Thanos Used The Silver Surfer To Save An Entire Planet

Thanos once used the Silver Surfer to save an entire planet – in the most horrifying way possible. During Jim Starlin and Ron Lim’s legendary early ’90s Silver Surfer run, the duo resurrected the mad Titan Thanos and set him on a course that would culminate with the epic Infinity Gauntlet. Before that, however, Thanos had to try his ideas out on a smaller scale.

Thanos had been dead in the Marvel Universe for several years when he returned in the pages of Silver Surfer #34. Death resurrected Thanos and gave him a mission: kill half the universe’s population to balance the cosmic scales of life and death. Thanos, in love with Death, agreed to do so. The Silver Surfer witnessed the whole ritual and was confronted by a newly-revived Thanos at issue’s end. In the next issue, Thanos’ power is shown when he withstands a blast from the Surfer. Seeing that he cannot harm Thanos, the Surfer opts to listen to what he has to say.

Surfer overheard Death mention balancing the scales during the resurrection ritual, and Thanos elaborates: too many living things in the universe are putting a drain on resources, causing whole planets to die out. Thanos singles out humanity as an example, telling the Surfer what an enormous drain a growing population puts on a planet. To prove his point, Thanos takes the Silver Surfer to Salaria, a planet with a gentle but primitive humanoid species. They have no predators, hence their population will spiral out of control, and Thanos claims that within 20 years, the species will degenerate into barbarianism. Thanos then tells Surfer that space bacteria clinging to him will now thin the population, ultimately saving the planet. Of course, he waits to do this until after the two have visited the planet. Horrified, the Silver Surfer returns to Salaria to help.

The kicker of this is: Thanos planned it. He knew what bacteria would be clinging to the Silver Surfer and the effect it would have on Salaria, guiding the hero to the planet to infect it against his wishes. It’s a particularly devastating act for the Silver Surfer who – after his service to Galactus, the Eater of Worlds – had hoped to never again be party to such destructive acts. It didn’t help that the Salarians were innocent and cute too, making Thanos’ plan feel even more diabolical. The story serves as a fascinating glimpse into Thanos’ inner workings as someone who truly believes he’s right but still takes a perverse pleasure in denigrating those who would stand against him. What Silver Surfer captures and many stories miss is that Thanos’ greatest weapon is his intellect – he may be physically imposing, but as in the Surfer’s case, he’s the type of villain who carries out his plan before you even realize he’s begun.

Yet it was a master stroke on his part, and it showed just how committed Thanos was to balancing the universe’s population. He manipulated the naïve Silver Surfer into bringing a deadly disease to an innocent race, all to prove a point. Of course, this was all a prelude to what was to come in the following year – Thanos was (temporarily) successful in balancing the scales of life and death, but he was ultimately defeated. He is now synonymous with killing half the universe, and that mad quest started here.

About The Author

Shaun Corley
(1378 Articles Published)

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Shaun Corley is a pop culture enthusiast living in the Pacific Northwest. After stints in both customer service and academia, he’s turned his attention to writing about comic books–his lifelong passion. He is a graduate of Radford University, with a degree in English. When not reading comics, he enjoys spending time with his fiance and their dog.

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