The Silver Surfer has often been called the “Lone Sentinel of the Spaceways,” due to his tendency to travel the universe alone, often thanks to his depressed state. While Norrin Radd possesses mighty abilities thanks to the Power Cosmic granted to him by his former master, Galactus, he also carries a great deal of guilt for his role in leading Galactus to countless populated worlds and ending trillions of lives. Although the Surfer has tried to atone for his past, he often feels he deserves to be alone.
And yet, there was a time when the Surfer traveled the galaxies with a human companion who became the love of his life. Even more surprising was the revelation that the two could have had a child together – if for not one terrible mistake.
This chapter in the Silver Surfer’s life was chronicled by Dan Slott, Michael Allred, and Laura Allred in their Silver Surfer comic book series. Taking a lighthearted approach to the Surfer’s adventures, the creative team had the Silver Surfer team up with Dawn Greenwood, a spirited young woman from Earth. Just before the two met in person, the Surfer met the Never Queen, a cosmic being who represented all possibilities. Manipulated into battling her, the Surfer fell victim to an overwhelming psychic attack where the Never Queen showed the Surfer all of his possible futures. One of these futures showed the Silver Surfer and Dawn welcoming a baby girl with silver hair into the world.
As the future version of the Surfer asked Dawn what they should name their daughter, the vision abruptly ended and the Surfer found himself in his own time and space. This allowed him to speak more reasonably to the Never Queen, who turned out to be a victim of greedy alien capitalists who had stolen her heart to power a giant pleasure planet. Deciding to help the Never Queen, the Surfer finally met and worked with Dawn to restore the Never Queen’s heart and reunite her with her true love Eternity, the very embodiment of the Marvel Universe.
The Silver Surfer and Dawn would go on to have belonging to a group of people who accepted him completely. Unfortunately, Dawn’s father later died while Dawn was off-world and Dawn pleaded with the Surfer to take her back in time so she could say goodbye to him. Wanting to please his love, the Surfer used his cosmic powers to time travel – but something went wrong and the two were flung back in time past the Big Bang and into the universe that existed before the modern Marvel Universe.
Realizing that they were now trapped in this universe and could not return to their original home, the Surfer and Dawn resolved to make the best of a bad situation by exploring their new universe (which still had about a century left in its existence) and living happily together as a married couple. However, since they knew the universe was doomed, the two chose not to have children – something that broke the Surfer’s heart because he knew how important family was to Dawn. Still, Dawn assured the Surfer that she wouldn’t change anything about her life with him, and after several decades she ed away peacefully in their home.
Shortly after, the universe ended, and the Surfer was able to use his cosmic powers to take him and Dawn’s essence into the new universe where he waited for billions of years for history to catch up with him. Sadly, he had to do all of this alone as the daughter he would have had with Dawn was now no longer a possibility. Thanks to his immortality, the Silver Surfer may yet father a child – but after losing the love of his life, that possibility seems more unlikely now than ever.
