He's boring 'cause he's all zen and pacifistic. It's like reading about Gandhi in space. Gandhi's cool and all, but do you really want to read about his adventures?
Same reason Adam Warlock was super-boring before
GotG.
Add into that the fact that some writers interpret "Zen and Pacifistic" with "overly emotional" to the point that I heard fans on a podcast make a joke that Silver Surfer "cries when he passes a school of kittens". Much like people interpret Johnny Storm's "immaturity and impatience" to mean "has ADHD".
I admit I have usually always found the Silver Surfer boring. The fact that he actually was given a shot at a cartoon at the end of the 90's only shows how desperate FoxKids was at the time; it was the most boring cartoon at the time. Like Adam Warlock, I never found him an appealing lead and feel he usually works best in team stories, where he can interact with other characters. The only problem is that he is probably too powerful to be on GOTG, especially as he is attached to Galactus' hip again. I still think that is a backward move for him, IMO. He spent about 35 years of history moaning about all the humanity and life time he was robbed of by Galactus and he hops back into bed with him at the first sign of crisis? I never liked the theory that Galactus was usually treated like a natural disaster that "has" to exist. He's not. He's a being. He can be killed. Just he's too popular a cosmic threat to do so. The only reason why I could maybe understand heroes buying it is the belief that without Galactus, some other massive cosmic threat would take his place to destroy planets, and unlike Galactus might not be as reasonable or honorable (as Galactus has shown occasional mercy or willingness to fulfill his end of a bargain).
I suppose Silver Surfer could work as a Dr. Manhattan type of character, someone who has near omnipotent power but uses it in mostly non-violent ways if he can and analyzes things from an alternate perspective from most people, as he has the "Power Cosmic" and can literally create life. I suppose he could be more interesting if he was broken from Galactus and allowed to become the god head of some planet he cultivated, but that would probably be a bit much for people.
At any rate, Silver Surfer is sometimes considered the "Superman" of the space hero stuff at Marvel; the biggest gun who is usually always there for every crisis (even ANNIHILATION). While I find Nova and the characters of GOTG to be more captivating, Surfer does seem to return in THE THANOS IMPERATIVE, and he and Thanos have been adversaries many times in the past. It would probably take a lot of work, or a writer on par with Grant Morrison to make Surfer readable in a series unto himself for me.
