Given the Surfer's prominence in the biggest Marvel story of the era, it's no surprise that the fans had an immediate reaction to his addition to the Marvel Universe, nor is it surprising that he was more than a little divisive. As the letters rolled in to the Marvel offices in 1966, readers like Doug Nikkel commented that "Silver Surfer is a corny name" (which, to be fair, it is), while David Carmichael wrote in with an angry screed asking "Why? Why don't you give the Fantastic Four a person, a single person, to fight, and not a bunch of space bums running around cluttering up the yarn and making the pages look utterly disgraceful?" Ouch.
Others were a little more kind — including future Batman editor Dennis O'Neil, a frequent fixture of the FF's letters page — but perhaps the strangest commentary came from a Houston, Texas reader named Greg Jones. As he wrote, "Galactus represented the Viet Cong, the powerful aggressor, but not realizing fully his error. The noble FF assumed the role of South Viet Nam — they needed help from a more powerful source. The Silver Surfer, as America, helped a lesser people in their time of need, even though he himself was not involved. And Alicia [Masters, the Thing's love interest] characterized Stan, Marvel, the President, and all other loyal, patriotic Americans."
Needless to say, that's a pretty wild interpretation of the a story about a space giant with a big hat trying to eat the planet. Even Stan Lee, responding to the letter in the pages of FF #52, seemed surprised by this one, writing "we can't dot an i without someone reading some deep subliminal message into it. (Of course, we do put a lot of personality into our i-dotting!)"
