Earth-M
(a.k.a. "Earth-Moebius" but that is somewhat of a misnomer and,
considering its origins, simply "M" for "Mainstream" or "Movies" would seem appropriate)
Identified as Earth-7888 in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universes: Alternate Universes 2005



HISTORY


CHARACTERS




First Age


First Appearance: "The Silver Surfer" - trade paperback copyright 1978 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, 124 pages, ISBN 0-671-22821-8.

Created by: Stan Lee (writer) and Jack Kirby (artist)

History:
(fb) - At some unspecified time in the past, on far-off planet Zenn-La, Norrin Radd agreed to serve world-destroyer
Galactus to save his planet and was turned into the Silver Surfer.

(fb) - When
Shalla-Ball, Norrin Radd's previous lover, saw him as the Surfer, she first failed to recognize him, then became terrified of him.

(fb) - In undisclosed circumstances, Galactus acquired Shalla Ball's DNA.

Galactus releases the Surfer in deep space; the sky-rider later discovers Earth. In New York, he meets a
woman who reminds him of Shalla Ball. He decides to save Earth from Galactus and battles his master; neither is able to truly vanquish the other. Galactus sentences his herald to exile on Earth.

The Surfer modifies his appearance to look like a famous
Male Model, then wanders about the city. He is mugged by three street punks and reverts to his true form.

Meanwhile, irked by his herald's rebellion, Galactus summons his
Master of Guile, who suggests he calls forth a female. From Shalla Ball's DNA, Galactus creates a clone, golden-skinned Ardina, whom he imbues with cosmic powers.

While Galactus ponders the fate on Earth from the Moon, Ardina takes the Surfer on a tour of Earth to demonstrate the unworthiness of the human race. His Master of Guile attempts to convince Galactus to kill the Surfer and let him replace him, but Galactus refuses - he grudgingly admires the Surfer's decision to take a stand for what he believes in, even at the cost of his life.

On Earth, the Surfer and Ardina visit a suburban neighborhood in the Midwest. Two residents,
Cosgrove and Lindstrom, are bigots who react with hostility and aggression; not so the Kemperers who - though incredulous at first - offer their hospitality.

The two aliens then depart; the Surfer collides into Galactus' barrier while Ardina is summoned back by her creator and confesses she has now fallen in love with the Surfer - something Galactus had not planned for.

Meanwhile, the Surfer roams around Earth, being attacked by a variety of Earthmen: Russian military, peasants, monks, South Americans, and worshipped by an African tribe. Eventually, a secret unit of the
CIA uses "Plan Lorelei" to begin to drain his cosmic power - with near fatal results, had he not been rescued by Ardina at the last moment.

Ardina reveals her true feelings; they make love. In the morning, Galactus dispatches the Matrix which created her and, despite their attempt to escape, she is reassimilated or reabsorbed within the Matrix and "dies".

The Surfer then bargains with Galactus that he will serve him again if Galactus swears to spare Earth. Galactus agrees. The Surfer rejoins his master.

Comments: Stan Lee told the undersigned that this book was based on a treatment he had written (or conceived of) in an attempt to sell a Silver Surfer movie to Hollywood, to which Jack Kirby would have been attached to provide designs. Consequently, the story took place on an ordinary Earth, with no Fantastic Four, no Watcher, no super-heroes, no magic, no colorful past history, and likely none of the other elements or characters that comprise the Marvel Universe as we know it.

Interestingly, this is the ONLY Marvel book featuring Marvel characters that was NOT copyrighted "Marvel Comics Group" in its original edition but instead copyrighted "Stan Lee and Jack Kirby". Unless Marvel rectified that situation in later editions, one might consider that original characters such as Ardina and the Master of Guile are therefore a Lee/Kirby property, not a Marvel one.

There are certain variations between the versions of the characters of Galactus, the Surfer and Shalla Ball as depicted in this book and their regular Marvel Universe versions - there are reviewed in their respective
characters files.

Images: Cover by Jack Kirby, painted by Earl Norem.




Second Age


First Appearance: "The Silver Surfer: Parable" - hardcover copyright 1988 by Stan Lee and Moebius, 70 pages, ISBN 0-87135-491-8.

