Galactus

Galactus appeared in 1965 Marvel Comics called Fantastic Four.

Galactus is a cosmic being that consumes the energy found in planets for sustenance. He appoints "Heralds" such as the Silver Surfer to scout for suitable worlds and he empowers them with the Power Cosmic.

Galactus is from a universe before this one and was originally a Taa-an named Galan. At the end of his universe, Galan was approached by the Sentience of the Cosmos (Eternity's precursor), fused with its essence, and emerged in the next cycle as Galactus after a gestation period.

Galactus was recently killed by Thor. He was reborn when his corpse, reanimated by the Destroyer, devoured energy from the M'kraan Crystal. Galactus now hungers for knowledge instead of worlds.

Galactus is a survivor from the sixth incarnation of the Multiverse. Originally Galactus was a humanoid named Galan, born in the previous incarnation of Earth-616 on the planet Taa, a paradise-like world whose civilization is said to have been the most advanced of any of the known universe of that time, to the scienceer Taaia. However, the Sixth Infinity and all its universes were in their final stages of collapse due to the multiversal renewal cycle, being consumed by the Black Winter.

He was the genetically engineered son of Taaia, the closest thing Taa had to a superhero. Due to her obligations to the planet she was a neglectful mother, giving him very little human contact and leaving a technologically advanced crib to raise him. When his mother brought home his time-traveling future herald, the Silver Surfer, he decided to use the opportunity to teach him compassion, hoping it would encourage him to try harder to resist his hunger in the future.

Originally, like all universes in the Multiverse, this universe had been a "Cosmic Egg"; a primal sphere of disorganized, dense, compact primordial matter. The sphere underwent a "Big Bang," an explosion that hurled the matter outwards, where much of it eventually condensed into stars and planets. This universe expanded in size for billions of years, and then contracted, undergoing a "crunch" over the following billions of years. All of the matter of that universe was plunging towards a central point, where it was collapsing into a new "Cosmic Egg."

Taa's civilization was one of the last still in existence. Lethal radiation caused by the "Big Crunch" this universe was experiencing was wiping out all life across the universe. Galan, a space explorer, was dispatched to travel through the cosmos to find a means of saving Taa, but he found none. The radiation eventually killed off all but a tiny fraction of the population of Taa. Knowing their deaths were inevitable, Galan proposed to the remaining survivors that they die gloriously by piloting one of their starships directly into the heart of the "Cosmic Egg." As the starship containing Galan and his fellow survivors approached the focal point of the Big Crunch, the heat and radiation killed all the passengers except Galan, who strangely found himself filled with new energy.

When the cosmos was going to meet its natural end, Galan was then approached by the embodiment of the Sixth Infinity, the Sentience of the Cosmos, who merged its essence with the mortal Galan, this way giving birth to a new entity who would survive the multiversal renewal: Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds. The Black Winter presented an alternative account of Galan's survival, claiming it had spared him and turned him into Galactus to mark him as its Herald.

After the Multiverse ended its renewal cycle, the Seventh Cosmos was originated from the ashes of the Sixth Infinity, and with it, its new embodiments, Eternity and Infinity. The newborn Galactus eventually ended up in the seventh iteration of his universe, now called Earth-616.

The nascent Galactus drifted in his recreated starship for eons as life began to come into existence in the universe, including the races that would give rise to the Elders of the Universe. Eventually, the nascent Galactus's starship was sighted by Ecce of the Watchers, an ancient species who possess vast psionic and energy manipulation powers who had undertaken to observe the events of the universe. Ecce drew the starship down to his planet to study it. There he learned that the being within it had power beyond comprehension and would eventually be forced to consume entire worlds to satiate his hunger for life-sustaining energy.

Realizing the danger the nascent Galactus posed to the cosmos, this Watcher considered destroying the entity; who was still vulnerable due to his metamorphic state; but instead decided to abide by the Watchers' oath of non-interference, and let the nascent Galactus depart in his starship. Although over time the Watcher race has come to understand that Galactus is an intrinsic and necessary component to the natural order of the cosmos, Ecce has expressed guilt over his decision those billions of years ago and feels partially responsible for the destruction Galactus has caused since.

The nascent Galactus employed his vastly limitless strength and power and created a suit of armor to help him regulate his raging internal energies. He then transformed the starship of Galan into a kind of incubator, where Galactus spent thousands upon thousands of years evolving into his current form. Galactus' incubator eventually crashed on the surface of Ego, the Living Planet; causing him pain as it began to drain his lifeforce. Ego saved a time-displaced Silver Surfer from Knull, and the Surfer repaid the favor by removing the incubator from him. The Surfer, knowing what Galan would become, planned to destroy the being before birth. However, Uatu the Watcher warned the Surfer that despite the destruction he would bring Galactus would be important for the balance of the universe. The Surfer entered the incubator, intent on absorbing Galactus' Power Cosmic to restore himself, and was confronted by Galan. The two talked and eventually the Silver Surfer decided to spare Galan and removed the incubator off Ego and set it on the course to Archeopia. The Archeopians themselves did not disturb the strange ship, but years later a marauding space fleet, nearing Archeopia and thinking Galactus's ship to be a weapon, attacked it.

