Silver Surfer Annual#3(1990)

Brief Summary: The Silver Surfer returns to Earth to report to Captain America on the death of Thanos. After visiting Avenger's Mansion, the Surfer crosses paths with Reed Richards, who is checking on a patient with a strange virus for Nick Fury. The Surfer agrees to accompany Reed to the hospital, but they arrive to find nothing but death and destruction. It turns out that a virus has mutated George Prufrock into a deadly monster, which the Surfer carries off into space and strands on a desolate planet. Detailed Summary: The Silver Surfer returns to Earth to report to the Avengers that Thanos has been killed in battle and meets with Captain America. The Surfer confides in Cap that the scale of the Power Cosmic sometimes shocks him. Captain America gives him a word of encouragement and the Surfer departs. Meanwhile, at Bellevue Hospital the virus within George Prufrock continues to mutate him, turning him further into a monster. Nick Fury contacts Reed Richards and asks him to check up on George, since he has lost contact with the hospital. Reed agrees to check it out. As he is traveling to the hospital, Reed spots the Silver Surfer and asks him to join him on his adventure. They arrive to find nothing but death and destruction. The two learn that a giant monster has been eating everyone in his path and is now in the East River. The Silver Surfer senses that the monster is eating all life within the river and is growing larger by the minute. The Surfer engages the monster, but realizes that it cannot be destroyed on Earth without causing enormous damage to all around it. He lets himself get consumed by the monster, then carries it off the planet and to a desolate world destroyed in the past by Galactus. The Silver Surfer prepares to destroy the creature when the voice of George Prufrock calls out to him. He pleads for the Surfer to kill him and end his misery. However, once the Surfer finds out that a life resides within the beast, he refuses to kill it. Instead, he leaves the monster (and thereby George) stranded on the planet, unsure if his pledge to no longer destroy life has condemned George to eternal misery.