SULFUR SURFER
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Real Name: Harold 

Identity/Class: Unrevealed (likely a native of some world (possibly Earth, but certainly possibly not) mutated to serve Galactongue)

Occupation: Herald to Galactongue

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Galactongue;
    the Throwaway was cursed to be drawn to and to observe Galactongue's consuming of worlds, but whether he had any exact relationship to either the Sulfer Surfer is unrevealed.

Enemies: Natives of Earth-85197 and presumably numerous other worlds (see comments)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    observed in proximity to Earth in Reality-85197 (possibly mobile throughout the universe and/or across realities)

First Appearance: Unpublished Howard the Duck script - Steve Gerber (1985)

Powers/Abilities: A grimy and black being riding a surfboard through air and outer space, the Sulfur Surfer wields the Power Sulfuric. He locates planets suitable for consumption by Galactongue. Via yellow to black sulfury material expelled from his surfboard like exhaust, he coated the worlds with a material that was like "gravy on the feast" to Galactongue. This material could fill the sky, blocking out the sun's light, at least, and blanketing the world in darkness.

    The Sulfur Surfer can speak and communicate with others, as well as simply exist and survive, in the vacuum of space, unharmed.

Height: Unrevealed, but likely roughly human sized (around 6')
Weight: Unrevealed (his density is unrevealed)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Presumably none

History: 
(Unpublished Howard the Duck#1: Howard the Duck's Secret Crisis II script (fb) - BTS) - Via incorporating Shadow Matter within her Poporb to make techno-fiction movies , Krylorian techno-artist Chirreep unwittingly caused Reality-791021 to be overlayed with Reality-616; when the two realities separated, Howard was pulled into an interdimensional rift between Reality-616 and -791021. It was believed that the two realities would seek to occupy the same "space," threatening them both.

    In 46 separate scenarios monitored by Chireep, Duckworld was destroyed. (see comments).

(Unpublished Howard the Duck#1: Howard the Duck's Secret Crisis II script) - In Chirreep's 47th scenario (Reality-85197, and possibly others; see comments), the universe's destruction was ordained by a "higher power" (the Brotherhood of Evil Prepositions, or something/one else). 

    Harold, the Sulfur Surfer, served Galactongue in finding and preparing worlds for his master to consume.  The Surfer released a trail of sulfurous emissions that coated the world in black glop -- "the gravy on the feast"-- like a gooey bonbon.

    As the Surfer's thick, billowing, yellow-grey glop coated the sky, blocking out the sun, and terrifying the natives (and assaulting them with its sulfur stench), including Ronald (Howard's father in this reality) and his neighbors (ducks, geese, and chickens) in their unspecified suburbs. Even in New Stork City, Duktor Strange was helpless to repel the sulfurous glop.

    The Throwaway then appeared before Strange and his ally Truman Capoultry, pointing out the futility of resistance.

    Once his master hovered around Earth, he Surfer offered, "Your supper, Galactongue." Thanking Harold, Galactongue devoured the world, after which it smacked its grinning lips, slurping and noting, "Mm-MMM! Dee-lish!" 

Comments: Created by Steve Gerber.

    Gerber's unpublished script (http://www.stevegerber.com/writings/scripts/index.php3):

• Obviously, the point at the start of this was that the events of the Howard the Duck magazine series and Bizarre Adventures#34 never happened in Reality-616. 
• One of the key points was that Howard's earliest stories clearly identified him as coming from a world of anthropomorphic animals, not just ducks. A reason was needed to explain how it came to be that he was now from Duckworld.
  
