Galactus (centre) relies on his Heralds to seek out suitable planets for him to devour. — Photos: Marvel Comics
THERE were two San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC) 2024 announcements that gave me hope of a Marvel Comics Universe (MCU) revitalisation – the first being Robert Downey Jr’s casting as Dr Doom and the second being ... Galactus.
In case you are having flashbacks of the cloud-like figure from the 2007 Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer movie, rest assured (or can we?) that for now, at least, that “evil cloud” role has been taken over by Alioth in Deadpool Vs Wolverine.
But seriously, would Marvel or Kevin Feige be brave (or dumb) enough to repeat that stunt in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie?
With the new Fantastic Four: First Steps movie in production and scheduled for a 2025 release, we’ve finally got a Galactus who is actually played by an actor and not just a mass of floating gas – Ralph Ineson (Green Knight, The Creator), who has been cast in the role.
With Doom occupying the lead antagonist role in past Fantastic Four movies, the (re)introduction of the Devourer of Planets offers a fresh breath of air and should attract some sizeable (no pun intended) attention for the movie
In case you are wondering why Galactus fits the bill, or even who the heck he is, well, wonder no more, as this week we deep dive into one of the Marvel universe’s biggest characters, and one with a massive gastronomic problem.
Galactus made his first appearance in 1966’s Fantastic Four #48.
Co-created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966 (Fantastic Four, Vol.1 #48), Galactus is a mortal man-turned-cosmic entity who eats planets to survive. Initially, Lee and Kirby created Galactus to get away from the usual stereotypical villain, instead depicting him as a god-like figure who drained living planets of their energy, regardless of morality or judgments of the planets’ inhabitants.
Obviously, a being as complex as Galactus comes with an infinite number of convoluted origin stories. There is one common starting point though – his life began as Galan, a space explorer from the planet Taa.
Driven by an unknown cosmic cataclysm that was gradually killing life in his universe, Galan and remaining survivors left Taa on a spacecraft but ended up engulfed in the “Big Crunch”. Galan survived and ended up bonding with the Sentience of the Universe – which left him gestating for billions of years after the Big Bang.
Having slept for so long, Galan-now-Galactus awoke with massive hunger pangs and consumed the nearest planet, Archeopia – the first of many planets he has since devoured.
Since then, other illustrious writers such as Mark Gruenwald, John Byrne, Jim Starlin and Louise Simonson have all contributed towards building up Galactus’ credentials, and even justifying his need to commit planetary genocide as well as how he serves a functional role in the upkeep of primary Marvel continuity.
Probably to to make it easier to make toys out of his character, Galactus’ official “standard” height is “28 feet and nine inches” (8.76m) and weighs 16.5 tonnes.
While this height and weight would already require Mr Fantastic to stretch his body mass to the max, bear in mind that this is merely Galactus’ “standard” size – as he is still able to expand to the size of a star (as per Rom #27) in order to enable him to eat the Dire Wraith’s homeworld. For the record, Galactus has even consumed a 600m tall Celestial!
Doom managed to get the better of Galactus in 1984’s Secret Wars.
Constantly having to eat planets isn’t easy, thus Galactus created a group of “Heralds”, whose jobs are to search for suitable planets for him to consume. To empower his heralds, Galactus granted them a small fraction of his Power Cosmic or overall strength, which is already sufficient to take on the mightiest Marvel heroes. His notable heralds include the Silver Surfer, Firelord, Terrax, Nova (Frankie Raye version), the Fallen One, etc.
However, the common problem Galactus has with his heralds is insubordination as evident by his falling outs with the Fallen One, Terrax, Morg and notably, the Silver Surfer.
While all these names have left a trail of destruction across the universe, one “herald” did the opposite – Aunt May aka Golden Oldie (yes, THAT Aunt May). For the record, May did become a recipient of Galactus’ power cosmic (see Marvel Team Up #137), albeit in a dream scenario.
Galactus was once a mortal named Galan.
Galactus is a notoriously picky eater, preferring inhabited planets as it offers the most life sustaining essence. This dietary requirement stems from the enormous amount of Power Cosmic coursing within Galactus.
Of all the planets he has devoured, my most memorable “meal” would be the Skrull’s throneworld on Tarnax IV (see Fantastic Four Vol.1 #257). That event led to other notable stories, i.e. the Trial Of Reed Richards and Secret Invasion.
Not all planets can be devoured, as evident by the continuous existence of Earth 616 – where the Devourer of Worlds has failed on numerous occasions.
Other failed “feasts” include the Beyonder’s Battleworld (where Galactus was thwarted by Doom – see Secret Wars #9) and the time he ingested the Infinity Gems (Thanos #4) but instead of satisfying his ceaseless appetite, it released the Hunger – a vastly powerful entity who is Galactus’ multiverse equivalent, who feeds on realities instead of planets.
Galactus got a new role as ‘Lifebringer’ in 2013’s Ultimates series.
After aeons of devouring, the 2013 Ultimates storyline offered Galactus a good guy role in the form of a “Lifebringer”, where he restores planets instead. (For nostalgia’s sake, he restored the first planet he devoured, Archeopia.)
His new role received thumbs up from the heroes but did not get the approval of Master Order and Lord Chaos, who viewed this as detrimental to the cosmic order of the new multiverse.
Eventually, Galactus managed to argue his case before the Living Tribunal – citing that his new role may prove beneficial in the formation of the cosmic order of the new multiverse.
