Deep in the primordial past, before our universe began, lived a man named Galen. He dwelled in a place called Taa, one of the last planets left in the shrinking universe. Galen had a plan to survive the Big Crunch, which he implemented with success. He flew through the implosion of his universe and out into our own Big Bang. He incubated for a billion years and became the most feared being in the Marvel Universe:
GALACTUS!
Man, I love Galactus. When I was a kid, I first read about him in the Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe, under the entry for Silver Surfer. This was the 'S' volume, so there were no pictures of him. I just imagined some gigantic being who had a mouth big enough to eat planets! Being the World-Eater and all. Some time later I picked up Fantastic Four #262, the one where Reed Richards was on trial for saving Galactus's life. There I saw his big purple and blue self, and found a new character to adore. Anybody remember that story?
This was after Reed couldn't let Big G die from hunger. Reed saved him, but Galactus went on to devour the Skrull's Throneworld. They weren't happy about that. . .
Next I saw Galactus in Rom, where Rom tricked Galactus into leaving Galador and going after the Dire Wraiths world. It didn't work out. The Wraiths were some sick freaks.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby came up with the idea of a God-like being and his fallen angel-like emissary, the Silver Surfer. Galactus needed to devour the life energies from planets to survive. He first encountered the Fantastic Four, naturally, and was driven away by something called the Ultimate Nullifier. You know you're cool when something named the Ultimate Nullifier is used against you!
Bam!
Next came Secret Wars. 1984, that is. The first one. All the villains are gathered together, waiting for the Beyonder. Well, Ultron was there, and he was a egotistical psycho. He bumped into Galactus and got all uppity. Not good. Ultron is powerful, but. . . take a look.
And then:
Snuffed him like a candle! So much for the clown who's going to give the Avengers so much trouble in a few months. Big G only had to lift a finger.
Some time before this, Galactus was searched out by Reed Richards to help battle the Sphinx, a powerful being who had the Ka Stone. The what? Yeah, I forgot about him, too. Galactus got in a hand-to-hand fight, which is the real reason people read super hero comics:
Galactus smacked him down, too, and broke his Ka Stone. There is just something cool about cosmic beings, isn't there? Eternity, The Living Tribunal, the In-betweener, Celestials. . .but Galactus is coolest of all. The Devourer of Worlds and master of the Silver Surfer. And Tyrant. And Morg. And Nova, Firelord, Air Walker, and Terrax the Tamer.
Yeah, good stuff.
Galactus withstood Darkseid's Omega Beams once. Took 'em full blast and didn't blink. Faded, maybe, but didn't flinch. Then Galactus blasted him:
This was a good one. I bought two. Galactus tried to eat Apokolips, but to his surprise he couldn't. Darkseid laughed in his face and told him it was a dead planet. Galactus should've stepped on him, but he just left. Even he couldn't believe Darkseid would let his people live like that!
I'm sure Galactus has ben beat by lots of people since I last read about him, much like how Spiderman gets killed in every What If? comic. Or beat up, or crucified (Kulan Gath, anyone?). But in my youth, Galactus was a treat to look forward to, an unbeatable force of nature that made any comic a whole lot better. I leave you with a cool image from my Pinterest page, by a guy I've never heard of. I'm too lazy to look him up, so you do it for me:
Cool, huh?
GALACTUS!
Man, I love Galactus. When I was a kid, I first read about him in the Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe, under the entry for Silver Surfer. This was the 'S' volume, so there were no pictures of him. I just imagined some gigantic being who had a mouth big enough to eat planets! Being the World-Eater and all. Some time later I picked up Fantastic Four #262, the one where Reed Richards was on trial for saving Galactus's life. There I saw his big purple and blue self, and found a new character to adore. Anybody remember that story?
This was after Reed couldn't let Big G die from hunger. Reed saved him, but Galactus went on to devour the Skrull's Throneworld. They weren't happy about that. . .
Next I saw Galactus in Rom, where Rom tricked Galactus into leaving Galador and going after the Dire Wraiths world. It didn't work out. The Wraiths were some sick freaks.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby came up with the idea of a God-like being and his fallen angel-like emissary, the Silver Surfer. Galactus needed to devour the life energies from planets to survive. He first encountered the Fantastic Four, naturally, and was driven away by something called the Ultimate Nullifier. You know you're cool when something named the Ultimate Nullifier is used against you!
Bam!
Next came Secret Wars. 1984, that is. The first one. All the villains are gathered together, waiting for the Beyonder. Well, Ultron was there, and he was a egotistical psycho. He bumped into Galactus and got all uppity. Not good. Ultron is powerful, but. . . take a look.
And then:
Snuffed him like a candle! So much for the clown who's going to give the Avengers so much trouble in a few months. Big G only had to lift a finger.
Some time before this, Galactus was searched out by Reed Richards to help battle the Sphinx, a powerful being who had the Ka Stone. The what? Yeah, I forgot about him, too. Galactus got in a hand-to-hand fight, which is the real reason people read super hero comics:
Galactus smacked him down, too, and broke his Ka Stone. There is just something cool about cosmic beings, isn't there? Eternity, The Living Tribunal, the In-betweener, Celestials. . .but Galactus is coolest of all. The Devourer of Worlds and master of the Silver Surfer. And Tyrant. And Morg. And Nova, Firelord, Air Walker, and Terrax the Tamer.
Yeah, good stuff.
Galactus withstood Darkseid's Omega Beams once. Took 'em full blast and didn't blink. Faded, maybe, but didn't flinch. Then Galactus blasted him:
This was a good one. I bought two. Galactus tried to eat Apokolips, but to his surprise he couldn't. Darkseid laughed in his face and told him it was a dead planet. Galactus should've stepped on him, but he just left. Even he couldn't believe Darkseid would let his people live like that!
I'm sure Galactus has ben beat by lots of people since I last read about him, much like how Spiderman gets killed in every What If? comic. Or beat up, or crucified (Kulan Gath, anyone?). But in my youth, Galactus was a treat to look forward to, an unbeatable force of nature that made any comic a whole lot better. I leave you with a cool image from my Pinterest page, by a guy I've never heard of. I'm too lazy to look him up, so you do it for me:
Cool, huh?
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