What Is Galactus’ Origin and Why Did He Come to Earth?

Galactus, a part of Marvel’s universe, is a terrifyingly powerful creature, able to survive almost anything and also consume whole planets along the way. But what is Galactus’ origin and why did he come to Earth?

Galactus was formed by the Sentience of the Universe after approaching the Cosmic Egg, becoming transformed and surviving into the next iteration of the universe. Galactus came to Earth to consume its huge energy resources to satisfy its hunger.

Let’s explore what Galactus is and how he came about, his backstory as a human as well as why he’s so involved with Earth.

How Did Galactus Become Galactus?

Galactus is one of the most powerful beings in the universe, being so large and powerful that it uses the energy found in planets to keep itself going. With the official title of Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, it’s not too hard to realize what Galactus’ major powers are.

Originally, Galactus was a humanoid hailing from the planet Taa. Known as the Taa-ans, they were known for scientific achievements but were facing a hostile force that was unleashing radiation poisoning on them.

The Taa-ans existed in a universe that existed before the one that the rest of the Marvel Universe generally resides in.

In order to reverse these changes, Galan and other Taa-ans approached the entity called the Cosmic Egg, killing many of them in the process. Galan made it, and was welcomed by Eternity. Eternity is the sentience of the universe, who then transformed him into Galactus.

Galactus was actually turned into Galactus by the Sentience of the Cosmos, Eternity’s predecessor and Galactus fused with the Sentience’s essence. This process allowed him to survive and become Galactus in the next cycle, surviving the destruction of that universe.

The destruction of the universe follows cycles, as the entity called the Black Winter consumes the universe, causing it to go into multiversal renewal cycles.

Thor Volume 6 offers alternative reasoning, which is that the Black Winter actually spared Galan, and turned him into Galactus so that Black Winter could have its own herald.

Now in the seventh installment of the universe, Galactus still has his starship and witnesses the rise of sentient life over many billions of years.

Eventually, Galactus built a special suit of armor, vital for controlling the energies contained within. The starship was also reforged into an incubator, where Galactus spent millennia changing into the current form of Galactus.

After a meeting with the Silver Surfer who upon detecting Galactus’ power decided to absorb his energy, instead was warned of such a path by one of the Watchers of the universe, Uatu.

Instead, the Silver Surfer removes the incubator after talking to Galan, with the end result being that Galactus then traveled to Archeopia. Unfortunately for Archeopia, a fleet of pirates attacked Galactus, causing him to retaliate and destroy the planet.

This awakened the realization in Galactus that it needed to constantly consume massive amounts of power that could only really be found on planets.

Showing his human side, Galactus built a massive new home for himself that took up the entire width of the Archeops solar system in response to the first system he fed on.

Galactus also found that he could consume any planet to get his energy needs, and focused on ones without sentient lifeforms in the beginning. But as time went on, the energy needs increased and so Galactus needed to also consume sentient lifeforms.

As is the way with such cosmic beings, they make heralds for various purposes. Galactus used the volunteer Norrin Radd from Zenn-La to act as a scout to find planets for him to consume, who became the new Silver Surfer.

This was to stop Galactus from consuming Radd’s own planet.

Why Did Galactus Come to Earth?

Galactus eventually set his sights on Earth, being a very energy-rich planet, and Galactus forever has an insatiable appetite and no qualms about destroying sentient life to quench this thirst.

The Silver Surfer opposed this, drawing Galactus’ ire and eventually being banished to Earth as a result. He was imprisoned on Earth due to the creation of an energy shield that prevented the Silver Surfer from being able to leave.

However, Galactus’ determination could not be stopped, and he arrived at Earth to start the planet’s consumption process. At this point, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four brandished the Ultimate Nullifier that would destroy the universe and Galactus.

In exchange for Galactus promising never to consume Earth, Richards handed over the weapon to Galactus, and Earth was spared.

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