The 2006, 5-issue series, Last Planet Standing, takes place in the MC2 Universe (an alternate future in the Marvel Universe that went through several series from 1998 – 2008). This story was originally intended to be the ending of the MC2 Universe, but after complaints of the fans and the success of this book, the ending was changed and the universe was spared.

Covers to Last Planet Standing issues 1, 2, and 5.

The story begins with Galactus going through the universe destroying entire galaxies and collecting gods (Thor, the Elders of the universe, etc.) and other cosmic artifacts. We learn that he is not just consuming planets as usual, but as he explains: ”Since time immemorial I have been trapped in an eternal cycle of seeking and consuming energy. Now thanks to a recently birthed star – Galactus will be FREE! I can finally evolve to the next level.”

Galactus and his herald, Dominas The Wavemaster, eventually arrive on earth where the world devourer begins assembling a machine that is different than the one he usually uses to devour planets. This machine is called and Excavatron and he plans to use it to combine the energy of the earth with the energy he’s been collecting and blast it all into a new-born star, which will implode, destroying this universe and creating a new Big Bang.

Dominas The Wavemaster, herald of Galactus.

When earth’s heroes try to thwart his plans, Galactus summons an army of Punishers to fight them off.

An army of Punishers.

Reed sends out a signal to the Silver Surfer who comes to help in the fight. He eventually defeats Dominas and takes his Power Cosmic and then confronts his former master.

Galactus and his fancy-schmancy Excavatron.

At the end, the heroes are successful at reversing Galactus’ energy ray and turn it back around on the world eater. As Galactus is about to die, the Surfer comes to his rescue and envelopes the both of them into a “protective cocoon of ethereal force.” And when the cocoon is ultimately reopened, Galactus and the Silver Surfer have merged into a new being (who looks like a large silver Galactus with a surfboard) which possesses a new form of energy called the “Power Essential“, which he uses to repair all the damage which was done to earth before heading out into the cosmos , stating “From this day forward, I will devote my life to being a builder of worlds and a guardian of life. Across the cosmos shall I journey, transforming dead planets into bearers of life and joy.”

The merging of Galactus and the Silver Surfer.

I liked this story despite not being much of a fan of the MC2 Universe. I especially liked Galactus’ plan and the merging of the surfer with his former master. I thought that was a fun new idea and I’d really like to see more of that new character. It was written by Tom Defalco with nice art by Pat Olliffe.

In 2007, Marvel released a one-shot called The Last Fantastic Four Story, written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Romita Jr. It’s title pretty much explains what it is… the last adventure the Fantastic Four have before they retire – and Galactus plays a pretty major role in it.

When a great council on the other side of the universe, called the Cosmic Tribunal, decide that mankind is no longer worthy to continue, they send one of their own (a being called the Adjudicator) to tell humankind that it has one week to say its goodbyes to one another before it is destroyed. When earth’s authorities and superheroes discover that there is nothing they can do to stop the Adjudicator or the Cosmic Tribunal, Reed Richards sends his friend, the Silver Surfer, to find Galactus. Galactus tells Reed that there is nothing even he can do to fight the Cosmic Tribunal, but Reed has an idea – a piece of information that Galactus has that might be their last hope…

After Galactus gives Reed that information, the Silver Surfer rushes off into space at Reed’s behest, leaving all of the inhabitants of earth to morn and prepare for the end. A short time later, the Adjudicator exclaims “The impossible has happened!” and takes off, leaving the earth behind. It turns out that the information Galactus had given, was the name and location of the one race in all of the universe could stand a chance of defeating the Cosmic Tribunal (a mindless, war-loving race called The Decimators), and the surfer had rushed off to find them and lead them to the Tribunal.

Now that the Tribunal is doomed, mankind is safe from their judgement. BUT the Fantastic Four cannot stand by and allow an intelligent race to be slaughtered, so they take off with Galactus to go save the Cosmic Tribunal and convince them that mankind is noble and does deserve to continue on…

This is one of my favorite Fantastic Four stories. It is an excellent example of Stan Lee’s more recent writing (which I love) and it is also an example of John Romita Jr’s best work – his stuff looks fantastic when inked by Scott Hanna. And of course, I loved that Galactus played such an important role and even helped save the day in the final battle. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It doesn’t get much better than this.