Created by: Stan Lee (writer) and Moebius (artist).

History:
(fb) A "young" Elyna saw the Silver Surfer fight Galactus.

Astronomers discover that a giant spaceship is approaching Earth. Panic spreads, especially in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the Surfer leads a lonely life, passing himself off as a homeless man, in the ghettos of Los Angeles. He is being harassed by three
LAPD officers when the ship lands and Galactus reveals himself. He claims he has come to offer mankind a better world if they agree to worship him.

Charismatic religious televangelist
Colton Candell and his sister Elyna watch as Galactus reveals himself. Colton sees an opportunity and declares himself the apostle of Galactus-the-God, claiming to have summoned him to Earth by his prayers. But the religion of Galactus is one of chaos and society begins to crumble. Anarchy reigns.

The Surfer chooses to reveal himself to expose Galactus as a false god. Colton rejects him, but Elyna embraces his vision. The Surfer challenges Galactus, asking him why he broke his pledge not to attack Earth, to which Galactus replies that he has not, the Earthmen are destroying themselves.

While the world media watch, the Surfer and Galactus engage in battle, causing much devastation to Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, despite Elyna's words of reasons, Colton has become intoxicated with power and tries, in vain, to communicate telepathically with Galactus. The
Mayor of Los Angeles comes to visit in an attempt to protect the city but is rebuffed by Colton's fanatic Chief Disciple. Elyna steals the Mayor's helicopter in an attempt to reach the Surfer but is shot by one of the Disciple's guards.

Elyna, wounded, loses consciousness and dies when her helicopter crashes; the Surfer might have rescued her if he had not been struck by Galactus, who thus displayed his total lack of compassion before the world media.

While the Surfer mourns Elyna, the world now rejects and turns against Galactus. The U.S. president orders his airforce to attack him, which they do just as Galactus was about to crush the Surfer. Realizing he has now lost his battle for the hearts and minds of Mankind, Galactus releases the Surfer and goes.

The U.N. would enshrine the Surfer instead, but realizing the danger for Mankind to rely on anyone else but itself, the Surfer instead proffers words of contempt who turn the crowd against him; only Colton understands he has done so on purpose, and begs him to come back, but the Surfer leaves to return to his loneliness.

Comments: The undersigned (who was co-editor on this book) was told by Stan Lee that he (Stan) wanted to do another stand-alone Surfer adventure, very much like the
earlier Kirby collaboration, outside the regular Marvel Universe. Vague words about Hollywood were also mentioned.

Elyna's words about having seen the Surfer fight Galactus when she was young (about twenty years before?), the Surfer's own words to Galactus about their previous battle and the world devourer's pledge to not attack Earth, are certainly evidence that this story, if not conceived at this stage as a direct sequel to the previous book, could be construed as one. Hence the
third book planned in the series which made it official.

The only discrepancy would be to reconcile the fact that the Surfer was seen rejoining Galactus at the end of the Kirby book, while he's eking out a miserable existence on Earth when the Moebius book opens, but certainly it is conceivable that, after having used the Surfer, Galactus being already depicted as more spiteful in the Kirby book, and perhaps following advice given to him by the resentful Master of Guile, would have simply redeposited the Surfer on Earth, exiling him once again...

We are treating the hardcover edition as the definitive edition because (a) it was planned first, and (b) it contains an extra page to the story, even though the story was first published as two separate regular newsprint comic books (to humor Moebius who wanted to see a real comic book with his name on it).

Images: Painted cover by Moebius.




Third Age


First Appearance: Cyberspace 3000 #1 - Marvel UK (July, 1993)


Created by: Created by Gary Russell, Steve Tappin, and Michael Eve.


History: (Cyberspace 3000#3 (fb)) Young
Kathisul Evin was able to access ley-lines, dragon paths, and other such mystical forces. She worked as a tracker for a survey team. She brought them to a warrior chieftain's burial mound on Fandor Island. It was hundreds of years old. Brushing against a drawing, she apparently set off an explosion. She was unharmed, and was confronted by a stony figure, possibly Fandor himself. The stony figure enslaved Kathisul Evin. She was not freed until she became Galactus' herald, Dark Angel.

