What Scares Galactus?

In the 2006/2007 mini-series, Eternals (volume 3), by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr., there is a Celestial who has been sleeping for millions of years and is about to be awoken. To show just how big a deal this is, they show that The Watcher has to turn his head and Galactus “remembers what it is to be afraid”…

Greylactus (Marvel Apes)

Marvel Apes was a mini series written by Karl Kesel and drawn by Ramon Bachs in 2008 that took place in an alternate universe where everyone was, well… apes. Although Galactus is not featured at all in the main story, he does show up in “The Official History of the Marvel Apes Universe” sections that appeared in each issue. In part 1, an ape Galactus is shown at the beginning of the universe…

And then in part 4, we see ape versions of the Marvel 2099 characters who are all afraid because of the coming of Greylactus – explained by Doctor Strange 2099: “When the world-devourer Galactus grew weary of being defeated by earth’s super heroes, he retreated to a converse dimension on a quest to harness the mysterious apocalyptic force known as Unlove, which, if he finds it, could spell the end of all sentient life! In his absence, he left behind corresponding Galactuses programmed to destroy each of us! Greylactus is Jean’s destroyer-doppelganger.” Then in the final panels of the story, Greylactus does appear after Ape Jean Grey 2099 has been hidden by Ape Ghost Rider 2099…

And that was it. Maybe that’s a reference to the 2099 comics (which I have never read) or maybe it’s a reference to something else I missed in the book, but I just don’t understand the ending.

The Trial Of Reed Richards

One of the best known stories from John Byrne‘s Fantastic Four run, and from his career, is Fantastic Four #262 (1984), titled “The Trial of Reed Richards“. It is a one-shot story, but before you can get into it, you need to be aware of the foundation Byrne had been setting up in the years leading up to it. As a reminder, in Fantastic Four 242-244, Galactus is beaten by earth’s mightiest, almost to death, only to be ultimately saved by the mercy of Reed Richards. Then some time later, in Fantastic Four #257, Galactus devourers the Skrull Thrown-World.

Now after several months have past, the Fantastic Four have been abducted by the survivors of planets that Galactus has destroyed, lead by the Shi’ar princess, Lilandra. Reed Richards is being put on trial for saving Galactus’ life and thereby allowing him to continue consuming more and more alien planets, including the Skrull Thrown-World.

One by one, the survivors testify of their experience with Galactus and when his time comes, Reed pleads guilty to willingly saving the life of Galactus. In Reed’s statement, he explores many awesome ideas about Galactus and wether or not he is truly beyond good and evil. Eventually Odin and then Galactus himself show up to testify in defense of Reed’s actions. But when the jury is still not convinced, Galactus summons Eternity, who shows up and lays the “cosmic truth” out before everyone in attendance. They are all made “one with the universe” and all accept Galactus’ place in the universe and that saving his life was the right thing. 

I am tempted to explain every bit of awesome in this book, like the testimonies of Reed, Odin, and Galactus, but I would eventually just end up describing every panel. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who has any interest in the story of Galactus and I think you should be able to find it relatively easy and for pretty cheap on the used market.

Two last bits of greatness from this issue I do want to point out: 1. the explanation of when Galactus appears – which I already posted about HERE. And the assassination attempt against Galactus after that…

Aunt May and Franklin Richards vs Galactus

The title of Marvel Team-Up #173 (1984) is “Aunt May and Franklin Richards vs Galactus”. Which is really exciting because it pits my favorite comic book character (Galactus) against my least favorite comic book character (the old lady who is ruining Spider-Man’s life). But really that title is a bit misleading. It should actually be a What If… story. Something like What if Galactus Came To Earth Looking For A New Herald And Accidentally Bestowed The Power Cosmic Upon Aunt May (giving her the new name of “Golden Oldie”)?

Or it could have been titled What if Galactus Discovered That He Really Hungered For Hostess Twinkies? (okay, it’s not  technically Hostess Twinkies. In the book they are actually called Grostess Twinkles, but they’re the same thing) 

Or What If There Was A Big Cosmic Dough Boy In Outerspace Baking Twinkie (Twinkle) Planets For Galactus? 

So yeah, it’s a pretty ridiculous story written by Michael Carlin and drawn by Greg LaRocque, but it’s a fun and funny read. One thing I particularly appreciated was when Galactus found the giant Twinkie planet and sunk into its spongy surface in the exact same way he sunk into the surface of the Skrull world in Fantastic Four #257… 

The MIghty Thor 225-228 (1974)

In Thor 225-228, Firelord (the herald of Galactus) has come to the earth looking for Thor. Once he finds Thor (who is busy fighting the Destroyer with the help of his buddy, Hercules), he signals for his master, Galactus. The reason Galactus has come for Thor is because he needs Thor’s help in fighting off Ego, the living planet. Galactus explains “you may recall that once, I tried to conquer that world – to destroy it, and thus to feed on its biological energies. You stood with Ego in that battle, and between you – you defeated me, for a time. And for a time I avoided Ego – until my need for life became too great – and I faced the planet once more.” Then after fighting with Ego for a little while, Galactus determined that Ego had gone insane and was a threat to the entire universe. Also now that Ego is crazy, he’s also much too strong for Galactus. So, now he needs Thor to help stop Ego.  But it actually takes the combined effort of Thor, Hercules, Firelord, and Galactus to stop this great threat. 
Most of this story is Thor, Hercules, and Firelord fighting the different creatures that Ego summons out of his surface. There is also a cool sequence where Thor is shown a vision of how Ego came to be a living planet. In the end, Galactus takes pitty on Ego and rather than killing him, he attaches a giant engine to his back side and sends him rocketing off into space forever.

After Galactus gives them a speech about the worth of ones humanity, Firelord asks if he can be released from service of Galactus and be free to persue his own desires. Galactus agrees that he will free Firelord, but only if they can find him a suitable replacement. And Thor has a great idea for who should be Galactus’ new herald… The Detroyer.