Galactus, with his metamorphosis complete, emerged and with a gesture destroyed the invading fleet. Galactus, realizing his uncontrollable hunger for energy, turned his attention upon the energy-rich Archeopia below. Galactus immediately consumed the life energies of the Archeopia, only a small fleet of Archeopian ships managed to escape the planet in time. (The Archeopian race would later be fully exterminated by the living planet Ego).

Over the following millennia Galactus constructed for himself an immense home, the world-ship he calls Taa II, which engulfed the Archeopian solar system as a tribute to both his homeworld and to Archeopia, the first planet he ever consumed. For several billion years Galactus consumed only planets uninhabited by sentient lifeforms, Archeopia being the only exception, and centuries passed between his "feedings".

However, as ages passed, the intervals between feedings decreased considerably in length, and Galactus found himself needing to consume worlds inhabited by sentient races if he could find no other worlds possessing the energy he needs in time to sustain himself. Galactus has succeeded in suppressing his sympathy for intelligent beings who are similar in nature to the entity from which he was birthed, and, realizing himself to be a higher kind of being than they are due to his intrinsic role in the natural order, is willing to destroy their lives to continue his own. Moreover, he is aware that he is meant to one day give back to the universe infinitely more than he has ever taken from it.

Powers and Abilities

• Cosmic Entity Physiology: Possessing the immeasurable Power Cosmic, Galactus is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe, has near-limitless godlike powers, and is considered an omnipotent entity. His cosmic powers are beyond most forms of measurement. He was once referred to as "the most awesome living entity in the cosmos." Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet ranked him around the same level of power as Odin, Zeus, the Celestials, and the Stranger, but well below Master Order, Lord Chaos, Mistress Love, and Sire Hate, who in turn are well below Eternity and Infinity, who are well below the Living Tribunal. As such, Galactus is able to employ the cosmic energy within him to produce virtually any effect he desires. After devouring four planets, Galactus has been shown capable of fighting four Mad Celestials, and destroying one of them, although when they fused together into a powerful Voltron Celestial he was defeated. Galactus has also shown the ability to overcome Odin. In effect, the virtually omniscient Oblivion remarked that Galactus' battle against Scrier and the Other affected reality itself, and suggested they threatened to destroy the Multiverse entirely if their fight had not ceased. Galactus and his Heralds were stated to be cosmic level threats. He was stated to have an "Universal" threat level by the Nova Corps. However, although his power is great, it is dependent on the amount of energy he has absorbed from planets. If he does not feed regularly, then it will run out, and he will weaken and starve to death. A few of the abilities he displayed are:
  • Immortality: Galactus is said to survive until the end of the universe.
  • Godlike Strength: Galactus has demonstrated the potential for a solar scale of limitless strength.
  • Godlike Stamina: Galactus can partake in physical strenuous action, like battles, for an undefined period of time, but absorbing the energy of a planet will only sustain him for a month, and using it will cause the time-span to lower dramatically, so he normally cannot fight for too long.
  • Godlike Speed: Despite his size, Galactus can fly at speeds that greatly surpass the speed of light.
  • Invulnerability: Galactus is immune to all diseases, ailments, and toxins. In addition, he is enormously resistant to damage. He was able to survive from two planets colliding and a sizable nuclear arsenal but was severely injured in the process. However, this happened while he was drained by the cosmic entity Hunger. Galactus emerged intact from a massive strike from Nega-Bombs. He has also stated that, much like Aegis and Tenebrous, he could not survive the forces of the Crunch. After Odin headbutted him from the outer atmosphere all the way to the planet Earth, Galactus very swiftly recovered, while Odin was severely injured and forced to enter Odinsleep. Galactus has regularly withstood attacks from beings as powerful as the mystic entity Agamotto and Odin, and even managed to withstand a blow from a Chaos King empowered Zeus.
  • Energy Projection: Galactus can project devastating energy blasts. In effect, after absorbing energy from several planets following a period of starvation, and thus still heavily weakened, Galactus proved capable of destroying at least three solar systems. Galactus has effectively affected entire galaxies while battling the entity Mephisto, and it's been speculated that Galactus might be able to destroy even the Multiverse as a side effect of a titanic battle. Indeed, Galactus' clash with the entity Agamotto even wreaked havoc in entire dimensions. Also, during a confrontation with Tyrant in his original form, it was stated that they "must have destroyed entire galaxies". Moreover, the captive Galactus would be employed as a weapon capable to destroy two universes. After devouring four planets, Galactus even destroyed a Mad Celestial, who has withstood the destructive power of the Ultimate Nullifier (though its power depends on the wielder's mindset, varying between universal to multiversal in magnitude).
