone (it's not like the Surfer had pockets...) and he's left to shuffle back to Shanty Town. Of course, this is merely fiction, and I'm sure none of this would never happen in real life. Uh-huh.

We'll check back with the Silver Surfer next Friday: will his luck improve? Well, it's part three of four, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no.

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As I write this, the Gary Friedrich/Ghost Rider case just broke the news, and suffice to say, I'm super-pissed at Marvel. It's one thing to not give creator credit or any sort of compensation, but it's quite another to shake down an older gentleman with health issues for $17,000. I wouldn't say I was looking forward to Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, but I probably would've coughed up to see it in the cheap theatre. Now, I don't want any part of it. We'll see if Marvel, as a faceless corporate entity, does anything to rectify this between now and when this posts; or more likely, if Friedrich has to appeal his case. (Steve Niles has set up to get donations to Mr. Friedrich: there may be more to his case, like Marvel being forced to defend their copyright, but it's still the right thing to help the guy out with a few bucks. And that movie is starting to look a little more tempting...)

But, today we'll start looking at a run of books with a series of lessons that are as true now, as when they were written. From 1990, Silver Surfer #40, "Welcome to Dynamo City" Written by Jim Starlin, pencils by Ron Lim, inks by Tom Christopher. We mentioned before that the Surfer believed he had killed Thanos, and this issue opens with him returning the body to Titan. Although they don't say as much, both Thanos's father Mentor and brother Starfox are a bit relieved. Drax doesn't buy it: connected by "cosmic binds," he can feel Thanos laughing. Unfortunately, since his resurrection, Drax was, put politely, brain damaged; so no one believes him. (And nobody runs a DNA test or anything on the corpse...if Eternals have DNA; and the corpse could've been rendered inert matter as well.)

The Surfer takes his leave, resolving to stay vigilant to the possibility of Thanos's return; but is in short order surprised by a robot. It's a process server, from a place called Dynamo City. Thanos had recently become a citizen there, and by law any citizen's death had to be investigated. Although his 'death' was accidental, it was while trying to kill half the universe--literally, half--and the Surfer feels it was justifiable. Still, he has better things to do than go testify somewhere he's never heard of; but the robot mentions Thanos's last will and testament. Intrigued, the Surfer agrees, but warns the robot that he is not bound by Dynamo City's laws, and that trying to restrict him would be "hazardous."

Using a dimensional portal, the Surfer and the robot arrive at the mysterious city, a gigantic domed metropolis in space. The robot recommends Landing Bay #7, as it will have enough room for the Surfer's landing. Before the Surfer can finish asking what that's supposed to mean, his board disappears from under him, and he skids to an undignified crash. The robot explains, what he didn't tell the Surfer, is that Dynamo City is a "omni-energy absorbing complex," sucking in all forms of energy to the city's central battery; and that by law, all power belongs to the government. Most of that just flies right by the Surfer, since he's freaking out a bit, and tries to get back out.

The security robot goons drag him to his court appearance, where a robot judge uses a mind probe to view Thanos's death. While waiting for the robot jury to render a verdict, the Surfer views Thanos's video will. Magnanimously, he leaves all his holdings in the city to the citizens, "whom I owe so much," although he ominously mentions his holdings off-world are under separate contract--a thinly veiled warning. Then, an outright threat, specifically for the Surfer: figuring if he's dead, it was probably the Surfer who got him, and Thanos was not one to let something like that go. He went to great trouble setting this up...

The expression, "kangaroo court" occurs to the Surfer. He thinks the court will find him guilty, then execute him; but he's wrong. The jury finds "Citizen Thanos was involved in a conspiracy to murder half the population of the Milky Way galaxy, a class-A felony under galactic law." No charges are filed against the Surfer, who thinks this is one trap of Thanos's "that failed to snap shut." He's wrong again. Back at the landing bay, a robot stops the Surfer, saying he can't leave until he pays his exit tax, fifty credits. Unable to push his way past them, the Surfer is "trapped, powerless, and unemployed. What next?" Next, my favorite Silver Surfer cover ever, next week!

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