(Cyberspace 3000#1-3) <30th Century> A dimensional rift brought the Galactus of Earth-M to Earth-Guardians of the Galaxy. Galactus saw the Sol III (see comments) and sent Dark Angel to inform its crew that he would be feeding on their ship's energies.

The Keeper (the Earth-Guardians of the Galaxy's counterpart of the Silver Surfer) then confronted Galactus. The Keeper did not realize that this was an alternate Earth's Galactus.

Using the power of Shan O'Meara (a crewman of the Ark, also the "Cosmic Messiah"), Dark Angel returned Galactus to Earth-M. However, she became stuck in the universe of the Guardians of the Galaxy and remained there.

(Cyberspace 3000#4) - Dark Angel continued to struggle against the Keeper, who sought to stop her from allowing Galactus to continue to feed on planets (The Keeper had long ago managed to satiate Galactus' appetite in his own timeline). Dark Angel eventually revealed the truth to the Keeper, but she was then weakened as the insectoid Trilexia began to pass through the same wormhole through which she and Galactus had passed.

(Cyberspace 3000#5) - Dark Angel, Galactus, and the Keeper returned to Sol III, where Dark Angel stopped the sentient computer of the ship, which had become corrupt and was trying to kill its crew; Dark Angel hinted that the threat might only be over temporarily. After healing Shan from his injuries sustained at Sol III's hands, Dark Angel and Galactus prepared to return to Earth-M. Shan successfully opened the portal, through which Galactus passed, but when the Trilexia returned and attacked Shan, Dark Angel remained on the Earth-Guardians side of the portal, saving Shan and driving off the Trilexia, but being trapped in the Earth-Guardians dimension. She then kissed Shan, offering to stay with him, and he accepted.

 Dark Angel of Earth-Morbius's saga continues under her sub-profile: Kathisul Evin

Comments: CYBERSPACE 3000 was a tale centered around an Earth Space Ark called "Sol III" from Earth-691 (Guardians of the Galaxy future). This ark left Earth around the time when the Badoon took over and set off to find a new world. This Dark Angel was the Dark Angel of Earth-Moebius, not the original, eponymous Marvel UK heroine (Shevaun Haldane) who had gained her powers from Algernon Crowe's Mys-Tech.

Footnotes in the Cyberspace series confirm Dark Angel and Galactus as having been from Earth-Moebius.

The fact that there was magic on Earth-M, as shown in the flashback of the creation of Dark Angel, would seem to violate the premises set up for Earth-M, but one might theorize that the kind of magic displayed in the story remains within the boundaries of "credible" magic, as it may also exist on our own Earth (e.g.: ley lines, Holy Grail, etc.), as opposed to the more fantastic magic of the regular Marvel Universe.



Images: Cover by Steve Tappin




Fourth Age


First Appearance: "The Silver Surfer: The Lost Adventure" (written/partially drawn in 1998 - unpublished - see Comments)

Created by: Jean-Marc Lofficier (writer) and J.O. Ladronn (artist)

History:
(fb) - Even though he was eradicated from the timelines of the regular Marvel Universe, the evil essence of the
Overlord managed to survive and reincorporate itself into the universe of Earth-M, where it again embarked upon its past of universal conquest. As Doctor Strange says, "EVIL such as the Overlord can never be truly EXPUNGED! It can only be BANISHED, to reappear ELSEWHEN -- Where hate and bitterness provide a FRESH SOIL for its seeds!"

(fb) - After a gargantuan struggle, the Overlord kills Galactus, the only being who could oppose him in that universe.

(fb) - The Overlord attacks Earth with his alien armies.
Irena Candell (the daughter of Elyna) leads the human resistance. They launch a Thunderbolt Missile, but in vain. The Overlord captures Irena.

(fb) - The Overlord captures the Surfer of Earth-M and turns him into a cyborg. "This SURFER should be drawn in a Moebius style so that he looks thinner and maybe a little taller than the regular version. The major difference, however, is that he has spikey, Borg-like implants going into his skull." The Surfer states: "He would have KILLED me had it not amused him to OWN the Herald of Galactus!"