This was a good book, witten by Gerry Conway and drawn by John Buscema (225 & 226) and Rich Buckler (227&228). It was fun to see Galactus’ car thing (seen in the picture above) and also to seem the scale he’s drawn in (in some scenes and on the cover of 226, he seems to be only about 30 feet tall – which is kind of short for him). Also in the first three issues, he has gloves on, but for some reason, the last issue he does not have gloves. My favorite part is in issue 228 when Galactus is sympathizing with Ego and reveals a more vulnerable side… “Once, I too was a man, much as Ego was a man – and a part of that man still breathes within me, as a part still breathes within Ego. To survive, I must do many things which shame me – things which I would not do, had I the choice. Were I not Galactus, and were not Ego mad – we might have been comrads in a way you can never understand… we have our roles, and we must fulfill them – though the sadness is great indeed.”

Bullet Points

This 2006-2007 miniseries is basically a 5 issue What If? Story. The What If being: What if Dr Erskine (the scientist who turned Steve Rogers into Captain America) was shot one day prior to his assassination in the normal Marvel Universe? And what if his bodyguard MP Ben Parker was shot and killed as well? The story follows the ripple effect of those evens across the Marvel Universe – Steve Rogers put on an Iron Man armor to help win WWII, Peter Parker becomes the Hulk after walking into a gamma explosion (because he’s a punk kid who never had an uncle Ben to teach him responsibility), Reed Richards becomes the head of SHIELD after the other members of the FF are killed in the shuttle crash, and more.

So after establishing a completely new universe, what is the best way to test its mettle? How about bringing in Galactus?

Without the Fantastic Four or the Avengers to help save the day, all the other super heroes and super villains band together to fight off the world devourer to no avail.

Eventually The Hulk (Peter Parker) joins the fight and encourages the Silver Surfer to betray his master.

This story was written by one of my favorite comic authors, J. Michael Straczynski and beautifully drawn by Tommy Lee Edwards. It wasn’t as great as I was expecting from Straczynski, but it was still very good and the Galactus stuff could not have been better (or better drawn). I recommend you check it out.

Fantastic Four 257

Fantastic Four 257 is another classic issue from the John Byrne era. Only the first 12 pages are about Galactus, but they contain some awesome characterization.

The last time their paths crossed, Reed Richards had tried to appeal to Galactus’ former humanity – and since that encounter, Galactus has been troubled by his memories and the new feeling of compassion he has discovered inside himself. He’s been avoiding planets with sentient life and at the begining of this issue, he is starving and ready to give up on life, when he is visited on his ship by the Death herself.

Death encourages Galactus to continue, explaining that they both have much more to do before the universe dies. It doesn’t take long for Galactus to get over his reservations about destroying inhabited planets and with the help of his herald, Nova, he is soon dining on the Skrull Throne-World.

There are three really cool things in this issue:

1. The interaction between Galactus and Death.

2. We find out that Nova has developed something of a crush on her master…

3. Galactus is so hungry that when he consumes the Skrull Thrown-World, rather than having his machinery extract the life energy from the planet, he sinks himself into the core of the planet and consumes it without any machinery.

Fantastic Four 242-244

I love John Byrne‘s Fantastic Four work. And over the years he worked on the book (handling both writing and art duties), he made it pretty clear that he loves the character of Galactus. Fantastic Four 242-244(1982) are another example of his awesome work. And a LOT of cool things happen in these three short books…

Fantastic Four 517 – 523

In issues 517-519, a group of aliens (survivors of planets Galactus has devoured) come to New York in search for Sue Storm. They have developed technology that shields planets from Galactus and they have been giving this technology to planets all over the universe so they can hide from the World Devourer. But they know that the only person in the universe with the means to see through these planet’s invisibility is Sue Storm and somehow they know that Galactus knows that as well. The aliens are here to kill Galactus before he can get her and force her to reveal the whereabouts of these hidden planets.

Reed saves Sue by making the aliens believe he has taken away her power to make things visible and invisible, but after they leave, we find out that he has really just made Sue and Johnny exchange powers. Then immediately after that, Galactus shows up and takes the newly-powered Johnny Storm as his new herald.

The next four issues (521-523) are a story called Rising Storm in which we get to see Johnny Storm out in space working as Galactus’ new herald, an interesting retelling of Galactus’ origin, and eventually a de-powered (and much smaller) Galactus being brought back to earth and shown the wonders of human existance and the beauty of New York…

I really liked this story. The writing is great and the art is beautiful. And it was really fun watching Galactus walking around New York and interacting with humans. You can get it for a reasonable price on Amazon and if you are interested in Galactus, I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Heroes Reunited

The Heroes Reunited crossover event was published in 1997 at the end of the larger Heroes Reborn event. It played out in Fantastic Four 12, Avengers 12, Iron Man 12, and Captain America 12 – but I also read Fantastic Four 11, which lead up to the crossover. I don’t have any interest in reading the Heroes Reborn books, but in order to understand Heroes Reunited, all you have to know is that this story takes place in an alternate reality where Galactus hadn’t come to the earth yet. So basically they had their shot at retelling the Galactus story in a new way.

The story is basically that Galactus is coming to devour the earth and he’s brought along some heralds to help him – Terrax, Fire Lord, Plasma, Airwalker, and the Silver Surfer – and the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and Inhumans have to team up to stop him. At the end of the first chapter, they fail and the earth is destroyed – but Dr Doom travels back in time to go back and warn the heroes. Then the second and third chapters end the same. In the final chapter of the story, they are able to stop Galactus with the help of the Silver Surfer (who is armed with Captain America’s shield, someone else’s power glove, and a machine Reed invented called the Ultimate Nullifier.

Each issue is a 40 page double-issue and the story is typical 90s comics. The art isn’t great, the writing is worse. It definitely didn’t need 160 pages to tell this story. In fact, 80 pages probably would have been too long. There were also some continuity issues between the books that I did not understand and over all I think it just ended kind of lame. If you are a huge Galactus fan, then pick up these books, but if you are just casually interested or curious about the character, save your money.

Exiles 87 and 88

Exiles is a book about a team of Marvel heroes from alternate realities who go dimension to dimension protecting the earth in each alternate universe. Exiles 87 and 88 (2006/2007) take place in a universe designated “Earth #552″. But by the time the Exiles arrive, the earth has already been destroyed and their mission is to save the life of that universe’s Galactus who is being attacked by that universe’s Silver Surfer.

