The series is set in the shared Marvel Universe and stars the titular Silver Surfer, one of Marvel's cosmic heroes. It's a direct sequel to a 1969 story in the very first Silver Surfer series - a story which in-universe (due to Comic-Book Time) took place a decade ago.
During that original story, the Surfer was trapped on Earth - imprisoned after he helped humanity save the world from his former master, the world-devouring Galactus. African American scientist Al Harper befriended the Surfer and tried to find a way for him to escape Galactus's barrier around the world. But before he could succeed, another cosmic threat - the being known as the Stranger - tried to exterminate humanity. While the Surfer directly fought the alien, Al Harper lost his life in a Heroic Sacrifice, defusing the Null-Life Bomb the Stranger intended to use against the Earth.
Harper's sacrifice was enough to make the Stranger reconsider his contempt for humanity, and Earth was spared. As a parting gesture, he repaired the damage he'd caused and edited the memories of those who'd witnessed the events. However, he wasn't able to resurrect Al Harper, stating that even his cosmic powers cannot conquer death.
But that was a decade ago. Only the Surfer knows where Al Harper is buried, or how he died, but he's been declared legally dead for years. His mother and his sister's family have moved into his old house, in the small town of Sweetwater. A town that now celebrates "the Sweetwater Gap" each year - a missing day, eleven years ago, that nobody can remember.
Al's niece Toni isn't quite settling in, though. She misses the big city. And she's having dreams - or visions - of a glowing man. Her grandmother says the women in their family have always had a touch of 'the sight'... but just what is Toni seeing?
The first issue was released on February 1, 2023.
Silver Surfer: Ghost Light contains examples of the following tropes:
- Back from the Dead: Al Harper died defusing the Stranger's world-destroying Null-Life Bomb, back in Silver Surfer #5, published in 1969. In-universe, he's believed dead for a decade before he returns in Silver Surfer: Ghost Light #1. In terms of real life publication time, it's been fifty years.
- Distant Sequel: Ghost Light is a direct sequel to "...And Who Shall Mourn For Him?", published in Silver Surfer #5, in 1969. It's a downplayed example, as it's only set a decade or so after that tale (although it's published over fifty years later) - but in terms of the the Marvel Universe and its sliding timeline (with all modern events and heroes condensed into 10-15 years), that puts it near the very start of the heroic age.
- Dream Intro: The first issue begins with Toni dreaming of the local forest, and of a glowing man... who recognises her? When he calls her name she wakes, to find that her mother's also calling her.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: At the end of the original story in Silver Surfer #5, the Stranger's telepathic powers were shown to leave two men - who recovered Al Harper's body and arranged his 'John Doe' burial - unaware of how he'd died. The new series makes it clear that it wasn't just affecting them - and it wasn't limited to Al Harper's death. Nobody in Sweetwater can remember that June 22nd, the day he died to save the world.
- Variant Cover: As well as the standard cover (which shows both Al Harper and the Silver Surfer) the first issue has two variants. One shows the Surfer in space, riding past an asteroid. The other, celebrating the start of Marvel's line of Planet of the Apes comics, shows the sentient apes looking up as the Surfer glides overhead. Neither variant seems to have any direct connection to the plot of the series.
