"Ain't Silver Surfer a Kelly Slater-lookin' dude?"
Surfing’s anti-trans movement, riding a wave of successes after causing a massive dip in Bud Light sales and forcing wetsuit maker Rip Curl to apologize for using the thoroughly modern and inspirational Sasha Jane Lowerson as cheeky ambassador, was left stunned, in recent days, after the revelation that the much-loved comic book character Silver Surfer will be played by a woman in the just-announced Fantastic Four reboot.
Julia Garner, who burst onto the scene as spitfire spewing Ruth in the popular drama Ozark, will join Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing.
Comic book fans are buzzing that the film, slated to be released on July 25, 2025, will be set in a 1960s alternate universe.
Unawaked surf fans, though, furious at the gender bending with one declaring, “Ain’t Silver Surfer a Kelly Slater-lookin’ dude?
While the Silver Surfer isn’t the first Marvel character whose gender has been changed for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, (Captain Marvel’s Mar-Vell is also a man in the comics), but this is considered the most significant example to date.
According to nerds trying to head off the aforementioned surf traditionalists from throwing Marvel comic books on top of Rip Curl trunks on top of Bud Light cases in the backyard bonfire:
Technically, though, Marvel isn’t changing the character’s gender in this case, but rather which character becomes Silver Surfer. Traditionally, Silver Surfer’s origin depicts him as Norrin Radd, an inhabitant of the utopian world of Zenn-La. Zenn-La becomes the latest target of Galactus’ world-devouring hunger, and so Radd agrees to become Galactus’ herald in exchange for sparing Zenn-La and saving the life of his lover, Shalla-Bal.
This Shalla-Bal sounds real suspicious and there are some camps who claim “In a twisted future version of the MCU, Norrin bestows a portion of his power onto Shalla and the two serve as the twin heralds of Galactus (who in this universe is actually a hyper-evolved version of Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman’s son, Franklin).”
Sounds real suss to me.
Real suss.
Thoughts?