In What If… issue 70, we learn what might have happened if the Silver Surfer had not betrayed Galactus. It starts at that point in Fantastic Four #50 where Reed Richards is confronting Galactus with the Ultimate Nulifier. But before Galactus can agree to spare the earth, the Silver Surfer grabs the weapon out of Reed’s hand and knocks him unconscious. The rest of the Fantastic Four grab Reed and Alicia and retreat into the basement of the Baxter Building where they are accidentally locked in.

Without the help of the Fantastic Four, Galactus kills the Watcher and all of the earths other heros who dare oppose him, and consumes the earth. When the FF finally dig themselves free of the rubble they are burried in, they find themselves left behind on a shattered lifeless husk that was once earth.

The only other survivor they find on the earth is their nemesis, Doctor Doom. Who they agree to help avenge the earth in a group attack on Galactus’s ship. Not surprisingly, Doom wasn’t as interested in avenging earth as he was in getting the power cosmic for himself, but while the Fantastic Four fight a small army of Punishers, Doom dies at the hands of the Silver Surfer – who died as well.

Once aboard the ship, Reed finds the Ultimate Nulifier and confronts Galactsu with it again. But when it came down to it, Reed admitted that he could not destroy the universe all in the name of revenge. At which point Galactus realized he had misjudged the nobility of the inhabitants of the worlds he has devoured…

REED RICHARDS: Then You will no longer consume peopled worlds?
GALACTUS: But who will guide me to my feast with my herald gone? 
REED RICHARDS: We will, Galactus. The Fantastic Four will become your heralds. 

And from that moment on, the Fantastic Four were the heralds of Galactus, leading him to uninhabited worlds and sparing the lives of billions throughout the universe.

I love What If… comics – especially the ones about Galactus, and this was another great issue. It was written by Chuck Dixon and had quite a few artists working on various pages. The art has a bit of a 90s look to it, but is much better than the typical art from that era. Over all, this is a great issue and you should be able to find it relatively easily for just a couple dollars. It’s definitely recommended!

Cover to Silver Surfer 18 by Ron Lim (1988)

At the end of Silver Surfer #10, Galactus ended up eating 5 of the elders of the universe, while the remaining elders escaped into a black hole. In Silver Surfer 15 – 20, we find out the rest of the story. So it turns out that Death had made a deal with the elders that Galactus ate, that she would not take their souls – therefore, they remain alive in Galactus’s stomach and as a result, the devourer of worlds is dying. The Silver Surfer has gathered Reed and Sue Richards (and their son, Franklin) to help save his life. They decide to follow the surviving elders into the black hole (leaving Franklin with Nova, Galactus’ current herald) to get the soul gem from them, which they plan to use to remove the un-dying elder’s souls.

On the other side of the black hole, they find a universe that is governed by two opposing forces: Lord Order and Master Chaos, who have created a third being called The In-Betweener, to “further their eternal conflict”. The In-Betweener teams up with the enders who have passed into his universe and agrees to kill Galactus and help them rescue their fellow elders.

When Nova sees the elders and the In-Betweener on their way towards Galactus’ ship, she releases the Punisher to protect them, but it doesn’t take long for the In-Betweener to “come to know the force which animates (that) particular form of life – and then summon it’s polar opposite,” thereby killing the Punisher.

Once inside the ship, however, The Inbetweener realizes that his method of fighting does not work against Galactus, for Galactus is unique in the universe and has no opposite force which can be used against him.

So he decides to send Galactus’ ship through the black hole and into the universe of Order and Chaos, where the surfer and the Richardses are stuck. The Richardses board Galactus’ ship and with the help of Order and Chaos, get the elders out of Galactus’ stomach and then find that Franklin and Nova had hidden inside Galactus stomach as well, a hiding place Franklin describes as “the safest place there was”.

Galactus, now free of the elders who had been making him ill, is now ready to get his revenge on the In-Betweener.

After battling a short while, the In-Betweener realizes that yes, Galactus is a being without an opposite, but the In-Betweener is a being of all opposites and therefore is himself Galactus’ opposite.

Eventually, with the help of the surfer, Nova, Fire Lord, and Eros, Galactus is able to push the-Inbetweener back through the black hole, so that Lord Order and Master Chaos can punish him themselves.

The last two issues of this story seem to be based around the fact that there are romantic feelings developing between Nova and the Silver Surfer – and that Galactus is jealous due to his own feelings for Nova. In order to keep them apart, Galactus sends them in different directions. He sends Nova to find him a suitable planet for consumption, and he sends the surfer after the elders, who have escaped again. After a misunderstanding between Nova and the surfer, Nova pleads for Galactus to allow her to go speak to the surfer. Galactus reacts in jealous anger and she eventually agrees to stay with the world devourer.