We find out that this reality’s Galactus isn’t the “devourer of worlds”, but rather the “restorer of worlds”. In this world, Galactus is a being who travels throughout the galaxy in search of dead planets that he can restore life to. The problem was that the “blight” which afflicted the planets, was killing them off faster than Galactus could restore them. And so a young scientist named Norrin Radd volunteered to be his herald and help him search out these planets.

It turned out the surfer had a hidden agenda – he really just wanted to have Galactus restore his home planet, Zenn-La (which the surfer was responsible for having destroyed). Galactus had refused, insisting that he only restores worlds that die of natural causes. And that is when the surfer snapped, destroying the earth attempting to kill Galactus and take his world-saving power for himself. That universe’s Imperial Guard and the Exiles now have to team up and try to fight off the Silver Surfer and help save the Restorer of Worlds.

This two-part story (by writer, Tony Bedard, with art by Paul Pelletier and Rick Magyar) was a fun little read. It was really cool seeing Galactus and Silver Surfer in roles completely opposite to the ones we always read them in. I would recommend these issues to fans of Galactus and you should be able to pretty easily find them for cover price ($3 each) or less.

There Is A Precise Order To The Universe”

From the most recent issue of Wolverine and the X-Men, by Jason Aaron and Nick Bradshaw.

Silver Surfer #1 (1967): The Origin Of The Silver Surfer

Norrin Radd lived a long time ago on the the planet Zenn-La, with the love of his life, Shalla Ball. Life couldn’t be better for the people of Zenn-La – war, crime, illness, and famine were all distant memories, anything they could need or want in their pursuit of endless pleasure was waiting at their fingertips. But Norrin Rad was a man filled with yearning and discontent. The people of Zenn-La had achieved everything they could fathom and had therefore “lost the spirit of adventure, the thrill of aexploration (and the) longing to see beyond the veil of knowledge” – the very things he longed for in life.

And thus we find Norrin Radd when it was first discovered that an alien space craft had broken through all of their defenses and was headed directly toward Zenn-La. Although no one knew exactly who or what was approaching, Norrin Radd knew his destiny – his fate was inexorably linked with this invader from space.

Despite all of their technology and all of their advancements, Zenn-La’s greatest scientists and computers all agree that they don’t stand a chance against the incoming vessel. And so they, who days before had wanted for nothing, now found themselves in a state of panic and despair. The only one of them willing to even try to approach the vessel: the hero, Norrin Radd.

Once inside the alien craft, Norrin Radd finds himself standing before Galactus, pleading with him to spare the innocent planet below and instead eat another world – one where no intelligent life exists. Galactus explains that he doesn’t have time to seek out such worlds and he doesn’t have a herald to probe the universe for him to find such worlds. And so Norrin Radd makes him an offer…

Of course we know that Galactus accepts that offer and transforms Norrin Radd into the Silver Surfer and the rest is history.

This is a wonderful book – possibly the best Stan Lee has ever written. And the art by John Buscema is absolutely gorgeous. It has been reprinted in a couple different collections. I recently read it in the black and white Essentials collection and the Marvel Masterworks hardcover collection (which is why I have both black and white and color scans). Any way you can get ahold of it, you should.

Silver Surfer: Dangerous Artifacts

I didn’t even know this book existed until I found it last week in a bin of $.25 comics. It’s a one-shot written by Ron Marz with very 90′s-looking art (1996) by Claudio Castellini.

The story is that there’s an astroid that is coming around that used to be the home of a now-extinct very old very powerful race. The rumor around town is that the former inhabitants of the astroid have left behind the source of their once great power. So Galactus convinces the Silver Surfer to go try to get the power source before it can fall into the wrong hands. And it turns out Thanos also wants it and he has hired a cold-blooded mercenary named White Raven to get it for him.

Galactus and Thanos are really only in the book at the beginning and the end. Mostly it’s a story about the surfer and White Raven fighting the Kree and the Skrulls (who also want the power source) and then eachother and then eventually fighting a giant super powerful demon (the source of those alien’s power). But’s an alright book – not the best, but worth the read. And definitely worth a quarter.

Nova #13 – 15

I was really excited when I found out about the “On The Last Day” storyline in Nova issues 13-15. Galactus, Nova, The Silver Surfer – and written by the awesome Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. And I wasn’t disappointed. The story starts out when Nova is summoned to help evacuate the inhabitants of a world called Orbucen that Galactus is about to destroy. Amidst the chaos on the planet, Nova comes across a psionic entity called Harrow who is on a murder spree, jumping from body to body and murdering as many of the fleeing Orbucens it can.

Nova now has to fight off the Silver Surfer AND stop Harrow AND get all of the Orbucens aboard the evacuation arks. Well by issue #15, the Orbucens are on their way to salvation, Harrow is MIA and Nova is stuck on Orbucen as it is being devoured. His only chance to escape is to board Galactus’ ship – where he finds Harrow hiding and using a psi-shield to prevent Galactus from detecting him.

It turns out that Harrow is a parasite that has been hiding on Galactus’ ship ever since the Trial of Galactus and every time Galactus is about to detroy a planet, Harrow goes planet side and starts his murder spree. When the surfer finds Nova and Harrow fighting on the ship he reads Harrow’s mind and turns him over to Galactus who incinerates him in a flash.

The art in this book (by Wellington Alves and Geraldo Burges, with inks by Scott Hanna and colors by Guru eFX) is beautiful and the story is great. I love the idea of Galactus having a psychopathic parasite hiding aboard his ship like a cockroach. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in Galactus or even cosmic Marvel. It’s a great three issues and you should be able to find them for a couple bucks a piece at your comic store or on-line.

Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #48

The first appearance of Galactus in the Marvel Adventures line (a line of comics geared toward children) in issue #26 didn’t really impress me much, but his second appearance in issue #48 (written by Paul Tobin and drawn by Denis Medri) turned out to be surprisingly good. It’s a simple story, still very much for kids, but it had a really fun concept…

Billions of years in the future, the universe is about to die and Galactus is preparing to be the lone survivor and pass into the new universe that will be born in the wake of ours (just as he passed from his universe as it died into ours as it was born). The problem is there is a group called the Black End who are determined to stop him.

