Infinity War: Galactus Explained

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the sovath spider-verse coming back on Monday I thought it'd be fun to take a quick break away from the spider-verse stories by getting into a discussion about Galactus and the reason why I chose Galactus here is because this is a character who is very pivotal to the Marvel continuity and to the existence in Marvel Comics but as a character we haven't really talked about that much we even we've talked discuss stories involving Galactus we've talked about characters that are tied closely took a lactis you know for example I guess the Silver Surfer and in Franklin Richards but we've never actually gotten into a discussion about Galactus proper a so Galactus first appeared in 1966 with what many fans refer to as the Galactus trilogy and of course Galactus was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and in 2011 the comic book journal had released an interview they had done with Stan Lee where they had asked him about about Galactus about why it is a Galactus was created and what's and Lee tells us here is that Galactus was created because Marvel at the time when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were really kind of the one-two punch during the Silver Age we're looking towards characters and villains that would break the standard for what villains were at the time then Marvel comics when you had the 1960s when you had spider-man a fantastic for Thor and so on despite the power of some of these characters a lot of the villains were still street-level thugs there were still villains who for whatever reason developed some measure of abilities but their schemes were always maybe I guess superficial they always intended to somehow amass a great amount of wealth or something like that the villains would be defeated by the superheroes they would be handed over to the authorities and the villains will be incarcerated the villains would then break out of jail and the entire process would start over again this was really a timeless relationship between super heroes and super villains dating all the way back to the Golden Age and so Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wanted to break this standard and so they introduced the concept of Galactus and a Stan Lee tells us this character of Galactus has to be somebody major he had to be a character who was so powerful that he really couldn't be stopped per se he could simply just be staved off and so when he introduced the idea to Jack Kirby Jack Kirby had of course returned with the depiction of Galactus that we had seen in the original Galactus trilogy but he had also introduced the Silver Surfer and of course we'll get into this when we get into the Herald's of Galactus but with Galactus his original introduction here what I'd like you to take note of and cycle actus he was very disconnected with regards to his actions he doesn't really seem to care about his effect on the planet Earth about the fact that he's basically killing the entire citizenry or I guess the entire inhabitants of the planet Earth to satiate his own appetite and indeed this is the entire element for the basis of the Silver Surfer turning against Galactus in the original Galactus trilogy and helping the Fantastic Four defeat Galactus and this would be a major focal point for the character this will be a major part of who he is and his personality going up until we actually get into his discussion with mistress of death and the Fantastic Four issue number 257 but before we get into that what we had found was that Marvel had come along and Thor issues number 168 and 169 and given us the origin of Galactus but again was really interesting here is that while this was an origin that was perceived and it was really the standard created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in a 1996 Marvel had come back and they had basically revamped this origin to a degree that is to say they had basically expanded on this a little bit more information than the original Thor Thor series in the original I guess origin that was given to us and for what Marvel had told us was that that he had existed in the universe before the current is earth-616 continuity and then at some point along the line a plague began to spread across that universe and as a result it began killing off all forms of sentient life Galan's entire role during the course of his existence in this continuity was to find a way to bring this plague to an end but he was unsuccessful and so when he had travel back to the home planet basically telling the scientists of his age that defeat and that death was imminent they decided the best way for them to meet death was to meet it in a way that was befitting of their culture and so what they had done is they had simply flown into a star and we're perceived to have been killed and then in some former fashioned Galactus had come into existence in the current continuity now what Marvel did again in 1996 is they added a little more to the story to make it make a little more sense because again we were really kind of jumping around with the origin that we saw in Thor there were a lot of dots that were connected we really didn't see how a got to be all we knew is that it's somewhere on the line the dots drew from one to the other and so in this origin story what Marvel does here is they keep the entire concept of a plague but what they say is that when Galan and his I guess this handful of the members of his race that we're still alive had flown into this star while all the other members of the race had been killed the sentience of this