The Quwrlln - Alpha Flight Vol. 1, No. 97-100 During one of her searches for sustenance for her master, Nova chanced upon the planet Quwrll. An ancient, scientific race, the Quwrlln had learned of the World Devourer and had spent centuries contemplating the philosophies and rationale of Galactus' existence, eventually deciding to study other worlds to understand the effects of his actions. Manned exploratory vehicles were dispersed throughout the galaxy and one such probe colonized a moon of Jupiter, from where the Quwrlln studied the development of Earth's civilization. During this time, they found the injured body of Alpha Flight's Vindicator misplaced in time and space, and sustained his life-functions for thousands of years. While Vindicator slept, Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer, appeared on Earth. There, for the first time since the Universe was born, the World Devourer was defeated through the efforts of the Fantastic Four, Utau the Watcher, and his own herald. Witnessing these events unfold, the Quwrlln realized that if Galactus were to attack their own planet, Vindicator would be helpful in turning World Devourer away. Thus, they revived Vindicator, made him more powerful by turning him into a cyborg, and returned him home to Earth. Upon Nova's arrival, the Quwrlln activated a planetary safeguard that shunted the whole planet to another dimensional plane, a course of action that had been prepared for millennia. They explained to Nova that since it would take an eternity for even Galactus to scan every aspect of every dimensional plane in existence, their plan was valid. However, they had failed to take into account the possibility that Galactus could home in directly on his herald, and the World Devourer arrived on the planet less than a panel later. Out of options, the Quwrlln sent out a signal to Vindicator for help. Meanwhile, Alpha Flight and a dozen Avengers were entangled in a war with the military forces of the Consortium, an intergalactic business organization, over the freedom of Her, a prisoner of the Consortium. The Quwrlln signal took control of Vindicator's machine components and he teleported the most powerful members of both teams to the planet Quwrll to battle Galactus, leaving the rest to fend for themselves against a space fleet. After having the situation explained to them by the Quwrlln, the heroes simultaneously attacked Nova and took her out of the fight, then made a direct assault on Galactus. Annoyed, the World Devourer attempted to convert them to pure energy to keep them out of the battle while he consumed the planet. To everyone's surprise, Galactus' powers did not work. Apparently, the very fabric of reality varies from dimension to dimension, and while beyond the humans and Quwrlln, such changes are quite noticeable to Galactus. Unable to command his vast energies, Galactus fought the heroes with sheer physical force, but was left defenseless against the heroes' assaults. The battle finally came to an end when a surge of Vindicator's electromagnetic energies wreaked havoc with Galactus' internal energy flow and felled the giant. With Galactus down, the heroes looked for a way to get back to the battle in Toronto. Overhearing their plight, Galactus told them that the Consortium is renowned for using living planets as the energy source for their mother ships. Valiantly sacrificing himself, Vindicator used all of his energy to teleport the heroes safely to Earth and the Consortium mother ship into Galactus' grasp, solving both problems at once. Comments: The story was very well written, but it had a few logical flaws. First, Galactus was made far too defenseless far too easily and neither Nova nor his vast technology served any purpose. Second, the safety of the Quwrlln was not insured and their fate left undecided. Third, with Galactus' awesome power and boundless scientific knowledge, Vindicator's sacrifice should have been unnecessary. Had this been a Galactus story, it would have been awesome, but it was an Alpha Flight story and Galactus was merely a villain.

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