Galactus ends up bringing them through time and giving them some of his Power Cosmic which they use to easily defeat the Black Hand. Afterwards Johnny and Ben wonder why Galactus would need their help at all when he is so powerful – which ended up being the best part…

SUE: Galactus didn’t need us to fight his battles. He was just lonely.

Galactus The Devourer

When I first heard that Galactus had his very own six issue mini-series in 1999-2000, I was excited… If we’re going to get some insight into this wonderful character, surely it will be here in his very own solo book. This book just had to be great.

Well I was wrong. Galactus The Devourer was actually pretty forgettable – in fact Galactus isn’t even in it all that much.

In this story Galactus has pretty much become a crazy addict. He’s started feeding on the life force on the surface of planets rather than on the energy within the core of the planets. But the life force isn’t very filling and leaves him hungry and needing to eat again immediately. The book starts out with Galactus’ eating spree bringing him back to earth.

The surfer fights off Galactus’ current herald (The Red Shift) and ultimately ends up saving the earth again by promising to be Galactus’ new herald… again.

The Red Shift:

On his journey, the surfer runs into a ship full of Kree warriors who convince him that the only hope of ever stopping Galactus is to lead him to the home world of the Shi’ar empire… the only beings in the universe who might actually be powerful enough to kill the world eater. And in the end they do (along with the help of earth’s heroes and the Kree)…

As I write it out, that doesn’t sound too bad. But it actually all played out in a pretty stupid and boring way. I was not impressed by Louise Simonson’s story or the art of John Bucema, Jon J Muth, and Bill Sienkiewicz (even though those are great artists whose work I normally enjoy). I did not enjoy reading Galactus as an addict and there was very little if any insight into his character. There weren’t even any particularly interesting events in this book at all. It’s not the worst Galactus comic I have ever read, but it is not one I would ever recommend anyone pick up. Though this was a pretty cool panel…

Marvel Two-In-One #100

Marvel Two-In-One #100 isn’t really a Galactus comic book, it’s really basically a What If? issue that tells the story of what happens in a universe where Galactus was never stopped from consuming the earth.

There are a couple differences between this universe and ours – in this universe Ben Grimm was healed of his being the Thing, therefore when Galactus came, he was unable to help. Also in this universe Galactus didn’t have a herald – therefore they didn’t have the surfer’s help in fighting him off. Galactus pretty easily defeated the FF and the Avangers (minus Captain America – who was also never found due to there being no Thing)…

It shows Galactus’ machine converting the oceans into pure energy and leaving the earth behind as a barren wasteland…

In this universe, what is left of the United States (and maybe the whole earth?) is a Nazi state run and ruled over by Red Skull and the only hope they have of overthrowing the tyrant is a team-up with the Thing from our world and the Ben Grim native to that world.

It’s a great story scripted by John Bryne and penciled by Ron Wilson. I really enjoyed it and I am pretty sure I bought it for less than $2, so you should definitely get yourself a copy.

Also check out this crazy picture of the World Trade Center (now Red Skull’s base of opperations…

What If… Dazzler Had Become The Herald Of Galactus?

Less than a year after Galactus guest starred in Dazzler, someone decided we need more of those two together. So now we are about to find out What If Dazzler Had Become The Herald Of Galactus?

So it starts off at the end of the original Dazzler issues where Dazzler had returned Terrax to his master and is eventually pardoned. But in this story we find out what would have happened if Galactus had not been so forgiving and had actually imprisoned Terrax inside a black hole for eternity (also it should be noted that when he was banished, Terrax actually lost grip of his mighty axe). And then in need of a new herald, Galactus threatens to destroy earth unless Dazzler vows to serve him, which of course she does…

Dazzler serves her new master for years making sure she only leads him to planets without sentient life until one day when Dazzler comes across an armada of spaceships on a mission to avenge their home worlds which had been previously consumed by the great Galactus. And they are armed with a super weapon they created which is powered by Terrax’s axe – which they had found floating in the cosmos. As Galactus finds out, he wipes out the entire armada in a matter of minutes…

Dazzler is mad that he was so merciless to the armada and she leaves him to return to earth. When she finds earth in ruins (having been destroyed years ago), she decides the only thing she had left in the universe is Galactus, so she returns to his service.

It’s a pretty decent issue written by Dan Fingeroth and drawn by Mike Vosburg. It is actually a much better ending to the story that happened in Dazzler earlier that year, It’s definitely worth a couple bucks and that’s how much I paid for it on eBay. And here is my favorite single panel from the issue…

Dazzler 10 and 11

I can’t think of an odder pairing than Dazzler and Galactus, but in 1981 it happened…

You see, Terrax was Galactus’ herald at the time and the world eater had recently discovered that Terrax was secretly conquering planets and claiming them as his own. When Galactus discovered what his herald had been doing, he summoned him, but Terrax ran and hid in the only place he knew Galactus couldn’t follow him: into a black hole.

Galactus searches the universe and finally finds the one person who could go into the black hole and retrieve his rebellious herald: a mutant with the ability to convert sound waves into light. Galactus brought Dazzler aboard his ship, gave her his Power Cosmic, charged her full of sound waves, and sent her into the black hole.

After a short battle with Dazzler in the black hole, Terrax decided maybe instead of defeating his foe, he may just take her for his queen…

Eventually Dazzler defeats Terrax and brings him back to Galactus…

And that is when we get some cool character stuff about the world devourer. Galactus’ drone suggests that he may have feelings for the young mutant. Galactus doesn’t reply, but the caption says “This then is the tragedy of Galactus. For though he knows the full gamut of human emotions – love, hate, pity, fear even compassion – he cannot allow himself to respond to them. To do so would make it impossible for him to continue to consume worlds… make it impossible for him to live. Sometimes, though – in spite of himself – he is touched by one particular being or other. These are the times his emptiness… his sorrow… seems greatest.”

And then “Once he was a normal man with normal appetites, a citizen on the now extinct world called Taa. A joke of fate long ago changed all that, transformed Galactus from one who cherished life… to one who lives but to avoid death.”

I think Dazzler is a goofy character – she spends this whole comic, even the fighting scenes, in roller skates and clutching her purse – and this was an incredibly (and unnecessarily) wordy comic. But over all it wasn’t bad. I liked the stuff about Galactus and the stuff with Terrax. Written by Danny Fingeroth (from an idea by Tom Defalco) and penciled by Frank Springer, this is worth the dollar or two you’d pay to buy these issues on eBay. And I should say, the art is pretty nice.

