I see a Silver Surfer and I want it painted black...
Silver Surfer: Black is a five-issue 2019 superhero comic book miniseries written by Donny Cates with art by Tradd Moore, tying into Cates' Guardians of the Galaxy and Venom runs.
When the Black Order and Hela steal Thanos' corpse and escape by creating a black hole as a diversion, the Silver Surfer dives in and pushes his powers to the breaking point to save everyone pulled through the event horizon. Severely weakened, Norrin is jettisoned billions of years into the past and finds himself being hunted by the primordial elder god Knull, creator of the symbiotes. Norrin Radd must find a way to escape the dark god's clutches and return to the present, without changing the past in the process.
Silver Surfer: Black contains examples of:
- Accidental Time Travel: Norrin Radd is accidentally catapulted billions of years into the past while saving his fellow superheroes from a black hole, leaving him Trapped in the Past with an Omnicidal Maniac of a Humanoid Abomination hellbent on conscripting him into his army of corrupted gods.
- The Atoner: The Silver Surfer spends most of the miniseries angsting over the countless planets full of sentient life that he fed to Galactus during his tenure as the Devourer's herald, philosophizing over whether he can or even deserves to be forgiven. It takes a series of pep-talks with Ego the Living Planet, Uatu the Watcher, and the mid-apotheosis Galactus to snap him out of his funk, and even then he attempts to invoke Death Equals Redemption fighting Knull.
- Back from the Dead: In the fifth issue, the Silver Surfer expends the last of his energy to conjure a star point-blank in Knull's face before his body crumbles into cosmic dust. This dust gives rise to many of the planets later consumed by Galactus, and Radd later regains physical form, albeit turned black and intangible at the exact point in time he was sent to the past.
- Beyond Redemption: Norrin Radd feels this way about himself for much of the series due to his legacy of planetary genocide as Galactus' herald, and as Knull bonds a symbiote to him he thinks that it's a fitting fate for one destroyer of worlds to be devoured by another.
- BFS:
- Knull wields All-Black the Necrosword, a primordial symbiote that takes the form of a massive red-and-black sword.
- The Silver Surfer transforms his board into an equally-large greatsword in order to duel Knull, and manages to get a blow in before Knull decides to stop holding back.
- Big "NO!": When the Silver Surfer escapes, Knull screams "NO!" and turns the Symbiote Throneworld into a mass of hands attempting to grab him.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: During their duel, Norrin manages to slash Knull with his board-turned-blade, though all this does is severely piss Knull off. Norrin notes that — especially in his weakened state — he stands no chance of winning against Knull, and spends most of the miniseries running and hiding. In the final issue he uses the last of his power to conjure a star right in Knull's face as a middle-finger, and then dies from his injuries.
- Dragon Rider: When the Silver Surfer escapes, once he regains his composure Knull summons a symbiote-dragon and chases Norrin down. Norrin narrowly avoids being eaten, and fires a star down its gullet to kill it. In the fifth issue, Knull shows up on an armored symbiote-dragon, but Norrin slays it by conjuring a star inside its body.
- Eldritch Location: The Silver Surfer comes across a planet where everything is covered in viscous black ooze, the only inhabitants three symbiote-enslaved goddesses and the only structure a massive Gigeresque gateway. After Norrin burns the living abyss away by conjuring a star, the gateway is revealed to be a portal to the Symbiote Throneworld, a nightmarish parody of a planet made entirely of symbiotes.
- Enemy Mine: Ego the Living Planet is a recurring enemy of the Silver Surfer and Galactus, but here he saves the former from Knull and is in turn saved from the mid-apotheosis Galactus, whose containment unit crashed into him. Ego — aware of his future enmity with the Silver Surfer by reading Norrin's mind, even comments on how ironic it is that a destroyer of worlds would be saved by one.
- Face–Monster Turn: After a brief fight, Knull snares the Silver Surfer with a symbiote he dubs the Void Knight. However, it's immolated by Ego the Living Planet before Knull can do much more than admire Norrin's legacy of planetary genocide.