galaxy had spoken directly with Galactus and where did I guess with Galan and what did it told Galan is that the impending end of the universe is coming there's no way to bring it to an end but that the death of this universe will give birth to a new one and so what's going to happen is that this sentience of this universe is going to bond itself with Galan and they will be born into the new universe as a singular being and so when the new universe came into existence Galactus was spit out and he was spit out in the form of his ship that he had previously taken or I guess he had previously been occupying before the universe came to an end now Marvel doesn't really give us a timeframe here in terms of when he had first gues been spit out at the formation of the universe and when he took on the form of Galactus all they tell us is that several millennia had passed and during the time when he actually comes and is revealed in the form of Galactus and the time that he was spit out he had been discovered or a ship a man discovered by a watcher now this is not who watching The Watcher this is simply just another member of the Watchers race and what this watcher realizes is that there seems to be a vast amount of power coming from the individual in the ship and the way that he discovers that is that he actually pulls the ship down to his own planet and begins examining the occupants inside now the possibility existed that he could very well have destroyed this version before it had I guess usurped and and developed all these different abilities but because of the creed of the Watchers because the Watchers exist is simply Chronicle and never intervened this watcher took no action and so as a result the ship went back into its orbit and it began traveling through the cosmos once more now eventually this ship comes across another planet and the occupant sir I guess the natives of this planet again don't really know what to do they don't really know what to make of this ship but what happens is they simply leave the ship alone and during this time the ship begins to take on a different form it begins to actually change itself into more of a cube and during this time it really becomes an incubation chamber for lactis and what he does is he begins to come to grips with his power he begins to channel his energies he actually develops the outfit that we see him wear during his time in Marvel Comics that allows him to regulate his energies more or less and so ultimately as time progresses again as millenia go by this planet along with several others in this portion of the galaxy engage in some kind of a conflict and as a result the invading forces see this cube of Galactus and when they do they perceive it to be some kind of a weapon and so what they do is they attack this ship and when they destroy Galactus emerges now Galactus of course being that he's been incubating all this time developing his abilities has a vast amount of hunger here and so what he does is he destroys the invaders and then he immediately begins consuming the planet and this is the role that Galactus is going to play for almost his entire existence and the Marvel continuity as far as as far as we know he's a character that's constantly going to travel around and consume other planets and again this led directly up to the Galactus trilogy when Galactus again not really concerning himself with the goings-on of the occupants of the planets we consume those planets and then move on to the next now what we find in Fantastic Four issue number 257 in 1983 is that Marlowe was looking to move forward model was looking to introduce not just characters that again were cosmic level threats like Galactus but they wanted to expand on the nature of characters in the sense of these cosmic level beings having all different manner of feelings all different manner of emotions and so Marvel really couldn't stay with this idea of Galactus being a character who was so removed from the ramifications of his actions and so what we saw and the story is that Galactus begins to appeal with mistress death he begins to speak with mistress death and what he tells us is that he laments the idea he hates the idea of travelling through the cosmos and wiping out the the natives of various planets in order to consume those planets but mistress death thus wages this guilt that he has by simply saying it's the role that he was meant to play that everybody has a role of a play that you have characters like eternity which are the embodiment of all that is you have a you have infinity which is the embodiment of all that will be you have all these different characters of play all these different concepts but that all regardless of the feelings that that galactus has here that he's a character that simply has to play this role and what she's basically saying is that galactus is a universal constant but she doesn't really come out and say this here it's actually not until Fantastic Four issue number 262 that Marvel comes out and says that Galactus is a universal constant that this universe has to have Galactus and in Fantastic Four issue number 262 Marvel does this by introducing an event called the trial of Reed Richards and the reason why this was done was because again Galactus who had consumed other planets had a either if I guess forced the occupants of those planets to leave or had wiped out the life on those planets entirely and so as a result Reed Richards is brought before the court of the Shiar Empire due to his actions and really helping Galactus stave off hunger on a couple different situations and a couple different scenarios here and