The Galactus Engine (Cancerverse)

In the 2010/11 series The Thanos Imperative (written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, with art by Brad Walker and Miguel Sepulveda), there is a Universe next to ours (the Cancerverse) where death has become extinct. Since their is no death, the universe is over-flowing with life – and spilling into ours. A battle rages at the intersection of the two universes (called the vault) where forces from our Universe are fighting off the forces from the Cancerverse. The most powerful weapon the Cancerverse sends to the vault is some thing called the Galactus Engine…

We don’t learn a lot about the Galactus Engine, but we do know it is the dead skull of the Galactus from the Cancerverse that has been weaponized.

Because the Galactus Engine and the invading universe is such a threat to our universe, all of the galactic gods and abstracts from our universe (including our Galactus) are forced to gather together at the vault to protect the boarder – a battle that rages on the entire length of the series.

Galactus and the Galactus Engine are just a small part of The Thanos Imperative and mostly take place in the background of the main story, but it is an awesome book and has been collected into a beautiful oversized hardcover that you should go buy today.

Fantastic Four 122-123

In Fantastic Four 122 and 123, the world devourer has once again returned to earth. But don’t worry he’s not here for lunch, he just wants the Silver Surfer back as his herald. This story, written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Buscema, is a bit of an odd one and quite a few times while reading these issues I thought to myself “Wha? That doesn’t seem right”.

For example. As soon as Galactus shows and states his intentions, Ben decides it’s clobberin’ time and attacks Galactus’ foot. You would think from past experience, ben would know better than to think he stood any chance attacking Galactus physically. But wait… then, he actually succeeds in knocking Galactus onto his back? Hmm… That doesn’t seem right.

Then the fight soon moves to an amusement park where Johnny throws a couple of fire balls at Galactus and then “with the blazing control and flashing dexterity that only the Human Torch can command, each sizzling fireball assumes the shape of it’s flaming master – as they whirl ever faster around the raging Galactus.” Wha???

He can do that? Why doesn’t he always do that? Or ever do that again? That’s weird. And we’re not even halfway through the first issue!

Anyway, then Reed and Sue take off and head back to the Baxter Building – where it’s pretty fun(ny) to see Sue riding on his back like a stretchy horse…

Once at the Baxter Building, Reed climbs in a rocket and heads up to Galactus’ ship, where he quickly finds Galactus’ “fail-safe destruct mechanism” (??) and uses the ship’s intercom system (???) to threaten Galactus that if he doesn’t leave the planet and the surfer alone, he will destroy the ship…

Which is not a threat Galactus likes. He’s been merciful up until now, not causing any serious harm because all he wants in the surfer (by the way, the surfer is willing to return to him all along here), but now you threaten him like that and he will start tearing shit up. And he’s giving Reed until nightfall to decide what to do. (????)

While Galactus waits, he is attacked by the US army, lead by General Ross. He throws a train at General Ross, which is pretty cool…

Then Sue calls President Nixon to tell him not to worry, but Nixon just wants to throw Silver Surfer under the bus.

What a Tricky Dickhead!

Eventually Reed returns the ship to Galactus – but not after adjusting the ship’s controls to take Galactus out of our universe into the Negative Zone. Which again I am thinking is a little off that Reed, as smart as he is, could figure out how Galactus’ technology works enough to reprogram the cruise control before the end of the day.

Anyway, the issue had a lot of weird stuff and a lot of people acting out of character. But I kept thinking it most likely was a result of John Buscema’s work. It seemed like he had drawn the issues first (in the classic Marvel way) leaving Stan with only so much he could do to fill in the script. They are kind of ridiculous issues, but I also really enjoyed it. The art was beautiful and there was a lot of Galactus in it. Here are a couple of my favorite panels from the issue 122 (and pardon my scans on these. I got these issues for cheap because they are a little water damaged)…

In Search Of Galactus

The story of In Search Of Galactus is a long one, going from Fantastic Four #204-#214. The first several issues are just leading up to the Galactus action. An alien from the planet Andromeda beams into the Baxter Building, there’s Skrulls chasing her. There’s fighting in space, there’s the Nova corps, Ben, Sue, and Reed put on trial by the Skrulls and get blasted with an aging ray, Johnny is back on earth fighting with Spider-Man.

Then there’s an ancient Egyptian dude named The Sphinx who gains ultimate power and decides he’s going to use it to destroy the earth. The Fantastic Four decide that the only person who can stop the Sphinx is Galactus, hence they head off in search of Galactus.

When they can’t get the world devourer to listen to or even acknowledge them, they break into his private zoo and release all the critters he’s collected from the planets he’s left in his wake.

With his zoo all runing free on his ship, they finally get his attention and they explain to Galactus that they need his help. The only way Reed can get him to agree to help them is to promise Galctus that after he saves the earth, he has Reed’s permission to eat the earth himself. Galactus says he will help them right after they go and tame his new herald. The new herald is a cruel warlord named Tyros (later to become Terrax). After they bring him back to Galactus, Galactus gives Terrax the Power Cosmic.

Terrax immediately threatens to use his new-found power to destroy Galactus. Galactus then turns Terrax into a worm and disolves him into “nothing more than energy” and finally reassembles him back into Terrax once again. Sufficiently humbled, Terrax now agrees to accompany Galctus to the earth to help defeat Sphinx.

Finally in issue 213, we get to see Galactus and Sphinx go head-to-head. We don’t often get to see Galactus in a big rock’em sock’em physical fight and this one is awesome. He even slaps Sphinx…

Of course nobody stands much of a chance in a fight against Galactus and it isn’t too long until he finishes Sphinx off – and in the end his punishment to Sphinx is worse than death. He send Sphinx back in time to right before he got his power, so that he is stuck in a time-loop getting beaten over and over again by Galactus, never knowing victory and never knowing death.

After that fight, an old and dying Reed tricks Galactus into believing that he once again has the Ultimate Nulifier and Galactus takes off, leaving an aged Fantastic Four to try and solve the problem of their quickly approaching early deaths.

