Norrin Radd watches his planet die in this Silver Surfer: Black exclusive

Any comic by Tradd Moore is guaranteed to blow your mind with unique designs, a huge scope, and pulse-pounding action sequences. He’s the best fight choreographer in modern comics, and his forays into superhero comics have elevated the genre by taking an innovative approach to superpowered showdowns. He introduced Robbie Reyes to the world by taking vehicular mayhem to new heights in All-New Ghost Rider, and his current work on Silver Surfer: Black gives him the chance to go cosmic as he takes Norrin Radd on an exhilarating journey through time and space.

Written by Donny Cates, a college friend of Moore’s, with colors by Dave Stewart and letters by Clayton Cowles, Silver Surfer: Black builds on plot points from Cates’ Guardians Of The Galaxy and Venom while exploring Norrin Radd’s tragic history. This exclusive preview of next week’s Silver Surfer: Black #3 opens with a flashback to Norrin and his wife resting on their home planet, breaking from the devastation that has defined most of this series to show a tender moment between lovers. Moore is as skilled with romance as he is with action, and he keeps his panels tight on the character to reinforce the intimacy while Stewart’s coloring emphasizes the warmth. But it’s a moment that won’t last, and when a cosmic visitor arrives on the planet, the panels start pulling back as the focus shifts to the destruction of Zenn-La.

The final two-page spread of this excerpt is a jaw-dropper, a zoomed-out landscape shot that radiates explosive energy along with somber emotion from the giant Surfer, whose journey through time has led him to this turning point in his own origin story. Moore designs alien architecture that forces the reader to slow down and take in all the interesting details, which are impeccably colored by Stewart, whose bright pastels reinforce this sense of Zenn-La as utopia. This image captures the magnitude of this event for the Silver Surfer, setting up an especially painful trip down memory lane in this issue.