What Happened to Silver Surfer in Marvel’s ‘Ruins’ Storyline?

Silver Surfer is one of the most iconic and powerful characters in the Marvel Comics Universe. We also know that he is nearly indestructible. His skin is made out of special metal that allows him to withstand even the most extreme conditions of space. Under usual circumstances, Silver Surfer is completely sealed and unaffected by the vacuum and extreme temperatures, but what would happen if Silver Surfer himself decided to sabotage his nearly perfect body? This is what one of the most depressing realities in Marvel Comics ‘Ruins’ explored in great detail as Silver Surfer can be seen dying under the most unusual circumstances. And this is what we’re going to cover today. Let’s see what happened to Silver Surfer in Marvel’s ‘Ruins’ storyline. 

In Marvel’s ‘Ruins,’ Silver Surfer clawed his chest open as he wanted to expose his lungs to air. It is believed that Silver Surfer was deranged at that moment, as he should have known that this meant a certain death for him. The cosmic radiation that Silver Surfer’s dead body emitted long after his death caused the stealth mechanisms on the invading Kree ships to fail, which in turn caused them to be destroyed by the humans and their invasion of Earth to fail. 

Silver Surfer’s death in the ‘Ruins’ caused a whole lot of disastrous things to happen, and we’re going to explain all of them in the rest of this article. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading!

Marvel’s ‘Ruins’ showcases what the world would look like if superpowers caused irreparable harm to superheroes

Marvel Comics Universe is no stranger to alternate realities that showcase different versions of events or superheroes. These alternate takes on already established stories are rarely as depressing as ‘Ruins’ storyline that showcases different realities where superpowers are not powers. Instead, they are curses and defects that severely impact society in a negative way. 

The story was imagined as a parody of ‘The Marvels’ storyline. 

Written by Warren Ellis, ‘Ruins’ follow Philip Sheldon, a retired Daly Bugle reporter with a death sentence. Sheldon has been infected with a lethal virus by Peter Parker, who experimented with spiders in an effort to gain superpowers but instead ended up with a highly contagious and lethal disease. 

Philip is convinced that humanity was just about to reach the Age of Wonders, where something went irreparably wrong. Now, Earth is filled with individuals with superpowers, but instead of working toward the betterment of humanity, those superpowers are often a source of disfigurement, insanity, and death among the people that have them. 

Philip travels the USA recording such phenomena, photographing and trying to find a rational cause, a single event that caused their reality to become ruined and without hope. Philip considers the failed Kree invasion one such event that “broke” things, but ultimately he decides against it because he eventually finds out that they, too, were caught up in the working of this strange and twisted reality, and bizarrely enough, Silver Surfer is involved.

Silver Surfer caused the Kree invasion to fail 

The only place where you can find Kree on Earth-9591 is in the middle of the Nevada Reservation. Philip can’t help to notice that the Kree reservation is conveniently right in the middle of the nuclear test site grounds, and he figures that this must have been done on purpose.

Before he gets close to the reservation, Philip is equipped with a protective suit that is supposed to shield him from the harmful effects of leftover radiation, but the Kree encamped on the reservation have no such luck. They have no protective suits. They have no decent living conditions, no medicines. Overall it’s a sad affair for all the survivors of the failed invasion that happened some time ago.

They were placed here in the nuclear zone to suffer, to be reminded every day of who they tried to invade. Philip managed to score an interview with Mar-Vell, a member of the Kree Liberation Force. As Philip noticed, Mar-Vell was riddled with cancer and half-blind. 

Mar-Vell was polite enough to explain what exactly happened as Kree ships approached Earth and what kind of role Silver Surfer played in it. 

Silver Surfer clawed his chest open 

In Mar-Vell’s words, Kree Liberation Force launched a series of ships in an attempt to silently invade Earth, depose its leadership, and put it under Kree control, he has however opposed this mission as he had no qualms with humans, and he advocated for the freedom of an entire race of people. 

Still, he was on the ships when they entered Earth’s space and when they encountered something bizarre floating and twisting in space.

This was Silver Surfer. Silver Surfer’s body was perfectly sealed and designed so that he needs no oxygen, which makes perfect sense when you consider that he spends most of his time traversing the Universe looking for new planets for his master to devour. 

However, Silver Surfer in this new body went insane, and since he used to breathe oxygen, he was insane to feel it rush through his lungs once again. Silver Surfer clawed his chest open, and the resulting shock killed him as he broke his natural seal. 

To make matters worse for the Kree, even though they decided to leave Silver Surfer alone, his body still gave off residual Power Cosmic radiation, which completely sabotaged Kree technology and made their cloaking mechanisms fail.  

As soon as their cloaking mechanisms failed, the Kree were detected by Earth’s defenses, and missiles were launched, killing almost everyone on board the ships. The survivors fell to the Earth’s surface in crates, praying for mercy but ending up in radioactive detention camps. 

The Kree live in detestable conditions 

Mar-Vell further explains that his people are now subjected to cruel human treatment. They are all sick with cancer and have no way of treating it. Only 1 in 8 children are born alive, and they are forced to burn their dead since the soldiers won’t come into the camp to collect them. 

Their only hope is that the camp will most likely be empty in 30 years since what was left of the Kree will finally succumb to cancer. 

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