Classic Comic Book Cover of the Week: Silver Surfer #45 Thanos & Mesphisto

Silver Surfer Vol. 3 #45

When it comes to comic book covers, the villains like to sneak in and steal the spotlight on occasion. While not a regular type of deal, because the heroes generally take center stage in their own books, sometimes the bad guys can have some seriously fun times when they jump to the front of the comic book. The Silver Surfer has some pretty powerful villains, which is necessary to balance out those terribly awesome powers of his. It does not take the power cosmic to find one of the coolest covers in the entire series.

The cover of Silver Surfer Volume 3 #45 features two of the most powerful bad guys in the entire Marvel Universe: Thanos and Mephisto along with the tag line "The Boys Are Back." The issue sets up one of the most legendary partnerships (and dangerous betrayals) in comic book history. This is one of my personal top ten covers of all time. The Ron Lim & Tom Christopher cover is simply epic in every sort of way, and the two characters look pretty much as bad ass as possible.

On the value side, Comic Book Realm lists this gem at $10, which makes it a solid investment. #44 is the first appearance of the Infinity Gauntlet and has climbed to the $50 level. After "The Thanos Quest" graphic novels, this story line is one of the most important leading up to the hugely popular original Infinity Gauntlet six-issue limited series.

If you are wondering about the volume 3 designation, don't be fooled. Volume 1 of Silver Surfer is a twenty issue Silver Age series that ran from 1968 to 1970, and Volume 2 consists of a single issue from 1982. This Copper Age (1984-1991 or even 1992) series runs 165 issues from 1987 to 1998, and is probably the best well-known of the entire run. A lot of good things happened for the Surfer in this series, and getting Ron Lim and company on board was probably one of the most important.

This book can still be found in the five dollar bins of comic book stores everywhere and can occasionally be found online for a nice deal as well. It is one of the coolest wall books out there, and really no collection is complete without some sort of villain presence. How can you go wrong with Thanos and Mephisto? (BTW Mephisto doesn't seem to make cover appearances a whole lot these days, hmmm)