This is a great story by Marv Wolfman with art by Keith Pollard, Sal Buscema, and the great John Byrne. You can find the entire epic in the In Search Of Galactus hardcover, or just the last half in the John Byrne Fantastic Four Omnibus.

Guardians Of The Galaxy #25 (1992)

I’ve never read any of the old Guardians of the Galaxy series, until reading this issue, but I guess this all takes place in a futuristic alternate universe. At the beginning of the issue, the the Guardians have joined up with The Keeper and they are on the way to confront Galactus, who is about to eat the home word of Yondu (one of the Guardians).

On the way we find out that the Keeper is Norrin Radd, the former Silver Surfer, who at one point years ago had acquired the quantum bands and after Zenn-La was destroyed had attacked Galactus. Galactus destroyed his surfboard and stripped him of the power cosmic. With the help of a rebellious Watcher, the surfer was able to get the power cosmic back – and now with the power cosmic and the quantum bands, he is protector of the universe.

After a big battle, the Keeper is about to kill the starving Galactus when he is stopped by Eon. He then decides it would be wrong to kill Galactus and he feeds him instead… In the comic it appears that he is giving Galactus the energy from a planet, but according to something I read on the internet, they made it sound like he could us the power cosmic and quantum bands to generate the energy he needs. Either way, the book ends with Galactus and the surfer (he is using his surfboard again) reunited, but this time rather than master and servant, they are equal partners: Norrin being the Champion of Life and Galactus being the Harbinger of Death.

The book was written and drawn by Jim Valentino. It was okay, and the concept of the Keeper was cool, but I didn’t love the book as a whole.

Silver Surfer Vol.3 #9-10

In Silver Surfer vol.3 #9, the elders of the universe have gathered the infinity gems and are planning to use them to kill Galactus. The Silver Surfer and Nova come to his aid and fight off the elders.

In Silver Surfer vol.3 #10, Galactus is pissed and eats five of the elders. He then sends the surfer and Nova off to go find the other elders so he can finish his revenge. After they leave, the surfer and Nova double back and spy on Galactus from a distance as Galactus and Eternity have a private meeting where Eternity takes on the form of a human and Galactus takes on the form of a star…

It was an interesting story by Steve Englehart with some nice art by Marshal Rogers. One cool insight we get is in the conversation between Galactus and Eternity where Eternity explains how the surfer had saved the lives of not only Galactus, but also Eternity and his sister Death. He says about the Silver Surfer: “In the realms below ourselves, there was none other more qualified to face the challenge – none other born of flesh who soareth closer to the Gods.”

Silver Surfer Vol.3 #1

At the beginning of Silver Surfer vol. 3 #1, the surfer finds out that the Skrulls have kidnapped Nova (Galactus’ current herald). They are holding her hostage in order to force Galactus to do their will: to destroy the thousand worlds of the Skrull empire. With the help of the Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer escapes earth’s atmosphere (where he’s been trapped since Fantastic Four #50) and finds Galactus. After a short discussion, they come to an agreement. If the surfer can save Nova and return her to Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds promises to free the surfer and forgive him of his betrayal (FF #50).

The Skrulls have Nova hidden in a super-secure place and the way he rescues her is really bad-ass. One interesting and insightful part of the story is when the surfer comes to the conclusion that Galactus cares for Nova “as a man cares for a woman”.

This is a great comic, written by Steve Englehart with art by Marshal Rogers, and I especially loved both the gorgeous above splash page and the following (awesome) sequence of panels…

Silver Surfer: Requiem

One of the best comics I have ever read is the four part story of Silver Surfer: Requiem. It tells the story of the surfer’s last days leading up to his death and the fully painted art by Esad Ribic is almost as beautiful as the amazing writing by J. Michael Straczynski.

In the final issue, after returning to Zenn-La, the surfer is laying on his deathbed when Galactus shows up. And here is what it says…

In the years Norrin Radd had served Galactus as the Silver Surfer, he had seen his master enraged, quiet, sad, even occasionally at peace. But now, in the face that had watched whole worlds destroyed without a flicker of emotion, for the first time he saw grief. And a voice entered his mind from without, as familiar and intimate as a whisper. “I do not know that I can save you. But I can try.”

What If… The Age Of Apocalypse Had Not Ended?

If you look through this site, you will see I love a good What If issue, especially if it’s about Galactus. And I’ll tell you another thing I like… the 1990s storyline Age of Apocalypse (about an alternate timeline where Professor X died, Magneto formed the X-Men, and Apocalypse took over the world). So I was excited to read the 1996 issue What If The Age Of Apocalypse Had Not Ended? where that alternate universes’ earth is attacked by Galactus.

But it turned out to be one of my least favorite What If stories ever. Basically the non-mutants still hate the mutants, following the events of Age Of Apocalypse. After using the late Watcher’s computer to find out about the coming of Galactus and the Silver Surfer, they have to work together to fight them off.

First I should say that I kind of hated the art in this comic. It was bad enough that I actually had a hard time finishing the book. But besides the art, the story was just kind of weirdly written. There are quite a few cool characters that survived the AoA, but we don’t really learn much about them. There’s an odd somewhat-forced romance between Quicksilver and Gwen Stacy and the Hulk and Tony Stark are around, but the big hero of the story is some random dude who hates mutants and finds one of the Watcher’s machines which gives him super powers.

It was also really annoying when Wolverine kills the Silver Surfer with one punch of his claws. Also there’s a part where they destroy Galactus’ ship and that makes him fall over and cry out in pain. Ugh!

Random super power dude ends up using the will of all of mankind to attack Galactus and after a little psyschic struggle, Galactus dies. Totally stupid. I would not recommend anyone seek out this comic. It’s definitely one you should skip.

Hercules: Prince of Power #3-4 (1982)

In Hercules #3 and #4, the title character saves a planet called Ciegrim 7, which is known throughout the galaxy for its distilling of the finest brews, from a group of aliens called the Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood are a race of aliens whose home planet was destroyed centuries ago by Galactus – an event they took as God punishing them for their sins, and from that point on, every year the survivors kidnap a planet and leave it at predesignated coordinate as a sacrifice to their vengeful God (Galactus).

