How Powerful is Galactus?

on the edge of space at the very borders of time and existence through a sea of cosmic energy a vortex of primal force strides the destroyer the consumer of world's Galactus he has no true form this unfathomable creature what we see of him is but the merest tip he's an iceberg of cosmic proportions and every living being perceives him differently in accordance with their own culture instincts or superstition their minds project upon him an image they can comprehend as they struggle to grasp at the inconceivable hello I'm Tyler this is the imaginary axis and how do you think the world is going to end seriously a poll conducted in 2012 suggested 1 in 7 people on earth think the world will end during their lifetime some of the most popular suggestions include nuclear war climate change some sort of worldwide revolution or religion specific Armageddon but today we're talking about the only global apocalypse that has a face to go with the name Galactus and if that name sounds familiar to you you've probably seen him around Galactus is one of the most well known and widely feared entities in the entire Marvel Universe because when he arrives on the scene it's not just a full day's work for one group of heroes or another Galactus is a threat to everybody and I do mean everybody more powerful than the mysterious Celestials more hostile than the Kree Empire more terrifying than the mad Titan Thanos and even more ageless than the all-seeing Watchers Galactus is the subject of ghost stories that drift from planet to planet across billions of light-years children hear his name whispered in their ears at night to keep them well-behaved and every galaxy on record has independent verification of genocides committed by his own two hands because you see for those of you who don't know any better Galactus eats planets yeah he'll occasionally make meals out of Suns moons asteroids or other things but for the most part this guy is on a 24/7 all planet diet at the top of the cosmic food chain and you're sitting on the dinner table which tends to put people a little on edge of course if you're a longtime comic book veteran planetary jeopardy is basically a daily occurrence so the title consumer of worlds probably just makes you wonder why the Avengers need more than one guy to take him down believe me I was right there with you during my young young days first seeing this bizarre cosmic glutton with questionable taste in headgear but after years of studying exactly what Galactus is how his powers function and tracing it back through the eons of history I think I have a pretty firm grasp on the truth that lies behind the biggest appetite in existence and not to spoil anything but this planet-sized hyper predator has a lot more going on than even the gods are willing to admit he may very well be the most important living thing in the entire Marvel Universe and the most dangerous which is exactly why somebody needs to kill him let's back up a little bit if we're going to understand Galactus then we have to start off by defining exactly what Galactus is and I'm not necessarily talking about his species because first of all he's unique there isn't a herd of Galacta roaming around he has no relatives no tribe no gender and arguably not even a proper physical form but secondly on a more fundamental level Galactus represents a concept scientists and philosophers have been speculating on for decades the great filter have you ever looked up in the sky at night and wondered why the universe seems so empty because you should that's definitely something you should wonder astronomers have run the numbers and it just doesn't make any sense the earth is 4.5 billion years old the Milky Way is 13 point 6 billion years old over 20 billion stars in the galaxy have the same general properties as our Sun and 20% of them have an earth-like planet within the habitable region of their orbit which means statistically speaking life should have cropped up billions of times in our region of space before the earth even existed but as far as humanity can tell nothing this is called the Fermi paradox there was actually a study done in 2015 that searched for indications of artificial energy usage in over 100,000 nearby galaxies but it concluded that either sufficiently advanced alien races don't exist anywhere in our local universe or if they do there really could they be hiding from us in ways we don't understand well maybe or maybe there's something out there stopping societies from developing to that point maybe there's a cosmic filter wiping out any life foolish enough to get its attention and maybe it's so powerful that our tools can't even identify it because it's actions are indistinguishable from the natural functions of reality that's pretty much the role Galactus plays in the standard Marvel Universe he's been around since space and time we're still young 10 billion years at an absolute minimum and the Marvel cosmos might look like it's teeming with life compared to ours but it's not if even a single basic spacefaring civilization evolved in the Milky Way between the beginning of the universe and now estimates suggest they should have been able to colonize the entire galaxy within 5 million years but clearly that hasn't happened yet even in Marvel in fact it isn't even close to happening despite thousands of alien species existing there scattered at least more than they should be empty planets all across the stars some worlds completely unaware other life exists and this is almost definitely the work of Galactus his appetite is so massive that it has single-handedly shaped the entire landscape of the universe that's why people are terrified of him he's been eating planets for billions of years and nobody in Marvel's never-ending tapestry of aliens heroes wizards and robots has managed to stop him that might be the longest win streak in history and it isn't exactly against a lineup of lightweights either Galactus treats gods like their insects so exactly how powerful is this guy anyway he's got to be pretty impressive to be the undisputed champion of the universe for that long right well yes but research into the precise functioning of Galactus as biology is lacking to say the least a lot of people consider Galactus is true nature to be beyond human comprehension I can't even get a proper read on what he really looks like