- Game Face: Knull's face takes on a nightmarish form when he's angered, but special mention goes to the final issue, where his face becomes even more symbiote-like than usual.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: In the final issue, Knull duels the Silver Surfer on the back of one of his symbiote dragons and the pair seem evenly matched, but when Norrin manages to get a blow in he stops holding back and drives Norrin into the symbiote-dragon's body with All-Black.
- Kame Hame Hadoken: Knull defeats the Silver Surfer in their first fight by blasting him with a torrent of purple "Necropower" energy, knocking him off his board and incapacitating him long enough for Knull to bond a symbiote to him.
- Magic Missile Storm: When fighting the Silver Surfer on the Symbiote Throneworld, Knull creates symbiote anti-aircraft cannons that fire homing volleys of Necropower projectiles.
- Nightmare Sequence: Paralleling his flashback to when he became Galactus' herald, in the third issue Norrin has a nightmarish dream-vision of a giant symbiote-infected version of himself destroying Zenn-La in Galactus' place.
- Neck Lift: Knull introduces himself to Norrin by grabbing him, yanking him through a portal to the Symbiote Throneworld, and holding him by the neck in midair.
- No-Sell: When Knull attacks the Silver Surfer on an armored symbiote-dragon, Ego vomits a torrent of lava attempting to immolate them. While the extreme heat causes them discomfort, Knull and the symbiote-dragon are ultimately only angered by this.
- Not So Invincible After All: After being warped into the past, Norrin finds himself in a greatly weakened state and face to face with Knull, an Elder God of the Void and divine progenitor of the symbiotes. While Norrin notes that even at full power he wouldn't be able to defeat an entity as powerful as Knull, he resolves to die trying and even manages to get a few good blows in.
- Retcon: Amazing Spider-Man #430 established that the symbiotes instinctually hate the Silver Surfer due to him feeding a planet the Symbiote Hive had conquered to Galactus. The second issue retcons this to them hating him due to him injuring Knull during their duel.
- Sealed Good in a Can: At one point, Norrin has a flashback to when he encountered Klyntar during his time as Galactus' herald and decided to investigate the not-planet... which promptly ate him, its constituent symbiotes trying to imprison him alongside Knull at its core. Norrin was able to escape, confused as to why the symbiotes bore him such animosity despite him never having encountered them before.
- Series Continuity Error: Knull is shown wielding All-Black and with numerous symbiotes at his command, despite Venom #4 establishing that he only created the symbiotes after losing All-Black to Gorr, which only happened 3000 years into the past per Thor God of Thunder and King in Black #1's appendix.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: After discovering the source of Ego's sickness is the Lifebringer One, Norrin removes it and contemplates draining the Power Cosmic from Galan before he can become Galactus, both to augment himself for a rematch against Knull and to prevent Galactus from coming into existence, and in doing so erase himself from existence. Before he can do so, Uatu dissuades him by saying he wouldn't Retgone himself, just create new possibly-worse timelines.
- Supernatural Floating Hair: Knull's hair floats like he's underwater, emphasizing the dark god's otherworldly nature.
- Villain Takes an Interest: When Norrin frees a planet and three goddesses from his control by conjuring a star, Knull yanks him through a portal to the Symbiote Throneworld and — after a brief fight — bonds a symbiote to him. Intrigued by Norrin's memories of serving Galactus, Knull decides to make him a lieutenant in his army of symbiote-enslaved deities, but Ego immolates the Void Knight symbiote and Norrin escapes. Desiring to force Norrin to serve him, Knull chases him and their final fight ends with Norrin's (temporary) death.
- Wing Dinglish: As in Venom, the symbiotes speak in a brain-melting eldritch language... that's just English transcribed into sigils.
- Worf Had the Flu: Norrin expends most of his power rescuing the heroes sucked into the black hole the Black Order used as a distraction to steal Thanos' corpse, leaving him running on fumes and infected by Knull's darkness — which stains his body black the more Power Cosmic he expends. He seriously considers draining the Power Cosmic from the mid-apotheosis Galactus both to restore himself and prevent the Devourer of Worlds from coming into existence, but is stopped by Uatu, who points out he wouldn't be erasing himself from existence, just creating a bevy of alternate timelines.