After fighting off the Brotherhood and saving Ciegram 7, Hercules is celebrated by its inhabitants as a hero, and they reward him with some of their finest ales, including a flask of “the most potent liquor in the known universe”.

When Galactus discovering that his sacrifice will not be arriving this year, he heads out to find his own next meal – which turns out to be Ciegram 7. After a short battle, Hercules invites Galactus to join him for a drink – where he he spikes the world eater’s cup with the super potent liquor he received from the Ciegrams.

It turns out Galactus knew that Hercules has spiked his drink, but drank it just to humor the young God and had himself a good laugh. To show Hercules his gratitude for the entertainment, Galactus spares Ciegram 7 and charts a course for another Galaxy.

This was a really fun little story, written and drawn by Bob Layton. I especially liked the Brotherhood who worshiped Galactus and sacrificed planets to him. There was also a nice port during their fight, where Galactus stripped the flesh off of Hercules’ bones, then turned him into slime, then restored his body, just to show how much power he actually has. I got the issues super cheap off of eBay and I am glad I did.

Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter

Beta Ray Bill is a great alien warrior whose powers and costume are pretty much the same as those of Thor. In fact he first appeared in Thor and after proving his nobility and fighting Thor to a standstill, was given his own powerful hammer by Thor’s father, Odin. Bill’s hammer (“Stormbreaker”) can only be lifted by one who “possesses a truly noble spirit”.

At the Beginning of Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter, we find out that Bill’s home planet, as well as his entire race (the Korbinites), have recently been destroyed by Galactus – and now Bill wants revenge. After his friend Thor refuses to help him, Bill begins hunting down Galactus, accompanied only by his sentient ship, named Scuttlebutt.

Beta Ray Bill knows he cannot beat Galactus physically, so his plan is to go ahead of Galactus and destroy the planets before they can be consumed in hopes of starving Galactus to death. Along the way, he runs into one planet whose inhabitants, called the I’than, refuse to evacuate and allow him to destroy it. So Bill decides to inflicts them all with a disease and offers them the cure – only if they leave. And since he’s no longer acting noble, he learns he can no longer lift his hammer. But that doesn’t stop him. Also now the I’than want revenge on both Galactus and Beta Ray Bill.

So now Galactus is weak and starving and the Silver Surfer comes to talk Bill out of his plan. He explains that if Galactus dies, “all life within forty-two light-years would be scourged”. Shortly after that, the I’than attack Galactus. As Galactus is about to fall, Beta Ray Bill decides the revenge of his people would not be worth all the lives that would be lost as a result of Galactus’ death – so he begins to defend Galactus until he can finish feeding.

After Bill saves Galactus’ life, Galactus spares his in return – and then goes one step further…

It is fun to see Galactus creating life/resurrecting (similar to what we saw in Silver Surfer) and it had a very satisfying ending, when Bill discovers he can now lift up his hammer once again. I enjoyed the writing by Kieron Gillen and the art by Kano and these are three issues that I would definitely recommend people searching out – also in the back of each issue is a reprinted copy of Beta Ray Bill’s origin (Thor 337-339).

When Galactus Poops

This panel is from a 3 page what if story in Wha Huh? 2005 called What If Galactus Got Food Poisoning?, written by Brian K Vaughn, with art by Jim Mahfood.

Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #26

Marvel Adventures is a children-friendly, all-ages line of comics, that exists in its own continuity, separate from the regular Marvel Universe. Silver Surfer and Galactus make their debut in this line in Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #26, in a story called “Countdown To Oblivion” written by Fred Van Lente with art by Cory Hamscher.

The story starts out with the Fantastic Four flying up and meeting with a fleet of ships that is approaching the earth. It turns out the fleet is made up of many refuge alien races whose home worlds have all been devoured by Galactus – and they are heading to earth to colonize it. But before they can finish arguing with the FF about this, they see the Silver Surfer on their sensors and they warn Reed and then high tail it out of there.

Reed then goes before the United Nations with his plan to build an ark for all human life to escape on. When the UN cannot come to a decision, the FF realize that their only chance is to fight off the impending threat – starting with attacking the Silver Surfer who is trying to build a beacon to summon his master. My favorite part of this issue is the following exchange which takes place during the fight…

SUE: We’ve pledged our lives to defend the Earth from evils like Galactus, Surfer!
SURFER: “Evil?” Does not Galactus have the right to exist just like all other things? He did not make himself. He did not choose for planets to be his only food. For this you call him evil?
JOHNNY: Well, he may have the right to eat, but we have a right to stop ourselves from being eaten!
SURFER: Your logic is beyond reproach. But you would not engage in intellectual debate with a gnat before swatting it, would you? For that is what such as you are to one such as me… who wields the Power Cosmic!

Reed then ends up using one of his doohickies to redirect a blast from Galactus in order to change the energy signature of the earth into something Galactus can no longer consume. Galactus then decides he will destroy the earth anyway as a punishment to the FF. But the surfer has a problem with that – he confronts Galactus and explains that he is okay helping Galactus destroy planets for sustenance, but not out of spite. The world devourer gets angry at that and fires the surfer, banishing him to live on earth.

It’s a nice little story. The art wasn’t the best and I thought the way they defeated Galactus was a little lame, but it wasn’t terrible. I got my copy of this comic as a reprint in Marvel Adventures Two-In-One Fantastic Four #4 for a couple bucks on eBay and I am glad I have it for my collection. But I woudn’t necessarily encourage people to seek it out.

Nobody Gets Out Alive

There is a lot happening in Fantastic Four 387-392: Reed Richards has recently died, Ant Man (Scott Lang) is working for the FF, Johnny recently had an egg with his Skrull girlfriend, a teenaged Franklin Richards from the future (called Psi-Lord) has stolen a time machine in order to chase down some masked time traveler named The Dark Raider who is going around killing all the Reed Richards in different universes and the remaining Fantastic Three have decided to follow them into the time stream. There is a lot more too, but I’m going to skip over the rest of it to get to the Galactus action…

So Sue, Ben, and Johnny end up in a post apocalyptic future where the few surviving humans has all turned savage. It turns out they had been brought to this future of an alternate dimension by the Watcher. He explains that in that reality, when Galactus attacked, instead of sending Johnny to get the Ultimate Nulifier, he has sent Reed – who rather than returning with the U.N., wasted time looking around Galactus’ ship looking for a bigger and “better” weapon to fight off Galactus – resulting in him returning too late and the earth being consumed.

