Forget the New York blackout, Boss Tweed, the garbage strike and King Kong; the biggest cataclysm to ever befall the Big Apple (and the world) occurred in 1966. The sky over Manhattan filled with fire, rocks and then a strange-looking silver alien on a surfboard. These unsettling sights were nothing compared to what followed—a massive UFO. Its pilot was a 28-foot, 18-ton alien giant who descended to Earth and announced, "This planet shall sustain me until it has been drained of all elemental life. So speaks Galactus!" Meet Galactus, Marvel's most frightening alien being! When he first stepped onto our world in FANTASTIC FOUR #48 ('The Coming Of Galactus!'), he launched the universally heralded three-part story now known as 'The Galactus Trilogy'. What made Galactus so scary was that he was so far beyond us—a titanic force of nature, neither good nor evil. Pitiless, coldly logical and hungry, Galactus feeds on the life-energy of planets, leaving them lifeless husks! Unlike Dr. Doom, Loki, Dr. Octopus, the Red Skull and every other heavy hitter, Galactus bears us no grudge, he's simply hungry and wants to eat the Earth! Galactus even says, "Though I ravage worlds to live, I bear no malice toward any living thing. I simply do what I must to survive." How can you disagree with that? He's the most feared creature in the Marvel Universe and why not? He even devoured the Skrulls' homeworld! Galactus clearly sprang from Stan Lee's desire to pit the FF against a greater challenge. "I created Galactus after we had done so many villains and wanted something different. I wondered, 'How could we get something bigger than a villain? Let's do a guy who's like a demigod—I like the name Galactus'. He comes from Outer Space and eats planets, or some stupid thing," Lee laughs. Lee and artist Jack Kirby created the ultimate giant monster, the 'Thinking Man's Fin Fang Foom'. In fact, Fin Fang Foom can be seen as a prototype for Galactus, he made similar pitiless proclamations, but Galactus is much more refined and intelligent. He doesn't bother crushing our buildings because we are so far beneath his notice. He's simply coming for take-out! His arrival is always preceded by his herald, in this instance, The Silver Surfer. When the Surfer shows up, the universe trembles with fear. A Skrull asks his leader, "With all our weapons and armaments—why do we so fear the lone Silver Surfer?" He's told, "It is not merely him, you fool!! Have you not studied your cosmic history? Wherever he appears, it is certain that Galactus cannot be very far behind!" Brimming with the power cosmic, Galactus fears nothing. He doesn't even notice the FF, shrugging off even The Thing's strongest punches. To add insult to injury, he's destroying our world from the roof of the Baxter Building! He responds to the FF's attacks by dropping a 'bug bomb' on them that nearly kills all four. He ignores the FF and finds The Watcher the only one worth speaking to. Born before the Big Bang, Galactus was named "Galan" and hailed from an advanced alien race on the planet Taa. When he discovers Taa and the universe are doomed, Galan and a small band of survivors decide to meet their end at the heart of the universe. Everyone dies except Galen who bonds with the universe—together they become "a living organism who possesses the matchless power and raging appetite of a galaxy. He shall be more than a galaxy. He shall be a Galactic ravager...He shall be GALACTUS!" Galactus is not so different from us in that he gets hungry as we do. He even has a pet cat like most of us do. Except his cat would tear your head off! When the FF bother him, he puts his cat on them —'his cat' being The Punisher—not Frank Castle but an unbeatable cyborg that cannot be stopped and resembles a giant metal frog wearing swim goggles. Galactus's herald, The Silver Surfer, is committed only to Galactus; however Ben Grimm's blind girlfriend Alicia convinces him of Earth's good qualities. He attempts to stop Galactus, pleading "Master! For the first time I realize the dreadful enormity of what you plan to do! You cannot destroy the human race!" Galactus responds with a terse "Would you hesitate to tread upon an anthill? These creatures are of no consequence to Galactus!" The Surfer, who was stripped of his space-soaring abilities for his betrayal of Galactus, was the first of a long line of heralds. Galactus imbued others with a fraction of his power cosmic, including Terrax, Firelord, Airwalker and Nova (Frankie Raye, the Human Torch's old girlfriend). In THE LAST GALACTUS STORY, it's strongly implied that Nova loves him and Galactus loves her back. This would explain Nova's attraction to the Surfer, Galactus's favorite ex-employee. Before Galactus and Nova could worry about the size difference, she's murdered by Galactus's renegade herald Morg. Galactus is so angered by this, he removes the power cosmic from Morg so his other ex-heralds can kill him. Galactus is unstoppable. The FF, who had triumphed over alien invasions, mad dictators, robots, spies and every form of earthly evil, are beaten. It was only through The Watcher violating his code of non-interference and sending Johnny Storm across the universe to Galactus's massive ship that he is thwarted. Johnny (who temporarily loses his mind through the trip's immensity) brings back the Ultimate Nullifier. Reed Richards points the weapon point-blank at Galactus's face, which offends the giant. "The Ultimate Nullifier—in the hands of a human?!" He's not upset with Reed, whom he barely acknowledges, but snarls at the Watcher, "You have given a match to a child who lives in a tinderbox!" Galactus isn't angry or vindictive, just amazed. "So," the giant muses, "For the first time...Since the dawn of memory...My