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The Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd) is a fictional character, a comic book superhero from the Marvel Comics universe. Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, the character first appears in Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966), the first of a three-issue arc fans and historians call "The Galactus Trilogy".

Originally a young astronomer of the planet Zenn-La, in order to save his home-world from destruction by a fearsome cosmic entity known as Galactus, Norrin Radd made a bargain with the being, pledging himself to serve as his herald. Imbued in return with a tiny portion of Galactus' Power Cosmic, Radd acquired great powers and a silvery appearance. Galactus also created for Radd a surfboard-like craft — modeled after a childhood fantasy of his — on which he would travel at speeds beyond that of light. Known from then on as the Silver Surfer, Radd began to roam the cosmos searching for new planets for Galactus to consume. When his travels finally took him to Earth, the Surfer came face-to-face with the Fantastic Four, a team of powerful superheroes that helped him to rediscover his nobility of spirit. Betraying Galactus, the Surfer saved Earth but was punished in return by being exiled there. Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966)

The Silver Surfer is an animated television series based on the Marvel Comics superhero which aired on Fox in 1998. After the 13-episode first season, Marvel was facing bankruptcy problems and could not afford to air the second season, despite that scripts were written and the show had attained successful ratings.

Although it was among the first to feature computer animation, the series was true to the graphic style of Jack Kirby. The main plotlines were faithful to the comics, but some changes were made, and the tone was markedly more serious than that of most comics and animated series.

As of 4th June 2007 The Silver Surfer is being re-aired on the UK station Jetix to coincide with the release of Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Currently, as of 2007, along with the majority of the other Disney-acquired Marvel Comics animated series, there are no plans to release the show to DVD.

When the planet Zenn-La is threatened by the cosmic giant Galactus, a being that must drain whole planets of their lifeforce for sustenance, Norrin Radd must act. He makes a bargain to be the scout for the being, to search for uninhabited planets, in return for for Zenn-La's survival. Galactus agrees to this and changes the man into the powerful Silver Surfer, but he also submerges his humanity to remove his qualms about selecting populated planets for consumption. That suppression is only broken by an attack by the insane space villain, Thanos. With the knowledge of Galactus' treachery, he moves to stop the being just as he was going to consume Earth. With difficulty, the Surfer manages to stop him and breaks all ties to Galactus. In retaliation, Galactus whisks Zenn-La to an unknown location and now the former Herald must search for his lost home. However, there are few clues and while he still has all his might of the Power Cosmic, there are many races who want their revenge for the destruction he brought to their homes as the servant of Galactus. Written by Kenneth Chisholm