The Watcher convinces them to go back to the coming of Galactus in that reality to replace their counterparts in hopes that they can save that earth. Once again, they fight alongside the Silver Surfer against their old foe – only this time, the surfer doesn’t last long…

Another interesting part of this battle is when Galactus uses his power cosmic to return Ben to his human form…

I wouldn’t call this story a Galactus story since the Galactus battle only lasts one issue (391), but it’s a fun comic written by Tom DeFalco and drawn by Paul Ryan and it has an over all satisfying ending.

Ultimate Galactus Trilogy

In the year 2000, Marvel started the “Ultimate” book line featuring re-imagined and updated versions of their most popular characters. The creative teams on Ultimate books are free to tell new stories or retell old stories without having to worry about the history or continuity in the main Marvel Comics universe.

Starting in 2004, writer Warren Ellis told the story of the Galactus Trilogy in the Marvel Universe. Rather than being told in three issues like the original trilogy, the Ultimate version was told in a trilogy of mini-serieses: Ultimate Nightmare (5 issues), Ultimate Secret (4 issues), and Ultimate Extinction (5 issues). the story and the characters are all quite a bit different from the original version, but it is still a really great brook and is collected in a beautiful over-sized hardcover.

The Ultimate Galactus Trilogy starts out with the crash landing of a robot from outer space who calls herself Vision. After almost a hundred years, she is recovered from a Russian military base by the Ultimates (the Ultimate universe version of The Avengers” and they find out that the reason she has come to earth was to warn us of an impending threat: the coming of Gah Lak Tus – a galactic, world devouring, intelligence made up of thousands of individual machines (not a giant white guy in a purple costume). Captain Marvel speculates “Maybe it’s not a bunch of robots. Maybe it’s a swarm intelligence. Think of the whole as a single organism, and these become the cells. Maybe it has to be that big to contain it’s mind. Maybe this is what a space-going life-form has to look like…”

Vision warns them that no planet has ever been successful at fighting off Gah Lak Tus, but it is her job to go ahead of the the world devourer (about one hundred years) to warn the inhabitants to escape. Since the message was delayed so long, the human race doesn’t have much time before Gah Lak Tus arrives and it takes the combined efforts of the Ultimates, SHIELD, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and several others to save the planet.

Gah Lak Tus, it turns out, hates intelligent life and so it goes through out the universe eradicating it wherever it is found. It then takes the thermal energy from the planet so it can recharge and move on the the next intelligent live. has From Vision and a Kree database, they find out the steps Gah Lak Tus takes in consuming a planet:

First, he sends out multiple silver skinned (and winged) “heralds” to the planet, who start a cult which teaches people that their God is coming to earth and he is angry, and that the only way to find salvation is through suicide (this helps to kill off a certain amount of the population so he doesn’t have to deal with them later)…

Second, as Gah Lak Tus gets closer to earth, he attacks the earth with a broadcast on psychic frequencies that drives everyone who hasn’t committed suicide insane (preventing any further hope the population might have of defending itself). Third, he drops what Reed Richards describes as “Gah Lak Tus bullets“, which release a flesh dissolving virus. Once all life is destroyed on the planet, the same “bullets” crack open the earth’s crust and transmit the power back up to Gah Lak Tus.

There are tons of awesome ideas in this story. For example, the Kree alien race are stationed near the earth because they want to observe a planet being destroyed by Gah Lak Tus. Also we find out that only certain individuals within the Kree ranks are allowed to know everything about Gah Lak Tus, because even just knowing the truth about him and what he does can drive a person mad. And as soon as Professor X makes psychic contact with Gah Lak Tus, he sends a Silver Surfer out to help destroy the earthlings before he gets there…

This book is awesome. I thought I would miss seeing Galactus in his big purple helmet, but I didn’t I loved everything about this book and I have read it several times.

The Watcher vs Galactus

During the Galactus Trilogy, The Watcher interfered to the point trying to hide the earth and then leading the Fantastic Four to the Ultimate Nullifier, but what would have happened if he had physically joined in the fight against Galactus? Well there are two fantastic What If issues that address how that would have gone – and each has a completely different ending.

In What If #41 (1992), it’s the Avengers vs Galactus (because in that universe, the Fantastic Four had died on their fateful first trip to the stars). The watcher tells Iron Man where to find the Ultimate Nullifier, but his suit sets off some defenses in Galactus’ ship and he is killed – and the Avengers on earth aren’t doing too well either. Eventually, the Avengers are doing so poorly that The Watcher decides to break his oath of non-interference and steps up to fight Galactus himself…

The fight doesn’t last too long before the world devourer gets the upper hand and says “Although Galactus is above such petty concepts as right and wrong… know you this, Watcher — I truly do regret what I now must do!” He then uses his energy converter to kill the Uatu.

Although he gets enough energy from the Watcher to satiate his hunger, Galactus is immediately bothered by what he has done. It says “He stands over the emaciated form of the fallen watcher. And is Galactus had emotions as we know them we might see a flicker of remorse in his cold alien eyes.” He then carries the Watcher’s body back to his ship and delivers it to the world of the watchers, where they mourn him for a millennia.

In What If #200 (2011), there is a 10 page story called “What If The Watcher Killed Galactus?”. It starts out with the Watcher having already broken his oath and killed Galactus. Uatu is then brought before a council of his fellow Watchers to be judged for his interference.

During the trial, the surfer testifies on behalf of Galactus, and Reed Richards testifies in Uatu’s defense. He is, of course, found guilty – and his sentence ends up being one of the coolest things I have read in a Galactus story…

I really liked both of these stories and I would recommend them to anyone interested in Galactus. Issue 41 has story and layouts by Jim Valentino with finishes by Sam DeLarosa and Russ Sever. It was great to see Galactus experiencing regret and remorse over killing the Uatu. Issue 200 is written by Stan Lee (I have loved every issue of Marvel work Stan has done in the last ten years) with art by Dale Eaglesham (one of my favorite Fantastic Four artists in recent years). It’s only ten pages long, but it is a wonderful piece of work and one of my favorite Galactus stories I’ve ever read.