will has been thwarted! But I bear no malice! Emotion is for lesser beings!" (Galactus has a penchant for speaking with a lot of exclamation points!) The MARVELS limited series showed how regular people reacted to Galactus's arrival by going to church, getting their affairs in order, out on the streets getting drunk or staying home glued to the TV news coverage. (An old guy on a porch suggests that somebody simply tell Captain America—he'll handle it!) After Galactus leaves, the Daily Bugle promptly declares the whole thing a hoax. Galactus could also be spiteful. When The FF, the Watcher and his former herald the Silver Surfer successfully drove him away from Earth, he blasted the Surfer with eyebeams that left him marooned on our planet. In a later confrontation, he blasted Ben Grimm and reverted him back into The Thing. (This was after Reed had 'permanently' cured him.) His purple and blue body armor helps him regulate his awesome power. While Galactus wore that impressive helmet (which bears a similarity to those seen in Akira Kurosawa's classic 1958 film, "The Hidden Fortress"), the rest of his outfit in his first appearance showed him to be a fashion victim! For one thing, he wore short pants, which made him look like a giant baby, and he had a giant "G" on his chest, apparently to remind himself of who he is! 'The Galactus Trilogy' is clearly one of Marvel's most influential stories. It's been copied several times by other comic companies and even by Hollywood. When the skies fill with fire in "Independence Day" as scared people and TV news crews watch, it was clearly an homage. Hollywood's biggest use of the storyline came in 1984's "Ghostbusters," right down to four heroes (The Ghostbusters, not the FF) going to the roof of a New York skyscraper to do battle with an interdimensional alien (and a giant) intent on destroying our planet while terrified crowds watch. It practically owed Stan a 'Story by' credit! Something about Galactus usually brings the best out in writers, artists and characters in the books where he appears. It's no surprise that the most exciting event in Marvel's 12-part "SECRET WARS" was not the final battle with the Beyonder, but the FF, X-Men, Avengers, Iron Man, Spidey and Hulk's desperate attempt to keep Galactus from devouring the world they are trapped upon. Even then, the combined might of the Marvel heroes doesn't actually defeat him, it merely slows him down. Of course, the cosmic giant sometimes 'took a dive' and went up against characters unworthy of his time. Do we really believe he would ever consider The Dazzler—The Dazzler, for pete's sake—as a possible herald? He'd be better off giving the Power Cosmic to Brother Voodoo! Or that he would waste five minutes going up against The Sphinx, the FF's lamest foe? Or (choke!) that he could be thwarted by a cosmic-powered Aunt May and Franklin Richards in the most regrettable issue of the original MARVEL TEAM-UP? A more equal match came when he met The High Evolutionary. Both characters had a penchant for playing God. One would create life and the other destroyed it. The High Evolutionary evolved animals into people. He eventually set them up on a Counter-Earth that was on the other side of the sun. When Galactus decided to consume it, The Evolutionary was understandably upset. The FF watched while the two fought. The battle was inconclusive as Galactus devoured the Impossible Man's planet Poppup and gave himself a case of cosmic indigestion! (Recently mentioned in Marvel's Silliest Moments, Marvel VISION #7) He was also knocked unconscious by The Beyonder in SECRET WARS #1. John Byrne's actually done the most interesting things with Galactus since Stan. On one occasion in a Byrne story, a sick Galactus comes to Earth where he's beaten by the combined forces of the FF, the Avengers and Dr. Strange (Daredevil and Spider-Man are also there, but they're so far out of their element, they just sit on a rooftop and watch!). After the great Galactus is knocked down (by Reed slamming The Thing into his face like a slingshot), Reed saves his life. This led to the "Trial of Reed Richards," where the universe holds Mr. Fantastic culpable for the planet eater's crimes. Everything changes when Galactus comes to Reed's defense! (Byrne also advanced the theory that every race of aliens sees Galactus differently....To some, he appears as a shape, a ghost or even as pure energy.) Over the years, Galactus and Reed have actually become friends, although Reed isn't ever really happy to see him. In SECRET WARS, the two of them actually sit down and have a conversation. As Sue and Reed were expecting a baby at the time, Galactus refused to reveal the infant's sad fate and instead gave Reed a pep talk on being a force for good. (A little out-of-character for Big G, but what the heck!) Because some view Galactus as a god, he uses that to his advantage. He once tried to trick people into believing that his herald Airwalker was actually the archangel Gabriel coming to announce the end of the world (that way Galactus could devour the Earth without upsetting anyone). In "The Parable," a Stan Lee-scripted story that takes place in a dark, FF-less future, Galactus returns while a corrupt Televangelist sets up a new faith—Galactus-worshipping! Happily, a downtrodden Silver Surfer rises to the occasion and drives his former master off. Of course, Galactus is never gone for long... He was present at the birth of the universe, and, as he once noted, "I shall be there at its end...No matter how many worlds I devour...How many civilizations I destroy...It is my destiny to one day give back to the universe infinitely more than I have taken from it." So speaks Galactus! —Pat Jankiewicz

Email: galactus@lowfierce.com