Writer: Peter David

Art: Francesco Manna, Espen Grundetjern, VC’s Cory Petit, and Mico Suayan

Price: $4.99

Release Date: August 14th, 2019

After being ejected from one of the Fantastic Four’s spaceships, Prodigal reminisces about battling the Silver Surfer when the Surfer was still Galactus’ herald. Plus the Surfer makes an “offer”!!?? Let’s see what happens!

NOTE: This issue takes place BEFORE Silver Surfer Black

As we open this issue Mr. Fantastic and the Thing are in space searching for Prodigal. Not finding any readings of him, they head home.

We then flashback many years later to Prodigal’s homeworld.

We see a conversation between Prodigal and his dad who is king, and brother. There seems to be a colony planet rich in resources that wants their independence. The King sends Prodigal to the colony planet to show their strength hoping the colony planet will submit to their will, and not proceed with their plans of independence.

As Prodigal approaches the planet he encounters many ships fleeing. They’re scared, and rightly so of

We then have many, many pages of the Surfer and Prodigal in an ego-filled battle filled with some vague attempts at jokes and humor that don’t quite hit the mark for me. The Surfer has arrived prior to Galactus. The Surfer ends up being impressed with Prodigal and shows signs that while he’s Galactus’ Herald he’s not entirely evil. Galactus does show up and the inevitable happens.

We then jump back to the present. Even though Mr. Fantastic and the Thing couldn’t find him, Prodigal is on the moon with the Surfer. The Surfer shows again why he’s one of my favorite characters for expressing his sorrow and guilt for all the bad things he’s done while Galactus’ herald. He makes an offer to Prodigal. To be continued in Guardians of the Galaxy: Prodigal Sun

This issue was hit or miss to me. I really liked seeing the Surfer as Galactus’ herald. I also like the battle between Prodigal and the Surfer. It showed not only how powerful they both are, but also their massive egos, and their supreme confidence in themselves. I think we all knew going in who would win this fight. The only minor problem I had were the attempts at humor. There’s were several sprinkled in but they didn’t quite work for me, except for the underwater conversation. Now that was funny!

I also think that Mr. Fantastic and the Thing gave up their search for Prodigal much too easily. I realize for this particular story to work that actually finding him wouldn’t work, but it’s not in the FF’s nature to give up so quickly. Especially considering Mr. Fantasic’s massive brainpower.

One of the things I love about comics is seeing different artists takes on space. Francesco Manna does a completely different take than Tradd Moore did in Silver Surfer Black #3, also out this week, but it’s equally fantastic!