  • Energy Absorption: Arguably his most viable power, as his survival depends on absorbing the Life Force from planets or stars. During his fight with Mephisto, he showed that he is even capable of absorbing an entire domain. During his attack on the Ultimate Universe he also absorbed Vision's Dark Matter-attacks. During the "Time Bubble"/"Black Celestial" alternative future story he was going to devour an entire 4-dimensional universal spacetime continuum, and grew larger than a galaxy.
  • Force-Fields: Galactus can erect near-impenetrable energy shields.
  • Levitation: Galactus can traverse or glide through air and space using sheer willpower.
  • Size-Alteration: Galactus's base height and weight will diminish when he is greatly in need of life-giving energy. Galactus has the ability to increase his size and mass at will, the extent of which is unknown. He once grew to a stature so great that he could wrestle with the Wraithworld sun.
  • Molecular Restructuring: Galactus can manipulate, reshape and rearrange the molecular complexions of any organism, allowing him to rebuild or redesign things internally.
  • Matter Transmutation: Being a cosmic being, Galactus can control matter in any object which allows him to turn something tangible like lead, into something intangible like water.
  • Teleportation: Galactus can make himself, other people, and objects appear anywhere in the entire universe that he wishes with a mere thought. He has even teleported the planet Galador from one galaxy to another.
  • Interdimensional & Intradimensional Portals: He can create wormholes between dimensions and within dimensions.
  • Telepathy: Galactus is telepathic and able to read or communicate with other minds across universal distances.
  • Telekinesis: Ability to move enormous amounts of mass through mental concentration.
  • Cosmic Awareness: Galactus can sense disturbances or changes within the cosmic ether on a universal scale.
  • Resurrection: He can raise the dead.
  • Life Creation: Galactus can create complex, sentient, biological or bio-technical life-forms seemingly from nothing, or at least using his control over molecules to do so.
  • Soul Control & Manipulation: Galactus can control and manipulate the souls and spirits of living beings at will. He uses this power to alter the memories and emotions of others.
  • Recreation: Being a cosmic being, Galactus was able to recreate the entire planet Zen-La, including population, etc. in every detail.
  • Power/Ability Bestowal: Galactus' heralds, whom he has endowed with a minuscule fraction of his cosmic power, are able to manipulate matter and energy in ways that are far beyond human comprehension.
  • Healing Powers: Galactus is able to heal himself and others from physical wounds although this may simply be molecular reconstruction.
  • Adapted Appearance: Although Galactus is usually represented in humanoid form, each sentient being perceives him having a form resembling their own. This is due to the Manifestations, who change his appearance based on the mental image of the beholder (as they do with Abstract Entities).
  • Cosmic-Genius: Galactus possesses one of the universe's absolutely most advanced minds. His scientific knowledge is beyond human understanding. Reed Richards has admitted an inability to fully comprehend even the most rudimentary devices found within Galactus' Worldship Taa II. The Worldship itself is a solar system-sized construct that is said to surpass any natural world in beauty and splendor and yet within it's computers is contained knowledge so unfathomable and far reaching it can grant awesome power to those who come into contact with it (see Korvac).

Weakness

• Depowerment: Galactus was not originally a cosmic being. He was the mortal Taa-an Galan who was cosmically empowered when the universe ended and began again. Therefore, it is possible for him to get depowered and return to his original "Galan" form.
  • If this happens, his Power Cosmic, the "Soul of Galactus," will automatically search for him, so it is not a permanent non-violent solution to the Galactus problem.
  • It is also possible for his powers to go to someone else. In another instance where Galactus got depowered, Reed Richards absorbed it, turning Reed into a Galactus-like being instead of Galan. Reed had planned on using this opportunity to starve himself and free the universe from the Devourer, but the rest of the FF convinced him to restore Galactus and his old self.
    • Doctor Doom once used a Cosmic Cube to depower Galactus and transfer his power to Doom. Reed Richards used that same Cosmic Cube to transfer it back.
  • Galactus can go back to Galan of Taa willingly, at least temporarily. Galactus is susceptible to certain powerful artifacts and weapons:
  • Ultimate Nullifier
  • Infinity Gauntlet
  • Cosmic Cube
  • All-Black the Necrosword
  • A device created by the Brotherhood of the Shield that focused the energy of the Brotherhood
  • Technological means to absorb and/or harness Galactus' power