I wouldn’t say this story was a must-read, but it had pretty good writing from Steve Englehart and really great art by Ron Lim, who was at the top of his game in 1989 when this was published.

Marvel Zombies hardcover cover by Arthur Suydam

Robert Kirkman‘s 2006 series Marvel Zombies is a continuation of a short storyline in Ultimate Fantastic Four from the year prior. It takes place in an alternate universe where the earth has been infected with an alien zombie virus and most of the human population has been killed off by the surviving super heroes and super villains.

The main story in this volume (there were many subsequent sequels) is the arrival of the Silver Surfer and Galactus to zombie earth. It’s a long difficult fight before the zombies succeed in taking down and devouring the Silver Surfer, but after they eat him, they become themselves charged with the Power Cosmic. Which helps them eventually take down Galactus.

After they eat Galactus, they become galactus-powered zombie superheros and head off into space to find new planets full of aliens to eat.

Left, the Marvel Zombies devour the world devourer. Right, the Marvel Zombies, now Galactified.

It’s a fun series with nice art by Sean Philips. I think the Marvel Zombies idea became overhyped and although I think this book is over-rated, I think it is still a good book that most anyone would enjoy.

Galactus, the herald of Franklin Richards. Art by Nick Dragotta from FF #16

Jonathan Hickman‘s run on Fantastic Four and FF was EPIC. It was a long, sometimes-complex, story with so many awesome elements: time travel, other-dimensions, Dr Doom, the creation of the Future Foundation, the introduction of the council of Reed Richardses, Dr Doom, Celestials, and some really great character development with Valeria and Franklin. And when it reached its climax last year, all of the work Hickman had been putting into this story all came together – and Galactus played a major part in it. It’s hard to summarize the events in the issues I am going to be talking about, because so so much was going on. So I am going to skip over most of it and just focus on the Galactus highlights and talk about the amazing stuff that we find out about Galactus and Franklin Richards…

Fantastic Four #602 cover by Mike Choi

Issue 600: Galactus gives Reed and Sue a device that they are to use when the earth is in danger. This device will call him to come save the earth – which he wants to protect since that is where the Galactus Seed is. He also tells them that their son, Franklin, has been doing some things they don’t know about (he’s gotten his power back and he has been using it to create his own universe is his bedroom closet). This is, of course, not the first time in Hickman’s run that Galactus has hinted about his interest in Franklin.

Issue 602: Reed and Sue use the device to call Galactus who comes and helps them out by destroying the Kree armada that was threatening earth…

Galactus talks telepathically to Reed and Sue. Art by Barry Kitson.

Issue 603: Galactus takes on four Celestials who are trying to kill Reed. After he kills one Celestial, the other three combine into one giant Celestial and then blast Galactus, leaving him unconscious.

Galactus vs the Celestials and the Super Celestial. Art by Barry Kitson.

Issue 604: The adult Franklin from the future shows up to save the day. In the middle of his battle with the three Celestials, Franklin sommons Galactus to rise and come to him. It says “Throughout all of space and time… the devourer of worlds has had many heralds…Franklin has had only one.”

Franklin summons his loyal herald. Art by Steve Epting.

And then we see that Galactus is the herald of Franklin Richards. Which, of course, is the coolest thing ever. The two of them then beat the Celestials and save the earth. And although the epic battle ends in Fantastic Four issue 604, the best scene between Franklin and his herald, Galactus is in FF #16…

BFF art by Nick Dragotta.

GALACTUS: One day, it will all end. Suns will die and worlds will wither as the universe begins to cool. The heat death of everything. For so long I have thought I would face it by myself.
FRANKLIN: But now you know better. I will be there, standing beside you – we will watch as all that has been will become something new. The birth of a new universe. Still… Buck up, big guy… we’ve got billions of years until we have to worry about that. 
GALACTUS: I dreaded… feared… the return of solitude – of being alone. Forever. I never imagined this is what you could become.
FRANKLIN: Well, you’ll have to wait a little longer… union occures further down the road. And Galen?
GALACTUS: Yes, Franklin?
FRANKLIN: Be thankful that you never ate the earth.

I love the relationship between Galactus and Franklin and that last scene, although it’s only three pages long, is maybe my favorite Galactus moment in any comic. I love Galactus opening up to Franklin about his fears and I love how Franklin comforts and reassures him. But most of all, I love how Franklin speaks to Galactus like an old friend and calls him Galen (I don’t think I have ever seen anyone call him by his old first name like that).