(fb) - Gaea implore Doctor Strange to go to the rescue of Earth-M: "If ONE Earth falls, ALL life will be diminished… ALL Earths will wither and DIE…"
Note: This takes place when Strange was still the blue-faced "Master of the Mystic Arts" around Doctor Strange I #180. Gaea says: "You are my ONLY hope -- my ONLY DEFENDER!"-- Strange likes the sound of that.

Strange enlists the help of the Surfer and Iron Man.
Note: This takes place just after Silver Surfer I #18 when the Surfer had sworn revenge upon Mankind. A series of events, not recapped here, then pit him in conflict against SHIELD and Iron Man, but the sacrifice of a new character BILL BUTLER aka VANADIUM, showed him that he was wrong: "I have learned that the road to REVENGE is filled with ONLY death and MINDLESS DESTRUCTION... And you, my friend, have shown me the quality of MERCY!"

Strange is weakened by the energies he spent to cross the dimensions. He tells the Surfer and Iron Man they must rescue Irena.

In his citadel, where Los Angeles used to be, the Overlord's entourage includes Skrulls, Aakon and the Kree Super-Sentry (from Captain Marvel I #16). As Iron Man and the Surfer attack, the Super-Sentry releases the Surfer-M.

While Iron Man fights the Super-Sentry, the Surfer fights the Surfer-M. Iron Man defeats the Super-Sentry and frees Irena. The Surfer manages to "cleanse" the Surfer-M. They escape.

Irena tells the Surfer and Iron Man the history of the coming of the Surfer-M to her world - fb to the
Kirby and Moebius books. When asked about other super-heroes, she states, "We NEVER had any such things on our world... My uncle once mentioned a DR. RICHARDS, famous for his research on COSMIC RAYS. Maybe he was the man you mean..."

Meanwhile, Doctor Strange prepares to open an Omega Warp: "It opens onto the very end of time itself -- TOTAL ENTROPY!"
Irena: " But who has the POWER to create such a thing?"
Strange: "Only a God -- or a GODDESS! The living spirit of Earth spans the entire life of the Universe -- GAEA exists at the END of time as she did at its BEGINNING! SHE will open the warp for us!"

Strange then tells Irena: "GAEA can only respond if she is summoned by the Mage Supreme of that dimension --YOU are this Earth's SORCERESS SUPREME -- Your uncle's [Colton Candell] CHARISMA came from the same source. You have the same VAST, latent, mystic powers!"

A final battle begins. The Surfer-M sacrifices his life to transform himself into a pure, elemental ball of sheer cosmic energy and pushes the Overlord into the Omega Warp. "And in that last, quantum fraction of time, as ETERNITY itself expires, the evil flame that was the OVERLORD is finally snuffed out."

Comments: The "Silver Surfer: The Lost Adventure" was commissioned and contracted for by Marvel from J.M. Lofficier (the undersigned) and J.O. Ladronn when Ladronn agreed to sign an exclusive agreement with Marvel in 1997. The script was written, edited and paid for. Then, Ladron drew five pages in 1998. Then the authors were notified that Marvel had chosen to cancel the project. Some material can be viewed on JM Lofficier's site
here.

TSS:TLA officialized the fact that the Moebius book was a direct sequel to the Kirby book, and also connected Earth-M to the regular Marvel Universe. It also functioned as a sequel to Silver Surfer I #6 and Silver Surfer I #18, explaining why the Surfer had eventually decided to abandon his vow of revenge and forgive Mankind. Finally, it also worked as a prequel to the later team of the Defenders.


    I don't know why there is not a Marvel Fanfare series or some other venue for all of these great inventory stories that Marvel has stacked up! I'd love to see this series become a reality!
    --Snood.


Images: Unpublished art by Ladronn.




"Profile by" Jean-Marc Lofficier (yes, that Jean-Marc Lofficier!--Snood) and Doc Savage and Snood (Cyberspace 3000).


Last updated: 10/11/05

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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