let alone the inner workings of that body but when in doubt my imaginary friends always go back to the basics if we know nothing else about the guy we know Galactus runs on planets that's what he eats to stay alive just like your body consumes earth food to get the energy it needs for basic everyday maintenance Galactus consumes planets keep that complex anatomy of his up and running along with all the associated superpowers but he doesn't take his meals the same way you might enjoy the hamburger for instance Galactus consumes worlds by absorbing their life force directly the energy within elements that allow a planet to grow that's why the worlds he eats tend to have life on them he can do it naturally or he can use one of his specially made machines to ensure he gets every last drop out of it but the most unique thing about Galactus is feeding process is actually what happens after he's converted to Planet entirely into energy his initial input is always significantly less than his resulting output which is not normal when anything else in the universe eats something it gets less energy than the sum total of the food being consumed because a certain amount of it's needed to do things like digest this suggests that when Galactus feeds it runs on some kind of unknown highly advanced metabolic process that would absolutely freak physicists out because he seems to be using the energy of planets to create more energy and as far as we know that shouldn't be possible but it does confirm something important about how he operates Galactus is potential power output is directly related to how much energy he's consumed recently meaning he's never really had any set strength exactly what we're dealing with may vary depending on when and what his last meal was which is why I've developed a tool I'm going to call the munch ometer we're going to examine a variety of things Galactus has done in the past to really get a broad picture of his capabilities and the manometer here will estimate his relative level of starvation or satisfaction at the time of whatever we're discussing if all goes well then this should provide us a range of power you can expect depending on Galactus his last meal so let's do it at his absolute weakest Galactus has occasionally had trouble fighting off small mobs of Earth heroes granted these fights are usually closed and the heroes need a few heavy hitters on their team like thorn The Hulk but Galactus is starving to death and most of these so I think it's fair to call this his bottom limit he was also once still mated by the super heroes century acting alone syndra is widely known to have the power of a million exploding Suns so that's not a bad place to start during the annihilation event a super villain managed to weaken Galactus and take him hostage storing the energy he absorbed inside a ship as he literally starved to death the plan was essentially to gather a little more energy and turn lactis into a bomb that would destroy two different universes but he broke free before anything could be accomplished and using the power gathered through only a single planet Galactus released an attack that obliterated 3 star systems and just kept going he then immediately left to get some food according to official files from the Nova Corps database the powers that be considered Galactus a threat to the entire universe which should be obvious at this point but it's hard to tell exactly how much further he goes without comparing him to characters who are the same so this is Mephisto a mysterious and dangerous demon who rules his own realm next to the mortal cosmos he's threatened as many as 3 different universes as a mere side effect when fighting against an equal but he's known to be a lot stronger when operating in his own hellish domain Galactus fought him to a draw there once immediately after being denied a meal he even threatened to consume Mephisto as realm which basically made the demon give up and let him leave Odin king of Asgard is also a force to be reckoned with his greatest battles have put all nine realms of Yggdrasil in jeopardy and yes it's been confirmed that those realms are full universes he's fought Galactus twice once under normal conditions and once when dr. doom had stolen Galactus his powers heck there was even one time length the war fought Galactus after becoming more powerful than Odin ever was but in every single one of these cases Galactus was clearly interrupted while looking for his next meal and things still didn't go well for the gods this is nothing if not consistent even owned his longtime rival Zeus would have probably been killed by one of Galactus laser beams if he wasn't possessed by an abstract shadow oblivion the idiot it's a long story so what happens when he's barely hungry at all one time during a fight against two other equally powerful entities Galactus posed a threat to the entire multiverse and they were going all-out to oblivion was certain that this battle would mean the end of everything and that fits right in with estimates from people like Reed Richards who's gone on record comparing Galactus to the Phoenix an abstract entity responsible for all psychic energy in the multiverse she can counter magic that throws infinite realities into disarray contain energy bursts that threaten all of existence and straight-up stop the multiverse from collapsing on itself but even she's only beaten Galactus in a fight once when he was starving Galactus got her back later when he was more full dr. strange faces multiversal threats all the time under his own power but even he doesn't consider Galactus a winnable fight when he's ready and healthy in fact Galactus has fought one of the three gods Doctor Strange gets his powers from and the shock waves alone tossed other far-off dimensions into chaos dr. doom thinks Galactus his power is endless enough to conquer the multiverse he considers Galactus his power and the Phoenix's power to be beyond even the cosmic cubes which have threatened the entire multiverse repeatedly and you know what he's right - a sentient Cosmic Cube named cubic once warned another cosmic cube that the Celestials were ridiculously more powerful than either of them despite both of them having infinite power capable of affecting infinite universes and Galactus still fought several of them simultaneously even killing one if this is starting to