Those last two two-page spreads on this post are two of my most favorite moments in comics ever!

The story of the dead Galactus from the future played out over quite a few years in the pages of Fantastic Four. It started in Mark Millar’s run in 2008 when the New Defenders from the future captured Galactus to use him to power the time machine they used to transport all of earth’s survivors back to our current time – which resulted in the death of future Galactus. The story continued in 2010 and 2011, during Jonathan Hickman’s run, when the present-day Galactus found out about what had happened and went out to get revenge on the New Defenders and the other survivors from the future.

Then in 2012, as Jonathan Hickman was wrapping up his wonderful run on Fantastic Four, he had a couple of strings left with this story to tie up – and he did so in issue 609. That issue, drawn by Ryan Stegman, told us what happened to the New Defenders who were able to get away from NuWorld before Galactus destroyed it…

The New Defenders, with Reed’s help, dig up future Galactus’ corpse to transform it into “The God Ship Galactus“.

Powered by the energy left in the corpse’s bones the God Ship isn’t  just a space ship, it is also a time machine the New Defenders use to travel 1,000 years forward in time, where they will settle. The last page shows the God Ship (the mechanized corpse of Galactus) watching over their new life in the future – as Reed describes it: “A sentry watching over a better future – populated by the consciousness of a failed tomorrow.”

Although it was cool to see Galactus’ corpse turned into a big space/time ship, this wasn’t my favorite piece of the Dead Future Galactus story. Though maybe that is because of the awesome stuff Hickman was doing with Galactus just a few issues prior to this. Still, if you want to follow the whole story of the Galactus corpse, you should read this final chapter. Also, it was pretty awesome seeing Galactus’ corpse turned into a spaceship.

In Mark Millar‘s run on the Fantastic Four, he told the story of the “New Defenders” from the future using the Galactus from the future to power their travel back through time. Once they arrived, future Galactus died and Reed Richards helped the remaining survivors from the future, by giving them a home on NuWorld – an artificial earth exactly like our that was introduced in Millar’s run (read my review/synopsis of that story HERE).

In Jonathan Hickman‘s subsequent run on the book, he followed up on what happened after that…

Fantastic Four issues 583-587

Fantastic Four 575: While traveling to Subterranea with Mole Man, we see that Reed Richards had buried the dead body of future Galactus deep beneath the earth…

art by Dale Eaglesham

Fantastic Four 583: The Silver Surfer is drawn by a “tickling (on) the edge of his mind”, to the place where Galactus’ body had been left.

Fantastic Four 584: After hearing the Silver Surfer’s report, Galactus shows up on earth to confront Reed Richards about why his dead body was hidden beneath the earth. Reed explains to Galactus what had happened and Galactus and the surfer take Reed with them to visit NuWorld, where Galactus aims to avenge his own future death.

Fantastic Four 585-587: After their arrival on NuWorld, Reed tells Galactus that it is not necessary for Galactus to destroy our earth to prevent this future, but that Reed can make sure it never happens. Galactus agrees, however, nothing can stop him from destroying NuWorld.

art by Steve Epting

I love Jonathan Hickman’s work on Fantastic Four and the stuff he does with Galactus (there is more to come following this story) is beautiful. His writing is very smart and not always easy to follow, but I recommend it to anyone willing to put forth the effort.

WHAT DOES GALACTUS FEAR?

One of the coolest bits from this story is when Galactus quickly leaves the earth because, he says, he feared a potential confrontation if he stayed any longer. Who would Galactus fear a confrontation with? Reed’s son Franklin Richards, who has recently gotten his powers back…

art by Steve Epting

The following short 8-page story appeared in Epic Illustrated Magazine issue #1 (1980). Story by Stan Lee, art by John Buscema & Ruby Nebres, painting by Rick Vietch.

I love Stan Lee’s poet-philosopher Surfer! And the art is gorgeous. I got this magazine fairly cheap on eBay.