• I don't know how the story was to end, but Howard's Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry confirmed Howard as not originally coming from Duckworld but that his reality had been warped/merged so that it was now his native world. The events of the Howard the Duck magazine occurred in Howard's history as a result of the reality merger. Steve Gerber himself approved the entry before it was published. I WISH I had asked him what he had intended for the second issue of his two-part proposal.
• The next issue blurb specifically mentioned: 
• POWER PLAYS!  BACK-STABBING!  CAREER STRATEGIES!  RUG-PULLING!  DEATH!  NEW CLOTHES!  MORE DEATH!  PLUS-- IN CASE YOU MISSED IT IN 1974-- THE ORIGIN OF HOWARD THE DUCK!  ALL IN THE ASTOUNDING CONCLUSION OF "SECRET CRISIS II"--
• I would guess that the destruction of Duckworld detailed at the start of the script would have been confirmed. 
• Perhaps greater detail would have been seen of Howard's homeworld.
• I would also guess that Chirreep might have perished...and I wonder if others from her stories might have met their ends as well?
  
• Chirreep's stories created or were based on an alternate reality (Earth-791021), which then merged with (or overwrote) Earth-616's, affecting Howard's behavior and memory. Howard indeed had all of the adventures from the magazines, and the few other stories prior to 1985, but they were the merged Howard, which is why he remembered Duckworld as his home. In that reality, his parents' names were Ronald and Henrietta according to Gerber's story, BTW.
• When Chirreep stopped making stories, the alternate reality split from Earth-616, and Howard was flung into the void, which is where Gerber's unpublished story took place.
• The end result was that Howard's homeworld is now Duckworld.
  

    As the script was not published, we don't know how much/many of the story events contained within occurred as written, so I'm including them here in italics.
Only the published data is listed in regular text below:

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z harcover#5: Howard the Duck entry) - The cosmic axis tipped again as Howard’s world changed markedly.
    This takes place immediately before the Mr. Chicken adventure in Howard the Duck II#1

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z harcover#5: Howard the Duck entry) - Howard had Winda send him and Bev to "Duckworld," though it was not the world he remembered.

(Marvel Legacy: 1970s: Korrek entry / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z harcover#5: Howard the Duck entry) - Howard later joined with Dakimh the Enchanter, Korrek, Jennifer Kale, Man-Thing and others to resolve damage caused by a
reality warp initiated by Krylorian Techno-Artist Chireep.

    The Throwaway notes that he is doomed to watch an infinite number of worlds perish like the one we see the Sulfur Surfer deliver to Galactongue. We don't know for sure how many (if any) other worlds perished before this Earth, nor do we know for sure whether solely Earths were consumed across alternate realities or whether he had fed or was going to feed on other worlds in the same universe. I would think it MOST lilkely that it was Earths being destroyed as Chireep had witnessed multiple Earth's destructions and since the series was a play on Crisis on Infinite Earths...but obviously that's only guess-work...

    The Duckworld detailed as consumed by Galactongue is Reality-85197; Chirreep notes that she has viewed 47 scenarios via the Poborob and all resulted in the destruction of Duckworld (we don't know if any others were associated with Galactongue)...so either there are 46 other realities in which Duckworld was destroyed...or maybe it's the same reality, and she just couldn't change it or view anything else? Let's go with that, because, since we don't know anything else to distinguish them, I can't really designate them. Chirreep does ask the Poborb why it keeps "feeding the same vidstream into the fictionator."
    While we don't know what happened in the script for the second issue nor do we know what actually happened to Howard, we do know that Duckworld persisted, so the destruction Chirreep visualized was a divergent version of some fashion.

    The story refers to the Duckworld reality as being part of a Shadow Multiverse created via the Shadow Matter in Chirreep's Poporb. It seems more likely that she accessed and affected the realities than actually created one.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Sulfur Surfer should be distinguished from:

• Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd) - Zenn-Lavian mutated by the Power Cosmic to serve as herald to Galactus--Fantastic Four I#48
• other "Sulfur" or "Surfer" characters

images: (without ads)
There are no images of the Silver Surfer (but he's supposed to be "grimy black from head to toe, but otherwise resembling the Silver Surfer)

First posted: 06/17/2018
Last updated: 06/17/2018

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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