so what they say is that because Reed Richards have basically helped Galactus stay alive that any future planets that may be destroyed here are due to the actions of Reed Richards and so because Galactus is guaranteed you can stick to continue consuming planets Reed Richards is responsible for all future actions to take place effectively making Reed Richards a I guess a contributor to genocide here and so what happens as various individuals are brought and various races testify to the destruction of their planet at the hands of Galactus we see Odin for example stepping in and saying that Reed Richards hadn't really done anything wrong here that he was for the most part maintaining the standard that Galactus simply has to exist in the universe for them Galactus is basically a character who exists in the realm of a God a character who simply just cannot be stopped at a lot of other races out there that exist in the mobile continuity review Galactus that way and what's really intriguing here is that whenever a Galactus appears to erase whenever he appears to another planet he appears in a form of that betta that race will recognize for example when he appears to the Skrulls he appears as a squirrel when he appears to the planet Earth he appears as an earthling or ask someone in Earth's form this is really one of the cool elements of Galactus but again it's actually not until towards the end of the comic that eternity appears and what eternity tells us here is that again because Galactus is was basically birthed into this universe alongside a multitude of other cosmic abstracts that he has to exist that he can't not exist that if the likest didn't exist that he would more or less result in a set of circumstances that would lead to the ruin of all now again attorney doesn't really say this per se what he actually does is he takes the minds of all these individuals who have existed or who are currently present in this courtroom and he merges them into one single consciousness and then he reveals to them the life that that galactus leads here and so what they more or less begin to do is they come to the realization that Galactus has to a use the city is a universal constant and so what we do is we jump to the story of Galactus and the devourer now this was written by Lewis Simonson and this is actually a very pivotal moment in the realm of Marvel Comics and the reason why is because after collages have been established as a universal constant and the trial of Reed Richards the question that readers had was what would happen if Galactus were killed what would happen if he died if for some reason or another he was removed from the landscape of Marvel Comics what would be the result and so during the Galactus the Devourer storyline we ultimately saw that the Silver Surfer had taken the planet consuming equipment of Galactus and turned it against Galactus the so Galactus was effectively feeding on himself which resulted in Galactus starving to death more or less as far as Galactus could starve without a without a fresh supply of energy and so as a result in a fantastic four annual 2001 Marvel introduced a villain named Abraxas and the way they introduced this villain was by simply saying that a practice was or I guess is the embodiment of the multiverses destruction he's really kind of an idea more listened to taken physical form but prior to the death of Galactus Abraxas had been non-existent he had simply just existed as a non-existing entity and that makes any sense but because the earth-616 version of Galactus had ceased to exist because he had starved to death this opened a door that allowed Abraxas to actually exist that allowed him to come into the realm of existence and by virtue he began hopping across the multiverse and killing off every version of Galactus that he could find and so what happens is that this story actually jumps into Fantastic Four issues number 400 and I'm sorry 46 through 49 I think in volume 3 and put these stories and with a story this is conclusion I guess what we find is that Franklin Richards again with an impressive display of power is able to restore Galactus from the earth-616 continuity back to life who again had previously starved to death and someone Galactus arrives he confronts Abraxas and again a practice really taunts Galactus here by saying that that Arrakis has destroyed various other versions of Galactus and this one will be no different but what Galactus says is that the ultimate nullifier which has been wielded by Abraxas in which of course is capable of more or less resetting the marvel universe of wiping out all life is something that is very much a part of Galactus himself in the sense of the to go hand in hand and that Galactus had created it and so what happens is Galactus strips Abraxas of the ultimate nullifier but then is attacked by Frankie Rey by his Herald Nova and so because of this Galactus I guess the the ultimate nullifier falls into the hands of Reed Richards and what Reed Richards does is he basically resets the universe prior to the point when Abraxas first appeared that is to say when when Silver Surfer had killed Galactus and so as a result Abraxas ceases to exist he simply just not there anymore because Galactus had never died and so what we do is again Marvel goes behind our vil really continues on with this concept of Galactus continuing about his normal business but what they also do in 2004 is they delve more into the Herald's of Galactus because again a lot of people were very curious about these these different heralds we of course had seen that after the Silver Surfer we had seen Terrax we had seen