The Fantastic Four: First Steps - The comic book history of Galactus, Marvel's weirdest, coolest cosmic villain

Sing, o muse, of Galan of Taa! Lone survivor of the Sixth Cosmos, reborn as the undying constant of universal hunger known as Galactus!

OK, so that was a bit dramatic - but so is the history of Galactus, one of Marvel's most distinctive and destructive villains, who will make it to the big screen in something close to his pure, unadulterated comic book form in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Played by Ralph Ineson, Galactus has been seen somewhat sparingly in trailers for the film, though we've gotten a better look at the villain thanks to a massive new toy that perfectly captures the nuances of his MCU design.

For lifelong Marvel fans, especially fans of the Fantastic Four, this moment is a long time coming. The last time Galactus was portrayed on film, in 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, he was kinda just a big cloud in space, with a hint of the shape of his aforementioned helmet thrown in.

Needless to say, for a character who is classically shown in comics as a giant guy in purple armor, the space-cloud version was a huge disappointment. So seeing Jack Kirby's brilliantly bizarre design rendered onscreen - even just in the hints we've gotten - is a huge thrill.

What will also be a thrill is seeing how The Fantastic Four: First Steps adapts the classic Galactus Trilogy, told in 1966's Fantastic Four #48-50 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who created the character for the story.

That groundbreaking arc was one of Marvel's first three-part sequential comic tales, paving the way for the current superhero comic style of having issues that function more like TV episodes, with a story that continues issue-to-issue instead of simple done-in-one adventures that share little connective tissue beyond the hero's involvement.

And of course, there's the excitement of discovering just how Galactus' only-in-comics mega sci-fi backstory could influence the plot of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, as well as potentially the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, as Galactus' comic history goes all the way back to the birth of the Marvel Universe at the dawn of time - and technically, even further back than that.

Galactus in Marvel Comics

In the fictional reality of the Marvel Universe, the current timeline is not the first iteration of the universe. In fact, it's not even the second, third, or fourth - it's actually the seventh time the entirety of universal history, from the Big Bang to the heat-death of the universe, has played out in full.

In each of those previous realities, whole civilizations rose and fell, galactic empires stretched across the cosmos, and heroes and villains did battle in epic sagas - just like in the Marvel Universe we know. But each of those previous iterations also inevitably collapsed, leaving little if any trace of their existence to all but the most eldritch cosmic beings, whose power transcends time and space.

This is where Galactus, known in his previous life as Galan of the planet Taa, enters the picture. Facing the end of his reality in the dying embers of the Sixth Cosmos, Galan finds himself the last surviving being in his entire universe. This brings him into contact with the being known as the Sentience of the Sixth Cosmos, who bonds with Galan, bringing him forward into the newly birthing Seventh Cosmos (the current Marvel timeline) as the cosmically powerful Galactus.

Throughout the entirety of the current Seventh Cosmos, Galactus has served as a universal constant, a being of pure entropy who, while neither actually good nor evil, serves as a fulcrum of destruction for the universe's delicate balancing act of birth, death, and rebirth.

In other words, he eats entire planets, draining them of their lifeforce and extinguishing all living things on them - not because he's evil and wishes ill on these worlds, but because he is cursed with an unending cosmic hunger that must be fed in order for the universe to function properly.

It's that last bit that has made him such a difficult foe for the Fantastic Four and for the Marvel Universe at large. No one wants their own planet to be eaten by Galactus, but Galactus must eat for reality to maintain its balance. Galactus' hunger is so integral to the function of reality that Reed Richards once had to actually defend Galactus' continued existence in order to preserve the cosmos.

This is also where the Silver Surfer comes in, serving as the herald of Galactus, seeking out suitable worlds for his master to devour. That's how Galactus winds up on Earth, and also how he winds up being deterred with the help of his one-time herald - though he returns to Earth time and time again, and is repelled each time.

It's comic book science of the highest order, but it's also an interesting idea that stems from the original conception of Galactus by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee as an enemy of the Fantastic Four who is, functionally, a deity of omnipotent power. This is also why, in the lore of Marvel Comics, Galactus isn't technically actually a giant humanoid. He has no true form, appearing as a reflection of the people he encounters on each planet he visits.

Galactus in the MCU

As it turns out, Galactus' motivations in The Fantastic Four: First Steps are a little more complex than simply hungering for the planet's lifeforce, as recent trailers have revealed that he's willing to spare Earth in exchange for Reed and Sue Richards' son Franklin Richards.

That's the key factor that could complicate the relatively straightforward idea of the FF repelling Galactus from eating the Earth, not to mention that The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes place in a separate reality from the core Marvel Universe, away from the Avengers and their allies.

Given the conceit that Galactus is the sole survivor of a previous universe, who is one of if not the only being who truly remembers what the previous iteration of reality was like, and the likelihood that the FF will wind up in the core MCU reality, it seems quite possible that the FF's encounter with Galactus will lead to their traveling to the core MCU to crossover with the Avengers in Avengers: Doomsday, and could even have something to do with the likely plot of Avengers: Secret Wars which is based on a comic story in which all of reality is destroyed, with only bits and pieces of a few worlds left over.

All of that seems to dovetail quite nicely with Galactus' inclusion in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. And of course there's also the matter of HERBIE, the FF's robot pal who, in comics, has direct ties to Galactus, something that could also come into play in the film.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on July 25 to kick off Marvel Phase 6. For more, check out our guides to upcoming Marvel movies and shows and how to watch the Marvel movies in order.