Fantastic Four is my favorite comic book series and my favorite Fantastic Four story is in issues #570 – #572, written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Dale Eagalsham. It tells the story of how Reed Richards, in his quest to solve all of the world’s problems, finds a council of other Reed Richardses from other universes who had the same desire and teamed up to solve them together. They save suns from exploding, they save planets from starvation, and in issue #571, they save an earth in another universe from a Galactus attack…

The Galactus scene is only 3 pages, but it’s awesome to see the Galactus of Earth 2012 with his slightly different helmet, shoulder-mounted guns, and his multiple silver surfers. It’s not really a Galactus comic, but it’s an awesome and touching story that everyone should read. And the awesome cover (below) had a quote across the top that said “…This morning, I helped Kill a Galactus on Earth 2012″ 

Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch were the creative team on Fantastic Four from issues #554 – #569. (2008-2009). The first half of their run was really strong and introduced some really cool ideas – including a group of superheroes from 500 years in the future that have traveled back in time. In the year 2509, the earth started to fall apart. “Twelve billion people starved to death, half the world’s cities drowned in the seas and cancer and disease affected almost every living creature” In desperation, the world’s heroes teamed together to take care of the survivors. In desperation, a time machine was built with the idea of bringing all of earth’s survivors back in time to live on the earth while the air, food and water were still clean. But they didn’t have enough energy to power the machine – until Galactus arrived – and he had enough power to be the battery for the time machine.

Most of the future heroes lost their lives in the battle with Future Galactus (we don’t get to see the battle, we are just told this by the heroes)…

First only seven heroes came back in time, to prepare the way for the remaining 8 billion survivors. But in order to bring the rest, they need more power, so they abduct Doctor Doom and the Human Torch to drain their powers. At the end of it all, a place of refuge is found for the survivors from the future, but Future Galactus is found dead in the aftermath…

I recommend these issues – and the four leading up to them – to anyone with an interest in the Fantastic Four or Galactus. You can find it pretty cheaply collected in a hard or softcover called “World’s Greatest”. It’s some of the best Fantastic Four work I have ever read.

This picture is from Fantastic Four #557, but the suit is first mentioned in issue #554 where Reed explains that the price of operating the suit costs an estimated billion dollars a second. The suit is later used, though not to fight Galactus.

This 5-part story by writer, Roy Thomas and artist, George Perez from 1976 was a delight. Maybe it’s because it’s been a couple of months since I sat down and read a Galactus story, but it was a really fun read.
It starts out with Ben Grimm having previously been restored back to his human form and Reed making him a new suit that looks just like the Thing and gives Ben 90% of his former strength. Meanwhile Johnny is on a date in Central Park when he witnesses the crash landing of an alien ship that opens up and reveals a golden gorilla with the ability to grow to a giant size.

Issues #171 and #172 have the Fantastic Four fighting this golden gorilla, named Gorr and eventually having Gorr take them back to his home world where he explains that he is from an exact replica of our earth called Counter Earth, that was created by The High Evolutionary. They needed the help of the Fantastic Four because Galactus was on his way to devour Counter Earth.

The Fantastic Four, The High Evolutionary, and Gorr confront Galactus who tells them he is willing to spare Counter Earth if they can find him a suitable replacement in the next 24 hours. The Fantastic Four and Gorr spend the next two issues visiting three nearby living planets to see if they are suitable to offer to the World Devourer, while the High Evolutionary grows impatient and plans to defeat Galactus in physical battle.

In the final chapter of this story, the High Evolutionary grows to Galactus’ size and fights him in the air above Counter Earth. Galactus of course easily beats The High Evolutionary leaving the Fantastic Four and Gorr to try to fight him off. Durring the battle, Galactus notices that Thing is “not precisely the same Thing” he had encountered in the past, but that he is the human Ben Grimm in a Thing suit. He then says he will “punish (him) even as the Silver Surfer was punished”, and blasts him with a ray that eventually returns him to his former rocky form.

Sue shows up near the end of issue #175, explaining that she has found a planet that is volunteering to allow Galactus to eat them instead of Counter Earth. Galactus goes and begins to consume that planet, when to everyone’s surprise, he is suddenly violently ill and collapses into a heap. It turns out the planet that volunteered themselves to him was actually the planet Poppup (home world to the Impossible Man) where all the Poppupians had previously combined their entire community into each other’s minds and as long as one of them (the Impossible Man) survived, they were okay with the rest of them perishing. Impossible Man explains that the reason Galactus became ill after eating the planet, is because “eating all those community -brain Poppupians was just like having a heavy dinner of nothing but hot air. In other words, Galactus got a case of terminal indigestion”.
As soon as the High Evolutionary sees that Galactus has fallen ill, he tries to save at least his conciseness by using his evolving technology to evolve Galactus into a giant brain that then is spread as inorganic matter across the universe…

Again, I really liked this story despite the fact that Galactus ends up pretty much dead at the end. The art is beautiful and the story was well written and didn’t get boring. I thought it was interesting to see that Galactus had the power to revert Ben back to his rocky form and I also really enjoyed the following two panels…