Comic Book Questions Answered – where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com).

Reader Ivan J. asked if any Avengers writer ever had the team ask the Silver Surfer to join the team.

As you may or may not know, Silver Surfer was invented by Jack Kirby in the middle of the story that he and Stan Lee had worked up for Fantastic Four #48. Their plans involved a giant being coming to devour Earth. Kirby figured that such a being would naturally have a herald, so Kirby added in the Silver Surfer to his pages before handing them back to Lee. Lee loved the idea of the Surfer and he and Kirby quickly adapted the plot so that the Surfer played a major role in the story. In Fantastic Four #49 (by Lee, Kirby and Joe Sinnott), the Surfer is knocked down to Earth where he meets Alicia Masters. Alicia is one of the sweetest people in the Marvel Universe and she was able to quickly convince the Surfer that it was wrong to allow Galactus to destroy the Earth.

The Surfer turned on his master and fought him alongside the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #50...

The Fantastic Four were able to beat Galactus through some other means, but Galactus wouldn't allow his loss to go without punishment, as he then took away the Surfer's ability to travel the stars. If he liked Earth so much, he could be stuck there then!

The Surfer and the Fantastic Four parted basically as friends, but the Surfer mentioned that he was going to travel around the globe...

Here's the weird thing. Stan Lee TOTALLY fell for the Surfer as a character. So much so that he quickly decided that he was the only person who was going to be allowed to write Silver Surfer stories. This irritated Jack Kirby, of course, but hey, Lee was in charge.

After Kirby left Marvel, Lee continued his rule, but he relaxed it a bit to allow Silver Surfer to appear in the first story arc of the Defenders...

The whole concept of the Defenders was that they were more of a loose assortment of superheroes instead of a classic team (that changed over the years as more full-time members joined the group until there really was a solid group of heroes that were the Defenders), so Surfer returned for a few issues in Defenders #6...

That meant that he was on the Defenders team that actually fought against the Avengers in the famous Avengers/Defenders War. The two teams were each convinced that they had to collect pieces of a device. The Surfer fought against the Vision (and easily won as, well, come on, he's the Silver Surfer).

Once that story was over, though, the Surfer quit the Defenders and never really rejoined (although he did make a few more guest appearances over the course of the series).

So, did he ever get an offer to join the Avengers?

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In Avengers #215 (by Jim Shooter, Alan Weiss and Dan Green), the Silver Surfer was traveling around the world (as he was still stuck on Earth) and he encountered the Molecule Man...

He sent his surfboard out to the Avengers to get help...

The Molecule Man captures the Avengers, as well, and almost kills them. The next issue is a familiar plot for Shooter, as he explores the complexities of Molecule Man dealing with having ultimate power. In the end, the Avengers convince him to give himself up. He drops the force field that he created over New Jersey and the Avengers are free. Before the Surfer departs, Captain America offers him a spot on the team (they were down a member after Yellowjacket had been kicked off the team a few issues earlier - Tigra quits in this issue, as well) and the Surfer turns them down...

So, in a nutshell, yes, the Silver Surfer was invited to join the Avengers at one point!

Thanks for the question, Ivan! If anyone else has a suggestion, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!