Behold the Silver Surfer, cosmic cowboy, in this The Best Defense exclusive

These pages quickly set up huge stakes for the issue by emphasizing the godly power of Galactus, then challenging it with an explosion of color and light that sends planets careening through space. With the exception of Southern Bastards, Latour doesn’t do very much interior art these days, so it’s a treat to see him go wild with a story that is drastically different than the deep-fried crime noir of his Image Comics series. He gets to experiment with color, texture, and spectacular composition in his Silver Surfer book, and this excerpt is a feast for the eyes as it takes readers from a doomed pastel-colored alien metropolis to an arid desert where the titular hero discovers a wrecked Roxxon dig site. The way these pages shift from moments of quiet dread to planet-shattering action gives the story compelling tonal dynamics, and there’s a palpable sense of excitement in how Latour brings this cosmic corner of the Marvel universe to the page.