sound absurd to you then you're probably not alone Galactus is powered range is enormous for a planet eater it can get to some ridiculously low levels before he straight-up starves to death but it could also just increase seemingly forever without any ending in sight there have actually been two separate occasions when somebody messed with Galactus his head and made him so hungry that he threatened to devour the entire multiverse it's a lot to take in trust me I get it he's also ridiculously faster than light which shouldn't be a thing and has been seen replicating practically every superpower that exists if I were to list off examples of everything Galactus has ever done we'd be here a while but by now you're probably noticing a trend each time we try to examine what Galactus is capable of we come up with answers that don't make a lot of sins it's almost as though the laws of nature we're familiar with just don't apply to them and you'd be right about that notice how reality literally bins and warps around his very presence time does that - from a mortals perspective even approaching Galactus when he's giving off this much energy can seem like an acid trip and if by some miracle you were able to actually beat him in a fight he can recreate himself from Total Annihilation is it any wonder that some species have just given up and don't even bother calling for help when Galactus enters their star system he's the living embodiment of a no-win situation he doesn't follow physics how do you even assess something that far beyond us in 1964 Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed a method for measuring the advancement of alien species based on how much energy they're capable of using at once of the three types he defined a type one civilization would use the total energy of an entire planet a type two civilization would use the energy of a star system and type three a full galaxy Galactus would theoretically classify as a type five species by himself but cartagia have never even proposed anything that extreme and some have suggested this is because anything that powerful would have so much influence over our reality that it would basically be impossible to detect in other words Galactus is exempt from the rules because he helps write them or at least some of them his abilities are the result of what he calls the power cosmic and if you want to beat him in a fight you have to get that powerful yourself you need to write your own laws even Galactus wasn't always a giant hungry energy monster a long time ago he was just a random guy - the last random guy a scientist named Galton sole survivor of a multiverse that was collapsing but he refused to sit down and let his reality die he piloted his ship into the heart of the cosmic storm that was tearing apart everything and emerged into the new multiverse as the entity we know today you know that's not a bad analogy for the situation humanity is faced with our universe is dying it's happening slowly but anytime anyone does anything a little bit of energy is lost it's the law the second law of thermodynamics when you rub your hands together a little bit of heat comes off that for all practical purposes just isn't usable anymore and eventually given enough time all the energy in the universe will do the same it will spread out evenly into a state of homogeneity where there's an equal amount of it everywhere like the cream and sugar spreading out in a coffee cup one day all stars will burn out all black holes will disintegrate protons will decay electrons will stop moving the universe will freeze and nothing will ever happen again heat death if only we knew someone who could make more energy may be looking at Galactus as a villain to beat isn't the right way to approach him in the first place after all it's not like he tears down planets for fun or kills people because he enjoys it life just happens to exist on his only food source it's not like we're unfamiliar with that problem and his presence in the universe has its benefits - without destruction there is no room for new things to develop he prevents anyone civilization from growing too powerful and colonizing the universe the Lantis even acts as a cosmic antibody of source when something threatens reality he's right there on the frontlines heck he has a weapon that can erase multiversal threats from existence at all points in time simultaneously an eternity liked him so much that he placed a Galactus in each reality to fend off certain enemies but if we're not going to call him the villain maybe challenge is the more appropriate word he's the story of a guy who stared down the ultimate no-win situation and asks us to do the same if we can't he'll be there at the end of time to recreate the multiverse for us the last living legacy the literal remnants of everyone and everything you ever knew loved spoke to thought about or heard of fashioned into brand new energy for the brand new cosmos but if we can meet his challenge if humanity can expand explore evolve and one day face Galactus himself then maybe we'll also have found a way to conquer the laws of the universe and keep on living hey they're hungry for more content then why don't you join us next week on Friday the 26th at 6 p.m. Eastern for a live stream covering any unresolved questions we'll be talking about Galactus and Darkseid because I've been getting a lot of questions about both lately you really should show up but if you can't that's fine you can stay updated by clicking the subscribe button instead or following me over on Twitter links in the description but even if neither of those things are quite your style thanks for sticking around to the end more content coming soon and until then have a fantastic day

Channel: The Imaginary Axis

Views: 1,275,921

Keywords: galactus, galan, marvel, mcu, avengers, fantastic four, silver surfer, how strong is galactus, how powerful is galactus, franklin richards, tyrant, world eater, ultimate nullifer, infinity gauntlet, thanos, disney, most powerful marvel character, super hero, superhero, hero, villain, marvel villain, stan lee, mephisto, odin, thor, hulk, captain america, deadpool, iron man, tony stark, spider-man, spiderman, spider man, living tribunal, abstracts, infinity war, endgame, end game

Id: LZ-U_tBnOjo

Length: 17min 32sec (1052 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2020