Frankie Rey we saw some characters like Dazzler who remain into heralds but only for a temporary time and so what Marvel did is during the solo solo series of Thanos and issues number 11 and number 12 they introduced the character called the Fallen and the Fallen was as far as Marvel describes it the first Herald of Galactus but he had been dismissed by Galactus due to the insane nature of the phone but also because he wouldn't carry out the orders of Galactus and all that really happens over the course of the stories of the Fallen somehow manages to escape his imprisonment confronts Galactus but alongside the help of Thanos is defeated and ultimately gets eliminated entirely and so again what we find is that as things progress as things continue with Galactus Elias is really kind of made a background character here and there my abraço i colitis has made a background character in the Marvel Comics is because again Marvel had been branching out into all manner of multiversal threats with the Infinity Gauntlet storyline Marvel had basically made it a common trend to have multiversal contra constructs to have other characters who were multiversal threat that were as dangerous or more dangerous than Galactus including characters like like Franklin Richards and so what we had seen was that this is really all come to a head that Galactus was really brought back to the mainstream in the eyes of a lot of fans as being such an intriguing character during Jonathan Hickman's run of the Fantastic Four with the Future Foundation and what we had seen with future foundation was that again with going back to our discussion on Franklin Richards that there had been a Council of reeds basically these different Reed Richards from a multitude of different realities but they had always they'd all joined the Council of reeds and effectively abandoned their families and abandoned each version of their own family and so as a result Reed Richards had refused to take this role he had refused to abandon his family but the mad Celestials which were Celestials from an alternate reality had followed Reed Richards to the earth-616 continuity and again weakened a little more discussion about their it's a little more in-depth during this with our discussion on Franklin Richards which of course I'll have a annotation on the screen for you to check out but what happens is that ultimately Reed Richards calls Galactus from the earth-616 continuity to to the planet Earth and when Galactus arrives he confronts the mad Celestials now the mad Celestials are able to combine the three of themselves into a singular being and overpower and basically siphon all of Galactus energies away which for all intents and purposes kill Galactus or at the very least leave him in a very weakened state and so again Franklin Richards from the future bonds his energies with him yet with his younger self and then makes Galactus his Herald and this was a huge moment for a lot of Marvel comic fans for Galactus fans and the reason why is because we had never ever ever seen an instance where Galactus had been made The Herald of someone else Galactus had always had his own heralds he had always bestowed some measure of the power cosmic on his own heralds but he had never been made into a herald by another being and so again this really brought Galactus batch of the mainstream who really made him a four I made him a front running character now ultimately this was really a short-lived popularity and the reason why was because we had seen that's a result of Wolverines actions in the age of Ultron storyline that Galactus was sent or I guess a ejected into the Ultimate Universe by virtue of dimensional and time displacement which of course picks up with the entire Miles Morales ultimate universe and the ultimate ultimate stories but with Galactus he's a character who in a lot of ways embodies what it means to oppose a force or to an - I guess encounter force that is my unstoppable that is really only held accountable by other beings who don't really care about the goings-on of earthbound characters and even Galactus himself with his power is perceived by a lot of earthbound characters as being unstoppable in the sense that he wields the power cosmic and so because he wills the power cosmic there really isn't anything that he can't do he's capable of creating entire planets he can move planets he can create life he can bestow other people with the power cosmic enhanced their abilities or give them new abilities so really isn't anything that he cannot do but the most part Galactus is really kind of in in no-man's land at the moment the best way to describe it he's really kind of in a position where again he's kind of shuffled to a background character here now whether or not this will change as time progresses whether or not as we move closer to Marvel's 2015 summer event if we'll see him actually step into the mainstream again and become a forerunner is something we don't really know all we know is that at this moment Galactus is again continuing to be a background character with that being said we're gonna go ahead and bring this video to an end I hope you guys enjoyed it if you did let me know and I will catch you guys later peace be sure to follow me on Twitter there you can keep up with all the updates from comics explained and talk to me directly [Music] [Music]

Channel: Comics Explained

Views: 981,723

Keywords: marvel explained, comicsexplained, infinity war, infinity gauntlet, galactus, marvel comics, comics, comicbooks

Id: o4pSyJiYzes

Length: 20min 10sec (1210 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 31 2015